Originally Posted by Joe Obenberger

It's not so much drama as passion. You can blame part of that on being at the UW-Madison campus from 1972-1979.

Wisconsin has always had a really high rate of income and real estate taxation, quite significantly higher than, say Illinois. It worked well for many decades while industry needed the kind of skilled machinists, tool and die makers, etc. with a strong work ethic who could be found only in places like Milwaukee, well-educated, smart technical workers who could do the set-ups on their machines from blueprints and manufacture the parts with a high degree of accuracy and precision. Industry paid what it cost because there was no alternative for decades. Eventually the industrial processes became automated starting with "tape machines" in the late sixties and manual production of parts by skilled workers became gradually unnecessary. That's when Wisconsin's current troubles began. To that point in time its unemployment rates were among the lowest in the nation.

Industry built factories much cheaper to heat in the South and West and used the semi-unskilled labor force there to decrease costs and keep the difference as suddenly huge profits - at the same time, they paid lower property taxes mainly because schools in these regions were not nearly so well funded as schools in the densely populated North and East, serving the children of educated European immigrants and the demands of their parents for high-quality education. It was a whole different tradition of public education in the South and West. Long-time Milwaukee businesses like Allis-Chalmers, AO Smith, Allen Bradley, Master Lock and others either disappeared or became a shadow of their former presence in Milwaukee.

The special trouble is that Wisconsin has a small population - more cows than people in most censuses - but runs one of the largest and best state university systems in the country, consistently runs some of the best primary and secondary schools in the country (its student results on standardized testing have always consistently been significantly above national averages as a result), operates no toll roads, but maintains its highways much better than most other states, and provides a huge number of well manged recreation areas. How can you pay for all of this with such a small population when industry flees south or out of the country in search of cheap labor and new industrial plants, cheaper to heat and easier to run?

To this point in time, Wisconsin has been proud of its excellent educational programs - proud enough to sacrifice much to keep them. The result of paying Arkansas or Mississippi or Louisiana or Alabama taxes must eventually lead to Wisconsin schools becoming far more like those in Arkansas or Mississippi, and to this point, that's been something Wisconsinites have been unwilling to accept. If property taxes decrease, nevertheless the heating costs will still always be higher in Wisconsin, the transportation costs to the big cities on the coasts will always be higher, and for other reasons, Wisconsin will always be at a comparative disadvantage in industries using unskilled labor. The ultimate result of yesterday's election is that Wisconsin will begin, far more, to resemble Mississippi and Arkansas in ways that have been unimaginable until now, and its parents will begin to accept the idea that their children will come home with standardized testing results comparable to those which Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama parents have been content with for decades. The only way out of the hole Wisconsin finds itself in, I think, is to find a way to monetize the good education its graduates receive and the good work ethic its workers have demonstrated historically - in a direction inspired by Switzerland or Austria. It simply can't compete with industries calling for unskilled labor in cheaper, warmer, and more centrally located states. By decreasing the quality of education, I think Wisconsin ultimately eliminates its only path out of its hole with any reasonable chance of success.

Too dramatic for you?