Letter to the Editor - Protecting State's Rights

Written By: Karen Schroeder  |  Posted: Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Many voters are asking legislators to stop the erosion of states' rights. Protecting states' rights requires citizens to consider patriotism before political party or personal interest. The current Wisconsin state budget mandates local governments to keep spending as much on public safety as they spent in 2009. If a municipality reduces its public safety costs, it will receive less revenue from the state, which is its main source of revenue. Therefore, citizens will not benefit from the common sense, creative solutions typically provided by elected local officials to meet economic constraints facing their community. The current Wisconsin state budget increases dependency on federal dollars to meet spending goals. Therefore, the state must also accept the unfunded mandates and federal regulations that accompany those funds.

The more the federal government provides funds for our state, the more control the federal government will have on our state, rendering locally elected leaders more and more irrelevant. The current state budget includes the Police Fire Protection Fee Wis.stat.s.196.025(6) which has increased our phone bills considerably. Tim Hanna, Mayor of Appleton, Wisconsin, courageously stated in an editorial for The Wisconsin State Journal that this legislation is "just a political favor from the Democrats who control the state Capitol to the police and fire unions that want an extra hedge against layoffs." As a member of a union, I suspect the police and firefighters were probably told that the union has protected job security without raising taxes. The public servants I know are patriots who often risk their lives to protect citizens. They would not want their advantages to be provided at the detriment of the people and institutions they protect. Protecting states' rights requires citizens to become well informed and consider patriotism before political party and personal interest. Until we do, our legislators will be hard pressed to address the legislation that destroys state's rights one bill or one budget at a time.

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