Empower Wisconsin | Oct. 24, 2019

MADISON — Just when you think Madison’s proposed $40 wheel tax couldn’t get any worse, the liberal city’s tax-and-spend leaders have upped the ante. 

Not only did Madison’s finance committee sign off on what would be the state’s highest local wheel tax, it decided to tack on another tax. The panel passed an amendment to the city’s budget that would have taxpayers reimburse certain low-income residents the cost of the wheel tax.  

So $100,000 from the city’s transportation budget would go to fund gift cards for the approximately 2,500 Madison families currently on Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program. 

Some liberals say $100,000 isn’t enough. 

“It’s not a solution. It’s really just a Band-Aid. We appreciate that the council is thinking about this and thinking about how this could adversely affect people who are low-income, but I would really encourage them to do more,” Charles McLimans of the River Food Pantry, told Channel3000.com. 

You can bet Madison’s money-sucking government machine will take more. 

What’s rich about the subsidy on top of the hefty wheel tax is that it draws cash from the city department Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway insists is in need. This far-left mayor and her cronies are pitching the tax in large part to pay for faster bus lines that relatively few Madison residents ride and many don’t want. 

If the city council passes the wheel tax, Madison motorists will pay a combined $153 per year in local, county and state vehicle registration fees. 

All of that is on top of a city budget that increases spending to $340.7 million in the next year and raises property taxes by $91 to a total of $2,678 on an average-value home. 

Reasonable Madisonians can thank their self-loathing liberal neighbors for the tax burdens they face. They voted for the government they got, and now every Madison taxpayer is being taken for a ride.