WMC Endorses A New Tax, Sorta

Much is being made of a new way to bring federal health care funding into the state budget, where the revenue - - health care reimbursements - - could help plug a deficit.

Some are calling the way the money gets claimed a new state tax on hospitals - - endorsed after a change in positions by, of all groups, the knee-jerk, anti-tax Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

Some history, courtesy of Paul Soglin, here.

The way I see it, the WMC is less endorsing a new 'tax' than it is backing a sensible accounting method aimed at getting federal funding to which Wisconsin taxpayers are entitled.

That's a good thing, but let's not get too giddy about the prospects of the WMC getting all progressive on us. They just know a good deal when they saw it: the story is that it took them a while to see past their own ideology.

And note that doctrinaire anti-tax legislators are still balking at the plan because to them, it's a tax - - and a tax is a tax is a tax.