Falsehood About Taxes Repeated In Walker's Saturation Advertising

Ubiquitous ads on behalf of Scott Walker in the run up to an onrushing recall election say he balanced the budget "without raising taxes."

That is a known falsehood, as the budget called for increased for some tax increases.

I had blogged in February about one tax increase in Walker's proposed budget that would fall on low-income Wisconsin residents, and PolitiFact, using state documents, settled the argument in May - -

"His own budget proposes some increases, according to nonpartisan fiscal bureau"

- - and explained that by proposing them, Walker had broken a campaign promise:

It [the budget] included some tax cuts, but also tax increases.

That"s according to the nonpartisan state Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which both parties have long cited as a neutral scorekeeper on budget matters.

The bureau determined that Walker included three tax increases in the budget totaling $49.4 million over the two-year period....

Here is the promise: To "oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes."

Walker"s budget is pending in the Legislature, so we don"t know how he will use his veto power on tax issues.

As for the part about opposing any increases, in his budget Walker not only isn"t opposing them -- he"s the one who did the proposing.

That merits a Promise Broken.

PolitiFact - - which has rated Walker statements "mostly false," false," or "Pants on Fire" 27 of 39 times - - went back at the tax increase issue a second time, documented that the revenues produced by Walker's proposed tax increases, and were, in fact, made even bigger by the Legislature in the budget that Walker signed, and then wrote:

As a candidate during the 2010 campaign, Walker promised to "oppose and veto" all tax increases. That put the issue squarely on our promise-tracking Walk-O-Meter, where we’ve already looked at this question.

In May 2011, we rated this as a Promise Broken, based on Walker’s own 2011-2013 budget proposal, which raised two taxes.

The two revenue raisers aren’t as easily understood as, say, an across-the-board income tax increase. But the nonpartisan state Legislative Fiscal Bureau -- cited by both sides as the official scorekeeper on such things -- has been consistent in considering both steps taken by Walker as tax increases...
The bottom lines?

In saying he balanced the budget, Walker can claim he did so with a net reduction in taxes. And his opponents can claim that his budget included tax increases.

Note to Walker, and to voters:

Repeating something over and over that is false doesn't make it true.