State Government
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‘Big Oil’ Tax. In the shadow of record-setting $4-a-gallon gas prices in Wisconsin, the version of the biennial state budget supported by Gov. Doyle and the Senate Democrats included an assessment on the profits of big oil companies. The tax on ‘Big Oil’ included a provision which made it illegal for the oil companies to pass along the cost to consumers.
In response, WMC launched a full-court assault on the tax. This included a statewide 30 second television ad criticizing Senate Democrats, four different radio ads criticizing the governor and the Senate Democrats, as well as praising Assembly Republicans opposing the reasonable assessment against the record-setting profits enjoyed by Big Oil in 2007.
WATCH: WMC's 'Gas Tax' ad
WMC bought radio ads specifically praising opposition from vulnerable Assembly Republican Reps. Davis, Moulton, Murtha, Nerison and Van Roy. WMC also mailed four different pieces criticizing the Big Oil tax and alternatively telling reader to call the state legislature or WMC. - ‘Healthy Wisconsin’ Health Care Reform Plan. In radio ads, WMC characterized the employer and patient fees costs Senate Democrats’ universal health care plan as a $15 billion tax increase, failing to note that current costs statewide for health care are $17 billion – which would constitute $2 billion in tax relief under the WMC standard.
“ExxonMobil, BP and Chevron USA paid $7.3 million in Wisconsin corporate income taxes during the three-year period while reporting worldwide profits of $165.7 billion, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Tuesday. Two other oil companies – Shell and Murphy Oil, which has a refinery in Superior – paid no Wisconsin corporate income taxes during those three years while reporting $57.7 billion in profits.” – Associated Press, 5/30/07
State Supreme Court
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Judicial Experience and Crime. As part of its multi-year, over $4-million effort to take over the state Supreme Court and instill a pro-corporate, conservative majority, WMC first deployed $2 million worth of television, radio, mail and even paid phone calls to ensure the election of ethically-challenged Washington County Judge Annette Ziegler.
“Scandal-plagued Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler has refused to recuse herself from deliberations on a tax case that is a top priority of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the corporate lobbying group that spent more than $2 million to aid her election bid earlier this year. In so doing, she has confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that she lacks not just the integrity but the judgment that must always be required of a jurist.” - Capital Times, 11/30/07
To accomplish this, WMC attacked Ziegler’s opponent, Attorney Linda Clifford, for not having served as a judge. WMC emphasized Ziegler’s “credentials” as a prosecutor, creating the false impression the Supreme Court’s sole responsibility is in putting criminals behind bars – a strategy successfully deployed the following year to put Mike Gableman on the high court.
WATCH: WMC's 'Zero' ad -
“Ziegler owns stock in companies before her; high court candidate hears 22 cases with companies in which she owns more than $50,000 in stock” – Wisconsin State Journal, 3/11/07
Judicial Ethics. WMC ran ads which repeated the word “zero” to reference Clifford’s lack of service as a judge or as a criminal prosecutor. The ads claimed Ziegler had spent the past 10 years as a judge protecting families from crime. Even after an investigation from One Wisconsin Now showed Ziegler unethically ruled on dozens of cases in which West Bend Savings, a company on which her husband was a paid member of the board of directors, was a party, WMC continued to claim she was a trusted crime fighter. One Wisconsin Now’s investigation led to a full ethics imbroglio and Ziegler receiving a first-ever reprimand from the other justice on the state Supreme Court. In late 2007, Ziegler provided the deciding vote and wrote the majority opinion on a case in which WMC had filed an amicus brief, which led to a $350 million corporate tax rebate.
WMC Watch Fact Check: Taxes
Need a Source? WMC Dials Up the Right Wing Network, Makes Up Its Own
Background: In numerous attacks ads on the “taxes” contained in the governor and state Senate’s versions of the budget, WMC uses a number of curious sources for its characterizations.
Top Tenth Taxing State. For its ads paid communications referencing Wisconsin’s tax ranking, WMC used numbers from the Tax Foundation, a group financed by the Big Oil fortunes of the Koch Foundation – the nation’s largest private energy company and the financiers of the ultra-right wing Americans for Prosperity.
Five Cent Gas Hike. For its claim gas prices would increase five cents a gallon, it used a conveniently-released “report” from the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, an organization which uses “back of the envelope” math to examine complex economic formulas and tax calculations.
Correction: Seven Cent Gas Hike. Finally, when it wanted a number even larger than the WPRI figure, it concocted a new number and attributed it to “WMC Budget Analysis.”.
Analysis: When it comes to facts and figures, the only numbers that matter to WMC appears to be the corporate bottom line.
