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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Taxes, polls and pols


Yesterday morning at the beautiful Discovery World facility at Pier Wisconsin, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett participated in a panel discussion on Wisconsin's transportation needs and how to fund them. The event was also attended by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who had some decidedly different ideas than the Mayor.
Tom Barrett, Wikipedia

At one point, Mr. Barrett cited two separate polls to conclude: few citizens want services cut (one poll), yet few want to pay for them in the form of higher taxes (a second poll). Of course.

However, if you require people to choose between them (think one poll), perhaps many would choose to hang on to more of their own money, even if the service pool must shrink.  Leadership requires one to make unpopular choices.