February 28, 2006

Reynolds' Bad Politics

It's important not to make the perfect the enemy of the good. Unfortunately on the school choice compromise that's what State Senator Tom Reynolds is doing. Tonight, on Jessica McBride's show on WTMJ he said he wouldn't support the compromise unless it included some indexing that would help Milwaukee property taxpayers. I wasn't sure what he meant, and even he admitted it was hard to explain.

It's good to be on the constant defense for taxpayers. Madison has too few representatives who do that, but the school choice bill isn't the time or the place. It's a toss-up on whether the State Senate will pass the bill. Governor Doyle has done nothing to get Democrats on board. The only Democrat who has said he'll vote for the bill is Jeff Plale.

Last night, McBride wrote,

He might be right on it in principle. But adding bells and whistles into the choice compromise could doom it. Other Republicans are telling me that this amendment is highly unlikely to pass the Senate (as indicated by the vote today in committee), and that it would likely doom the choice compromise in the Assembly, where rural Republicans feel they can't risk being seen as funneling more money to Milwaukee.

If this bill fails to pass and get signed by Doyle because of Reynolds he can kiss goodbye any chance of examining his school funding concerns. Politics involves compromise (especially when margins are this slim). Politics also involves payback. If Reynolds kills lifting the caps there will be a price he'll have to pay.

I'll echo McBride, "Get this compromise through first."

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