We’re All on a Fixed Income
When we hear the phrase “fixed income,” we usually think about someone who is retired and living on Social Security or a pension. But the more I talk with people in our community, the more I think we need to broaden the way we use that phrase.
We’re all on a fixed income.
Most of us can’t simply ask for a raise or pull more money from our savings accounts every time our property taxes, utilities, groceries, or fuel costs increase. A widow living on retirement income can’t magically make another $200 appear because her property tax bill went up. A bachelor living alone can’t tell the electric company that his paycheck didn’t increase as quickly as his utility bill. I don't know any employee who can walk into work every time their expenses increase and say, “I need another raise.”
Our income has limits, and government needs to remember that.
When Everything Goes Up at Once
One increase might be manageable. Maybe your electric bill goes up $20 a month, so you adjust somewhere else. But then your property taxes increase, groceries cost more, your insurance premium changes, you fill up your vehicle, and something breaks at home.
Individually, each increase might be explained away as “only” a few dollars here or a few hundred dollars there. But the person paying those bills doesn’t experience them individually. They all come out of the same bank account.
That is why affordability has become one of the issues I hear about most often. It’s also why I believe one of the most important questions we can ask in government is incredibly simple:
What can we do to leave more money in the pockets of the people who earned it?
Start With the Things Wisconsin Can Actually Change
State government cannot control the price of everything, and I don't think politicians should pretend that it can. But there are costs Wisconsin government can influence.
One example is gasoline. Wisconsin has a minimum markup law that affects how retailers price fuel. I support eliminating the minimum markup requirement on gasoline and allowing competition to help drive prices down.
Energy costs deserve scrutiny too. When utilities request rate increases, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission has an enormous responsibility. That commission needs to remain an impartial regulator that carefully weighs the needs of utilities against the impact those decisions have on the people paying the bills.
Public servants should be asking the same question residents are asking:
How much more can people reasonably afford?
Property Taxes and the Roads Outside Our Homes
Property taxes are another piece of this conversation. I don't think most people expect government services to be free. Roads cost money. Police and fire departments cost money. Parks, libraries, snow removal, infrastructure, and emergency services all cost money.
But when someone's property tax bill keeps increasing while the road outside their house keeps deteriorating, they're justified in asking:
What am I getting for my money?
Wisconsin collects billions of dollars at the state level while our local communities are still trying to figure out how to pay for roads, sidewalks, infrastructure, and essential services. If Madison is going to collect more money than it needs to fund the state budget, I want to have a serious conversation about getting more of those dollars back into the communities they came from.
That could mean returning money directly to taxpayers, but with safeguards. This could mean directing state dollars toward local infrastructure so municipalities aren't continually forced to put those costs back onto property taxpayers. Either way, the goal should be the same:
Stop treating taxpayers like an unlimited source of revenue.
Government Has a Budget Too
As a small business owner, I work with budgets every day. Sometimes revenue is up. Sometimes it's down. Sometimes an unexpected expense lands in your lap and suddenly everything you planned for that month changes.
When that happens, you prioritize, look for efficiencies, postpone something that isn't necessary, or find another way to solve the problem. What you can't do is assume your customers will simply hand you more money every time your expenses increase.
Government shouldn't operate under that assumption either.
I don't believe government and business are exactly the same. Government has responsibilities that businesses don't, and some essential services will never turn a profit. But the basic principle of stewardship still applies. There is a finite amount of money available, and every dollar government spends came from someone who worked for it.
This Is What Affordability Means to Me
When politicians talk about “the economy,” the conversation can quickly turn into charts, percentages, revenue projections, and billions of dollars. Those numbers matter, but that's not how most of us experience the economy.
We experience it standing at the grocery store checkout. We experience it opening the property tax bill, when the utility statement arrives, or watching the numbers climb at the gas pump. We experience it when we sit down at the kitchen table and decide what gets paid this week and what needs to wait.
That's the perspective I will to take with me to Madison. Not that government should never spend money or that taxes should never exist, but that every time government asks for another dollar, we should remember where that dollar is coming from.
If you know someone who is financially exhausted from watching everything go up while their paycheck stays the same, share this with them. And if you have an idea for how Wisconsin can make everyday life more affordable, I want to hear it.
Email Me: Hello@DowlingForAssembly.com
Call or Text Me: (920) 268-4734
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