Governor Doyle's convenient memory lapse

Several days ago during an event honoring local government put on by the Milwaukee-based Public Policy Forum, Wisconsin Governor Doyle pointed to Ireland as a model for the state to emulate in reinvigorating and strengthening its economy. After several recent trips to the Emerald Isle to help get a fix on why the country now has Europe’s second strongest economy, he cited its emphasis on universal educational opportunities and on some wishy-washy concept about everyone taking a step up together. Well, the one thing, perhaps the biggest reason in Ireland’s rather quick economic surge, which the governor overlooked, is the reduction in the corporate tax rate for all companies to about 15%. It’s easy to see why he conveniently ignored such a “small” point when his current budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars in tax and fee increases.