Jim Doyle's definition of a tax

Wisconsin's Governor must have absolutely no idea how businesses operate or capitalism works. Governor Jim Doyle was elected to his second term this past November, and in both of his campaigns he promised all of us that he would not only not raise taxes, but would additionally put in place a "tax freeze". Okay, enough of you out there bought his load of bull to get him re-elected. I want to go on record right now and say, "Don't blame me because I didn't vote for him."

Doyle spent last week talking to various news outlets trying to explain how all of his increases do not qualify as tax increases. Some of his logic is sophistry, but some of his explanations make me wonder if he knows anything about businesses and how they operate. Doyle is proposing huge tax increases on cigarettes, oil companies, hospitals, replacing the 2% cap on property tax increases to 4%, and possibly removing the QEO for teachers. There are also fee increases proposed on vehicle registration among other things that don't get called taxes, but let's get real. If you have to pay something I don't care what you call it; it's a tax.

Doyle's proposals amount to a 1.7 billion (yeah, that B as in BILLION) dollar increase in taxes and fees that you and I are going to have to dig into our pockets to pay for. The worst part of the whole thing is the way Doyle is trying to "spin" all of this. He thinks the average Wisconsinite will believe him when he says that his oil company tax won't be "passed on to the consumer." He actually called this tax increase a "no brainer." He is trying to tell us that language in his increase would keep oil companies from passing on the increase to consumers. Come on, does he really not know how businesses operate? Businesses always pass on their costs to consumers, and paying taxes is one of the costs of doing business that gets passed on. I'm not picking on oil companies here either. All companies do this; if a company can't cover the cost of doing business AND make a profit they won't be in business very long. Oil companies will get this tax money back. They can call the increase to the customer anything they want and there isn't a darn thing the Governor of Wisconsin can do about it.

Democrats always say that they are "for the little guy." How, if that is actually true, can Doyle justify increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 77 cents a pack to $2.02 a pack. Who is this going to hit the hardest? A "rich" person who smokes can absorb the $1.25 increase per pack a whole lot easier than a "poor" person. Doyle says the increased money would help cover the costs of health care and help wean people off of smoking. Huh? If he really believes this will help people stop smoking then he would have projected the money this will generate a lot lower. The whole thought process behind his increase is wrong. But, he knows that no one will object to this because even smokers won't raise any objections to it. If democrats really want to help the little guy why not out law all tobacco products? They will never do this because while they say they are against smoking; they sure do like all of the tax money collected on the backs of tobacco.

Doyle's tax on hospitals amounts to nothing more than a shell game in which he not only gets to punish hospitals that do well, but also get federal money in the process. In a democrats mind any money that the federal government offers must be spent. Even if you have to raise taxes to do it. Where does he think this federal money comes from? Once again, we the tax payers have supplied the federal government with the money that Doyle wants. He tries to claim that hospitals will end up getting more money in the long run. That only works if the State makes good on its promise to give them the money. If I ran a hospital I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Once again Doyle misses the main point that the cost of this new tax will be passed on to its customers who happen to be sick.

At what point will the public tell Doyle enough is enough? Are we all just sheep who do what ever this Governor says? If that's the case then we really do deserve the government we elect.

A New Beginning (final thoughts)

Whenever someone hears my story the response is always the same with some differences in the wording. They always say to me, "At least you got hurt at work...You must be rich now".

If this had happened to me in almost any other state it would probably be true. Unfortunately for me, the state of Wisconsin has it's workman's compensation laws set up so that an employee can not sue their employer for an accident that happens while at work. Even if it is proven that the accident was the fault of the employer. Even though work comp pays the injured party's medical bills and a percentage of their wages while they are recovering, work comp stops paying once the person is considered "medically plateaued".

While the system usually works well for a person that is able to work again after healing, the few who are injured to the point that they are unable to work again fall through the cracks. In fact, the only recourse a person in this situation has is to try to get work comp to continue paying them the small pittance they were getting before. This is only accomplished by employing the services of an attorney and it is a very long process during which time the injured party is subjected to various interviews and doctor's appointments in an effort to prove that you are either faking, or at least not as bad off as you think. It is very humiliating, and the whole process makes you question yourself. In the end, you end up either having a hearing in which everything gets dragged through open court; or, you settle with work comp and end up with a percentage of a percentage of what you were making before you got hurt.

You see, if the ladder that broke had been purchased by my company, in other words an outside vendor, then both my employer and myself could have sued that vendor. My employer would have recouped their work comp expenses, and I could have sued for lots and lots of money. The first question my employer's work comp insurance carrier asked me was, "Where did the ladder come from?" Since Quad built the ladder themselves I was out of luck.

They (Quad) even told me that the wooden ladder was rotten and it was their fault it wasn't in better shape. Doesn't do me a darn bit of good. There was nothing I could do with the information anyway.

Once it became apparent to everyone that I couldn't work anymore (I think I was the last one to realize) I was no longer a productive employee. All of the friends that I had from work stopped contacting me because I was now just a liability and a number to the company.

I never expected flowers or anything from the company during any of my four surgeries and stays in the hospital. A card would have been nice, or any sign at all that they were sorry.

I worked for a huge company, and even though they didn't legally owe me anything, they could have made some sort of good will gesture. Everyone raves about what a great company they are to work for...Just don't get hurt badly...some wounds heal more slowly than others.

A New Beginning (part 2)

Years have passed since my accident, and time has granted perspective. Yes, it took me a good five years to come to terms with what happened to me. But, I will say this now; I would not change what happened to me back then. By becoming disabled at a young age with young children I was handed a gift. I was "forced" into becoming a stay-at-home dad while my wife went into the workforce. The gift was being able to be home and watch my two young children grow into the people they are today. I was able to form a bond with my kids that most men are not able to achieve. Sure, I had to deal with the guilt of my wife becoming the bread winner of the family, but where is it written that the man must be the sole provider? We as men put pressure on ourselves, and more often than not we judge and define ourselves by what we do for a living. My family doctor told me at the beginning of my ordeal that I needed to be careful of slipping into a depression. The reason he said was that men define themselves by what they do and if a man loses the ability to work they also lose their measuring device. It turned out to be very good advice as I battled through my own depression.

I am now able to define myself not just by my occupation (stay-at-home dad), but by the accomplishments of my family and the time we spend together. I also now feel the need to give back to others. I spend time giving back through Boy Scouts and other endeavors

It may sound hard to believe that I would not change what happened to me, but I really believe that I was handed a gift that I had to figure out for myself. It may have taken longer than some for me to figure, but it is true that "through hardship we grow stronger".

A New beginning (part 1)

I guess the best place to start this blog is at the point in my life that I now consider the new beginning. At the time I thought it was the end of everything I knew, and in a way it was. I knew three things for certain; I loved my wife and kids tremendously, I loved my job and planned on working there until I retired, and finally, I knew I was the man of the house and my job was to work hard and provide for my family.

I worked as a shift supervisor in the distribution department for Quad/Graphics. Quad is the largest privately owned printing company in the United States, and one of the best company's I have ever worked for. I worked the night shift (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and was basically in charge of making sure every department had the product they needed to run their jobs, packaging up all finished product to make ready for shipment to post offices across the U.S., overseeing the recycling department, and coordinating with our in-house trucking company to make sure product moved smoothly from plant to plant and everyone got what they needed when they needed it. Oh yeah, I also got phone calls from almost every other department whenever they had a question they couldn't find the answer to because they knew I had the contacts to find the answers for them. I had anywhere from four to twelve guys under me depending on the time of year, and no management above me while I worked at night (which was the way I liked it).

The night of October 26, 1998 started like any other with one exception. My recycling guy was on vacation so I had someone covering for him that didn't normally work in that department. About midway through the night he came to me and said the lights were on indicating a paper jam on both our main cyclone and the back up as well. I knew it was probably just a piece of paper blocking one of the eyes, but we only had fifteen minutes to get the problem fixed. If we didn't clear the jam quickly the cyclones would automatically shut down, and if this happened the entire press room and Bindery would shut down as well. I don't remember the exact figures, but if everything shut down it would cost the plant literally thousands of dollars a minute so this was rather serious.

I went to the roof to show my cover guy how to access the recycling system and the sensor eyes. To access the cyclones there was a small three step wooden ladder that you could move back and forth between the two cyclones. I started up the ladder, and the second step gave way (it was completely rotten) sending me crashing through both the second and first steps. I never lost my balance, but when I landed on my right foot it caused one of the discs in my lower back to blow out. I had excruciating pain shoot down both legs to where I thought I was going to throw up, followed by complete numbness from the waist down. Luckily there was an I beam running across the roof that I was able to hang on to until I was able to walk down off the roof. It took over an hour before I was able to get down from the roof and get back to my office.

I tried to continue to work, but the pain forced me to go get an MRI from a back specialist. The doctor took one look at the results and scheduled my surgery for the upcoming Monday. When the doctor talked to me after the surgery he stated that I was probably within hours of losing bowl and bladder function permanently. The surgery was not able to fix all of the problems that I was having, and the surgeon I had was not willing to do any more surgeries so I had to find another surgeon. The last thing my first surgeon said to me was, "good luck, ninety percent of marriages end in divorce when something like this happen." Needless to say, my wife and I were a little shocked at his words (and a little ticked off at him as well).

I used my second opinion option allowed by workmans compensation rules to find another surgeon, and after a battery of tests it was determined that I needed to have my spine fused at L4-L5. Shortly after this surgery the disc below blew out, and I ended up having yet another fusion surgery at L5-S1. Structurally everything that needed to be fixed has been taken care of, but the initial injury has left me with severe nerve damage in my back and legs. I have constant pain in my back, and I have no feeling in my right leg from the knee down. I use narcotic pain medication just to get through my days, and I am unable to work because of the constant pain and the build up of pain from repetitive actions if I am not able to change what I am doing every few minutes.

My permanent restrictions are such that I am not supposed to pick up anything weighing more than ten pounds. That only amounts to a gallon of milk. I haven't been able to pick up my kids since they were 5 and 3 years old (they are now 13 and 11). One of the hardest changes I had to deal with in my life was how I was now able to define myself as a husband, father, and man. I wasn't able to do any of the things for my family or myself that I thought I needed to be able to do to qualify as a productive human being. It has taken me years to come to terms with my new lot in life. (More to come later)