Wisconsin consistently ranks in the top 10 states for the tax burden on individuals. Our property taxes are sky-high, especially if you live in the metro-Milwaukee area. Personal income taxes are very high. And we have lots of “fees” that are really just taxes in disguise.

Governor Jim Doyle is crying about a big “budget deficit” for a budget he hasn’t even created yet. i.e. He is telling us that he’s going to budget to spend billions more than he knows will be coming in from taxpayers.

This isn’t the first time (and won’t be the last time) that a contribution to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s campaign fund is followed by questionable activity. The latest allegations of impropriety involve  a computer consulting company called DigitalBridge.

On September 29, 2008, AG Shurtleff wrote a letter on his office’s letterhead to the National Association of Attorneys General, endorsing the services of DigitalBridge and providing the company’s contact information. This doesn’t sound like a big deal unless you consider that on September 18, 2008, DigitalBridge made a $10,000 contribution to Shurtleff’s campaign.

Lawyers are restricted in their advertising efforts. That’s not new. But what is new is a law that was passed in Louisiana. Starting early next year, lawyers in Louisiana will be prohibited from blogging, tweeting, participating in online message boards, and engaging in other online activities. Lawmakers claim this is consumer protection, but it seems more like a law created by people fearful of the internet.

One law firm is taking on the lawmakers, and has filed suit in federal court to challenge the law. This will be an interesting case to watch. The press release about the lawsuit:

It takes no college degree and very little common sense to come to the conclusion that spending $7.4 trillion of taxpayer money on these “bailout” efforts is idiotic.  It was easy to see what a slippery slope all of this bailout nonsense could easily become. And it has.

A few billion here, several billion there… And pretty soon we’re over $7 trillion with this nonsense.

It’s amazing what several hundred thousand a million dollars will buy you these days. Get ready for an opinion from McKinsey & Co. that says Milwaukee Public Schools suck. (And I’ve been telling you that for free!)

A month ago, I wrote on AOL’s WalletPop about the money grab being done by the government of Argentina. Essentially, the government needed money, saw $30 billion sitting in privately-owned retirement accounts, and decided to take the money away from the rightful owners.

I’m convinced that America will go in this direction soon too. Why shouldn’t our government do the same thing? There’s billions of dollars sitting around… why not take it away from the people and promise them a retirement fully funded by our government? I speculated in my article on Argentina that this would be sold to Americans as a bigger and better Social Security system.

Here are a few of the more interesting articles I’ve written at AOL’s personal finance site WalletPop recently.

An uglier side to the AIG story – Employees being harassed and intimidated by consumers.

It has long been a mystery how a school system as bad as Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) can spend over $14,000 per year per child.On a daily basis, the school district is spending $3,287,671.23 a day, 365 days a year.

At that rate of spending, you’d think they would have something to show for it. Instead, 61% of 10th graders students can’t read and 71% can’t do math. Their two excuses have been not enough money (thoroughly debunked) and bad home lives of children (also debunked based on results in other urban school districts).

The Government Accountability Spending Project (GASP) has posted a searchable database of Milwaukee Public Schools spending for 2006, 2007, and 2008 through July. It’s amazing what our tax dollars are funding in this massive failure of a school district. Citizens for a Responsible Government (CRG) reports that the database holds over 432,000 invoices paid by MPS, totaling over $2.2 billion in spending.

Wasteful spending has long been the norm in MPS, with teachers getting an average of $90,000 to $100,000 in total compensation for a 9-month work commitment. The school board even wastes our tax dollars personally.

Patrick Dorwin at Badger Blogger has been publishing some lovely bits of data from the database, including:

• $79,469 to Hyatt Regency Hotels
• $71,292 to Hilton Hotels
• $28,223 to Westin Hotels, which includes one 5 day stay in Times Square by Kathelyne Dye at a cost of $4,599.48
• $80,530 to Zinger Tours of Washington DC to tour black colleges
• $314,469 to U.S. Cellular
• $28,000 to AT&T Mobility
• $22,503 to Nextel Communications
• $5,670 to Sprint
• $75,552 to NextNet Wireless
• $9,408 to Bartolotta Catering Co.
• $93,335.93 to American Serb Memorial Hall for 33 events
• Media buys of $680,000 including:
  • WISN-TV: $276,765
  • WITI-TV: $241,583
  • WMLW-TV: $10,574
  • WTMJ-TV: $82,326
  • JOURNAL SENTINEL INC: $69,663
• $19,859,853.96 on consultants (I’m wondering if they might need a consultant on fraud???)
• $5,160 paid by Milwaukee Academy of Aviation, Science and Technology to Beverly Hills Limousine Service
• $1,014,436 for consulting services from the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents
• $27,144 for iPods, categorized under “Nutritional Categorical.” Who knew iPods were nutritious?

Channel 4′s I-Team did a report on the evening news about this wasteful spending. And where’s the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on this issue? Conspicuously absent. The newspaper is quick to cry that MPS needs more money and the state should change its funding formula, but when it comes to the issue of wasteful spending as exposed with this database, the only article to be found is an online opinion piece by Patrick McIlheran.

Why should we be sad about budget cuts at MPS when this type of wasteful spending is exposed?