$100 child tax credit not coincidentally timed with election?

It is hard to argue when politicians want to give us some of our money back. We can all agree we pay too much in taxes and should be thankful when those we elect to office work to return some of our tax dollars. But Governor Walker’s latest plan to do that reeks of election-year politics. Walker is proposing a tax credit of $100 per child to Wisconsin families. He says that would help families make ends meet as they prepare to send their children back to school. He even sported a Spiderman backpack during his stop in La Crosse to promote the idea. That is the type of thing his plan would help parents pay for. The Governor’s plan would return the money at the start of the next school year, just before the next gubernatorial election. That’s the problem. It looks like the Governor is trying to buy votes. He purposely is timing the tax rebate with the election. That makes it a gimmick. This plan would spend $122 million of the state surplus. Think of all the other ways this money could be used, like fixing our roads. It may be hard to look a gift horse in the mouth, but $100 doesn’t seem like much of a gift. It seems much more like a bribe to get Walker re-elected.