The Milwaukee Federalists highlight a report on a conference last week. Wisconsin maintains “the sixth oldest constitution in the nation” and it appears to be holding up pretty well as the “purely functional” and frequently amended document it is intended to be.
Is Wisconsin’s Constitution Obsolete? As noted, while the participants at the conference were not favorable to a new constitution, the uniformity clause was a common sore spot they wanted to repeal.
Article VIII, Section 1 known as The Uniformity Clause exists to prevent “preferential tax treatment to influential property owners”. This requirement keeps getting in the way of political attempts to reduce property tax burdens and political attempts to use differential taxation to drive social engineering. In other words, the clause has detractors on both ends of the spectrum. I personally believe it is time to break the historical link between land and taxes. Private property rights and citizen control of the government are both weakened when government asserts an unsatisfiable obligation on land ownership. As Newt says, real change requires real change.
