Dear Editor,
A week ago I received the first campaign mailing from Representative Todd Novak of District 51. It was an unskilled piece of ragebait trying to paint his opponent Ben Gruber as radical. It showed that Todd Novak did not want to address the issues most important to the voters in our district.
As rural communities, we face a number of significant challenges: 1) high property taxes, 2) deterioration of our public schools due to underfunding, 3) lack of financial support for local governments to pay for critical services of local police, fire, EMTs and roads, and 4) closing of rural health facilities.
All of these problems can be directly traced back to Todd Novak and his work with Scott Walker and the gerrymandered Republican legislature. They stripped millions of dollars from state school aid and support for local governments. Local school districts and governments were forced to both cut back services and raise property taxes just to keep their doors open. And where did this money go? It went for tax breaks for billionaires, tuition vouchers for elite private schools in suburban Milwaukee and sales tax exemptions for data center construction. None of which benefitted our district.
Based upon the mailing we all received, Todd Novak must either be obsessed with sex changes or wants to avoid talking about the real issue, State support for our rural areas. Billionaires and the rich in Milwaukee suburbs do not need our tax dollars. Those of us in Southwest Wisconsin deserve to see a fair share of our income tax and sales tax payments come back to support our schools and local governments. That will lower property taxes and improve our schools, local governments, law enforcement and health care.
Todd Novak is part of the problem. Ben Gruber is part of the solution. He is a game warden, volunteer EMT and father living in the house where he grew up. He deserves our support. He is one of us, working to improve our communities. As for Todd Novak’s AI-generated ragebait, I see it for what it really is, an attempt to avoid talking about the real issues. Ignore the ragebait and ask for answers to real questions.
Mike Smith, Avoca, WI