Republican America: where businesses get tax cuts while students get the shaft

Welcome to Republican America, a nation where Republican lawmakers have made it clear they value tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy over educating our young people.

In Michigan, where Republicans have full control of state government, lawmakers siphoned off nearly $1 billion in education funds in order to essentially eliminate the Michigan Business Tax for all but the largest corporations. The elimination of the Michigan Business Tax is a handout of $1.7 billion to corporations in Michigan at a cost to Michigan’s students and school districts, which will see state aid for education cut by $470 per child.

In Wisconsin, the biennial budget proposed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker and passed into law by Republican legislators included more than $800 million in cuts to schools (not to mention a 30% cut in state aid to technical colleges) but gave tax cuts totaling $212 million from 2011 to 2013 to corporations and the rich in Wisconsin. According to Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the total cost of the tax cuts in Wisconsin’s biennial budget bill will grow to about $270 million per year in fiscal year 2020-21.

While the biennial state budget proposed by Gov. Walker and passed into law by Republicans cut taxes for corporations and the rich, it raises taxes on the seniors and low-wage workers by cutting the state Earned Income Tax Credit by $56.2 million and by ending indexing of the Homestead Tax Credit (in other words, ending inflation adjustments to the Homestead credit formula).

Welcome to Republican America, where corporations and the rich get tax cuts, seniors and low-wage workers get tax increases, and students get the shaft.

You can read more about Republican America at Welcome to Republican America, a new side project of mine.