I am going to work with this suggestion from Steve Walters piece at Urban Milwaukee titled: 12 Key State Budget Decisions. He posits 12 key items with brief descriptions from Governor Walker’s 2017-2019 biennial Wisconsin budget and asks if we are for or against. I will take a stab at each one…one at a time:
Income tax cut: Should tax rates be reduced for taxpayers in the lowest two tax brackets in each of the next two years? Walker’s proposed cut would help married taxpayers filing jointly with taxable incomes of up to $37,450 in 2017, and up to $38,420 in 2018. The tax cuts will average about $44 per taxpayer and save them $203 million over the next two years. But that’s money that won’t be available for K-12 schools, for Medicaid, to subsidize the UW System or help pay for local government services. Yes/No
Although it’s always a feel good move to cut income taxes…I am going to go for a NO vote here. $44 per taxpayer doesn’t seem worth the $203 million in lost revenue in a budget that the governor and the GOP never know if it’s gonna be in the red or the green at the end of any budget year. Particularly when they are suggesting robbing Peter to pay Paul on transportation. Or keep increasing the amount available to support voucher schools. Or cut necessary state services like the Department of Natural Resources. Or fail to support the University of Wisconsin. Or fail in providing other infrastructure improvements around the state as things just crumble to dust.
Keep my $44. Fix my state highways. Support my universities. Support my public schools. Share more revenue with my city. Don’t play parlor games with the future of the State of Wisconsin.
Cut spending, cut taxes.