Last week I wrote about Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s hare-brained scheme the state to use most of its share of federal stimulus money for a state sales tax holiday. In proposing the sales tax holiday, Walker estimated such a holiday would translate into some $3,000 in saving for the average family. However, Walker’s math seems to be incredibly fuzzy, as pointed out by an astute reader of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Tax holiday was oversold
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker claimed that a sales tax holiday would save the average Wisconsin family $3,000. In order to save $3,000 at the state’s 5% sales tax rate, one would need to spend $60,000 on taxable items (.05 times $60,000 is $3,000). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median family income in Wisconsin in 2007 was $62,804. As a taxpayer, you can do the rest of the math. It is clear Walker can’t.
Joe Hanser
Mequon
Now I don’t know where Scott Walker learned to do math, but one thing’s clear to me: Scott Walker should really go back to school and take some remedial math classes, especially if he aspires to serve as governor of the State of Wisconsin.
H/T to Dan Cody.
Maybe if he had graduated from college, he might have been able to do the math…
Bob, I’m not so sure. The math on this wasn’t that complicated; Walker just chose to ignore the math to score cheap political points.
Yeah…because people who don’t graduate from college can’t do math. They are just so stoopid, hey Bobby? And liberals wonder why they come across like elitist jerks.
Anon, like I said, I don’t see this being about Walker’s failure to finish school; it’s really all about scoring political points. I’m willing to bet he figured most folks wouldn’t really do the math to see if it added up, because most folks really only listen to the sound bites.