Over at the Shepherd Express, Joel McNally has a great piece explaining how masterfully Gov. Scott Walker has played tax-cut politics to the benefit of the richest Wisconsinites at the expense of poor and middle class Wisconsinites who could really use some meaningful tax relief.
Every state takes a higher percentage of income in local and state taxes from middle class and poor taxpayers and redistributes it to the wealthy in lower taxes. (The report excludes taxpayers over 65 because of wild variations among the states in how Social Security and other retirement incomes are treated.)
Here are the numbers for Wisconsin when family income is divided in fifths:
The lowest 20% in income in Wisconsin pay 8.9% of their family income in state and local taxes. The second lowest 20% pay 10%. The mid 20% pay 10.2%. So does the fourth 20%. That’s 80% of taxpayers.
Now look what happens to the top 20% in family income. The lowest 15% of that wealthy group pay 9.2% in state and local taxes. The next 4% pay 7.8%. And the top 1% pays only 6.2% in state and local taxes.
There’s a simple explanation for the gross—in every sense of the word—disparity. Most state revenue everywhere is raised through sales and excise taxes hidden in the price of every purchase.
Middle class and poor taxpayers spend most of what they make from paycheck to paycheck, paying taxes on almost every expenditure. The wealthy don’t.
As wealth at the top in this country continues to break records, the wealthy can’t possibly spend it all. They invest it to make even more money on their money, which is taxed at a lower rate.
Last time I checked this was happening under the Obama team and the tax changes were made under Doyle, Scott just tweeked them a bit. Take responsibility for your mismanagement for once.
Wow, joining sides with the liberals, are you moving to right on to democratic socialist next? Old dog like you changing political philosophy so late in life. Wouldn’t have believed it if you hadn’t written it.
What in the hell does Obama have to do with state tax rates, Dumb Dohnal? Or Doyle in 2015, for that matter? That post is some authentic old white suburbanite jibberish right there!
OWN YOUR BOY’S FAILURE. Obama’s given this guy the best economy and job growth the country has seen for the last 15 years, and Walker still can’t balance the budget. That’s quite an “accomplishment.”
Doyle set the tax rates in the 8 years, Walker only lowered them a bit. Obama has ruined the middle class with no jobs, reduced salarie, and reduced net worth. Facts talk and BS walks.
Facts do talk, Dumb Dohnal. And two minutes of research would show that you could not be more wrong, for both Doyle and Obama.
You do know that GOPs ran both houses of the State Legislature for the first 4 years under Doyle, and that Doyle’s best job growth came after the one budget was passed when the DEMS ran the Legislature, right Bobby? And that one budget led to higher-than-predicted tax revenues in Fiscal Year 2011 with the fastest revenue growth in the years before or since? That’s what Walker inherited, and he and WisGOP ended those rates in 2013, and as a result the one-time surplus now gone and the budget deficit exploding.
You are not entitled to your own facts, old man. GOP fiscal policy has failed and Dem policies have succeeded. This is not a topic up for debate in the above-ground world.
That’s how the Walker supporters always are. “Yeah, but Obama…yeah, but Doyle…”. They can’t defend our current governor or his record, but they still support him blindly because he busted down public unions. Act 10 gave Walker unlimited carte blanche as far as Wisconsin conservatives are concerned.
What next? Will our Governor Doe employ the Kansas “brownback” solution to support tax cuts to the filthy wealthy and the resulting budget deficit by cutting classroom funding?
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/01/22/3614508/kansas-short-term-thinking-budget/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=tptop3&utm_campaign=tptop3