According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the tax cut unveiled by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker this week would afford the bottom 20% of the state a whopping 2 dollars.
In his budget address this week, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker followed through on his promise to provide middle class tax cuts. His proposal reduces the bottom three income tax rates and costs $343 million over two years. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s (ITEP) analysis of this proposal found that middle-income taxpayers do get some benefit from Governor Walker’s proposal ($43 on average), but many low-income Wisconsinites do not. In fact, those in the bottom twenty percent of the income distribution, many of whom were already dealt a blow in Wisconsin’s last budget, see an average tax cut of a mere $2. The Governor’s proposed tax cuts come on the heels of reductions to the state’s earned income tax credit and property tax homestead credit, both of which effectively raised taxes on low-income working families. A better approach would be to reverse the damage recently inflicted on the poorest Wisconsinites, by increasing the earned income tax credit and homestead credit.
This doesn’t even begin to make up for the blow previously dealt to the bottom 20 percent of state taxpayers.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Walker raised taxes on low-income families, seniors, and the working poor by $70 million between fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2013 by cutting the state Earned Income Tax Credit by $56.2 million and by ending indexing of the Homestead Tax Credit.
And I suppose $2, or $43 if you’re more fortunate, is suppose to make up for that.
Job growth in Wisconsin is projected to be second to worst in the nation through 2016 according to Forbes with a projected annual job growth of 1.7 percent, and throwing another lopsided tax cut at the problem isn’t going to fix it.