As he positions himself for a Tea Party run for president in 2016, Scott Walker’s administration is proposing a radical sales tax hike that would totally abandon the notion of shared sacrifice and transfer Wisconsin’s tax burden on to the back of Wisconsin’s middle class.
Walker officials floated his Middle Class Tax yesterday as a way to replace the state income tax.
Michael Brandl, a Racine native and Ohio State University finance professor, said Wednesday of the Walker proposal:
“It has been well known since the 1960s that sales taxes are much more regressive than income taxes. What that means is those in the middle and working classes are going to bear more of the burden of taxes than are the wealthy if the income tax is replaced by a higher sales tax.”
Said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate:
“Scott Walker’s Middle Class Tax is an attack on Wisconsin’s middle class so that Scott Walker can position himself to the right of the rest of his Tea Party rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. This type of tax has long been discredited and seen rightly for what it is: An all out assault on the economic security of the middle class. Scott Walker should immediately stop movement toward the Middle Class Tax.”
