It’s a new year in Wisconsin, but Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans are holding on to the same old Tea Party tricks.
Even as seniors and working families continue to struggle because of Scott Walker’s failed economic policies, with 70 percent of Wisconsinites saying their personal financial situation has stayed the same or gotten worse since Walker took office and nearly 2/3 of the state saying the state’s economy will stay the same or get worse over the next year, Walker and his rubber-stamp legislature are dead-set on more regressive tax policy that benefits their corporate friends at the expense of everyday Wisconsinites.
Walker made it clear just before the holiday that the next frontier in his far-reaching Tea Party agenda is to eliminate the state income tax. The independent and non-partisan organization Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance has said that eliminating the income tax would mean relying on a massive sales tax hike to unconscionable levels of twelve or thirteen percent — a nearly 200% increase that would give Wisconsin the highest state income tax rate in the nation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently opined against the proposal, citing the harm an increased sales tax would do to Wisconsin families.
The truth is that Scott Walker’s tax rhetoric has rarely matched reality. In 2010, Walker promised to not raise taxes if elected, but raised taxes on working class families to the tune of $69.3 million – all while giving a massive $83 million tax cut to his corporate pals.
“Instead of working for Wisconsin’s middle-class, Scott Walker is trying to find yet another way to raise taxes on working families to pay for big tax giveaways to his corporate friends,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday. “A massive sales tax on everything from groceries to school supplies is the last thing families need when they are trying to get back on their feet. Scott Walker needs to stop trying to grab headlines and court Tea Party donors with political gimmicks and get to work bringing real relief to the working class.”
