Yes, today's the day - - April 15th - - and while no one likes to pay them, and there is a need for reform to make the system simpler and more equitable, at least we have some fine reporting by the Journal Sentinel's Dave Umhoefer to put Wisconsin's situation into perspective.
Which means, turn off talk radio when you hear that predictable "tax hell" stuff from our AM squawkers.
I pay a heckuva lot of taxes, but I am aware they are the price of a civil society.
Smaller Gov't = Less Taxes...PERIOD!
ReplyDeleteSmaller Gov't is the answer
Before you start celebrating Wisconsin as a tax paradise James, like most MJS articles you need to read past the headline and the first few paragraphs to get to the real story . . .
ReplyDeleteFrom the article and what puts the situation into perspective for the majority (in terms of the number of people) of taxpayers in Wisconsin:
If the state's tax burden feels much worse to you - like a wind chill in winter - then you're probably middle-class.
Few states hammer the middle class as hard as Wisconsin - especially households earning less than $88,000 a year, a Journal Sentinel examination found.
Despite a chorus of complaints, relief has proved spotty at best, raising questions about the political system's ability to take on the issue.
And other big questions loom about Wisconsin's unique tax structure.
The state budget has been balanced during this recession - and long before - using accounting gimmicks and borrowed funds that will eventually come due.
Personal income has not been growing as fast in Wisconsin as in other parts of the country.
STM/BFTG
More efficient government = less taxes. The size of government is a simplistic argument for idiots. Government should be right sized for the task. On average states with lower corporate taxes have higher unemployment.Lower corporate taxes do not imply more of that money going to jobs. States with lower income taxes have much, much higher incarceration rates, on average because they spend less on education. Almost all "quality of life" indicators are worse in low tax states.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like burdensome corporate taxes, move to zero tax Nevada. Good luck finding a job though, as their unemployment is 2nd worse in the nation. If you don't like personal income tax, move to Texas, but I hope your kids like saying, "Do you want fries with that", because the Texas education system sucks. If you don't like taxes, there are plenty of places to go and see how great society is.
Celebrating the drop in tax burden from a top ten tax state to 14th is like cheering when you find out your neighbor's cancer just got worse than yours. I fear higher taxes on the horizon if WI. is going to eliminate it's debt and have balanced budgets. Our own proposed little Cap and Tax bill could certainly compound the problem. Don't know If I can retire here. We're already shopping for a different state and we'll be taking our tax dollars with us.
ReplyDeleteWell stated Anon, I hear ya.
ReplyDeleteAlec - indeed the more efficient a government is = the less need for tax revenue.
Unfortunately for all of us the phrase "efficient government" is an absolute contradiction in terms.
Would like to see the statistics behind your claims Alec, and not just anecdotal examples that do not really hold water upon closer scrutiny.
Such as Nevada which has had a population growth of 120% in the last 20 years (versus Wisconsin’s 15.7%) due to employment opportunities, but employment that is based mostly on either the financial sector (which is obviously in shambles) and gaming / tourism - in other words discretional spending.
Nevada has been hit harder than most states by the recession and Obama questioning not once, but twice people choosing to go to Las Vegas certainly did not help.
So unless you can explain it to all of us, there is no relationship at all between Nevada’s corporate tax rate and it’s unemployment rate.
STM/BFTG