WMC Fact Check: Taxes
WMC Fact Check
Taxes and Income: Warfare Against the Middle Class
The self-described mission of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce is to create “meaningful, well paying jobs [to provide] economic security and dignity to Wisconsin citizens. A strong economy provides the tax base necessary to support government’s role in education, building infrastructure, protecting the environment, and caring for the needy.”
Does the lofty rhetoric meet the reality?
One Wisconsin Now’s WMC Watch has compiled a series of reports to fact check the many fictions advocated by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Consider the following when WMC uses its network of resources and subservient elected officials to advocate for more corporate tax breaks, less funds for education, inaction in the face of skyrocketing health care costs.
WMC Fact Check: Personal Taxes
- Income Inequality is Highest since 1917. The top one one-hundredth of one percent has doubled the percentage of all wealth it has since 2000 – jumping to 6 percent. [Emmanuel Saez Report, 8/09]
- Median income for a family of four is less than it was in 2000. In 2000 the median income was $78,123. By 2006 it had fallen to $72,495. With the dramatic increase in energy prices and health care costs in that same period, families are having to do much more with less resources. [Center on Wisconsin Strategy, 9/07]
- Wisconsin estate tax ended in 2008. The heirs and heiresses to Wisconsin’s largest fortunes will receive a tax break of $300 million over the next three years, as a 2001 provision ended the estate tax, effective January 1, 2008. [Source: Wisconsin State Journal, 12/8/07]
- Wisconsin’s Poverty Rate Rose from 10.2 percent in 2005 to 11 Percent in 2006. The child poverty rate increased from 13.9 percent to 14.9 percent and over 581,000 Wisconsinites lived in poverty in 2006. The percent of families with children under 18 living in poverty has also risen in the past year. [Source: Wisconsin Council on Children and Families]
- African American and Hispanic Families Cope with Higher Poverty Rates. Over 32 percent of Wisconsin’s African American families are living below the poverty level, while 24.3 percent of Wisconsin’s Hispanic families live in poverty. [Source: Wisconsin Council on Children and Families]
- Homestead Tax Credit for Low Income Homeowners, Renters Unchanged for Nearly 20 Years. The maximum Homestead Tax Credit, which is the primary source of property tax relief for low-income homeowners and renters in Wisconsin, has not been changed since 1991. [Source: Wisconsin Council on Children and Families]
- Wisconsin’s top tax rate has increased once in the last 40 years. Wisconsin’s top income tax rate was the lowest since 1931. [Source: Institute for Wisconsin’s Future, 1/05/08]
Examining WMC’s legislative positions, one might ask exactly what WMC’s definition of “government’s role” actually is. When it comes to government overseeing a fair redistribution of shared tax dollars, protecting water, air and open spaces and particularly, “caring for the needy,” the role of government, appears to be in WMC’s opinion corporate rights before individual liberties and profit before people.
Ensuring the interests of working families, seniors, children and people in every corner of Wisconsin come before the narrow special interests at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce requires your action. You can make a difference and protect the priorities we share.
Visit the WMC Watch action center for more information about the steps you can take to counter the WMC agenda.
