A Guide to Analyzing WISTAX Reports
One of the keys to understanding the validity of claims in a Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance report, or to recognize conservative bias, is asking oneself some of the following questions when reading its material:
- How do WISTAX numbers compare to those of other "non-partisan" entities?
- Are taxes the only measure of consequence in a WISTAX survey? Do the taxes exist in a vacuum, or is a full picture provided of the tax and what it finances. If not, why not?
- Are the WISTAX reports on rankings crafted to create the impression that Wisconsin is a high spending state, even though the Census Bureau data actually show that Wisconsin is right in the middle in rankings of state and local spending?
- Does the WISTAX analysis help readers understand that Wisconsin’s per capita taxes are average, and it is only because per capita income is below average that Wisconsin ranks high on taxes relative to income?
- When WISTAX predicts an increase in Wisconsin’s tax ranking, according to their measures, do they provide any hard evidence that taxes in Wisconsin are rising faster than in other states?
- Keeping in mind WISTAX predicted the $6.6 billion 2009 state budget deficit would be between $650 million and $1 billion, is a specific WISTAX conclusion based on facts or based on WISTAX undocumented impressions?
- Wisconsin is near the bottom of state rankings for lowest sales tax in the nation, including four states without sales tax, and why is this not as prominently discussed as the state’s income and corporate tax rankings?
- Does WISTAX accurately report on taxes which increase at times without legislative action, such as amount collected in total sales tax?
- Why does WISTAX consistently fail to acknowledge that costs for certain vital programs and services have a natural increase to them over time?
- Prior to the increase on the top one percent of income earners, Wisconsin hasn’t increased personal income taxes in 40 years, and why is this remarkable statistic not a regular part of WISTAX analysis in the same way it repeatedly notes the unpredictability of corporate tax collections?
- WISTAX includes some tax collections and does not include some of the tax and fee collections in data it uses to create it annual rankings, and is this most accurate picture of the resources provided to government in relation to other states?
- Do the WISTAX analyses ever focus on the regressivity or progressivity of Wisconsin’s tax system? Do they ever acknowledge that the state’s mix of revenue sources would become more regressive if Wisconsin were to follow the path of other states by becoming more average in taxes relative to income while increasing fees and charges (and coming closer to average on that measure)?
- Why are left of center organizations so adamant about the conservative leanings of WISTAX?
- Why would WISTAX board of directors be so populated past and present with board members from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and corporate and financial institutions if WISTAX wasn’t producing material that reinforced the collective corporate anti-tax agenda of these organizations?
