Browsing: Tax Reform

Scott Walker is Reagan-like in his bold steps to remake Wisconsin government By Richard Esenberg Madison has fallen. All of…

It’s a shock for some: He means what he says, and he does what he promises by Richard Esenberg Last…

In state capitols across the country governors and legislatures have been forced to put all of their energy into solving enormous fiscal shortfalls. Given their dependence on income tax and sales tax revenues, the 2001 recession hit state governments particularly hard. In 2003, no fewer than 39 states, including Wisconsin, experienced budget gaps. During the

Early in the postwar era, Wisconsin was not among the nation’s highest-taxed states, as measured by state and local taxes.1 Relative to personal income, Wisconsin’s tax burden flirted with the “top ten” during those years, but did not reach it. That changed in 1963 when the full effect of sales and income tax increases enacted

By Roger Parks, Ph.D., Ronald Oakerson, Ph.D. Throughout the 1980s and into 1990, Wisconsin has labored over the twin issues of property tax relief and the control of state/local spending. The two concerns are interrelated, but differently focused. Effective property tax relief requires local tax restraint; otherwise tax dollars spent for relief may instead finance increases in