November 28, 2008
Wisconsin residents oppose raising taxes on business profits by a range of 73% opposing it while only 19% supported raising taxes. These are among the key findings about statewide policy issues from the most recent survey of 600 Wisconsin residents conducted by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. and Diversified Research between November 9 and 10, 2008.
Geographically, the most support for raising taxes came from LaCrosse where 33% of the respondents supported it and Madison where 25% were in agreement. Among Republicans only 10% favored raising taxes on businesses, while 25% of Democrats agreed. Ideologically, 31% of Liberals said they would favor raising taxes on businesses, only 9% of Conservatives agreed with that.
There is overwhelming opposition to the idea of raising taxes on business profits, especially when Wisconsin’s economy is sliding into a serious recession. The opposition crosses all party lines, all ideologies and all regions of the state. It is actually surprising just how much opposition there is to this idea. It will make it very difficult in the next biennial budget to solve the state’s deficit on the backs of employers and employees.
ABOUT THE STUDY
This study of 600 Wisconsin residents was conducted by telephone between November 9 and November 10, 2008. A total of 600 Wisconsin residents were interviewed. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4% for percentages of the whole sample. For a percentage near 50%, for example, this means that repeated samples would produce results between 47% and 53%, 95 times out of 100.
This study was commissioned by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. The Institute was founded in 1987, and its mandate is to examine issues of public policy facing Wisconsin, using a nonpartisan approach.
Dr. Michael LaVelle, President of Diversified Research, a nationally known survey research company supervised the project. Dr. LaVelle has a Ph.D. and has taught statistics and social research methods at the university level. He has been President of Diversified Research since 1982 and has over thirty years experience in survey research.
To see the full survey results, click here.
