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Voters in 36 states will be choosing governors next year. Over the next several months, the Tax Justice Digest will be highlighting 2014 gubernatorial races where we expect taxes to be a key issue. Today’s post is about the race for the Governor’s mansion in Wisconsin.
To many Wisconsinites, it may seem like yesterday that Governor Scott Walker survived a recall election against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. But in less than a year, he’ll be up for reelection. This time Mary Burke, a Trek Bicycle Corp. executive and state Commerce Department secretary, is the Democrat hoping to unseat him. During the campaign, Walker will most certainly tout his record of cutting taxes, but anyone who’s paid attention knows his record is nothing to be proud of.
This year alone he signed legislation that both cut property taxes and reduced income tax rates in a way that does little for Wisconsin’s neediest residents – the opposite, actually. In fact, the budget he introduced in 2011 was called a betrayal of Wisconsin values by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy and other public interest groups because he ultimately approved legislation that reduced the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), thus increasing taxes on the state’s poorest working families. That budget also included $2.3 billion in tax breaks over a decade, in the form of a domestic production activities credit, two different capital gains tax breaks for the rich, and a variety of new sales tax exemptions, including for snowmaking and snow grooming equipment.
Challenger Mary Burke is being cautious and has yet to put out her own tax plan. She recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, however, that she would not take a pledge to not increase taxes, saying, “I’d want to look at the totality. We collect revenue in a lot of different ways. I certainly wouldn’t look at raising (taxes), but I’d also want to look at it in the context of our finances, our budgets …” When we learn more about her plan, we’ll review it for you here.