Wisconsin Governor Walker signs $504 million tax cut

[Redfairen]

Source: Reuters

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, on Monday signed into law a measure that uses the state's projected surplus to give a tax break of more than $500 million to workers and property owners.

The law puts into place $504 million in tax cuts, consisting of $406 million in property tax relief and a $98 million state income tax break for those in the lowest tax bracket.

A typical state homeowner will see a $100 reduction in property taxes and a worker who makes $40,000 will save about $58 annually, according to the governor's office.

"This is a great day for the hardworking taxpayers of Wisconsin," Walker said in a statement.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/wisconsin-governor-walker-signs-504-million-tax-cut-202003335--business.html?.tsrc=attmp

[Warpy]

1. Wow! A whole buck a week for a $40,000/year worker! Two bucks a week for a homeowner!

Now that's what I call meaningful tax reduction (NOT).

In the meantime, those making million dollar paychecks are getting ..... ?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. "In the meantime, those making million dollar paychecks are getting ... "

...a governor.

[npk]

7. Seems like a fair trade

[valerief]

30. Yep, they're the ones making out with this foolish tax break. nt

[Pterodactyl]

10. You're right. I wish it could be more, too. But we have to have enough to keep the state running.

[Warpy]

11. And besides, only the billionaires deserve any real breaks

They're JOB CREATORS, yanno. Or would be if there was fast profit in it, if we poor folks had more than an extra buck a week to spend on things.

[Pterodactyl]

12. Uh, no. EVERYONE who pays taxes should get a break. Not just billionaires as you want.

[Warpy]

13. A buck a week isn't meaningful tax relief

What would be meaningful is raising WAGES to a living level. Then they could tell if a tax cut were warranted, at all.

Starving government to give somebody selling insurance a dollar a week or a family of 2 minimum wage workers a dollar a week is not meaningful tax reduction and is also incredibly poor government policy after a winter as severe as this one.

Walker is just grandstanding while he pays off his rich backers and I think we all know that.

[Pterodactyl]

15. Ten bucks a week would be nice.

[yeoman6987]

28. Well when they cut food stamps by 10 dollars a month

People were outraged rightfully so. But if you break down the money it is like 2 cents an hour. I wish Maryland would do this….we pay the 4th highest taxes in the country.

[BE10sCoach]

17. Kudo's to Walker

What a tax break & giveback by the Republican controlled state of Wisconsin! $0.14 a day for a person earning $40,000 and $0.28 a day for a homeowner. Heck if you own you own home and have a $40,000 a year job, that's a whopping $0.42 a day. Now let's see what can we buy with that? Thanks to our caring Gov. Walker and his Republican pals in the house and Senate for this fine gift. hahahahaha

[BE10sCoach]

19. Let's see

Can I get a candy bar, NO! Can I get a small bag of chips, NO! Can I get a cup of coffee, NO, hell I can't even buy a K-cup! Can I buy a pack of gum, No! Can I get a can of Coke, NO! What a freaking joke

[luvmygarden]

29. well

Ryan would like the inner city to pull themselves up, sooo I guess if they saved for a year they could buy a new blanket for their houses they can't afford to heat well on minimum wage. Now if the GOP eliminates min wage they might be able to cut the blanket in half and share it with a neighbor. This such a pile of bunk. Walker needs to be voted out of office I hope in the next election.

[Auntie Bush]

31. However, after Walker finishes touting this tax break...he's going to win his re-election.

If he runs for president we'll never hear the end of it and of course all the statistics are probably exaggerated.

[JDPriestly]

18. AND, it's on PROJECTED REVENUE. Which means that Walker is basically borrowing the money

to give the tax cuts. Just like Bush. Poor Wisconsin. Our California Republican governors also funded all kinds of things on borrowed money. Jerry Brown had to face either ruin for our state or raising taxes to pay back the Republicans' debts.

Typical Republican miscalculation and fraud.

[Igel]

21. Meh.

I've seen people calling for CEO salaries to be chopped because it would so help the workers. They desperately need the money and it would be a huge help.

Then I've done the math and it comes out to less than $1/week.

Their small potatoes are no larger than our small potatoes. You can't convince them of that, especially talking on this forum. You can't convince DUers of that, even talking on this forum.

In both cases it's not the $ involved. That is just displacing the argument and rendering it trivial or farcical. The issue (for them) is the role of government and having the wrong people cash in; for us, it's a feeling of injustice because we see the wrong people cash in.

[SmittynMo]

3. Gee, just in time for election year too.

I trust this snake in the grass about as far as I can throw him. And how did they get a surplus? By raising taxes? Hmmmm. Pretty simple math here.

[elfin]

4. Amazing how much $ come from destroying education

And civil service positions, their salaries and pension reductions.

Gawd how I hate Walker.

[passiveporcupine]

16. Plus no expansion of Medicaid for the poor uninsured

Yay Wisconsin!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. And, lemme guess...

Those who pay a lot of taxes will see a much bigger cut than those who are making so little they don't pay a lot in taxes...

Yay for regressive tax policy!

Cut services, create a 'surplus', cut taxes, realize that you've got a deficit, cut services even more, rinse and repeat.

[albino65]

6. How about the atypical homeowner?

How many of his friends have high dollar properties? Just askin'.

[warrant46]

8. The Koch Brothers are his Masters

http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/files/Scott%20Walker%20David%20Koch%20Transcript.pdf

While Gov. Scott Walker hasn't been willing with, or even talk to, Wisconsin's workers, he was more than willing to take a call from someone he thought was gazillionaire David Koch.

Of course, Gov. Walker would take the call. Koch Industries gave Walker's campaign $43,000 and now Koch propaganda machine, Americans for Prosperity, is spending $320,000 to support Walker's effort to use the government to take away the rights of working families.

Well, here's the transcript. Read for yourself how Walker brags about using layoff threats to bully and intimidate working families into submission.

[albino65]

9. What a smarmy bastard n/t

[OnlinePoker]

14. It would have been better to put a lot on the State Debt

Getting rid of that $15+ billion albatross when the revenues are coming in and interest is low is better than waiting until interest rates spike and revenue drops off.

[weissmam]

20. BFD

[onehandle]

22. Operation Re-election Under Way.

Most every single Kochbagger will returned to their jobs this year.

[Ratty]

23. "Tax relief" Grrr

I hate that phrase.

[Yavin4]

24. Wisc. pensioners, remember this tax cut

Remember this when they tell you in a few years that the state cannot afford to pay you your pensions. Remember that they could have used this surplus to shore up the pension fund.

[rlegro]

27. Just to clarify

Walker did force state employees to pay a greater percentage of their pension fund contribution, which amounted to reneging on prior deals in which the state agreed to pay a higher proportion of the contribution if represented workers would in turn accept lower raises. Rip off, in other words.

But also, the Wisconsin public retirement system is rated the most financially sound and well performing of any in the country. It is essentially fully funded. So there really is no excuse for Walker and Republicans to claim it's broke or in trouble at some future point. But I'm sure they will just as soon as they figure out a way to raid the fund for their pet projects, which won't, of course, include pensioners or current employees, who've already been put through the mill.

In a just world, Walker would have been obliged to first use surplus dollars to restore those pension contribution increases.

Bear in mind, too, that while some surplus is likely at some point because the national economy is generally trending upward, Wisconsin under Walker has lagged that recovery and some analysts project near-future state deficits looming again. But Walker's proclaiming prosperity, because this is an election year and he's up in November. As soon as he's elected, if he is *and that's no sure thing* watch for him to proclaim another round of "we're broke and must make further cuts."

[rlegro]

25. Almost no one has noticed two facts about this tax cut

A significant chunk of that money is represented by the many millions of dollars in compensation that Walker swiped back from state employees in the same new law that all but gutted their labor unions. Other chunks come out of the hides of poor and under-employed, underpaid private citizens of the state, who lost out when Walker trimmed social programs and refused billions in state aids for new rail projects and Medicaid expansion.

So, public workers and lower-income residents are subsidizing a large part of this "surplus" out of their own, thinner wallets. And a goodly chunk of the rebates are, indeed, going to be redistributed upward to wealthier taxpayers. What a system!

[Firebrand Gary]

26. What a fucking joke!

[3catwoman3]

32. $58 a year...

Whoopie Shit!!! Do try not to spend it all in one place.