Nearly a year ago, Gov. Scott Walker floated the idea of eliminating the state’s income tax.

That theme was picked up by 55th Assembly District Republican candidate Jay Schroeder yesterday:

A constituent brought to my attention the much-needed shift in tax policy in the State of Wisconsin. I agree.
Many speak of creating jobs in political fliers but how do we move to implementation? In Medicine, you treat the cause and not the symptom. I believe the cause is burdensome tax policy. Government does not create jobs.
My first legislation as an elected Assemblyman would be working on much needed tax reform in the state of Wisconsin. I look to job creation research and economic data. From 2002 to 2012, in the 9 states, which had no income tax, 62% of the new jobs were created. If one looks over the last 50 years, still the states with no income tax had higher job growth! Furthermore,data shows these states lead in population growth and labor force growth, with an increase in tax revenues.

We need to stop taxing our retired citizens out of Wisconsin away from their grandchildren and lessen the tax burden of the hard working middle class of this great state. Websites such as savetaxesbymoving.com shows how much one’s taxes change depending on where one would relocate. In most states moving from Wisconsin saves on taxes. This must be changed.

Another area of study could be instituting a flat tax in Wisconsin to make us more competitive and simplify the tax code. These conversions could be accomplished over what is called a glide path, over a couple of biennial budgets to provide a smooth, stable transition.

As your Assemblyman I would work on income tax reform, which I believe, would lead to population growth and labor force growth in Wisconsin.

As you know, I am skeptical about eliminating income taxes, for several reasons. The Legislature could end — that is, reduce to zero — income taxes in the 2015–17 budget, but that is only temporary unless the state Constitution is amended to prohibit income taxes.

Eliminating income taxes creates a big math problem. Back in December I pointed out that if the state was going to eliminate income taxes, that would require some combination of three choices:

1. Increase the state sales tax from 5 percent.
2. Increase property taxes (or cut so much state aid to counties, municipalities and school districts that they raise property taxes to make up the lost state aid) in a state that is already in the top 10 in median property tax bills, in terms of taxes and in terms of percentage of personal income and property value. The income and sales taxes exist today in large part because of efforts at property tax relief. Those efforts, of course, failed.
3. Cut state spending. Not just reduce the increase, but cut it. By a lot.

Back in December I noted the lack of support among the average Wisconsinite for any of those three, let alone all of those three. Democrats demagogue every tax cut and every spending cut because they believe people don’t pay enough in taxes, and that government doesn’t spend enough money in this state. Too many Wisconsinites persist in the mistaken belief that our government services, including our schools, are great values, when they’re not, in either what we’re paying for them or their quality.

The other political fact is that income taxes are not the most reviled state tax; the property tax is. The income tax was created in large part for property tax relief, and the sales tax was created and expanded three times for property tax relief. This state proves that creating or increasing other taxes to reduce other taxes never works to reduce taxes.

Wisconsinites probably would be happy if our tax burden was more like 25th nationally than fifth, as is the case now. To do that, however, requires not merely cutting taxes, but preventing taxes from being raised in the first place. That in turn requires spending and taxation limits that are constitutional, not statutory, since one Legislature can wipe out the previous Legislature’s decisions by changing the law. You can never, ever trust politicians to do the right thing; you have to prevent them from doing the wrong thing.