Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Secretary of Revenue Rick Chandler released 2014 Wisconsin Tax Relief & Reform, the results of their tour of Wisconsin earlier this year to find out how citizens feel about state taxes.
If you don’t want to read the report, here’s the punch line:
This report sketched a broad outline and common themes from their answers. Taxes are too high and too complicated. They hinder economic growth, discourage job creation, and burden family budgets. And though weâve made great progress in the last four years, we still have a long way to go. After all, tax reform and relief are not only paramount to a clear and strategic path to economic growth, but also to the prosperity of our state and the happiness of our citizens.
The Walker administration has already made significant strides in lowering the tax burden on Wisconsin citizens. But even with these recent accomplishments, Wisconsin remains one of the ten highest taxed states in the nation. That is why we need to continue the tax reform conversation.
Moving forward, we will build off our recent successes and continue to propose budgets that will lower property taxes in Wisconsin, allow more discretionary income for our citizens, and create a tax climate that will not only encourage existing businesses to move to our state, but will also provide the setting necessary for new start-ups to grow and succeed in Wisconsin.
We will continue our commitment to lower the tax burden so our families can find work here, so our businesses can grow here, and so our seniors can stay here in the homes and communities they love. We believe Wisconsin citizens deserve not just the opportunity for employment but the opportunity for happiness.
OK, but what were the results of the tour? These five areas of concern, apparently in order of how often they came up:
Top 5 Areas of Concern
1. Property Tax Burden
2. Personal Income Tax
3. Complexity of Tax Laws
4. Taxes on Small Business
5. The Cost of Government
This too isn’t exactly news. That may have been the point of an email I got at work from the Democratic Party; I wouldn’t know because I delete emails from the Dumocrats immediately. Emails from Democrats vary between two themes: (1) Gov. Scott Walker is stupid and (2) taxes are not high enough.
The Walker administration pays attention to its constituent groups. You may recall early in this process it appeared that income taxes were going to be cut the most. Then a newspaper did a poll, and discovered that property taxes were far more hated than income taxes. So the property tax cut was four times the size of the income tax cut.
One thing not mentioned in the report is that the last point is directly attributable to our lack of permanent â that is, constitutional, not legislative â controls on government spending and taxation. Every level of government will overspend unless prevented from doing so. And fiscal responsibility should be mandated, not dependent on which party wins an election.
How will the Walker administration balance those five goals? (Of course, progress on points one through four won’t happen unless point five is dealt with, and better than it has been dealt with so far.) Well, this is what Walker wanted by running for reelection.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
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