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Budget committee again fails Wisconsin on schools and roads
MADISON — In another late night session, the Republican elite on the Joint Finance Committee voted to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, disproportionately benefiting the wealthy few. While making the rich richer, the same elitist GOP legislators voted to eliminate the Working Families Tax Credit, which lowers the tax burden on low income families. Republicans also voted against a $20.8 million boost to the Earned Income Tax Credit and against decreasing Wisconsin’s bottom two tax brackets.
Unsurprisingly, extremist and newly announced Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir was there to lend her support for policies benefiting her billionaire backers every step of the way.
“Leah Vukmir and her Republican peers were given clear choices last night, and they chose the path of hurting hard-working Wisconsinites while sheltering wealthy people from having to pay income taxes,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Martha Laning. “Presented with opportunities to cut taxes for working class Wisconsinites, the Republican elite voted ‘no’ every time. But when the opportunity to slash taxes for the wealthy came before them, Republicans dutifully obliged.”
Final committee votes on the budget also made clear that Republicans aren’t up to the task of finding a sustainable solution to fund roads and bridges as they forced taxpayers into further debt, slashed wages for construction workers, and delayed ongoing projects.
“The Republican Party is in chaos, but the rest of Wisconsin doesn’t need to be,” said Laning. “While Democrats have offered fiscally sound ideas to fully fund schools, fix our roads without saddling future generations with debt, and reform our tax code in a way that would benefit, not hurt, the working class, Republicans prioritized the same backwards policies that have been failing Wisconsinites for seven years.”
