MADISON, Wis. —Right wing gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Kleefisch is calling Wisconsin’s progressive state income tax system, that asks the wealthiest to pay what they owe, a “generational wrong.” According to media reports, Kleefisch made her comments and attacked the state income tax system that includes progreessive rates across different income levels during a radio appearance this week.
“Rebecca Kleefisch is saying the quiet part out loud,” commented A Better Wisconsin Together Executive Director Chris Walloch. “Given the chance, she’ll tilt the scales even more in favor of the wealthiest and corporations, and she’ll make the rest of us pay for it.”
Analyses of “flat” income tax policies, which Kleefisch appears to be endorsing, consistently show these schemes increase the share of taxes paid by the middle class and lower income earners while giving away massive breaks to the top one percent.
In addition, the big corporate special interest lobbying group, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), backing Kleefisch for governor also endorses a radical tax scheme to nearly double the state sales tax. The WMC-backed scheme would, according to a review of the plan by state policy analysts, increase taxes on the lowest earners in the state all while delivering a windfall tax giveaway for themselves.
Kleefisch has also shown she’s willing to undermine public education to pay for reckless policies. As part of the previous gubernatorial administration, she helped to impose the largest cuts to K-12 public education in state history and slash funding for state technical colleges by thirty percent.
Walloch concluded, “On the campaign trail Rebecca Kleefisch is showing us the same thing she showed us during her and Scott Walker’s administration, she can’t be trusted to stand up for the middle class.”
