MADISON – Like a bad penny, the Republican plan to lavish more on the Need-Least and less on the Need-More keeps turning up again and again and again.
Republicans started the year with a “flat tax” plan giving more to a handful of their generous pals than to the entire Wisconsin middle class combined. Republicans on the budget committee spent months of your time and money to come to the same decision: A handful of haves deserve more than the entirety of working Wisconsin’s middle class.
Joint Finance Republicans launched the budget process by preserving a blatant giveaway within the “manufacturing” credit that continues to result in fewer added jobs and lower raises by those eligible manufacturers. It is ironic that employers not eligible for the largesse provided higher raises than those fat cats enjoying the tax credit.
The broader tax plan Republicans put forward last night will hand millions more to a mere seven thousand or so millionaires while offering less to two and one-half MILLION Wisconsin taxpayers – COMBINED – who earn $90,000 or less. That’s $221 million for seven thousand millionaires, $212 million for 2.5 million working Wisconsinites.
The very same night, Republicans cut the UW System that gives Wisconsin residents a shot at a brighter economic future by $32 million. Why? Petty insecurity? Or perhaps it happened because just an hour or two later they passed their tax plan that forces you to bankroll the same amount – $32 million – for 479 select taxpayers who earn between $5 million and $10 million.
Time and time again Republicans in the Legislature have demonstrated their priorities: provide more giveaways to millionaires – with no strings attached – while diminishing needed child care, starving public schools that are the cornerstone of rural communities, and ignoring property tax relief and health care funding. Basically, they chose to ignore the priorities of people who do the hard work, day in and day out. Like a bad penny, the proposed budget is a bad deal.
