MADISON – State Representative Mike Bare (D-Verona) released the following statement after the Wisconsin State Assembly voted to pass the 2023-2025 biennial state budget:
“A budget is about choices and priorities. Governor Evers proposed a budget that would set our state up for success. We had a record $7 billion budget surplus. We could have addressed some of our most vexing challenges. Republicans in the Assembly chose instead to line the pockets of our state’s wealthiest residents with a tax cut.
Everything in a budget exists together in a delicate balance. But far too much of the balance was taken up by the Republican tax cut for Wisconsinites making more than $225,000 per year. That means the eleven Wisconsin taxpayers who make more than $75 million per year would get an average tax cut of $1.8 million.
It would seem that the new American dream is to make enough money so you can max out donations to Republicans in a campaign year so they cut your taxes in a budget year. That’s not a dream for working people. That’s a nightmare. Working people deserve better than the tax plan in this budget.
That tax cut for the richest comes at the cost of public schools and the University of Wisconsin system, bolstering our childcare providers, making housing more affordable, expanding bipartisan transitional jobs programs, and making needed investments in our communities. And while the gun violence epidemic continues, Republicans shamefully chose to defund the Office of School Safety and its hotline for reporting threats.
Republicans chose to help the richest. We should have instead chosen to target tax relief to those who need it most. We could have raised the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit. We could have raised and indexed the Homestead Credit for homeowners and renters. We could have created new property tax credits for veterans. We could have expanded the Child and Dependent Care Credit. Unfortunately, we didn’t do those things.
We had the means to set our state up for success. Instead, the Republicans chose to pass a state budget that will negatively affect our state for generations.”
