Flat tax, local sales tax, appear gone from WI budget

We don’t yet know what the next state budget will look like. In fact, legislative leaders haven’t even started deliberating Governor Tony Evers’ spending plan, which they will likely gut and start over. But we are beginning to get a clear picture of what the budget will, and will not, look like. It appears the coveted Flat-tax favored by many Republicans will not make it into the Legislature’s budget, perhaps because of the almost-certain veto Evers would issue. There is plenty of room for compromise on tax reduction, and now is a good time to finally act, with the state sitting on a more than $7 billion surplus. There are better ways to reduce our tax burden, and to make it more fair, than adopting a flat-tax which would almost exclusively benefit the wealthiest of filers. Also apparently already gone from the budge is Evers’ idea to allow Wisconsin’s biggest cities to implement their own sales tax. Under the plan, two dozen Wisconsin cities would be allowed to adopt a half cent sales tax, while counties could double their sales tax to one percent. Wisconsin has one of the highest tax burdens in the country. Now, with the state’s largest ever budget surplus, is the time to figure out a way to lessen that tax burden, not increase it.