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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Group Wants Corporate Taxes to be Paid

Both the Beloit Daily News and the Janesville Gazette ran misleading titles on an article written by the AP.

The newspapers ran the same article, but decided to create their own titles, and although both titles were different, they each implied a negative high-tax atmosphere against a left-leaning advocacy group. The BDN
title “Group wants business taxes raised in state” as well as the Gazettes “Advocacy group claims Wis. companies don't pay enough income tax” are misleading. The watchdog group merely wants the taxes to be paid. That shouldn't be asking for too much. While the WMC, offering the opposing viewpoint to the group want the taxes terminated or lowered.

Jim Pugh, a spokesman for the WMC, said the institute's conclusions cannot be trusted because the people who pay for its work have an interest in big government and higher taxes. This too is not correct. If the companies paid the corporate taxes they owe, the taxes for everybody else will be lower.
AP excerpt
Some of the largest, most-profitable companies in Wisconsin have not paid corporate income tax, resulting in a heavier burden on individuals, according to information released Monday by an independent nonprofit group.

“You have to consider the source of the research,” he said. “This is a very left-leaning institute that's heavily funded by labor and public employee unions.” How many times have we heard this cop-out before? Corporations should be permitted to avoid paying taxes because the group that exposed their nonpayment is partisan?

The erroneous titles appear deliberate enough to assume that both newspapers are members of the WMC or its affiliates, and if true, pose a serious conflict of interest in the way they present the news. But we already know that.

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