Walker Taking Wisconsin Back To Thompson's Tax Hell Daze

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During Terrible Tommy's reign over Wisconsin through the 90's, the burden of state taxes on the average Wisconsin income earner was solidly in the 12 percent range with a few years popping 13 percent. Believe it or not, it was Gov. Jim Doyle who courageously fought the tax burden battle and incrementally brought the tax burden down into the 11 percent range, settling for a bittersweet 11.2 percent in the 2008-09 budget. Ironically, it was Doyle's Wisconsin that the state's GOP support-base business group, Wisconsin Commerce and Manufacturers, branded as a "tax hell."

So it only figures that the WMC-endorsed Scott Walker has reversed the direction established by Doyle and now has the state trending toward those glorious republican days of Terrible Tommy ...

Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance Excerpt:
State-local governments here collected $25.9 billion in taxes and fees in fiscal year 2011, 5.4% more than the prior year. This year's tax burden was 11.9%, up from 11.7% in 2010. Individual income tax collections were $6.7 billion in 2011, up 10% from $6.1 billion in 2010. This year's increase was the largest one-year jump since 2000.

Note: The above paragraph appears on the WTA's Home Page as a summary for the article.

That's right. The last time Wisconsin workers saw the state carve out as large a one-year increase from our earnings - Tommy Thompson was in charge! Who woulda' thunk it? Few states hammer the middle class as hard as Wisconsin - especially households earning less than $88,000 a year, wrote the Journal Sentinel back in 2010, and that was when the tax burden was better - under Jim Doyle! But today? Under Walker's massive transfer of wealth away from Wisconsin families, modest communities and public sector workers to the GOP business elite and coupled with increased state spending can only mean an even larger tax bite is on the way. Wisconsin is clawing its way back into hell.

From Tax Hell To "All Screwed Up!"
If you hear 'Wisconsin' and a job transfer, part of your mind is going to say, 'Isn't that the place that's all screwed up?'
-- Todd Berry, WTA ...saying what others are thinking.

JS Online Editorial - Wisconsin missing out on U.S. jobs gains, under Walker. (Over 1,800 comments)