The state budget includes $93 million in tax cuts, virtually all of which go to corporations and high-income individuals. These tax cuts are part of the same budget that jeopardizes the state’s ability to create jobs because it relies so heavily on cutting vital services that help build a strong economy.
Here’s how that $93 million in tax cuts breaks out over the biennium:
- $46 million in corporate income tax breaks for multi-state corporations.
- $36 million in capital gains tax cuts, a break that overwhelmingly favors the highest earners. Those making $200,000 or more make up less than 2% of all tax filers, but would receive an estimated 46% of this benefit.
- $10 million in phased-in tax cuts for certain manufacturers in the state. This tax cut would grow each year until it reached an annual level of $129 million.
Over the next decade, the new tax cuts in the budget are expected to cost the state $1.7 billion. That doesn’t even include the ten-year, $510 million cost of tax cuts enacted earlier this year. The total cost of these tax cuts tops two billion over the next ten years.
These tax cuts jeopardize the ability of state and local governments to help build safe, prosperous communities – the kind of communities that we want for our children. High-income earners and corporations benefit from the tax breaks; in the meantime, revenue shortages result in cuts of more than a billion dollars for schools (see Way #1). This failure to invest in our children and communities means we risk shortchanging our future.
As we move forward, we need to make sure we have sufficient resources to educate our children, build economic opportunities for families at all income levels, and lay a solid foundation for the next generation. We can’t do that by gutting revenue.
Tamarine Cornelius
Tomorrow—Way #21: School Choice Expands in Milwaukee and Beyond
About the series: “31 Ways in 31 Days” is a series of posts to the WCCF blog exploring the recently-passed biennial budget’s impact on children and families in Wisconsin. Each day in July, we are posting a description of one way the budget will affect kids and families, with an eye toward what should be done going forward to help improve outcomes and move us closer to the goal of making Wisconsin a place where every child has the opportunity to grow up, learn, and thrive in a safe, healthy, economically secure home and community.
