Buyer Beware: Low-Income Homeowners Penalized Under the Wisconsin Tax System – Policy implications of the Wisconsin Tax Incidence Study

Author: Jack Norman, Ph.D. (IWF)

Date: March 2005

Wisconsin’s allegedly progressive tax structure is a myth. And low-income married homeowners have the highest tax burden in the state.Those are two of the important results buried in the recent Wisconsin Tax Incidence Report, the state’s detailed analysis of who actually bears the burden of paying taxes. Mainstream media gave only cursory coverage to the report, but IWF now has a short overview of its main results.

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“Tax Hell” Hoax: Why spending caps on state and local government are wrong for Wisconsin

Author: Jack Norman, Ph.D. (IWF)

Date: January 2005

A new report skewers the argument that Wisconsin is such a “tax hell” that we must adopt strict new restrictions on state and local government spending.The image of Wisconsin as a “tax hell” has been cultivated by conservatives to create an appearance of legitimacy for proposed limits on government spending, such as the so-called Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (also known as TABOR). When one looks carefully at the facts, however, there is no tax hell to be found.

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Some Facts About Property Taxes in Milwaukee

Author: Jack Norman, Ph.D. (IWF)

Date: November 2003

Did you know that the property tax burden on City of Milwaukee taxpayers has remained stable in recent years, and taxpayers now are paying a smaller percentage of their income in city property taxes than 20 years ago? This brief report offers conclusions based on tax and income data obtained from the City of Milwaukee and the U.S. Census Bureau. (2 pp.)

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Tax Funding for Private School Alternatives: The Financial Impact on Milwaukee Public Schools and Taxpayers

Author: Thomas Moore, Ph.D. (IWF)

Date: October 1998

This report finds that the Milwaukee Public Schools lose over $22 million in state aid under the current funding system for voucher and charter school programs. (14 pp.)

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Has Wisconsin’s State Tax System Become Less Fair? Changes in the Distribution of Tax Burdens from 1974 to 1995

Authors: Andrew Reschovsky (La Follette Institute of Public Affairs and Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics/University of Wisconsin-Madison) & Chad Reuter (Wisconsin Department of Transportation)

Date: June 1997

This study reveals how major elements of our tax system have changed over the past couple of decades, and how each change affected the relative tax burden on non-elderly, married couple families. The authors note a number of ways that the state tax system could be made more progressive. (39 pp.)

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Windfall for the Wealthy: The Impact of 1995 Property Tax Relief Legislation on Wisconsin Households

Author: Bambi L. Statz (College of Business and Economics/School Business Management Program/University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)

Date: January 1997

This study examines 1995 school finance and property tax relief legislation on a district-by-district basis. The author finds that there is minimal tax relief for taxpayers in moderate or property-poor school districts and increased inequality in the state school financing structure, which benefits residents of wealthy school districts. (47 pp.)

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Public Investment; Private Gain: A Review of Wisconsin's Corporate Tax Expenditure Budget from Fiscal Years 1974 to 1994

Author: Michael Rosen (Economics Department/Milwaukee Area Technical College)

Date: May 1995

This study shows that over the past 20 years, tax expenditures, often characterized as corporate welfare in Wisconsin, have grown at an astronomical rate while the state economy has grown only moderately. (19 pp.)

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