Viewpoint

Divide and ransack: progressive strategy on display in Evers’ veto aftermath

By Patrick McIlheran

After he kicked millions of taxpayers in the head last week, Tony Evers seemed a little defensive. The Wisconsin governor suggested to an interviewer that if middle-class taxpayers were accidental targets, that was the price of progress.

Evers’ problem, he said, was that “the broadness” of the middle-class bracket “is something I could not deal with with a veto.” He hinted that Republicans should “come back with something different.”

Democrat legislators were clearer. Sen. Chris Larson, the Milwaukee progressive who chairs his party’s Senate caucus, said the problem is that Wisconsin has too few tax brackets to properly exclude just the taxpayers Democrats don’t like.

Larson went on to muse fondly of the 1930s, when Wisconsin had 11 brackets, the better to disproportionately load the price of government onto an electorally feckless minority.

Analysis

Don’t start school unless you plan to finish

By Scott Niederjohn, Ph.D.

Wisconsin has more than 727,000 student loan borrowers, holding more than $23 billion in debt, who will need to begin making their payments again this fall.  

Data from the White House indicates that more than 300,000 of them were approved for up to $20,000 in forgiveness under the program struck down by the Supreme Court, so for some, at least, monthly payments will severely constrain how they spend and live. 

This is particularly so for those who don’t earn much money because they started college but never earned a degree.  

Estimates vary, but about 40 percent of student loan debt holders didn’t receive a four-year degree. They have the financial burden of debt but not the earnings boost that would come from graduating.

Video

Wisconsin Governors’ Veto Power: A Brief History

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers made international headlines after using his partial veto power to extend annual increases in per-pupil revenue limits for 400 years.

The governor's office was granted the power in 1930, when Wisconsin’s constitution was amended to allow the executive to veto budget bills “in whole or in part.”

Here is a brief history of how the Wisconsin governors’ veto power has been used on state budget bills throughout the years.

Badger Rewind

The Future of Wisconsin’s Flat Tax

By Mike Nichols (Viewpoint republished from March 3, 2023)

“The future with a flat tax looks bright — if only the politicians will lift their heads up and peer in that direction.”

I don’t know if they need binoculars, a magical telescope, one of those Deloreans that Christopher Lloyd drove around in Back to the Future or just a spine, but politicians starting to negotiate tax reform in the Capitol would do us all a favor by looking a little beyond where they are presently sitting in the here and now.

If none of the above are available, they could just secure a copy of a report issued by the newly invigorated Center for Reform of the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) at UW-Madison.

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Mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 3rd as we welcome keynote speaker Mike Gallagher, U.S. representative for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district and Chairman of The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Weekly Survey: How would you like to see Wisconsin structure its income tax brackets?

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What We’re Reading

• Center Square: Employers expecting slowdown in Wisconsin economy

• City Journal: Changing of the guard: Northeastern cities lag as their southern competitors grow

• RealClear Policy: How To Lower Insulin Prices? Focus on the Middleman.

• Naomi Schaefer Riley: Why the End of Affirmative Action Is Good for Black Science Students

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