Author: Tamarine Cornelius

Wisconsin lawmakers recently met in a special session to strip powers from the incoming governor, limit voting opportunities, and make it harder for Wisconsin residents to access health care. What has received less attention is that they also hurriedly passed a tax cut that would further tilt Wisconsin’s tax system in favor of the rich, contributing to the increasing concentration of income and wealth in a few hands – hands that are most likely to be white, due to a long history of racial discrimination. The proposed tax cut has its roots in a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier...

Wisconsin is a better place for everyone when hard-working families are able to provide for their families and climb the economic ladder. But when the lion’s share of economic gains goes to a small number of wealthy and well-connected individuals who have rigged the system for their own benefit, it is more difficult for Wisconsin families to get ahead. Wisconsin’s tax system contributes to the growing concentration of wealth by calling on the richest residents to pay the smallest share of their income in taxes, and requiring residents with low and moderate incomes to pay more than their fair...

Wisconsin lawmakers should eliminate a recent tax credit that allows manufacturers and some other businesses to pay next to nothing in income taxes, has ballooned far beyond original cost estimates, and has done little to promote job creation. Here are six reasons the Manufacturing and Agriculture Credit is a poor use of public resources: 1. It strips resources from important public priorities that are vital to the economic well-being of businesses and families. Businesses and families in Wisconsin both need the same things in order to thrive: safe communities, a solid transportation network, excellent public schools, accessible health care,...

Wisconsin voters would much rather increase spending on public schools than reduce property taxes, according to a recent poll. Yet Wisconsin lawmakers have taken the state in a different direction by choosing to cut taxes, particularly for the wealthy and well-connected, rather than restore budget cuts made to public schools. A new analysis by the Wisconsin Budget Project shows how lawmakers have siphoned billions of dollars away from school districts and redirected those resources towards tax cuts instead. The results of the most recent Marquette University poll clearly show that Wisconsin residents believe that excellent public school are critical...

President Trump joined Governor Walker on June 28 for the groundbreaking of the Foxconn plant, a project that is set to cost billions of dollars in subsidies from the state government. However, that price seems too high for many Wisconsin voters. According to a new poll from Marquette University Law School, a majority of Wisconsinites believe the state is providing too much government assistance to Foxconn, and that businesses in their area will not benefit. People who live outside the major population areas in the state are especially unlikely to believe that the billions the state is funneling to...

Wisconsin is a better place for everyone when everyone does well. Unfortunately, while the wealthiest have seen their incomes skyrocket in recent decades, incomes have remained the same for the middle class and those who struggle to make ends meet. For Wisconsin families, it’s becoming harder to make it to the middle class and stay there. Lawmakers in Wisconsin have only made this problem worse by giving massive breaks to special interests while forcing cuts to things that benefit all of us, like education and clean air and water. As a result, low-income and middle-income families in Wisconsin pay...