Or, if you prefer, “The state Senate wants to raise your taxes $1.74 billion $2.1 billion $2.6 billion more than $34 billion over the next 2 years”. By comparison, Doyle’s budget, which included that (not-quite-acknowledged) $2.6 billion 2-year increase, anticipated taking in $26.5 billion in taxes.
Item #1 – THE BIG ONE, the “universal health care” item (thanks to WisPolitics for the link to the document). This $30+ billion (over the 2 years) boondoggle is to be funded by a massive payroll/self-employment/income tax (depending on a person’s source of income):
– From employees who have Social Security taxes withheld and are under 65, 4% of the amount subject to the Social Security tax (the document says between 2% and 4%, published reports say 4%) unless they’re close to the poverty line (those earning under 150% of the poverty line pay nothing, those without dependents earning between 150% and 200% and those with dependents earning between 150% and 300% a sliding scale between 0% and 4%).
– From the self-employed, between 9% and 10% of the amount subject to the Social Security tax.
– From those who don’t pay Social Security taxes and are eligible for the boondoggle, 10% of their adjusted gross income up to the maximum amount that would be subject to the Social Security tax.
– From employers (which means, from employees), 10.5% of the portion of their payrolls subject to the Social Security tax.
Rick Esenberg has an excellent analysis of what this will do to the labor market. I’ll be back later to add to that.
Item #2 – A reinstituted “combined reporting” requirement that would raise business taxes $180 million over the next 2 years by making Wisconsin subsidiaries pay taxes on what their parent company makes outside of Wisconsin. The excuse from Judy Robson is that everybody else does it. Hey Judy, if everybody else was jumping off the bluff at the end of Oakwood Rd., would you be jumping too?
Item #3 – Remove the property tax exemption for ATM machines. Oh goody; now the fees at the ATMs will go up even more.
Item #4 – Increase heavy truck registration 10%, bring in an additional $53.4 million to the Craps Slus…er, Transportation Fund over the next 2 years, just because those taxes haven’t been jacked up in a decade.
Item #5 – Reward the Regional Transit Authority’s wasting of all but $50,000 of its $2 rental car fee on lobbyists by increasing that to $15.
The ‘Rats are well on their way to ensuring there is zero after-tax disposable income.
