No Runny Eggs

I’m a bit late to this party, but the Tax Foundation ran some interesting numbers on just the $15.2 billion-in-FY-2009 tax increase. I don’t particularily like the first chart they produced that had the tax increase representing 50% of the FY-2009 general fund revenue because it understates the actual increase. They also ignored the $1.6 billion increase in the rest of the taxes. Let’s redo that chart of top percentage tax increases between 2000 and 2006 (plus Wisconsin) to reflect the percentage increase and both the total tax increase passed by the state Senate and the portion that isn’t going to CubaCare:

(N/A) – Wisconsin proposes an increase in taxes by 110.5% in 2009 with the full monty tax increase
#1 – Nevada increased taxes by 16.4% in 2004
#2 – New Hampshire increased taxes by 15.7% in 2000
#3 – Tennessee increased taxes by 13.3% in 2003
#4 – Nevada increased taxes (again) by 11.6% in 2005 (making for a 29.9% increase from 2003 to 2005)
#5 – Indiana increased taxes by 11.1% in 2003
(N/A) – Wisconsin proposes an increase in taxes by 10.5% in 2009 with CubaCare taken out (essentially the Doyle increase)
#6 – Idaho increased taxes 9.7% in 2004
#7 – New Hampshire increased taxes by 8.1% in 2001 (making for a 25.1% increase from 1999 to 2001)
#8 – Oregon increased taxes by 8.1% in 2004
#9 – New York increased taxes by 6.6% in 2004
#10 – Ohio increased taxes by 6.5% in 2004

It gets worse. Again, the Tax Foundation neglected to take the Doyle increase into consideration when they considered the increase as a percentage of the gross state product, so let’s do that:
(N/A) – Wisconsin proposes a tax increase equal to 6.632% of the GSP in 2009 with the full monty increase
(N/A) – Wisconsin proposes a tax increase equal to 0.632% of the GSP in 2009 with just the Doyle increases
The previous #1 – Indiana passed a tax increase equal to 0.446% of the GSP in 2003

You read that one right kids. Even if you took out CubaCare, Wisconsin would still have the largest tax increase as a percentage of the economy in the recent history of the country. Specifically, it would be 42% larger than the next-largest tax increase as a percentage of the state’s economy. Keep in mind that is just the increase to the state.

But wait, it gets EVEN WORSE! The Tax Foundation went and calculated what the total state-and-local tax burden would have been if we had these tax increases this year. While they assumed that both the $15.2 billion for CubaCare and the additional $1.6 billion would have been applied in full this year, I’ll assume a 3.3% annual inflation for the 2-year difference. Let’s run the 2007 state-and-local tax burden as a percentage of income chart again:

(N/A) – Average federal take 21.7%
(N/A) – Federal take from Wisconsin taxpayers 20.0%
(N/A) – Wisconsin 19.8% with the full-monty increase (increase adjusted downward for inflation)
#1 – Vermont 14.1%
#2 – Maine 14.0%
#3 – New York 13.8%
(N/A) – Wisconsin 13.0% with just the Doyle increase (increase adjusted downward for inflation)
#4 – Rhode Island 12.7%
#5 – Ohio 12.4%
#6 – Hawaii 12.4%
#7 – Wisconsin 12.3% (current)

Do note that this does not include either any out-of-state tax increases or any local tax increases in Wisconsin. If CubaCare and the rest of the tax increases pass intact, we’ll be paying nearly as much to Uncle Craps as we do Uncle Sam. That hasn’t happened since FDR rolled in with the SocSecurity Ponzi scheme. Even if we “just” get Doyle’s increases, we’re back within striking distance of #1.

Congratulations, voters. Congratulations, Dale Schultz and Mary Panzer. Thanks to your stupidity, we’re on our way to doing something we never have done; be the most-heavily-taxed state in the nation.

Revisions/extensions (4:42 pm 7/6/2007) – corrected a typo.