The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released a report Monday detailing how Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed tax cuts would affect people at different income levels.
Walker’s biennial budget, proposed last Wednesday, included lowering income taxes in an attempt to spur economic development.
The tax rate reductions that would take place affect the lowest three of Wisconsin’s five tax brackets beginning in the 2013 tax year. The report estimated these decreases would affect over two million Wisconsin taxpayers.
In his budget address, Walker said such a reduction would “truly stimulate the economy.”
“This will ensure a tax cut for everyone with the focus on making Wisconsin more competitive for middle class taxpayers and small businesses,” he said last Wednesday.
According to the report, individual income tax revenue would decrease by roughly $343 million between 2013 and 2015 under the cuts.
In response to the LFB report, state Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said in a statement the data made it clear Walker’s proposed tax cuts favored higher-income families.
“A true middle-class budget would balance real middle-class income tax relief with investments in important areas such as public education and access to affordable health care,” Barca said in the statement.
Individuals with taxable incomes greater than $100,000, who make up just under 20 percent of those who would be affected by the cuts, would receive almost half of the $170.1 million total decrease in 2014, the report said.
Almost $42 million of the total decrease would go those with incomes between $100,000 and $150,000.
