Yet another tax increase is being discussed in Wisconsin, a state already known for its extremely high tax burden. Naturally, lawmakers are spinning this tax increase as a tax shift, rather than an increase. Suuuuuuuure.
Here’s the idea: State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) wants to do away with sales tax exemptions. What? Currently most goods require sales tax to be paid, however necessities like groceries are exempt from the sales tax. Also exempt are many services like accounting and legal services.
Erpenbach wants to cancel those exemptions and force service providers to charge customers sales tax. He says that the services currently exempt from sales tax are about $700 million per year.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Erpenbach says that charging this sales tax will allow the state to remove $3 billion in property taxes used for school funding. Does anyone really believe that property taxes will be lowered because of the new sales taxes? I sure don’t.
Erpenbach even goes so far as to claim that his tax increase will result in the following: “Most everybody, at the end of the day, will have more money in their pocket.”
When has a tax increase ever put more money in people’s pockets? Count on this new tax to drive even more business away from our state. When will lawmakers wake up?
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