$22 billion in WisGOPs tax cuts didn't help Wisconsin get ahead

I caught this press release from Senate GOP Leader Devin (Little Boy in a Big Suit) LeMahieu, trying to talk up the Walker/WisGOP record over the last decade-plus.

The tax burden on Wisconsinites dropped at the fastest rate in the nation since 1999, and the cumulative tax savings to residents over the twelve year period from 2011 to fiscal year 2023 is $21.9 billion.

“In 2010, Wisconsin had the 5th highest tax burden in the nation. Residents were sending far too much of their earnings to Madison. On top of high taxes, the state had a $3.6 billion structural deficit, no Rainy Day Fund, and businesses were leaving in droves.

“In 2011, Republicans were elected to turn our state around. We promised to dig out of debt, save for the future, fix problems, and cut taxes to keep more money in family budgets.

“Now, after twelve years of consistent tax cuts, fundamental reforms of government, and responsible budgeting, we’ve reduced the tax burden on Wisconsinites by $22 billion. As a result, our economy is more competitive and our state is attracting more people.”

You can dig into that memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to see the breakdown yourself. But I'll defer to Tamarine Cornelius of the Wisconsin Budget Project, who notes that most of those tax cuts went to the richest Wisconsinites, and not into the pockets of everyday workers.

Another look at how skewed the Manufacturing Credit is: In 2017, there were 11 tax filers who claimed the credit, each of whom had incomes of more than $30 million. Those 11 tax filers got an average tax cut of $2 million EACH. Each! https://t.co/2YGZg4Psy1 from @WiBudgetProject

— Tamarine Cornelius (@Tamarine608) March 4, 2022

😮 $270 million for an income tax deduction for the cost of private school tuition. This is separate from the tuition voucher program and it does not have any upper income limit for eligibility. Tax filers who make more than $100K get 2/3 of this credit. https://t.co/zeqIIhUhqo

— Tamarine Cornelius (@Tamarine608) March 4, 2022

There is more, but you get the picture. Over the past decade, tax changes have stripped billions from our schools, communities, and health care system, and redirected that money to the rich and powerful who have rigged the system for their own benefit.

— Tamarine Cornelius (@Tamarine608) March 4, 2022

And Cornelius doesn't mention it there, but let's also not forget that the cuts to shared revenues and voucherizing of public education have limited any type of property tax relief that may have occurred over the last 10 years. And it also has led to a major increase in local wheel taxes.

We also have a good bit of data to see whether Wisconsin's "economy is more competitive" (we know we are not "attracting more people", as we were 34th in the US for population growth in the 2010s, with the rest of the country growing twice as fast as us).

Now that the "gold standard" Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages just released their full data for the 3rd Quarter of 2021, we have a full decade of numbers starting with Q3 2011. That's an important benchmark, as it was the first full quarter after Scott Walker and WisGOP got their first tax-cutting (and funding-cutting) budget into effect.

So let's see if we outperformed our Midwestern cohorts, shall we? We'll start with total job growth, and over those 10 years, Wisconsin was 5th in the Midwest, whether you include the COVID era or you don't.

Wage growth certainly hasn't trickled down to Wisconsin workers in that time. Even with the recent wage increases over the last 2 years, we have remained in the bottom 3 for the Midwest, and an already-wide gap that existed between us and Minnesota and Illinois grew even larger.

But maybe that big tax cut to manufacturers led to a boom in that sector? Nope, that didn't trickle down either.

And the tax cut to the manufacturers certainly didn't drag us out of our last place standing for manufacturing wages . At least until COVID became a thing and the Biden Boom followed.

But hey, at least those tax cuts were good to rich GOP donors, who turned around and gave some of that money back to GOP politicians. So maybe that's what Devin LeMahieu means by "GOP success", because the last decade in Fitzwalkertan sure hasn't done much for the everyday Wisconsinite.