tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426800777521979578.post450618913578726181..comments2024-02-20T19:58:27.733-06:00Comments on Jake's Wisconsin Funhouse: Medicaid and tax "reforms" make Wisconsin seem very ConfederateUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426800777521979578.post-16234914553002382022013-12-20T13:42:05.150-06:002013-12-20T13:42:05.150-06:00Your reference to the Wisconsin confederacy is sho...Your reference to the Wisconsin confederacy is short, catchy and very much to the point. Goes along with those among us who earlier began calling Walker-run Wisconsin "Wississippi." <br /><br />Forcing low-income people to make unhealthy and wasteful spending choices is a huge opportunity cost in our society. Yet now, ironically, the wealthy and their enablers are busy offloading even more uncertainty to the most miserable among us, because they themselves simply cannot be bothered with worrying about anything beyond the quarterly financials or stray dandelions along their very broad driveways. <br /><br />Elites increasingly seem to regard income security as a zero-sum game where the winners take all. And now Walker is toying with offloading more of society's overall costs onto the very people least equipped to cover them. Places like Texas may look successful to Walker, but that's only because the handful enjoying most of that "success" have been enabled by economic and technocratic segregation.Man MKEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531054697577604925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426800777521979578.post-32018345264578843762013-12-17T22:07:14.320-06:002013-12-17T22:07:14.320-06:00Geoff- I didn't feel like modeling it, so than...Geoff- I didn't feel like modeling it, so thanks for that. It's also worth noting that poorer people would be more likely to spend money if they got more, but instead we're going to a more regressive system, so it'd be a double revenue loss that way.<br /><br /> Dilly- Thanks for reading. I thought KS and LA may have gone through, but maybe they modified it to merely a "half-ALEC" level. <br /><br /> I'll also point out that this WisGOP group has gone the exact opposite way you've suggested, and tied the hands of local governments and school boards from raising revenues via property tax or mechanisms like RTAs. As you bring up, there would seem to be a conflict there...unless the ultimate goal is to break the service entirely and force it to be sold off (which is the ultimate goal here).Jake formerly of the LPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15660401299391001751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426800777521979578.post-33281268694842675982013-12-17T21:59:09.970-06:002013-12-17T21:59:09.970-06:00I guess my question would be, is the idea of aboli...I guess my question would be, is the idea of abolishing the income tax really even a serious trial balloon, or more of a fundraising pitch?<br /><br />If anything, it could make more sense to abolish the corporate income tax and offset part of the revenue loss by fully taxing capital gains (instead of only 70% like we do now). The rest could be made up by relaxing limits on property taxes, and giving more decision making power to the elected school boards and city councils. Hey, what an idea, right? Let people decide on the local level whether they want to cut services or increase taxes.<br /><br />But by eliminating corporate income taxes, you'd get rid of a layer of complexity for businesses, and could increase personal income taxes (mostly on the wealthy) without increasing rates.<br /><br />Has any state ever abolished a broad-based individual income tax after having one for multiple decades? North Carolina tried last year, and couldn't get it through. Louisiana thought about it, same result. Kansas probably came the closest, in that they switched to a bizarre system where they basically only tax wages and pensions now, and they exempt income from sole proprietorships and pass-through entities. Dilly the Duckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01255953756151616175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426800777521979578.post-17084847281329105852013-12-17T20:55:17.730-06:002013-12-17T20:55:17.730-06:00You underestimate how many would be hurt by a tran...You underestimate how many would be hurt by a transition from income taxes to sales taxes.<br /><br />Since sales tax receipts are ~$4.5B/yr and personal income tax receipts are ~$7.5B/yr, the state sales rate would have to rise by 7.5/4.5 = 5/3rds, so the breakeven point for any individual would be if they were paying 5/3rd as much in income taxes as they were in sales taxes, not an equal amount.<br /><br />As well as the first three quintiles, the whole of the fourth quintile is worse off in moving taxes completely from income to sales. As a group the 80-95%-ers would only just nose ahead, so the breakeven point is likely close to the 90th income percentile, not the 60th.<br /><br />So you're looking at an income of roughly $120,000 before substituting increased sales taxes for the income tax makes you better off.<br /><br />Please, Walker, shout this idea from the rooftops!GeoffThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17317722272565026078noreply@blogger.com