{"id":16873,"date":"2025-06-26T19:23:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T19:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=16873"},"modified":"2025-06-26T19:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T19:57:07","slug":"cursing-the-rain-and-tax-cuts-cuz-everyone-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=16873","title":{"rendered":"Cursing the rain \u2014 and tax cuts \u2014 cuz everyone benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/cursing-the-rain-and-tax-cuts-cuz-everyone-benefits\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Progressives object because proposed Wisconsin relief goes to people they envy<\/em><\/h4>\n

Rain is proverbially indiscriminate. It falls\u202fover whole swaths of thirsty land, not caring nor asking whether the cornfield belongs to a well-fed farmer or a guy just hanging on. One suspects Wisconsin progressives would sue the clouds about that, if only they could.<\/p>\n

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Consider their complaints about a $1.3 billion tax cut that\u00a0Republicans passed this month through the Legislature\u2019s budget committee. Progressives complained it was too big. They complained it was too small. They complained that the money wasn\u2019t funneled into government programs they like.<\/p>\n

And some complained because some of the relief rained down upon Wisconsinites they imagine deserve none of it \u2014 those with the temerity to earn more than $100,000.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin has four tax brackets. The measure approved by the Joint Finance Committee on June 12\u202fwould raise the upper limit<\/a>\u202fof the personal income tax\u2019s second-lowest bracket, meaning the marginal tax rate would fall by 17 percent for people mostly under the state\u2019s median household income.<\/p>\n

For single people, the point at which the state income tax rate on the next dollar earned rises from 4.4 percent to 5.3 percent would increase from $29,370 of taxable income to $50,480. Married couples, instead of seeing their rate rise at $39,150, could earn up to $67,300 before the state takes the higher percentage.<\/p>\n

The income range is notable, the Tax Foundation\u2019s Katherine Loughead told the Badger Institute last week<\/a>, because a \u201clarge number of lower-income Wisconsinites are currently exposed to Wisconsin\u2019s second-highest rate\u201d and would now get to move to the second-lowest.<\/p>\n

For a single person earning $30,000, Wisconsin takes a bigger share of the next buck than 30 of the 41 states that levy income taxes. The tax cut will dramatically help those $30,000-per-year earners \u2014 and a whole bunch of others not making a lot of money.<\/p>\n

Yet progressives complained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 65% of these tax cuts would go to filers making over $100,000 per year,\u201d fumed<\/a> Chris Larson, the Milwaukeean who chairs the Democrats\u2019 caucus in the state Senate. Left-wing outlets<\/a> repeated<\/a> the point.<\/p>\n

The point is not untrue. That\u2019s how a graduated income tax works.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s second-lowest rate, 4.4 percent, doesn\u2019t apply only to single taxpayers who now make $29,370 or less. Rather, every single filer in Wisconsin pays 4.4 percent on every taxable dollar she earns between $14,680 and $29,370. Same goes for married couples at their higher break points.<\/p>\n

So everyone earning even more will see relief on some of their income when the rate of tax on every dollar earned up to the 67,299th one is cut. In fact, since everyone earning $68,000 or more will have earned a 67,299th dollar, while people earning $60,000 will not, it\u2019s people with higher earnings who would see the biggest break, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau<\/a>: They have the most income that falls in the range where relief rains down.<\/p>\n

The LFB\u2019s estimate indeed says Larson\u2019s almost right, that 62 percent of the relief goes to taxpayers whose total earnings are more than $100,000.<\/p>\n

The bureau also notes<\/a> that, for the latest year of data, 2023, taxpayers making more than $100,000 earned about 65 percent of all income in Wisconsin \u2014 and paid about 75 percent of all Wisconsin income taxes.<\/p>\n

People earning $30,000 to $70,000, meanwhile, will get about 17 percent of the benefits of the proposed cut while paying 12 percent of Wisconsin\u2019s income taxes.<\/p>\n

Except for the ones earning over 68,000, this group includes the ones who will see a drop in the tax levied on whatever they make from working overtime or earning a promotion.\u00a0 They\u2019d get to keep more of the reward from working harder.<\/p>\n

If that encourages more Wisconsinites toward self-improvement, that\u2019s worth an extra sprinkle of relief.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s really illustrative here, however, is the reaction from progressives.<\/p>\n

If the proposed cut helps working-class taxpayers but also helps those who pay most of the freight, why wouldn\u2019t anyone call it a success with a nice side effect?<\/p>\n

Progressives don\u2019t because, it appears, the side effect went to people they don\u2019t think are nice. It smacks of a view that earning more than $100,000 should disqualify a taxpayer from relief, as if relief were a government favor. It\u2019s tax policy not as a means of raising revenue but as economic spite.<\/p>\n

It all may be moot if Gov. Tony Evers vetoes the Legislature\u2019s proposed tax cuts.\u00a0Still, one hopes it passes: Our divisions would be less intractable if our politics were less fertilized by envy.<\/p>\n

Patrick McIlheran is the Director of Policy at the Badger Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

Any\u202fuse or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written\u202fpermission.\u202fTo request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute Marketing Director Matt Erdman at\u202f<\/em>matt@badgerinstitute.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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