This Just In ...

This is why Wisconsin needs Scott Walker

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Feb. 24, 2011

Because despite what some newspaper editorial writers will proclaim from their ivory towers, our state is a tax hell.

The Tax Foundation in Washington has just released its annual rankings of the combined state-local tax burden for residents in all 50 states. To calculate the burden, a state’s total amount of taxes is divided by the state’s total income. Wisconsin has high taxes and one of the lowest per-capita incomes in the country meaning our burden will be high, and boy, is it ever. From the Tax Foundation:

“The goal is to focus not on the tax collec­tors but on the taxpayers. That is, we answer the question: What percentage of their income are the residents of this state paying in state and local taxes? We are not trying to answer the question: How much money have state and local governments collected?”

So, what did they find?

“In 2009, the residents of three states stand above the rest, paying the highest state-local tax burdens in the nation: New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. They’re the only three states where taxpayers give up 12 percent or more of their income in state-local taxes, a full percentage point above the next highest state, Wisconsin.

New Jersey residents are paying the most, 12.2 percent of their income in 2009. New York and Connecticut are next highest at 12.1 and 12.0 percent respectively. Wisconsin, Rhode Island, California, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine, and Pennsylvania round out the top ten.”

Wisconsin has the fourth-highest state-local tax burden in America.  We are worse than California.

Enough.