MADISON, Wis. – Rebecca Kleefisch’s tax “plan” for Wisconsin is simple: give tax breaks to the wealthy, while making working families pay more.
Calling it a “plan” is a bit of a stretch, as Kleefisch hasn’t yet offered any specifics, but in a new report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, she recently appeared to stop just short of explicitly endorsing switching Wisconsin to a flat tax. Under a flat tax, the wealthy get a tax break at the expense of middle and lower income families, all while working families are facing rising costs.
Stuffing the pockets of the wealthy and big corporations is emblematic of Kleefisch’s time in the Walker administration, where time after time the wealthy collected handouts and Wisconsin’s working families had to make up the difference. The 2011 budget for example, forced certain low-income families, renters, and homeowners to carry the burden of the Walker-Kleefisch budget of nearly $69.8 million over two years. Kleefisch also recently received a “Mostly False” by PolitiFact on her claim that as Lieutenant Governor she cut the taxes of Wisconsinites.
Walker and Kleefisch also gave away $366 million in cuts to multi-state corporations, $436 million in capital gains relief for the wealthy, and agreed to give Foxconn $3 billion in state tax dollars, which would have been the largest government handout to a foreign company in American history. Rebecca Kleefisch once even told a group of wealthy business executives, “We want to know how we can love you more.”
During Governor Evers’ first term, he has made sure tax relief goes to working families, 86% of Wisconsin taxpayers are seeing an income tax cut of 15% or more. Overall, 2.4 million Wisconsin tax filers will see relief. Taxes as a share of income in Wisconsin dropped to the lowest point since at least 1970.
“Rebecca Kleefisch has no interest in cutting your taxes if you are a low income or middle-class Wisconsinite, period,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Rapid Response Director Hannah Menchhoff. “In fact, under the plans Kleefisch appears to support, working families could see their tax rates increase, all while the wealthy and big corporations reap the benefits. Kleefisch said it herself: she’s not on the side of everyday Wisconsinites, she wants to know how she can love big corporations and wealthy executives more.”
