IWF hammers at Tax Foundation

The Institute for Wisconsin’€™s Future (IWF) took a hammer to the outrageous Tax Foundation report that among other things proposed taxing groceries and gasoline, creating a flat tax, and cutting transportation, health care, and education investment by 15% each.

IWF, a statewide research organization, issued their report, ‘€œThe Tax Foundation’€™s Proposals Are Lose/Lose for Wisconsin’€ today with a scathing critique of the tax Foundation’€™s utterly regressive recent tax proposals outlined in their annual ‘€œState Business Tax Climate Index’€. From IWF’€™s opening whack:

Imagine this tax package:

1. Charge sales tax on all groceries.

2. Impose sales tax on gasoline, in addition to the gas tax.

3. Eliminate deductions and exemptions from state income tax.

4. Create one income tax bracket so everyone pays the same rate, regardless of income.

5. Abolish all business tax credits.

6. Cut state spending on transportation by 15%’€”roads, bridges, buses, trains, airports and ports.

7. Cut state spending on health care by 15%’€”for children, elderly, the poor, everyone.

8. Cut state aid for education by 15%’€”pre-school, K-12, technical colleges, UW system, employee training.

Interesting proposal: bad for business, the middle class, vulnerable citizens, students and economic growth. Who offers this bizarre plan? The Tax Foundation.

In addition to lambasting the Tax Foundation proposals as pro-corporate, anti-middle class, IWF also takes a poke at the ‘€œnon-partisan’€ label the Tax Foundation gives itself, noting the GOP and corporate interests on the Tax Foundation board of directors, and calling the their conservative-agenda driven reports ‘€œideology masquerading as statistics.’€ Compare that to the ‘€œnon-partisan’€ Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX), whose board is consistently seated with CEOs, former Republican staffers, and corporate tax attorneys who contribute over 90% to Republican and conservative candidates.

On that note, recall One Wisconsin Now’€™s post from a couple weeks ago that highlighted the Tax Foundation’€™s sponsorship of a big-oil-financed Americans for Prosperity event, which in the past also served as a forum for a WISTAX speaking engagement.

The glaring conservative associations and ‘€œresearch’€ are evidence to the fact that, much like WISTAX, the Tax Foundation serves as the pro-corporate foundation for the GOP echo chamber that houses the right-wing propaganda machine.  IWF’€™s recently critique and OWN’€™s ongoing investigations prove this.

Less investment in infrastructure and a flatter tax rate are the cornerstones of the pro-corporate, right-wing policies that advantage the rich under the guise of job-creators to disadvantage working class Americans. But the answer to protecting the Wisconsin and U.S. economies is not’€”as WISTAX and the Tax Foundation would have Republicans and the media believe’€”to destroy public infrastructure and middle-class job security in order to allow private corporations and the wealthiest class pays less of their fair share.

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