WISTAX Watch Exposes ‘Tax Freedom Day’ Fraud

MADISON, Wis. — With the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance and the Tax Foundation likely to spend Monday touting the state’s mythic “Tax Freedom Day,” One Wisconsin Now’s WISTAX Watch is urging the public and the media to review its report showing both the flaws of the Tax Foundation numbers and the connections between WISTAX and the Tax Foundation and Americans for Prosperity. The big oil, health industry-funded AFP has the led the “Tea Party” efforts around the country to oppose the policies of President Obama.

“The validity of the ‘Tax Freedom Day’ numbers is a pretty tall tale,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “An even taller tale is that WISTAX and the Tax Foundation don’t have a conservative, pro-big business bias.”

One Wisconsin Now’s full report is available on the WISTAX Watch website at:

The report incorporates existing research and provides detailed criticisms about the Tax Freedom Day methodology from a number of organizations, including the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future and the Washington, DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

In addition the report details the deep and long-time connections between the Tax Foundation and Americans for Prosperity. In 2009, the Tax Foundation was a Silver Sponsor of the Americans for Prosperity’s national “Defending the Dream” summit, where participants argued against progressive tax policy and even cheered that the United States had lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

Within weeks of the inauguration of President Obama WISTAX President Todd Berry was a featured speaker at the 2009 Wisconsin “Defending the Dream” summit, which included speeches by every leading elected Republican in the state. The summit was billed as a “massive show of force for our shared belief in lower taxes and more limited government.”

WISTAX Watch has previously reported that 15 of the last 33 WISTAX board members have served on the board of the big business lobby group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and its board members since Todd Berry took over have donated $1.3 million to Republican and non-partisan conservative political candidates – 93 percent of its giving, as opposed to $100,000 to Democrats or liberal candidates.