Eliminating Wisconsin’s income tax would funnel enormous tax cuts into the pockets of the wealthy and powerful, potentially raise taxes on people with the lowest incomes, and make it nearly impossible for Wisconsin to make the kind of investments that make the state a good place to live, do business, and raise a family. It would also widen the already-large gaps in well-being among people of different races, a gap that continues to hamstring Wisconsin’s economy. All that hasn’t stopped an influential cabal of lobbyists and lawmakers from trying to do away with Wisconsin’s income tax and with i ..read more

The COVID pandemic and the recession it caused illustrated the tremendous importance of public benefit programs like BadgerCare, FoodShare, and Unemployment Insurance. Yet a number of Republican legislators are trying to hurriedly pass a package of bills that would weaken the sources of public assistance that have been so critical over the past two years in reducing the pandemic’s harm to workers, families and the economy. The package of bills is being promoted as a way of strengthening the workforce, but it is much more likely to have the opposite effect because it would weaken programs like ..read more

A group of conservative business lobbyists have proposed a radical change that would raise taxes on people with the lowest incomes to cover part of the cost of giving huge tax cuts to the wealthy and powerful. The plan would result in the largest tax cuts going to white households, with households of color receiving smaller tax cuts or having to pay more in taxes. The enormous cost of the proposal would make it difficult for the state to provide even basic public services that schools, businesses, and families need to thrive.  Last month, an influential group of lobbyists released a propo ..read more

The failure of the Senate to pass the Build Back Better act means that the families of more than a million Wisconsin children are going to miss out on the advance Child Tax Credit payments and other improvements to the credit that helped parents make ends meet in the second half of last year. These improvements helped close gaps in child well-being between White children and children of color – gaps that are rooted in historical and present-day racial discrimination in Wisconsin’s schools, health care system, housing and job market. January 15 will mark the first time in six months that famili ..read more

Low-paid workers across the country are getting raises because 21 states and 35 cities and counties increased their minimum wages around the beginning of the year. Those raises will lift workers out of poverty, help struggling families make ends meet, and make it easier for workers to achieve financial security. A minimum wage increase gives a particular boost to workers of color, for whom a long history of wage discrimination has depressed wages. Unfortunately, Wisconsin workers won’t get any of those benefits, as Wisconsin lawmakers have refused to increase the state’s minimum wage for more ..read more

Wisconsin’s use of incarceration to lock up a staggering share of its population of color inflicts serious harm on individuals and communities. New figures show that the racial disparities in Wisconsin’s incarceration rates far exceed disparities at the national level, which themselves are stark. The result is a system that deepens the divide between Whites and people of color, and uses public resources to do so. Some drivers of the disparities in incarceration rates have their roots in historical and present-day racial discrimination in Wisconsin’s housing, health care system, schools, and jo ..read more

Wisconsin lawmakers passed an enormous income tax cut in the 2021-23 state budget that further tilts our tax system in favor of the wealthy. The tax cut almost completely leaves out households with low incomes, and gives White households larger tax cuts than Black or Latinx households.  The tax cut, which costs a billion dollars a year, reduces the tax rate for the second-highest income bracket from 6.27% to 5.3%, while leaving the rates for lower brackets unchanged. This approach slants the tax cut in favor of households with higher incomes and leaves out many with low incomes.  Thi ..read more

On August 22 of this year, the law creating the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) turns 25 years old, and that’s not a cause for celebration. At the national level and here in Wisconsin, TANF is serving only a small fraction of the families who are living in poverty and are eligible for assistance. The TANF law created a block grant to states that replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC). Wisconsin uses a portion of those block grant funds to finance cash assistance tied to work through the Wisconsin Works program, known as W-2. Unfortunately, the ..read more

The huge tax cut that Wisconsin lawmakers passed in the state budget far outstrips the minimal investments they made in critical priorities like education, health, and workforce development. The size of the tax cut will make it harder for schools, communities, and families with low incomes to get the resources they need to thrive. Diverting billions of dollars to a tax cut that leaves out people with low incomes will also make it more difficult for the state to address the racial disparities that hold back Wisconsin.  In the budget, lawmakers reduced income tax rates for some taxpayers, a ..read more

Last week the budget committee of the Wisconsin legislature removed a provision from the state budget that would have provided health insurance to almost 100,000 Wisconsin residents with low incomes, while saving the state more than a billion dollars in tax revenue over the next two years. On the same day, the committee preserved a tax cut that funnels millions of dollars into the pockets of a small group of the extremely wealthy who have rigged the system for their own benefit. This combination of actions demonstrates the legislature’s priorities so far in the budget process: making it more d ..read more