by Benjamin Yount
Wisconsin’s governor says he wants to cut taxes in the state.
After proposing more than $1 billion in new taxes and new spending in each of his two proposed state budgets, Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday proposed a $600 million tax cut and price cut plan.
“My plan to use our state’s latest projected surplus builds on our work to cut taxes for working families by providing more than $600 million in tax relief while capping the copay cost of insulin, lowering prices at the pump, and helping defray the cost of childcare and caregiving to help reduce barriers to entering our workforce,” the governor said.
Evers is basing his plan on expectations that Wisconsin’s budget surplus will grow to $5 billion by next summer. Those numbers are due out soon.
Republicans in Wisconsin were quick to point out that Evers’ has suddenly changed his mind on the idea of tax cuts.
“It’s comical that Evers is posturing as an advocate for tax cuts,” Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, tweeted on Tuesday. “Let’s not forget that he proposed increasing taxes by over $1 billion TWICE, and vetoed multiple middle class tax cuts.”
Born heads the budget writing Joint Finance Committee which overwhelmingly rejected Evers’ first two budgets. Both proposed to raise taxes and raise spending. Instead, the Republican controlled legislature passed it’s own budgets that cut taxes.
“Now that it’s an election year, [the governor] is scrambling because his and Biden’s policies have driven inflation that is hurting hardworking Wisconsinites,” Born continued. “Talk about ‘fixing’ problems you created.”
Evers is also proposing to do away with Wisconsin’s minimum mark-up on gasoline.
The state’s depression-era minimum mark-up law requires gas stations to sell fuel at a certain price. The governor on Tuesday said minimum mark up adds at least 30 cents to the price per gallon.
Eric Bott with Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin, which has fought against minimum mark-up for years, on Tuesday told The Center Square that the governor’s timing is interesting.
“Where is the governor’s emergency, outside of an election, to do these kinds of reforms?” Bott asked out loud. “It seems like an election year gimmick.”
Bott is not the only one questioning the governor’s timing.
Evers’ tax cut plan came on the two-year anniversary of Jacob Blake’s shooting and the beginning of the riots in Kenosha.
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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Tony Evers” by Tony Evers.
