Madison – Today State Senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) stated that if any tax cuts are to be considered in response to Wisconsin’s expected budget surplus, that 25% of such budget surpluses be directly applied to residential property tax relief.
“With recent news that Wisconsin may be seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue beyond what was originally projected, many folks will be looking to address various budget priorities. However, I believe that it is important to not forget residential property taxpayers, and if tax cuts are to be considered, we should commit to making sure that 25% of any surplus be directly applied to residential property tax relief.The property tax is one of the most regressive taxes and my constituents overwhelmingly support cutting property taxes before personal or corporate income taxes,” said Carpenter.
“In 1970, 50.6% of the property tax burden was on residential property taxpayers. In 2011-2012, 69.5% of the property tax burden falls on residential property taxpayers. Over the years, Wisconsin governors and state legislatures have handed out dozens of property tax exemptions to special interest groups to curry political favors at election time. The problem is all these exemptions have just shifted the property tax burden over to residential property,” said Carpenter.
“The typical middle/working class or senior citizen constituent of mine would not see a significant benefit to cutting state income or corporate taxes. This is why any tax cuts in response to our budget surplus priority should be targeted to residential property taxpayers,” said Carpenter.
