Monday, November 30, 2009

Time for a New Set of Talking Points?

Uh...no. As the article states, hell has not frozen over.

Link to November 26 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article, "Wisconsin improves its ranking on taxes. Share of income steady as other states worsen; observers divided".

Excerpt: Dented by income tax cuts and a marked spending slowdown on education, Wisconsin's national status as a tax hell is fading.

Hell has not frozen over.

But in comparison to other states, Wisconsin's total tax bite on incomes plummeted to just above the national average in newly released figures.

And the Badger State's consistent top-five tax perch has slipped steadily down to 15th in the latest rankings.

Wisconsin even dropped below the U.S. mark on both taxing and spending based on another common measure, dollars per person. That is a first on taxes going back at least two decades. On spending, it's the second straight year.

The Journal Sentinel analyzed 2007 census figures on taxing and spending by state and local governments to reach the conclusions. The data is the latest available.

What's going on? Has Wisconsin really shed its high-tax ways? If so, how?

Those who closely
watch the rankings agree on much about the new figures but react to them in differing ways. (Aren't we surprised!)

No comments:

Post a Comment