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Here’s a little quiz, courtesy The Wisconsin Way, a collaboration of several organizations that want to improve Wisconsin’s ability to provide the services we need at the same time we keep the tax system fair and affordable.
Ready? Here we go. These are all true or false statements.
Question 1: Property taxes pay most of the cost of public K-12 education in Wisconsin.
Question 2: Wisconsin taxpayers pay more of their personal income on state and local taxes today than they did 10 years ago.
Question 3: Wisconsin collects more money from sales taxes than it does from gas taxes and corporate taxes combined.
The answers are at the end of this editorial. But all this is just to get your attention.
The Wisconsin Way partners include the Wisconsin Counties Association, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, the Wisconsin League of Municipalities and the Wood Communications Group, a public relations firm that specializes in government and public issues.
All of those groups have been working together for more than a year, holding forums throughout Wisconsin on issues that affect government’s ability to provide services and to stimulate the economy.
On Tuesday, The Wisconsin Way held a forum at the OmniCenter in Onalaska, in which property taxes were a major concern. Most participants at the forum agreed that Wisconsin needs to rely less on property taxes to provide services. One possibility would be an expanded sales tax taking over more of the role that property taxes pay.
How do we make that happen? Jim Wood, president of the Wood Communications Group, said, “The only way to make this happen is to demonstrate that the people of Wisconsin want it to happen.”
This could be a long conversation. But it’s a conversation worth having.
Answers to tax quiz: Question 1: False. In the 204-2005 school year, property taxes paid for 38 percent of the cost of public education. State and other aid payments covered the rest. Question 2: False. Wisconsin’s tax burden as a percent of personal income was 13.25 percent in 1994, and 11. 6 percent in 2006, the most recent year such data is available. Question 3: True. In 2007, the sales tax accounted for 19 percent of all state and local taxes, while corporate and gasoline taxes provided 9 percent.
