Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers gave his State of the State Address Tuesday and called on the Republican-controlled Legislature to scale back a corporate-tax credit to pay for reducing income taxes, make sacrifices to find a bipartisan transportation plan and work together to bolster spending for schools.
Additionally, Evers sent Attorney General Josh Kaul a letter withdrawing the authority for Wisconsin to be a part of a multistate lawsuit seeking the repeal of the federal Affordable Care Act.
Evers’ action appears to be in violation of a law the WI Legislature passed last month to prevent Evers from leaving the lawsuit without the permission of the state Legislature. Evers did not explain in the speech how his order would be lawful.
Both Evers and Assembly Republicans have proposed reducing income taxes by 10 percent, but they disagree on how to do so. Evers wants to scale back a manufacturing and agriculture tax credit which reduces the state tax on the production earnings of manufacturers and agricultural businesses. GOP lawmakers instead want to tap reserves to pay for a tax reduction for the middle class. Republicans would instead furnish a tax cut by increasing the standard deduction and target individuals earning less than $100,000 a year and families making less than $150,000.
On transportation Evers has yet to propose a plan or amount of funding, but he has said he’s open to raising gas taxes. He did say he will appoint a “task force of stakeholders” to craft a “bipartisan policy solution” to be included in his plan for the next state budget.
