WISCONSIN PAYS THE PRICE
Wisconsin Pays the Price The Story of The Republican Administration Through Questions and Answers [The Progressive presents below the fifth of a series of install-merits of the Progressive party's...
...A.'Yes...
...A. Yes...
...A study of Republican activities in the field of taxation shows how completely this pledge of tax relief broke down, too...
...Q. Didn't the Republican administration also propose new income taxes...
...On the other hand, big corporations, with taxable incomes of $100,000 or more, would have been asked to pay only three per cent more...
...Q. What then was the nature of these Republican tax schemes...
...As a result of this levy by the Republicans, a single man with $1,000 of income is being touched for 60 per cent more in taxes, while a single man with $100,000 of annual income U paying only .01 of one per cent more...
...During the legislative session many of these proposals were dubbed taxes "to plaster the poor and relieve the rich...
...A. Yes...
...A. Decidedly yes, because these schemes disclose precisely what the Republican Party plans to fall back on to finance its present deficit if returned to office in the 1940 election...
...This bill also proposed to keep new assessments open for six years, In order to permit a multiplicity of appeals by tax lawyers...
...No taxes were placed on expensive cigars...
...Q. What were the most important new taxes levied by the Republican administration...
...nothing but INCREASES IN TAXES...
...These figures, too, are taken from official tax commission records...
...A. Yes...
...We have already examined the 100 per cent Republican repudiation of economy promises...
...For example, single men and women earning as little as 512 a week, out of which they must pay for rent...
...TAXES IN THE OFFICIAL Republican platform and in the campaign speeches of Republican candidates there is everywhere the promise of reduced taxes, of huge savings in government costs to be translated into lignier tax burdens for the people of Wisconsin...
...Q. Weren't there other taxes proposed and supported by the Republican administration...
...Still another Republican tax proposal, known as Substitute 1A to Bill 896A, would have increased the tax on a $2,500 income by 55.8 per cent, while imposing only a tax of eight-tenths of one per cent on incomes of $100,000...
...On the other hand, a man with $25,000 a year, would have been required to pay only six-tenths of one per cent more...
...The Republicans introduced a proposal wiilcn would have eliminated the graduated scale of taxation on corporations and substituted a flat six per cent tax...
...A. 1. The two-cents a package tax on cigarets which 18 draining the common people of Wisconsin of more than 000,000 during the present biennlum...
...Q. Is there any point in discussing them In view of the fact they were rejected in the legislature...
...but it sought to distort the ability-to-pay principle of the income tax by levying it on those with very small incomes who should never be brought under the income tax...
...A. None whatsoever...
...Q. Did the Republican administration also propose the same kind of tax "adjustment" for business that it did for individuals...
...1. 1936...
...Q. Aside from the $2,000,000 gift, mentioned above, which was handed the very wealthy in the form of inheritance tax exemptions, were there any other moves made to relieve wealthy taxpayers...
...Examination of the Republican tax bills shows that the administration proposed increased taxes or brand new taxes on: Gasoline Beer Motor Oil Mutual Ins...
...Wisconsin Pays the Price The Story of The Republican Administration Through Questions and Answers [The Progressive presents below the fifth of a series of install-merits of the Progressive party's pamphlet, "Wisconsin Pays The Price...
...This bill was mysteriously sidetracked by Republican leaders after its scandalous possibilities had been exposed by Progressives...
...A. They covered a wide variety of subjects, but a single idea ran through them all, and that was to tax those who could least afford to bear the burden...
...Under one of the income tax schemes seriously proposed by the Republican administration a married person with $2,-000 a year of income and one child would have been required to pay 780 per cent more in taxes than previously...
...Q. Did the Republican administration reduce taxes at all...
...2. The new surtaxes placed on 82,000 low and medium income families for the first time in Wisconsin history...
...a very great number of new taxes were introduced, but an outraged public, which had been promised REDUCTION rather than INCREASE IN TAXES, jammed the hearing room in protest and thus contributed to the defeat of the Republican tax schemes...
...The sixth chapter will appear in an early issue.— EDITOR'S NOTE...
...food, and clothing, would have been required to pay an income tax for tne first time...
...This tax, which falls most heavily on those least able to bear the load, is almost certain to be proposed again if the Republican administration continues in power...
...The effect of this scheme would have been to raise the tax on small business men—those with incomes of $2.000—by ezu per cent...
...A. Only on the very wealthy, who received a $2,000,000 reduction in inheritance taxes on large estates...
...Republican legislators sponsored a bill which would have permitted wealthy taxpayers who can afford to hire high-priced tax lawyers to reopen tax cases back to Jan...
...In addition, the Republican administration gave the telephone utilities of Wisconsin what amounted to a $75U,0UU a year rebate when it refused to re-enact the tax on telephony companies, * * * Q. Wasn't there any general reduction for the average txxpayer...
...Companies Soda Water Automobiles Movies Clothing Athletic Contests Food Liauor Furniture One of the most significant of trie tax schemes advanced by the Republican administration was the sales tax, whlcn was proposed again and again...
...For instance, the first Republican tax plan proposed to create 85.000 new taxpayers—all of them persons with extremely low incomes —and the second tax plan proposed to make 112,000 poorly paid persons pay income taxes for the first time...
...All of these figures were taken from official compilation by the state tax commission...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 17
