Economists are mystified by the economic purpose of Gov. Walker's election year bribe
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is sending 671,000 families an election-year check. Democrats call it bribery.
Starting May 15, parents in Wisconsin can log on to a state-run website, answer a few questions and sign up to get checks worth $100 per child.
To Gov. Scott Walker (R), who drove the one-time tax payout into law, it's a chance to turn a state budget surplus into a bonus for parents who could use extra cash. To his critics, who note that Walker is a few months away from a tough reelection bid, it looks like campaign-year bribery of the up to 671,000 families who could receive checks.
And to independent economists, it's a mystifying piece of tax policy that has no clear long-term economic purpose and few, if any, recent comparable examples, given that tax breaks are traditionally incorporated for tax filing season not in the months before an election.
This is really weird. I have never heard of anything like this, said Richard Auxier, who tracks state tax policy for the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
Scott Drenkard, a tax expert at the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, was also puzzled.
This is definitely odd and unique. I havent seen anything like it before," he said. "Its political catnip, but its hard to see how it improves economic outcomes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/03/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-is-sending-every-family-an-election-year-check-democrats-call-it-bribery/?utm_term=.6b548bc7997c