Wisconsins' Walker shifts tax burden from business to citizen

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/business/119297279.html

<snip>

The state Legislature two years ago used a budgetary move to tap more than $18 million from Wisconsin electricity customers to pay for the salaries of district attorneys for two years.

The DA surcharge became a point of contention for utility customers already peeved about rising rates. Lawmakers heard a host of complaints about the surcharge.

Under Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal, now being reviewed by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, the DA utility surcharge will end in June and will not be revived. As a result, district attorneys will be paid by taxpayers through a budget appropriation.


<end snip>

[ejpoeta]

1. well he wants to sell off the utilities so this would make sense.

[dkf]

2. Actually the citizens were paying for the DAs through their utility bills and now they will pay

Through taxes.

What's the difference?

That is a weird arrangement though. What connection does the DA have to utilities?

In reality this is a regressive tax as someone who may be exempt from paying taxes still needs utilities.

[Scuba]

3. Not quite. Currently business - which uses far....

...more electricity than homeowners - pays through their electrical bills. All of that will be shifted to homeowners.

[dkf]

10. Yeah but someone at the lower end probably pays no taxes.

So at the bottom it is regressive. Rich people can get more efficient appliances too.

[malaise]

4. Wrong

Walker shifts tax burden from middle class and poor citizens to wealthy citizens who own business

[Scuba]

5. Can you elaborate please? If I'm wrong, I want to be set right.

[malaise]

6. Business is owned by rich people

The tax burden has been shifted from the rich to the middle class and working class - to the elderly and the weak. Rich citizens should be taxed. Corporations aren't people but they have owners - rich people.

You're not wrong but we need to spell it out - those who can pay taxes aren't paying taxes and the poor are being asked to pay for the recklessness of the Wall Street rich, the unregulated corporations and the political class.

The middle class and working class paid their money into Social Security and those fuckers spent it. The middle class and working class paid into the pension funds and those fuckers spent it. Now they want to call them lazy and greedy while the real greedy walk away with people's hard earned money.


:fistbump:

[Scuba]

7. OK, we're in agreement here. Wasn't the argument for a low....

....capital gains tax always that "the corporation already paid taxes"? Since we now know that corporations DON'T pay taxes, let's jack that up to about 50%


That would EASILY solve all the budget problems in America.

[okieinpain]

8. the funny thing is the less government does in a area the more

large companies move out. take oklahoma as an example pretty conservative state. right to work and all that, but where are the big companies. without tinker (government jobs) oklahoma would be a dust bowl.

[Southerner]

9. Title of this thread is flawed

Businesses never actually pay any taxes. They simply charge their customers (individual consumers) more for their products to pay the tax bill. Only individuals pay taxes.

Sounds like Walkers plan is shifting the cost of the DA's to all taxpayers from just people who get power from certain utilities (presumably a smaller group of people).

What do these DA's actually do? Prosecute power companies? :-)