rprp,
How would you adjust the property tax to make it fair? How would you define who pays the tax, and haw would you define/ compute the tax amount paid?

Eagle1: Yes, California is getting worse. Democrats now have a super majority in both houses plus Democratic governor so taxes of all types are expected to escalate. Have friends out there near retirement who are planning on moving to Texas because of this. Giving up their home a few blocks from the ocean even though they love it there. Just will not be able to afford it on retirement income. It is not just the multi-millionaires like Phil Mickelson that are comtemplating moving. Only thing saving me from selling Illinois house now at short sale price is it is paid for and Illinois (as of now) does not tax pensions (pensions, IRA's, social security, 401K's) So I save enough by remaining an Illinois resident on taxes to cover the property taxes on the Illinois house and continue to pay out of state fees for my Wisconsin hunting and fishing liscenses and state park stickers. Also pay Wisconsin property taxes on northern home (cabin). Also spend a lot of time there in Illinois because childen and grandchildren are on both sides of the state line. Once Illinois starts taxing our retirement we will have to sell one of the places even at short sell prices so was keeping my fingers crossed that Wisconsin would lower taxes on pensions or property tax on retirees but do not see that happening.

Class envy is rampant and used successfully in the last election. I keep wondering why people can not see that it is the middle class that is getting hosed by both parties. As I have posted elsewhere ... a couple with a taxable income of 70K has their tax rate jump from 15 to 25% for all dollars over the 70K (until eventually it goes to 28,31,33,and 39%). A single person with a taxable income of 35K has his/her tax rate jump from 15 to 25% for all dollars over the 35K (again with it eventually going higher). So the major impact on the people that do pay taxes is this jump from 15-25% on middle class --- not the poor and not the rich. Why? Because that is where the money is. Yet people keep buying the bogus story from both parties that they care about the middle class and are blinded by their class envy of the rich or angry that their taxes go to help the poor. When are you going to stop being played by both parties?

If a reflublican doesn't want to pay taxes, they don't
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If a Dem doesn't pay taxes, they go to jail.

Maynard, small farms are near and dear to my heart as well, as I've grown up and been around them my entire life. It just ticks me off when people spew ignorant statements about them. After doing some investigating, I've come to realize that people like rprp having nothing better to do than to be "jealous" of the tax breaks that farmers receive and say so in nearly every article even if it doesn't pertain to farmers. I also noticed he/she never comes back to respond. Obviously the reason for that is because he/she only has one opinion with no facts to back anything up. Yes, corporate farms are making money, but the small farms are not. I would much rather the government give money to small farms to stay afloat rather than big businesses who make poor business decisions.

Since you can only say it's not true but not WHY it's not true.
As far as the middle class? Yes, under 4 years of Obama the median home price has dropped and the gap between the rich and poor have widened.

So much for Obama and the Liberals class envy - Rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the middle class get poorer.

twe, you couldn't be more wrong with your 1:08 post. That's just partisan mud slinging.

And there will always be the wealthy among us, just as there will always bee the poor among us. The middle I'm less sure about.

Yes, lets hound the rich until all their money is gone. Then what. Who do you liberals go after next?

You're smarter then that

The working class screwed again and that 200 dollars is a large amount to those earning low wages. I hope you all are affected that agree with this idiot as If you are not a millionaire you won't get any breaks from the likes of Walker and his Koch hounds Hendricks will get her big breaks as usual As she is his Lady in Red

woody
Jan 23, 2013 at 11:40 a.m.
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How much less is good ole diane hendricks going to pay. LOL

Class envy. Maybe if you spent more time and effort getting ahead instead of complaining about those who do, you'd be somebody too.

Mac Daddy I was being sarcastic, I know how it works my friend.

If a Republican doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a Democrat doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.
If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Democrat wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a Republican doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Democrats demand that those they don't like be shut down.

If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his.

"$200 per Wisconsin family over the next two years"
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How much less is good ole diane hendricks going to pay. LOL

factsplease: You're spot on. This is about creating a campaign slogan for Walker, not about helping Wisconsin. Gerrymandered Wisconsin, now ruled by uneducated rural evagelical right-wingers, is well on its way to replicating the miserable civic societies, high poverty rates, poor health and low educational attainment in low tax/no tax states like Alabama and Texas.

Maynard, you are correct, Illinois is not one of those states, that place is setting a dangerous precedent as is California, one of the states I did live in. However the fact that the home values and payscale in California is much, much higher than Wisconsin, the taxes here make California’s look reasonable for the moment, that is changing out there because of insane spending, look at the public unions out there and see what we avoided in this state. So all in all this is a good thing to lower income tax, a trend I hope continues in other tax revenue sources. I have owned 2 homes outside of WI, one home was valued at 188k and my taxes were well under $1000 a year and the other was valued at $140k and my taxes there were just under $1100 a year, Wisconsin can’t come close to those rates, throw in the income tax didn’t exist in one state and Wisconsin has some major work to do.

Eagle 1: guessing one of those states you lived in was not Illinois. They have caught up with Wisc. on state income tax ... sales tax is 8.25% in my area ... property tax on my Wisconsin property which is assessed at market value for 30K more than my Illinois property is actually $800 per year less. And the Illinois property is in an area that supposedly has one of the lowest overall property tax rates. Assessed value went down on both places. Property tax in Wisconsin went down last two years. Property tax in Illinois went up. Hoping to put the Illinois place back on the market sometime and get down to one home but not going to give it away. Did not get an offer of any kind the first time we put it up for sale for a year. Economy still pretty sour in state line area so can not or will not compete with foreclosures and short sales.

Bassman: you are exactly what is wrong with so many right now. Give me mine and who cares about others or future generations.

Our past generations sacrificed to give their children a better future, but not anymore. Everyone is trying to bankrupt the system all why taking what's there "fair share" is. Worked so well for Europe. Craziness.

Hope all you wanting everything to be taken care of by the government will be happy when our country goes bankrupt, inflation steps in, oh and China calls our debt to the table and our stock market crashes and you all lose all your 401k account values and other market securities.

You will have no one to blame but yourself!

lierre04: Thank you for your answer. A subject near and dear to me as I grew up on a small family farm and still have 2 brothers and a brother-in-law trying to make it on SMALL family farms. Notice the emphasis on small. The youngest brother is on the home farm and is also on the school board. He had two teachers tell him he should be paying higher property taxes. He asked them if the school board should tax the money they were putting into their state retirement account prior to putting it in. They said ABSOLUTELY NOT. He explained that the money he is reinvesting in his farm IS his retirement account. Both of my brothers have more overall assets than my wife and I do. The difference is that they have to sell those assets (the farm) when it comes time to retire because that is their retirement. That is the nature of small family farming. I am not going to defend corporate farming because don't know the details. However, give the small family farmers a break and understand that the land is only worth what it is generating as farm land and is their retirement. Reminds me of when my son was young and would brag about how much his baseball cards were worth according to the Beckett book. I would tell him that number meant nothing unless he was willing to sell them and could find a willing buyer. Same with houses especially owned by the elderly and the house values went up over the years. Only worth the higher price if you are ready and able to sell. Otherwise it just drives higher property taxes on those least able to afford the increase. In case you have not figured it out ... I am opposed to property taxes for everyone.

I will take anything I can get !

Macdaddy: You coudn't be more wrong. State employees like my spouse got a generous raise to offset the benefit contributions:) Thanks Scottie!

How about they keep the income tax cut and don't raise the motor fuel tax. I'd be happy with that.

This has nothing to do with what is best for Wisconsin and everything to do with Walker trying to "gain cred" with the Tea Party. There is a lot more pain with a tax hike than pleasure from a tax cut, so "IF" there really is a surplus, put in a rainy day fund and promise not to raise taxes for a long time. That would be best for everyone, but Scotty wants to be a "tax cutter" so forget about education and public services...we get low taxes, just like Louisiana and Alabama! Yee, haw!

How much it is costing the taxpayers to take care of all them John Doe people in prison?

This is a good start, if they focus on property tax relief as well we will be in business, I have lived n a number of states and the taxation in this state is through the roof compared to others when you consider the value of property and the pay scale in this state. I am cautiously optimistic this flaw will be corrected.

I would greatly prefer restoring funding to our public schools to the token $8.33 per month tax cut Walker is proposing for my family. Walker's proposal is nothing but a political stunt designed to appeal to his base constituency who hates the government and doesn't want to pay taxes.

Nice way to try and deflect a lie, the truth is nobody took a $10-$15k pay cut.

Before the use value law was instated in 1995, farmers actually did pay taxes based on full market value. The reason for the use value law was to ensure farms that were used for agricultural purposes would stay. Some farmers were paying more in taxes alone than what they actually profited all year. With taxes being too high, and constantly being in the red, farmers were forced to sell, only it makes it tough to sell a farm when it cannot possibly be profitable enough to pay the taxes. This would result in farmers selling off their land piece by piece to developers, resulting in more urban subdivisions. As you know, food doesn't just magically appear in grocery stores. If farms are eaten up by urban populations, there would be no one to produce food. Without agriculture, the world would be naked and hungry. I will also say that nearly every state has some sort of tax break for farmers in one way or another.

With the use value law, farmers now pay taxes based on how profitable their land is.

I will grant that there are some loopholes and there are less than reputable farmers who don't use their land primarily for agricultural purposes and are reaping the benefits. I will say that those people are the ones that need to be investigated more closely and pay the taxes that they are supposed to.

All that being said, with this past year's weather being unfavorable for farmers, many of them are in the hole, even with the break in taxes. Most of the time, if something costs more to produce than it used to, the sales price in the store reflects that. It is costing farmers a lot more money this year to feed animals because of not being able to grow the feed that they need. The price of meat and dairy, however, has in no way reflected that. I don't suppose you'd mind paying $8 dollars a gallon for milk or $5 a lb for meat, would you? If taxes were to go back to being assessed the way they used to, expect that price to be even higher.

The truth of the matter is, until you've owned and operated a farm, you should not be the one to make a judgment call on how much they pay in taxes.

Shrek....you are making an incorrect assumption that the only negatives in net pay was for a percentage of pension and health benefits.

In fact, there is much more that plays into the calculation than most people realize.
Remember furloughs, among other things?

The bottom line is that the amount varies but it is a cut...no matter how you play the semantics game.

Let me get this straight - we have a $3 billion structural deficit (according to GAAP), he's already cut $1.6 billion in education spending and is talking about decreasing revenues???????

Forget college - grade school math should tell you this isn't going to work.

Correct me if I am wrong, as I may remember the percentages incorrectly.

If an employee pays 12.5% of a family health plan that costs around $22,000 per year it equals $2,750 per year out of pocket. This would leave $12,250 that goes towards their pension plan. I think the percentage was 5.8% so that would equate to a yearly salary of $211,207. If my math is correct it would seem that public employees are paid pretty well and can afford to share in their benefit costs.

MacDaddy you are ridiculous if you can't understand that when the cost of a legally negotiated contractual benefit is rescinded by the employer and that cost is placed upon the employee it results in a net loss for that employee.

Wait...I apologize for the term ridiculous...it should be ignorant.

Guess who. You are ridiculous if you think any state employee took a pay cut of even $1. Let alone $10k+ as you suggest.

All they had to do was pay for more of their own benefits! Why can't anyone understand this???? If they don't want the benefits then they don't have to pay for them and neither will us taxpayers.

It's amazing how much everyone wants everyone else to always take care of them.

Go ahead lierre04...collect your thoughts and pick a starting point. We would like to hear your rebuttal about the farm entitlement programs as well as the fairness of property taxes.

Go ahead....we're waiting.

If a tax reduction means reducing government services, you'll only be better off if the money you save is enough to buy those same services AND if you can buy them more cheaply on the open market. That's often not the case.

The surpulus is only a dog and pony show....he did not pay bills due only to push it on down the line for the next Governor so the state can pay a higher interest rate. How about giving to state employees who see $10,000 - $15,000 pay cuts. The State of Wisconsin is losing valuable employees to inexperience and are not attracting quality candidates. This state is going to be hurting real soon under this regime.

Who's he cutting taxes on? Corporations and top wage earners? Is he cutting gas tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax, etc.? How does he propose making up the difference in the budget from the loss of revenue from tax cuts? How much more is he going to cut from education? How many more tax credits and incentives is he going to give to big businesses that promise jobs but don't deliver?

rprp, there are so many things wrong with your statement, I don't even know where to start. And I'm afraid if I start, I won't be able to stop. I guess I'll just sum it up as an ignorant statement on all counts and you have no idea what you're talking about.

The most unfair tax in Wisconsin is the property tax and I don't hear from the republican's trying to make it fair. I suppose the republicans and democrats are either farmers or own farm land because I believe the favoritism to the farmers is the biggest problem in the state. Just make all taxes fair and I believe their would be no budget problem.

Maybe that will help with all the new fees and referendums that are needed to keep the basic services going.