Slower than hoped for progress on key Republican initiatives
like healthcare and tax reform might prompt Congress to cancel
its August recess.
House Speaker Paul Ryan told the 2017 manufacturing summit
this week that tax reform would be completed this year.
Ryan talked about cutting corporate and personal taxes,
simplifying the tax code and eliminating the death tax.
- We will clear out special interest carve outs and
expensive deductions and focus on keeping those
that make the most sense.
Homeownership, charitable giving, retirement savings.
We will consolidate the existing seven brackets into three.
Double the standard deduction and simplify things to the point
that you can do your own taxes on the form the size of a
postcard.
This instead of the 1040 form.
Wouldn't that be nice?
- Of course, how much income tax you pay determines
how much the state of Wisconsin can spend.
But just how is your tax money being spent?
"Here and Now" reporter Zac Schultz broke down the numbers
with the help of our graphics team.
- Every April 2 1/2 million tax returns are filed with the
state's Department of Revenue.
That includes more than a million single filers
to married couples all the way up
to nearly 43,000 families with six or more people.
We want to look at how much the median income taxpayer
earns in a year.
Now, median is not the average.
If you put all the incomes in a row, lowest to highest,
median is the one in the middle.
Truly the middle class.
In 2016, the median Wisconsin taxpayer earned $38,284 a year.
And paid $1,104 in state income taxes.
In fiscal year 2016 the state of Wisconsin spent $44 billion.
But that includes federal money and borrowing
and money that came from fees.
If you want to look at how your income tax dollars were spent
you need to look at something called general purpose revenue
or GPR.
In 2016, GPR was $15 billion.
That came from things like the sales tax,
taxes on your phone and electric bill,
taxes on beer and cigarettes and the state income tax.
The income tax in 2016 was $7.7 billion or 51% of GPR.
Remember our taxpayer earning $38,000?
They paid $1,104 of that $7.7 billion in state income tax.
So where did their money go?
The biggest chunk, $376, went to public schools.
$195 went to Medicaid.
The biggest part of that pays for BadgerCare,
the health insurance program for low income families
and children.
$183 was used to fund state government.
Of that, $84 went to pay for the Department of Corrections
and the prison system.
$72 went to the UW system.
$37 to the technical college system.
And $64 went to property tax credits to help lower
their property tax bill.
Another $60 went to shared revenue
to help fund city and county government.
General Purpose Revenue also helps keep Wisconsin Public
Broadcasting on the air.
For the median taxpayer it's 1 cent a year.
Thank you for your support.
Speaking of cents, only 8 cents went to transportation.
The Department of Transportation spends
nearly $3 1/2 billion a year.
But most of that comes from the gas tax and registration fees
which is not part of GPR and the rest is from the federal
government and borrowing.
Adding up what we've told you so far,
that's almost 90% of what General Purposes Revenue
pays for.
But as you can see, just a few dollars from the median taxpayer
can fund a lot of programs.
- That was Zac Schultz reporting.