State Assemblywoman and gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong introduced legislation this spring to raise certain income taxes to approximately 18%.
The bill is intended as a tax hike for the “super rich” and “billionaires.” However, the proposed bill affects earners far below the desired range.
AB 1209 raises taxes by 15.69% on filers in Wisconsin’s top income tax bracket, defined as anyone making over $352k. This alone would make Wisconsin the 9th highest income tax state..
Additionally, the legislation creates a new tax bracket for joint fillers starting at $750K, imposing a tax that begins at 17.70%. Currently, California has the highest state income tax, with certain brackets paying 13.3%.
Critics however, note that since Wisconsin is home to only a handful of billionaires, the majority of payers of this new tax will be small, family-owned businesses.
In Wisconsin, the overwhelming majority of small businesses file as individuals, pass-throughs, and S-corps, rather than corporations.According to LLC Services Wisconsin’s small business statistics, close to 80% of small businesses file this way, meaning a substantial majority of people hit by this 17.7% tax will be small businesses.
Hong and other proponents of the bill state that the legislative proposal will help increase state school funds for students.
However, under the bill, for calculating equalization aids and revenue limits, a middle-class English-speaking child will count as only 71% of a child compared to a limited-English, low-income pupil.
Regardless of the bill’s future status, if Hong becomes governor, she pledged to implement additional taxes.
On social media, Hong has advocated for progressive tax reforms, which include lowering property taxes by increasing taxes on the wealthy, eliminating tax breaks for AI data centers, and legalizing cannabis to fund infrastructure.
In her campaign website, Hong has promised to “make large hospitals pay their fair share.”
