Sales Tax/PropTax Trade?

Once you read the rest of the story, what Chandler says falls into place. He's wrong, but he has his reasons.

A member of Governor-elect Scott Walker's transition team is proposing raising the state sales tax to as much as 7.5% in exchange for lowering income and property taxes.

First off, as I've remarked before, the property tax is a LOCAL issue. Lots of Leggies and Governors like to play hero by "lowering property taxes", but in a well-ordered State, it's none of their business. If Milwaukee wants to kill off its property-owners with onerous taxes, let them. In the end, "lowering property taxes" really means "raising State taxes" because there is absolutely NO incentive for the locals to govern responsibly. None.

This is no different than the 10th Amendment discussion being held at the Federal level. It's called "subsidiarity" and it underlies the entire Bill of Rights.

As to Chandler's reasons:

Chandler is a lobbyist for Wisconsin Energy Corp., the Wisconsin Realtors Association and the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families.

WE and Virtual Schools are irrelevant: his Realtors connection is what counts. "Lowering property taxes" raises the value of housing--artificially, of course--but you understand where the Realtors are coming from, and that's what Chandler's position grows from.