The Ire of Folkbum, Tax Reform Edition

Ol' Folkie showed up in town to complain about this.

(No, that's not his only complaint....not by a long shot.)

The LeftyWonk response? Rational, carefully worded, penetrating:

...Joel Rogers, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who heads the Madison-based Center on Wisconsin Strategy, said:

"More mindless lunacy - when will it end?"

Yah, well. Perhaps his tent-quarters don't have a thesaurus.

Anyhoo, the far more useful critique is here:

The [WMC's] members who are corporate leaders and "frequently wooed by these other states, say to us, 'We think across the board reductions in the tax burden is far more important than economic development,'" Buchen said.

Similarly:

Todd Berry, of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said that if reducing the state's business tax burden is the goal, it might make more sense to simply cut the corporate tax rate rather than add this provision to the practices of the last few decades, where legislators created a "Swiss cheese" of a tax system with many targeted credits and deductions.

Most corporate tax managers would choose a simpler reduction, Berry said.

"They'll pick the rate reduction because it's simple and understandable and they know they'll get it and everybody participates," he said.

Probably should be the route that the full Legislature goes.

After all is said and done, "corporations" do NOT pay taxes. Their customers do. Folkbum and Rogers either don't know that, or don't really give a rip.