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Republicans Take Issue With Walker’s Plan To Add Tax Collectors

GOP Lawmakers Call Walker's Sales Tax Holiday Plan A 'Gimmick'

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Wisconsin State Capitol
Joseph (CC-BY-NC-SA)

Republican state lawmakers have issues with Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals to add more auditors and tax collectors at the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and add a sales tax holiday for school supplies.

Walker’s budget would add 46 new positions at the DOR to identify and collect unpaid taxes and debt. They’re expected to generate roughly $32 million a year in revenue.

“From a lot of my colleagues in the Assembly’s position, this is almost right up there with a tax increase,” said Assembly Joint Finance Committee co-chair John Nygren during the DOR’s budget briefing Wednesday.

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Revenue Secretary Rick Chandler told Nygren that money was owed to the state.

“If we weren’t identifying that revenue and collecting it, either we’d have fewer resources for the programs we all want to have, including tax relief, or we’d have more of the burden being carried by Wisconsin taxpayers,” Chandler said.

Walker also added auditors in his last budget.

Other lawmakers took issue with Walker’s plan to create a two-day sales tax holiday in his budget for everything from clothing to computers to office supplies. The “back-to-school” tax holiday would cover those products regardless of whether they were purchased for a student.

“You’re taking a certain group of people and giving them a tax break on two days, and the rest of the population be damned,” said Republican Sen. Luther Olsen of Ripon.

Other Republicans, such as Spring Green Republican Sen. Howard Marklein, said the plan would impose an undue burden on small businesses.

“I guess I’m concerned with a lot of things about it,” Marklein said. “I think it’s a gimmick, totally, and it’s just not worth it.”

The tax holiday would cost state government an estimated $11 million a year.