Walker Sees Tax Cuts in ’13

Governor Scott Walker won’t unveil his next budget proposal until early next year. But he is dropping some hints.

In La Crosse yesterday, the governor said he’d like to see tax cuts for small businesses and residents. He says he’s not sure how much.But Walker says the state has enough revenue to pay for the tax cuts.

“We didn’t do income tax across the board last session but we did do property tax cuts and some targeted tax cuts like in areas like manufacturing and agriculture,” he says.”Even though the overall tax burden went down in our budget, revenue has actually gone up.It’s a good indicator if we do more of the same, it could have a stimulus effect on the economy itself.”

It appears education will also be a priority. Walker says he’ll work with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers to advance school reform.Then, Walker says, he’ll include funds in the budget to help pay for it.

“[We’ve] done a lot when it came to the reports coming out for schools and school district accountability,” he says. “We’re doing to do more on our reading initiative we’ve done with Dr. Evers.”

Walker also says he’ll work with lawmakers to fund programs that would train workers for unfilled high-skilled jobs in the state.