Almost no state has seen a greater drop in its tax burden than Wisconsin over the past 20 years, a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum finds.
Depending on certain measurement factors, the drop in state and local taxes as a share of personal income was the largest, or nearly the largest, nationally since 1999.
The forum and a preceding organization have long tracked this metric, defined as annual taxes paid to state and local governments as a percentage of residents’ personal income. As is the case in most states, Wisconsin’s state and local tax revenue comes from three main tax sources: property, sales and income.
The decline in the tax burden reflects the state’s falling spending rankings over the same period. The decline is due, in part, to growth in the economy and personal income following the Great Recession, the report states. See the report.