The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

What is Doyle's "Middle Class?"

By Steven Pigeon

Throughout the Wisconsin State budget process Governor Doyle and Democrat members of the State Assembly and Senate have insisted that their various budget proposals will not harm Wisconsin’s middle class. With no consistent definition of what it means to be “middle class,” we can use the state budget to help us learn who is in Governor Doyle’s middle class by discovering who is not harmed by the Wisconsin state budget.

To be in Governor Doyle’s middle class you have to make less than $225,000 as an individual or $300,000 as a couple. If you make more than this you are obviously a member of Wisconsin’s “rich” and Doyle has created a new tax bracket just for people like you. Capital gains and property taxes are also raised in the State Budget but this, according to Wisconsin Democrats, will not impact the middle class.

Admittedly, there are a lot of individuals who live in Wisconsin who are not rich, do not own property, and who have no capital gains. If you learn more about the State Budget you realize that Governor Doyle’s middle class continues to get smaller because the Wisconsin state budget contains a new phone line tax, an increased gas tax and an increase in the garbage tax.

After learning of these additional taxes, one is able to conclude that Governor Doyle’s middle class is full of individuals who are not rich, with no property or capital gains, who do not own a phone, consume gasoline or throw away garbage. Admittedly, there are some Wisconsinites who may fit this criteria -I suspect that they are either children or senior citizens.

With Governor Doyle vowing that this budget does not harm to any of these “middle class” individuals, imagine one’s surprise when they learn that the budget allows home healthcare workers to unionize, thus driving up home healthcare costs harming senior citizens and eliminating them from Doyle’s middle class. Children are also eliminated from Doyle’s middle class because of attacks on Milwaukee’s School Choice program and elimination of state aid to public schools.

Therefore, Governor Doyle’s middle class is made up of Wisconsinites who are not rich, do not own property, a phone, a car, and are not a child or a senior. Unfortunately those (if anybody) who are left can only be considered middle class if they are non-smokers because Governor Doyle is raising the state tax on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack. This leads us to the conclusion that Governor Doyle’s claim that his budget does not harm Wisconsin’s middle class is true only if nobody in Wisconsin is actually “middle class”

In reality, Wisconsin’s authentic middle class is being burdened with all of the aforementioned taxes, plus increased auto insurance premiums because of an increase in mandatory liability coverage and increased property taxes because of the elimination of the Qualified Economic Offer. Healthcare costs will also rise because of an expansion in the hospital assessment which was created to fix Governor Doyle’s previous budget.

Businesses are also harmed by Governor Doyle’s budget. In addition to paying the same increased gas and telephone taxes that all Wisconsin residents have to pay, they are being forced to deal with already passed combined reporting legislation. Governor Doyle has also proposed to restrict the film tax credit, which is one of the few tax credits that exist for businesses.

Governor Doyle’s budget and additional policies are not designed to protect the middles class, but instead to create a new Doyle Middle Class. A middle class made up of individuals that are dependent on state government and who do not wish to create their own wealth - but instead prefer that the State of Wisconsin take it away from others and provide it to them. When today’s “rich” of Wisconsin become the rich of Florida, the rich of Arizona, or the rich of Texas, Governor Doyle’s middle class will become the new rich of Wisconsin. Sadly, they will be much poorer and leave Wisconsin shell of what it could have been.

-June 18, 2009

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