Priorities out of whack: Walker's budget essentially raises taxes on poor

Does Gov. Walker really care for the people of this state? In his latest attempt to make "Wisconsin work," Walker takes away hundreds of dollars from poorer Wisconsin families.

Scott Walker's budget proposal would eliminate tax credits for low-income families in Wisconsin. The Earned-Income Tax Credit would be lessened significantly, affecting thousands of families in the Badger State.

According to Madison.com, a single mother earning $15,000 per year with two children would lose more than $300 per year under Walker's plan. A two-parent household earning just above the poverty level -- or about $30,000 per year -- would lose between $200 and $260 per year in tax credits.

The proposal runs in conjunction with Walker's plans to give big business huge tax breaks, more than $140 million overall, which have been attributed to hindering the state's budget mess even more.

Walker's budget repair bill called for state workers and public service employees to pay more into their benefits package than they already do. Now, to balance the budget even further, Walker is calling on the poor to accept an increase in taxes.

The budget, it seems, is being balanced on the backs of working men and women of Wisconsin. The shared burden transcends across all economic levels...except the richest in the state and big business, who will actually pay less in taxes under Walker's proposals.

At a time when many Wisconsinites are still struggling with the effects of the national recession, how is it moral to ask of those most affected by it to bear the burden of correcting the state's budget mess? Barely able to support themselves, the idea that these working men and women should bear the brunt of the responsibility in fixing the budget is nothing less than obscene. If anything, those who are struggling should be given more help, not less, and should not be asked to give more of their paychecks to help the mess that Scott Walker is creating.

But the lies Walker tells are only growing, not just in their number but in their brashness as well. Among them, the governor claims that state workers pay next to nothing in their pension costs, a myth that was corrected late in February by Tax.com's David Cay Johnston, who points out that pension costs are differed portions of workers' paychecks.

Walker's lies and mistruths are simple attempts to coerce Wisconsin citizens into accepting his warped spending priorities. Though Wisconsin isn't buying it -- the latest polling data shows Walker's disapproval rating at 53 percent, with more Wisconsinites wanting him to compromise with Democrats in the legislature (65 percent) -- it's key that we continue to fight Walker on his spending priorities that make Wisconsin a less hospitable place for the people of Wisconsin to call home.