Tax Foundation, foe of progressive taxes, responds to our criticism
The Tax Foundation, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank that is a major force for conservative tax policies, has released a statement calling our criticisms of its State Business Tax Climate a “witches’ brew of bad tax policies.”
The Institute for Wisconsin’s Future had earlier released a short report, The Tax Foundation’s Proposals Are Lose/Lose for Wisconsin. This paper called the Tax Foundation’s state tax climate ratings ” ideology masquerading as statistics.” It showed how a state could boost its tax rankings by such poor policies as putting a sales tax on groceries and gasoline and creating a deduction-free flat-tax system, the hallmark of a regressive tax system.
In its retort, the Tax Foundation repeats its defense of a regressive income tax, claiming: “The alternative, a graduated, multi-rate ladders are not a method of creating growth for Wisconsin. A progressive income tax structure creates a disincentive for work.”
So maybe all those unemployed folks aren’t working because they’ve been disincentivized by progressive income taxes?
The tussle between the Tax Foundation and IWF was noted in State Tax Notes’ Nov. 16, 2009 issue.
For more criticism of the Tax Foundation’s approach to progressive taxation, see the BadgerTaxReview post below, titled: Memo to Tax Foundation: Property tax IS regressive.
