Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Public Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
Slowed Local Taxes Drive Decline in State’s Tax Burden
The state-local tax burden relative to personal income has declined steadily in recent years, from a high of 11.9% in 2011 to 10.7% in 2017. This figure excludes federal taxes.
This decrease has been driven primarily by income expansion and restrained growth in local tax collections. As a share of personal income, the local tax burden fell from 4.5% of income in 2011 to 3.7% in 2017. The state’s share fell from 7.4% to 7.0% of income.
Tax collections illustrate this trend even more clearly. State collections increased 10.1% between 2012 and 2017, while they increased only 3.8% at the local level.
