Growth in personal income helped push the share of income Wisconsinites pay in state and local taxes down to 10.3%, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
The drop from 10.4% in 2018 marks the eighth straight year the state’s tax burden has declined. It is the lowest tax burden in Wisconsin Policy Forum records that go back to 1970.
“This extends a long-running trend that is attributed both to limited growth in taxes and relatively strong growth in income,” the report says.
While total state and local tax revenues increased by 4.5% in fiscal 2019, total personal income, which includes wages, salaries, investment income and government benefits, increased 5.1% to nearly $300 billion, according to the report.
Tax revenue growth was primarily driven by an increase in state collections, up 6%. Corporate income tax revenue grew almost 50%, largely because of changes to federal tax law. Individual income taxes increased 6.1%
Local taxes grew 1.8%, a drop from the 1.9% increase in local tax revenues in 2018.
