News of the Day

When you shop for a product at your local Wisconsin business, you expect to get the correct amount of product for your money and to be charged the correct price for the items. Keeping a fair marketplace takes a good faith effort from businesses to ensure that their scales, registers, and pumps are accurate and requires regular monitoring to ensure that businesses are held accountable for these responsibilities.

To this end, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) tests product scales, registers, gas pumps, and fuel quality at stores throughout the state every day. The final numbers are in for the department’s 2018 field inspections, and consumers faced a fair marketplace throughout Wisconsin yet again last year.

“Year after year, Wisconsin businesses show that they respect their customers and take their responsibilities seriously in keeping their measurement and sales devices accurate,” said Lara Sutherlin, administrator for the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection.

DATCP’s weights and measures team conducted 258,720 inspections at 6,580 business locations statewide in 2018. In line with results from recent years:

• Wisconsin gas pumps continued to provide the correct amount of fuel, or even over-deliver, in nearly 100% of our tests in 2018.

• Prices at the register were also accurate or in a consumer’s favor in nearly 99% of our tests.

• Tests on scales used to weigh products specifically sold by weight were accurate or measured in the customer’s favor almost 100% of the time.

• Products sold by weight were labeled accurately in almost 99% of tests.

Inspectors also tested 5,036 fuel samples for quality last year, and nearly 99% of the samples met required national standards.

Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said Republicans will hold the line against the tax hikes and increased spending that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers proposed in his first budget.

“I think the level of spending is outrageous, and I think the level of intimidation for a lot of our reforms is really unnecessary,” she said.

Darling said Republicans “dug out of a hole” and grew the economy in Wisconsin since 2009, when Dems controlled the guv’s office and both houses of the Legislature.

“If we have this level of spending and taxation, we’re going to go back to 2009 and I’m really afraid of that,” Darling said.

In his first budget proposal, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers will increase Wisconsin’s minimum wage, raise the gas tax, provide new funding for schools and give income tax cuts to middle income families.

To pay for his priorities, Evers’ two-year spending plan which he calls the “People’s Budget,” would roll back part of a manufacturing and agriculture tax credit program, expand Medicaid, use much of the state surplus, raise fees in transportation and limit the long-term capital gains tax.

Evers introduced the budget proposal Thursday night in the state Assembly chambers, but many of the provisions are likely not to pass the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald had previously hinted that Republican leaders may create their own base budget if Evers includes proposals they do not agree with. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has called any plan that includes raising any income or sales taxes a “non-starter.”

State statutes require that Wisconsin have a balanced budget annually.  Evers’ budget increases spending by roughly $2 billion a year each year of the biennium from current spending, an increase of about 5 percent a year.

To pay for some of his priorities, Evers will spend down a surplus that is expected over the next two years. The state will enter the 2019 biennium with a $616 million surplus, and Evers budget would end the 2021 biennium with only $20 million. Evers’ administration said it will not spend any money from the state’s rainy day fund.

President Donald Trump announced Sunday on Twitter that he would be delaying an increase in tariffs against China and plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to settle on a final trade agreement.

Trump said ongoing trade negotiations with China have been “very productive” and he would delay the tariffs, which were set to go into effect on March 1, ahead of a meeting with President Xi at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“I am pleased to report that the U.S. has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “As a result of these very productive talks, I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1.

He continued: “Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a Summit for President Xi and myself, at Mar-a-Lago, to conclude an agreement. A very good weekend for U.S. & China!”

Cities and villages in Wisconsin rely more heavily on property taxes than any other state in the Midwest, and to a greater degree than most states nationally, according to a new report by the nonpartisan, independent Wisconsin Policy Forum.

In 2015, Wisconsin municipalities received 42.2% of their revenues from the property tax, but only 1.6% from sales and income taxes combined, WPF noted. Nationally, on average, municipalities got 23.3% of their revenues from the property tax with an additional 21.3% from sales and income taxes.

Other states tend to rely on a broader combination of revenues, including local sales taxes, local income or license taxes, charges for services, and federal aids. In Wisconsin, state law allows only  the state to levy an income tax and reserves the sales tax for the state, counties, and a limited number of municipalities that qualify as “premier resort areas.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said the budget he introduces Feb. 28 will include steps toward raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour and dialing back the manufacturing tax credit to fund a middle-class tax cut.

Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) and the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison released a new study revealing the true cost of Medicaid expansion to Wisconsin families. Though proponents highlight certain savings to the state, Medicaid expansion is expected to result in increased costs to families with private insurance – as much as $700 per year for a family of four, resulting in a net cost to Wisconsin of $600 million.

The Study: The Impact of Medicaid Expansion: Examining the cost to consumers and the net impact on Wisconsin, by WILL Research Director Will Flanders, and Noah Williams, Director of CROWE and Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reviews data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia comparing private sector health insurance costs and emergency room visits in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility and those that did not. The results include:

1. Expanding Medicaid will increase the cost of healthcare on Wisconsinites with private insurance, on average, by $177 per year – up to $700 for a family of four.
2. Emergency room visits would actually increase in Wisconsin, by over 52,000 visits per year.
3. In total, Medicaid expansion is expected to cost Wisconsin over $1 billion per year – borne in large part by increases in private sector healthcare costs.
4. Even when ‘savings’ to the state are included – Medicaid expansion will cost Wisconsin $600 million per year.

More than $51 million in fraudulent and erroneous refunds and credits were blocked during the 2018 tax season in Wisconsin.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, its use of identity verification tools helped protect identity theft.

“Identify verification is extremely important to us. It helps ensure that the identities of tax filers are secure and protected, and that their tax dollars are not stolen,” said Wisconsin Department of Revenue Secretary Peter Barca. “Cybercrime and identity theft have become more common. As a result, we’ve implemented a number of measures to combat it.”

DOR uses analytics to identify tax returns that indicate possible identity theft. If there is a concern, DOR sends a letter to the tax filer asking them to complete a quiz, enter a Personal Identification Number (PIN), or submit documentation to confirm their identity.

“Our systems are very secure, but when criminals steal someone’s personal information from other sources, they may use it to file a fraudulent tax return,” said Barca.