Wisconsin millionaires getting big tax breaks

Memo shows 11 millionaires claiming $21 million in tax breaks

MADISON, Wis. — A new memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that 11 taxpayers earning more than $35 million each in 2017 will claim about $21 million in tax breaks.

That, from a program targeted at manufacturers and farmers in Wisconsin.

The memo, released Wednesday, comes a day after a report by the liberal Wisconsin Budget Project that presented similar data about the Manufacturing and Agriculture Tax Credit.

The latest memo estimates that 1,270 individual income-tax filers earning $1 million or more a year will earn about $162 million in credits. 

Democrats have long criticized the tax credit as being too expensive at a time when budgets for schools, roads and higher education are strapped. 

Supporters, however, say the tax credit helps attract companies to locate and expand in Wisconsin. 

Of course, the Budget Project report showed that the rate of growth in manufacturing jobs has not increased since the law went into place in 2013. 

That law was approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker in 2011.

Last year, $284 million was handed out in income tax credits under the program.