34,000 Manufacturing Jobs Created Since Tax Credit Enacted
Madison – The Wisconsin Budget Project issued a politically biased flawed statement about the Manufacturing & Agriculture Tax Credit that was intended to undermine the tax relief that led to 34,000 new manufacturing jobs, WMC said Wednesday.
WMC Senior Vice President of Government Relations Scott Manley said:
“The Manufacturing & Agriculture Credit is growing and sustaining middle class manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Budget Project report against this credit is fundamentally flawed, and does not reflect the economic reality of its impact on our state. The reality is that since this tax credit was enacted in 2011, Wisconsin has grown the fifth-most manufacturing jobs in the country. Prior to the credit’s enactment, Wisconsin was bleeding manufacturing jobs – we lost 81,800 manufacturing jobs between 2006 and 2010. By contrast, we have grown nearly 34,000 manufacturing jobs since the credit was enacted in 2011. The credit has helped to reverse a trend that had devastated family-supporting jobs for middle class families.
The Wisconsin Budget Project has a history of advocating for policies that increase taxes and grow government spending, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they would issue a misleading report attempting to discredit a reform that reduces the crushing tax burden on middle class jobs. The Manufacturing & Agriculture Credit has not even been fully implemented at this point, yet big government special interest groups are already attempting to declare it a failure – a telling demonstration of their political bias. The report’s flawed contention that the credit benefits “millionaires” demonstrates the group’s ignorance of the tax code, and how most business income is treated as personal income for shareholders of pass-through entities.
The report fails to account for the substantial state and local taxes generated by 34,000 new manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin, and the untold thousands of existing manufacturing jobs that have been sustained because of this credit. The report is fatally flawed and should be disregarded as such.”
Related Material:
WMC Column: The Manufacturing & Agriculture Tax Credit Benefits Wisconsin
This column will appear in WMC’s Wisconsin Business Voice magazine in July.
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