The Legislature passed it, the Governor exercised a number of vetoes, and then Governor Doyle signed the state budget on June 30, 2009. It was the first time the budget has been done on time since 1977. I hate to date myself, but that is just slightly longer than I have been on this planet. I previously discussed three of the tax related items in Doyle's proposed budget. Those three items made the final budget. In fact, the capital gains tax exclusion dipped to 30% from the originally proposed 40%.
As a cynic would expect it did not end with the Governor's pen dashing across the paper. Apparently Doyle "inadvertently" used a "Frankenstein Veto" on one item in the budget bill. Up until last budgetary cycle that was not a problem, but the voters in Wisconsin amended the state constitution last year to make the "Frankenstein Veto" unconstitutional. In any event, Wisconsin has a budget so I thought I'd take a quick look at the tax aspects of it:
- Change from a 60% exclusion to a 30% exclusion for capital gains taxes (100% exclusion for investments in certain Wisconsin start-up companies)
- Cut $1 million off the tax credit for movie production in Wisconsin
- $0.75 increase to the State's cigarette tax
- $0.75 per line cell phone tax
- Expansion of enterprise zone tax credits
- High Earner Tax Bracket (additional 1% tax rate on individual income in excess of $300,000 for joint filers and $225,000 for individual filers)
That is very brief overview of a handful of tax related items in a massive budget bill. I will provide a link to the actual text of the budget bill as soon as one is available.
