GOP’s Rebate Checks Won’t Be in the Mail

Tax refund check. Photo by flickr user frankieleon. (CC BY 2.0)

Republican legislative leaders proposed the biggest income tax rebate plan in Wisconsin history last month to return most of the projected $2.5 billion surplus directly to taxpayers. But don’t plan on getting those checks anytime soon.

Under the Republicans’ proposal, taxpayers would be mailed checks based on what they owed in state income taxes in 2024. The maximum benefit for taxpayers filing jointly would be $1,000; for individual taxpayers, $500.

“This is a generous, good-faith attempt to achieve our mutual goals of limiting the property tax impact caused by your misguided 400-year veto, helping families address rising costs and ultimately doing what is best for the people of Wisconsin,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a letter to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers outlining their tax relief package.

Evers, who would have to agree to any tax relief package for it to become law, said he won’t accept that plan. It’s a “maximum politics” campaign stunt, Evers said at a wispolitics.com event Feb. 26. “I just don’t think it’s wise.”

Senate Republicans first floated the tax rebate proposal, which the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated would return $1.48 billion of the surplus.

The $2.3 billion tax cut package offered by LeMahieu and Vos also included $500 million more in tax credits to offset December property tax bills and $200 million more for special education costs.

“You and your family know how to spend your hard-earned dollars best, not the state government,” LeMahieu said in a statement introducing the tax rebate plan.

“So whether you need more room in your budget for groceries, or if Gov. Evers’ 400-year veto sent your property tax bill through the roof, the state Senate [will] return the surplus to the people who created it in the first place: you, the taxpayers.”

Wisconsin’s first check-in-the-mail tax rebates returned $688.2 million to income taxpayers in 2000. Rebates are proposed because they return taxes that have already been collected.

A Fiscal Bureau summary of the Republicans’ plan said it would:

-Require the state Revenue Department to mail checks to taxpayers by Sept. 15 — weeks before the Nov. 4 elections for governor, attorney general and 116 members of the Legislature, which Republicans have controlled since 2011. Republicans control the Senate by an 18-15 margin and the Assembly, 54-45.

-The size of the checks would be determined by what the taxpayer owed in net 2024 state income taxes, after deductions and personal exemptions, with a maximum of $1,000 for taxpayers who file jointly and $500 for single filers.

-A couple who owed $860 in state income taxes in 2024 would get a check for that amount; a single filer who owed $425 would get a check for that amount.

-If a taxpayer or their spouse had any outstanding tax debts, the amount of those debts would be subtracted from the rebate check.

After his final State of the State speech on Feb. 17, Evers told a WISN-TV reporter that the Republicans’ check-in-the-mail plan is a “joke.”

“It’s like buying votes,” the governor said. “Sending checks out, first of all, after about a month people forget about it. But second of all, it costs money to do that.”

Instead of the tax rebate, Evers said in his State of the State speech that most of the surplus should be used to better fund schools. He has suggested $550 million more in credits that offset property tax bills and $450 million more in state K-12 education aid.

Because the Assembly has adjourned for the year, any tax relief package negotiated by Evers and Republican legislators would have to be approved in a special legislative session. The governor and Vos have said talks on a deal will continue.

A Fiscal Bureau summary of the 2000 rebate said it returned $688.2 million to 2.5 million households, based on the taxpayers’ filing status and adjusted gross income.

The 2000 rebate sent married taxpayers filing jointly a check for between $360 and $534, according to the Fiscal Bureau summary.

Wisconsin also used a sales tax rebate in 2018 to return $94.3 million to parents who claimed a $100-per-child credit, the Fiscal Bureau report noted. About 540,000 parents filed for that rebate on behalf of 900,000 children.

Wisconsin also had a sales tax “holiday” Aug. 1-5 in 2018 to help parents pay for back-to-school supplies and clothing, the Fiscal Bureau said. It saved shoppers an estimated $14 million.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.