Governor Scott Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos are hinting that the income tax cut Walker proposes in his budget could total roughly $340 million over two years. For the most part, Walker has left people guessing when it comes to details of his income tax cut. But Tuesday, (1/22) he gave reporters a hint at how big the tax cut could be. ”Well, our goal is we think it's reasonable to focus in on the surplus. The surplus is $342 million. And the taxpayers are obviously at the forefront of making that possible. So that's certainly our focal point.“ That $342 million would be spread out over the next two year budget cycle. To put that in context, the state's general fund budget will likely be in the range of $31 billion over the next two years. Even so, paying for any kind of tax cut could be difficult with state agency spending requests coming in higher than state revenues. But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says the state can afford it, ”Well there's no doubt there's room for a tax cut. That is one of the main priorities that we have.“ Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca said critical details remained unanswered, such as who would benefit and whether critical programs might have to be cut to pay for it. But Barca said Democrats ”strongly support tax cuts that benefit the middle class.“
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