Marketplace Today Blog

By Steven Walters
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Tax and fee increases in the 2009–11 budget that was signed into law on June 29 total about $1.9 billion, according to a summary from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The tax and fee increases helped fix a two-year budget deficit of about $6.6 billion.

The Fiscal Bureau report said the five biggest tax increases, and how much more each of them will bring in over the next two years, were raising the $1.77-per-pack cigarette tax to $2.52, bringing in $308 million; new 7.75-percent income tax bracket for the wealthiest taxpayers (those with taxable incomes of $225,000 or more for single taxpayers, and more than $300,000 for couples filing jointly), $287 million; cutting the tax exemption on capital gains investments from 60 percent to 30 percent, $242.5 million; extending the hospital tax first passed in February to attract more federal health-care aid, $242.2 million; and a new 75-cent monthly fee on phone lines, $107.6 million.

The fee increases that will raise the most over two years are raising the landfill tipping fee from $5.90 per ton to $13, $68.9 million; higher fees for securities trading, $44.4 million; higher fees for register insurance agents, $27.4 million; and raising the Universal Service Fee collected by utilities to subsidize libraries, $21.7 million.

In February, to fix a deficit in the budget year that ended on June 30, separate tax and fee increases of $1.2 billion were enacted into law.