In the last budget, the legislature took away half of the 60% long-term capital gains exclusion. It was a bad move because it decreases the chances that people will invest in Wisconsin. Senator Jim Sullivan didn’t vote for that budget; but then again, he didn’t do much to stop it, either.
Now, Senator Sullivan and other Democrats have buyer’s remorse and are proposing that a person should be allowed to have the 60% exclusion if they hold property for 5 years. That’s a better policy than we have now, but still doesn’t get us back to what it was before this last budget.
So the Democrats are going to trumpet their actions to promote investing in Wisconsin while those proposals will not even get us back to where we were before this budget (and it’s not like Wisconsin was a mecca for private investment then either). Raising the heck out of taxes and then giving back a small amount of it to call yourself “business friendly” may fool some people, but it’s pretty thin gruel to say that you’re leading on economic development.
Jason Kohout
