Every now and again the media feels compelled to run a story like this, trying to make the case that Wisconsin is no longer a tax hell. But the story does an honest job of telling about the crushing burden on the middle class:

Middle-class burden

Viewed nationally, Wisconsin's approach puts a remarkable tax burden on the broad middle class.

Considering only the two big taxes, a two-parent family of three earning $75,000 a year and living in a median-priced home in Milwaukee would pay about $7,500 in local property and state income taxes. That compares with $5,300 in Chicago, $4,600 in Minneapolis and $5,000 in Des Moines, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis of figures from national studies.

The one-two punch of the two taxes explains middle-class frustration even in the face of falling tax rankings.

And most important to remember; what relief has been realized in recent years was do to the QEO under which teacher's salaries were kept down. That's gone.