GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Republican legislative leaders gathered in Green Bay on Tax Day to reveal what they called truths in the fight against bigger government and higher taxes under Governor Tony Evers leadership.
The event took place at South Bay Marine Center and included a number of prominent members of the party, such as Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, Representative John Macco, and Representative David Steffen.
The purpose of holding the gathering on Tax Day was to key in on the fundamental taxation shift occurring in Evers’ administration and to highlight the costly changes taking place.
For Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, the taxation problem is two-pronged, touching on both rising figures and misguided allocation.
“If you tax businesses more salaries are not going to increase, because that money has to come from somewhere,” explains Steineke. “If you tax businesses more you’re going to see an increase in the cost of services and products.”
He adds that tax day is a fitting occasion to highlight the problem, because the residents of Wisconsin should be upset when they comb through their files and discover the amount of money that is going to Madison.
“I don’t think people are in a position right now where they want to see their overall taxes go up,” he says.
Representative David Steffen, a Republican from Green Bay, says the wallets of hard-working people are being drained.
“Governor Evers is looking to find every additional penny from every person possible to spend for six-billion dollars more of state programming,” he says.
Those in attendance voiced their reassurance to Wisconsinites that they continue to fight the “good fight” in the state legislature, even if they no longer have support on many issues from the Governor’s office.
“We’re not going to back down just because we have a new governor,” explains Steineke. “It doesn’t mean that we’re all of a sudden going to do a one hundred and eighty [degree] turn.”
The representatives on hand for the event cover the eastern part of the state, but they say many of the problems apply specifically to the greater Green Bay area.
Representative Steffen says he’s extremely discouraged by the shift in taxation, because it’s working to negatively impact economic strides made in the area, specifically in the manufacturing field.
“In every single one of our economic business parks manufacturing is growing and employing people,” he says. “The last thing we should be doing is jacking up their taxes for a liberal agenda.”
