Statement of Madison Mayor Paul Soglin on Senator Ron Johnson’s Opposition to Senate Tax Reform Bill

The opposition by Senator Ron Johnson to the Senate Tax Reform Bill is welcomed by all hard working Wisconsinites. Out of a sense of corporate fairness Senator Johnson correctly bases his opposition to the bill’s provisions that significantly benefit large corporations while short changing small businesses. The Senator is correct. I wish he had noted that the same unfairness experienced by small businesses extends to Wisconsin families.

The national coalition, Americans Against Double Taxation, welcomes Johnson’s position and hopes it extends to other Republican Senators and Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker. This coalition is made up of most of the traditional non-partisan state and local government organizations. The coalition includes the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), the National League of Cities (NLC), the International City Managers Association (ICMA), the National Association of Counties (NACO), the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). The only one of these organizations that is not unified in opposition to this redistribution of tax burden on to ordinary people is the National Governors Association, headed by our own Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. In addition, Governor Walker has remained silent on this matter while other prominent state leaders like U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and Representative Mark Pocan have expressed clear and unequivocal opposition to this disastrous legislation designed to further turn the U.S. economy against working families.

It should be noted that both the League of Wisconsin Municipalities and the Wisconsin Association of Counties are firmly opposed to this Paul Ryan-Trump-McConnell authored tax disaster.