73% of voters back elimination, nine states already live without one,
and critics’ claims don’t hold up.
MADISON, Wis. — Gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany told a campaign crowd in late September that he hopes to eliminate Wisconsin’s personal income tax. “I will not be able to do it in the first budget, but, after that, we sure hope to be able to get it done,” he said, according to audio obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Defenders of big government rushed to X with claims that don’t survive a fact check. Here’s the full context.
CLAIM 1
“It’s radical.”
WHAT CRITICS SAID
The facts: Nine states have no income tax, and 15 more have a flat tax. Since 2022, six states have passed laws to phase theirs out, and leaders in eight more are pushing to follow. Wisconsin’s top rate of 7.65% is the 9th highest in the nation and 2nd highest in the Midwest.
CLAIM 2
“It only helps the wealthy.”
The facts: Nearly 9 in 10 Wisconsin employers are small businesses that pay taxes through the personal income tax, and together they employ approximately half of the state’s workers. Eliminating the tax means a bigger paycheck for working families and more room for Main Street employers to grow.
CLAIM 3
“The sales tax would nearly triple.”
WHAT CRITICS SAID
The facts: False. No tax goes up automatically. Raising the sales tax would be a choice that lawmakers and a governor would both have to make. States phasing out their income taxes use revenue triggers that lower rates gradually as revenue allows.
CLAIM 4
“It would require spending cuts.”
The facts: Not necessarily, if revenue triggers are used. But Wisconsin’s spending deserves a hard look: the 2025-27 budget grew spending 15%, to more than $114 billion. Wisconsin is the 15th highest-spending state per capita, higher than any other Midwest state. Spending limits tied to growth and inflation belong on the table in the next budget.
CLAIM 5
“It means defunding schools and public safety.”
The facts: This is a strawman argument. States without an income tax still fund schools and police. Wisconsin, meanwhile, is sitting on a roughly $3 billion surplus that belongs to taxpayers. And lawmakers have options: West Virginia is using revenue from data centers to help eliminate its income tax.
What Wisconsinites want
They’re voting with their feet. About 90,000 people leave Wisconsin each year, and 65% of them move to states with a flat or no income tax, according to IRG’s Lost Revenue report. In 2023, those movers took $2.8 billion in income with them. Counting everyone who left, Wisconsin lost more than $400 million in potential state and local tax revenue in a single year.
They’re saying so in polls. A July 2026 poll fielded by RMG Research found 73% of Wisconsin voters support eliminating the personal income tax by 2030, including 85% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 64% of Democrats.
Nine states already do without an income tax, two dozen have flattened or eliminated it, and nearly three in four Wisconsin voters want to join them. That isn’t radical. It’s where the country, and Wisconsin, is heading.
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IRG Action Fund is the 501(c)4 advocacy partner to the Institute for Reforming Government.
