As 2004 draws to a close, the the State Department of Revenue and local media has published several interesting tax articles:

• Wisconsin Department of Revenue Tax Incidence Study – PDF full Study.
• Matt Pommer discussed the DOR’s study:
  

  The biggest bite to Wisconsin taxpayers comes from the property tax, which generates 41.7 percent of all tax collections, a new state study finds.
  But many lower-income property taxpayers are not using the credits available to save them money, the Department of Revenue report said.
  “Property taxes were regressive across all household groups,” the study says. The poorest 20 percent paid an average 5.3 percent of their incomes in property taxes, while the highest income groups spent an average of 4 percent of their incomes on property taxes.

• Avrum Lank & Steve Walters do the same:
  

  The state Department of Revenue report, released today, calls the system that collected $15.1 billion in state and local taxes in 2001 “mildly progressive across households.” Officials said the 2001 tax burden was studied because the tax code hasn’t been rewritten since and complete data was available for that year.
  Overall, property and sales taxes tend to hit low-income households hardest but are “offset” by deductions, graduated tax rates and breaks built into the state income tax system, the report adds. It defined a “progressive” tax system as one in which “households with greater income pay a larger share of their income in taxes than poorer households.”