Menomonie (WQOW)- A congressman visited western Wisconsin on Monday to talk about a plan to lower taxes for manufacturers. WQOW caught up with Ron Kind to ask him how his plan would keep more businesses from leaving the state.
"Tax reform is long overdue," Kind points out. "We have a complicated tax code that's been a drag on economic growth and job creation for too long."
Kind talked with some of the leaders at Shape Products in Menomonie about a proposal to cut taxes at manufacturing facilities in the state.
"It's just been great being able to visit a company like Shape; learning more of what is working and what isn't for them and what changes that we do have to make," says Kind.
His plan would lower the tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. That would allow manufacturers to take some of those tax savings and reinvest.
"Today there is a provision in the tax code that actually allows businesses to deduct all of their moving expenses when they do move jobs overseas. That's crazy," Kind says. "Why are we making it easier for them to be able to ship jobs abroad through the tax code when we should be saving that money to lower the rate for those who are choosing to stay right here in Wisconsin?"
The tax cut would affect about 6,000 Wisconsin businesses.
"In a country as great as ours, we have to be able to make things and produce things and invent and grow things as a nation or we are no longer going to be a global superpower," Kind says. "Hopefully, it'll make it easier for them to decide to keep jobs right here in Wisconsin or right here in the United States rather than moving them overseas."
Kind says it will cost about $420 billion over ten years to pay for his plan. There is no word yet on if a vote on the plan would happen. There are only about 30 days left in this year's legislative session.
