A member of the state’s congressional delegation paid no state income taxes for four years. With tax record issue front and center during this political season, Scot Ross with the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now said Congressman Tom Petri was the only member of Wisconsin’s eight-member House delegation who paid no state income taxes for any period over the past decade.
“He earned over $600,000 of taxpayer salary while claiming he had no state income tax burden,” explained Ross. “That’s exactly why we have been in the sort of fiscal mess that we have been in.” A spokesman said that Petri paid no taxes those four years because of losses suffered by the Lloyd’s of London in the 9/11 attacks. “I think the people of Wisconsin who get up every day and go to work aren’t going to have a lot of sympathy for Representative Petri’s foreign investment portfolio losses,” said Ross.
Petri did not pay any state income taxes from 2002 through 2005, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. The 72 year-old Republican is running for a 16th term representing the 6th Congressional District which includes Oshkosh and Fond du Lac. He faces Democrat Joe Kallas in November.
