The amount of tax money owed to the state has grown to over $1 billion dollars for the first time in Wisconsin, according to the Department of Revenue.
According to DOR spokesperson Jessica Iverson, the tax delinquency balance was $808.4 million in 2007 but increased to $1.03 billion as of July 1, 2008.
However, Iverson said this increase should be attributed mostly to a new way of tracking the payment of taxes. She said the new automatic processing system collects taxes in a much more efficient way.
""It is a little bit like comparing apples to oranges. It is higher when you look just at the numbers, but that's due to the way it's being calculated,"" she said.
To fill the state's projected $5.9 billion deficit, Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed a variety of tax raises. Penny Durham, policy research analyst for the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said she does not think these increases will lead to more tax delinquency.
""As a general rule I would guess that the people who normally pay their taxes will continue to pay their taxes,"" she said.
She said many of these unpaid taxes go back many years, so they are not necessarily a result of the economic downturn.
