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WCC Public Policy Positions: Support Equitable Taxation and Sound Fiscal Policies
Here we elaborate on each of the WCC's 2023 Public Policy Positions. The complete document can be found below. You can learn more about Catholic Social Teaching on the USCCB website.
Support Equitable Taxation and Sound Fiscal Policies. Our political institutions are responsible for securing the social conditions that enable each of us to share our gifts and reap the benefits of life in community. Taxes are essential if government is to fulfill this responsibility and citizens have a moral obligation to pay them. Wisconsin must distribute the tax burden equitably, based on a person’s ability to pay. Wisconsin must also avoid excessive debt that burdens future generations.
The Judeo-Christian tradition is the foundation for a variety of secular legal tenets and the basis of Catholic social teaching. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which summarizes this social teaching, has this to say about taxation in paragraph 355:
Tax revenues and public spending take on crucial economic importance for every civil and political community. The goal to be sought is public financing that is itself capable of becoming an instrument of development and solidarity. Just, efficient and effective public financing will have very positive effects on the economy, because it will encourage employment growth and sustain business and non-profit activities and help to increase the credibility of the State as the guarantor of systems of social insurance and protection that are designed above all to protect the weakest members of society.
Public spending is directed to the common good when certain fundamental principles are observed: the payment of taxes as part of the duty of solidarity; a reasonable and fair application of taxes; precision and integrity in administering and distributing public resources. In the redistribution of resources, public spending must observe the principles of solidarity, equality and making use of talents. It must also pay greater attention to families, designating an adequate amount of resources for this purpose.
Industry and private charities also must continue to assist those in need. Indeed, the Catholic Church is the largest private charity in the United States. But private charity cannot substitute for what the government can do through the just collection and distribution of taxes. Private charity cannot make up for the State’s abdication of responsibility to assist the most poor and vulnerable. Simply put, taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society.
When formulating tax and fiscal policy, lawmakers should consider questions like:
- How is the proposal more “just, efficient, and effective” than the current law?
- How will the state continue to be the “guarantor of systems of social insurance and protection that are designed above all to protect the weakest members of society” if it declines tax revenue?
- How will the proposal strengthen “solidarity, equality and making use of talents” for all?
- How will the proposal assist the formation and maintenance of families?
Taxes are essential for the government to fulfill its obligation to citizens, who in turn have a moral obligation to pay taxes. Governments must manage those tax dollars wisely for both the present and the future, so that we as citizens may reap the benefits of life in community with others.
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