Marquette Neighborhood Association, 410 Russell St, Madison, WI 53704, US

The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance ( WISTAX ) was established to improve representative government through programs of citizen education and public policy research. WISTAX founders believed an informed citizenry was vital to effective, representative government. They also recognized the importance of an independent source of unbiased information about Wisconsin government that could be used by citizens and government officials alike. The origins of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance can be traced to the fall of 1931, as the Great Depression began tightening its grip on the state economy. Governor Phillip F. Lafollette convened a group of Wisconsin's business leaders to discuss the major problems facing state government. State tax collections were declining because of rising unemployment and tax delinquency. At the same time, state government needed additional revenues to cover the rising cost of unemployment relief. From these discussions came the idea for a statewide organization to study taxation and recommend ways to reduce the cost of providing government services. As a result, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance was formally established on February 15, 1932. In its first two years of operation, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance was an advocacy group. It developed specific proposals for cutting taxes and government spending and solicited public support for those proposals. WISTAX also attempted to form county taxpayer groups with dues-paying members.