MADISON, Wis. - Calling for banks to "pay their fair share," members of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice staged a protest April 15 in Madison and Milwaukee to draw attention to the diminishing contributions of banks and corporations to state and federal tax coffers. The protestors met in front of the AnchorBank building on Capitol Square and then walked down the block to the M&I Bank. According to a series of stories that ran in The Capital Times last summer, corporations' share of state tax revenues fell from 11.3% of the total in 1979, to 4.5% in 2001. A separate national study last year estimated that tax sheltering by all corporations cost Wisconsin about $174 million in revenue in 2001. Currently about 60 banks in the state are under scrutiny by Department of Revenue officials looking into banks' practice of shifting some income producing investments and assets to subsidiaries in non-tax states such as Nevada. It is estimated that about 75% of the 320 banks in Wisconsin have taken advantage of this tax loophole.