Wisconsin Senate Democrats and their candidates for two districts key to determining control of the Senate in 2027 promised Thursday to pass bills to bring down the cost of health care, housing, groceries, energy and child care. 

At a press conference outside the state Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) chastised Republican lawmakers for not taking action on an array of issues.

“We have to watch the Senate Republicans play this really strange game of what they’re doing with this special session,” Hesselbein said. “They refuse to go into the special session and get the job done for the people of Wisconsin.” 

This week lawmakers gaveled in for a special session called by Gov. Tony Evers who wanted the Legislature to take up a constitutional amendment that would  ban gerrymandering. Typically, Republican lawmakers have gaveled in and then immediately gaveled out of Evers’ special sessions, but on Tuesday, lawmakers gaveled in but then adjourned until Thursday. They said they were leaving the session open and they wanted to have more discussions with Evers, who said there wasn’t anything to talk about. 

Lawmakers returned on Thursday afternoon to postpone again until April 21. 

The state Assembly and Senate have both completed their regular session work this year, although  Evers and lawmakers are still trying to reach a deal on using some of the state’s $2.5 billion budget surplus to provide property tax relief to Wisconsinites and fund public schools. Discussions have still not resulted in action since they began in February.

Hesselbein said Senate Democrats are committed to working to improve affordability in the next legislative session and promised to pass a slate of 18 bills if they win the majority. Democrats have already introduced the bills in the current session, but they did not advance in the Republican-led Legislature. 

“Senate Democrats are here. We are ready to work,” Hesselbein said. “We could get these bills passed this legislative session and we could lower costs right now, but instead Republicans behind me in this building continue to use their last gasp of power to waste time and ignore the pressing needs of every single person in the state of Wisconsin.” 

The state Senate is currently controlled by an 18-15 Republican majority, meaning Democrats would need to hold all of their current seats and flip two additional seats to win control. The last time Democrats held a majority in the state Senate and Assembly was the 2009-11 legislative session.

There have been five announced retirements by Senate Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and two incumbents in districts that will be key to determining control. 

Hesselbein said she is “surprised” by the number of retirements. 

“It is curious that now that we finally have fair maps, a fair number of them have decided to not run,” Hesselbein said. 

Hesselbein and current Democratic senators were joined by two of their preferred candidates in key districts for the press conference who spoke to the bill packages. 

Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon) laid out the health care and housing bill package. She is running in a three-way primary in Senate District 17. The winner of the primary will face Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), the budget committee co-chair who is running for his fourth term in office. The other two Democratic candidates in the primary are Corrine Hendrickson, a child care advocate and Lisa White of Potosi, a small business owner. 

“There’s no question that two of the most pressing concerns and most expensive aspects of life in Wisconsin are homeownership or rent and the cost of health care and medication,” Jacobson said. “As property values skyrocket, hedge funds buy up single-family homes. As we face limited supply and algorithmic price hikes designed to maximize profit, we are left with the landscape that makes it more and more difficult for folks to afford rent and the age for the average first-time homeowner is at an all-time high.”

The policies covered in the health and housing package of bills include: 

• Eliminating cost-sharing payments for prescription drugs under the BadgerCare program
• Capping the cost of insulin at $35 
• Capping the cost of asthma medication at $25 and the cost for related medical supplies at $50 a month
• Eliminating sales tax on over-the-counter medicines
• Increasing the limit on the homestead tax credit, which provides relief to low-income homeowners and renters, from about $24,000 to $35,000
• Banning hedge funds from buying Wisconsin homes
• Prohibiting the use of algorithmic software to set rental rates and penalizing landlords who use such software for that purpose

Trevor Jung, the Racine transit director, is running in Senate District 21, which is currently represented by Sen. Van Wangaard (R-Racine). Wanggaard, who has served in the Senate since 2010, announced his retirement last month. He introduced the “Families First” package, which seeks to address child care, energy and grocery costs. 

“The Wisconsin Republican-controlled Legislature has ignored the crisis of rising prices across the state,” Jung said. “When I join these folks behind me in the Wisconsin State Senate, I will get to work…Our work will ease the burden of rising costs on Wisconsin families.” 

The policies include: 

• Using state funding to extend Child Care Counts, the state program launched with pandemic relief funds to support child care centers
• Making the child and dependent care tax credit refundable, meaning that a taxpayer would get a cash refund for the difference between a filer’s tax liability and the credit’s full value
• Raising the threshold for eligibility for the Wisconsin Shares program to 85% of the state’s median income, so more families are eligible for a state subsidy for child care
• Regulating data centers by requiring they cover the cost of expansions of the energy grid, creating a new “very large” class of customer and mandating 70% renewable energy use by the centers 
• Requiring utilities to spend 2.4% of their revenues to fund energy efficiency and renewable resource programs
• Expanding the state investment in low-income energy assistance programs to $10.4 million a year from $6 million
• Requiring a state program to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy for low-income households 
• Providing free school meals to all Wisconsin students
• Restricting the use of algorithms to set prices in grocery stores
• Prohibiting dynamic price gouging of consumer goods in retail stores

Even with a majority in the Senate, the odds of having the bills become law will depend on the state Assembly, which is currently controlled by a Republican majority, as well as  the new governor. 

Democrats will need to hold all their current seats and flip five additional seats to win the Assembly majority. This election cycle will be a test-drive for the odd-numbered Senate districts up for election this year, but every Assembly seat has already been up for election under the new maps.

Hesselbein said she is confident that voters will elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November, including in the Assembly, but added that the bills should have bipartisan support. 

“These are not fringe issues that people are talking about. These are things that we’ve been hearing about from Rhinelander to Madison to Racine to Mount Horeb. Everywhere around the state people are talking about rising costs and what we can do to combat them, so I think we should have Republicans regardless of what the makeup of the state Assembly or the state Senate is.”

There will also be a new governor in 2027. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is competing on the Republican side. There are seven major Democratic candidates, and Hesselbein said she believes each will be supportive of the Senate’s bills.