There are a lot of big things Democrats in Wisconsin can do with their new, trifecta control of state government. Reinvesting in public schools — and shifting the burden for keeping schools afloat off local property taxpayers — would be a great start. So would overturning Act 10 (unless the state Supreme Court beats them to it), restoring the prevailing wage law and getting rid of so-called right-to-work legislation, thus reversing the largest decline in union representation in any state over the last 40 years. Add to that getting rid of PFAS, preserving public land, creating a nonpartisan redistricting process that ends gerrymandering once and for all. All of these things are possible when the new governor and Legislature get to work. 

While state officials can’t reverse federal policies that are driving up the cost of living, let alone end the disastrous Iran war, they can do a lot to improve the material wellbeing of state residents just by turning the page on 15 years of austerity.

Wisconsin is sitting on a state budget surplus that mostly represents the money the state no longer pays to support schools. For more than a decade, Wisconsin has let its education historic system degrade while hoarding that money. 

At the same time, local property taxpayers are overextended and grouchy from years of reaching into their own pockets to make up for the state’s failure to support schools.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on unions hurt teachers and other public employees directly, but it also created a much harsher, leaner environment for working people across Wisconsin and their families. 

A recent report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute highlights the ways anti-union policies in Wisconsin have harmed the middle class, degraded a once-great public school system and made life more expensive and less secure for working families. 

This was not what Walker and his allies advertised when they pioneered the divide-and-conquer politics that pushed down union membership, wages and labor force participation for both union and non-union workers. 

Supposedly, busting teachers’ unions was going to give schools the budget flexibility to do more with less, and slashing state funding for education would mean lower taxes. Instead, schools went into a long financial slide, accompanied by cuts to programs, increasing class sizes and declining test scores, while property tax rates soared. 

Walker and the Republicans talked a lot about making Wisconsin “open for business” and ushering in a new era of prosperity. But the promised 250,000 new private sector jobs never materialized, and wages, job growth and GDP languished compared to our neighboring Great Lakes states, as “data wonk” Bruce Thompson wrote in an analysis for Urban Milwaukee of the effects of Act 10.

All of this, plus Republicans’ stubborn refusal to accept the federal Medicaid expansion for years before President Donald Trump’s massive assault on healthcare, contributed to Wisconsinites’ particular struggles with affordability — the issue that drove the blue tsunami across the country in the 2026 midterms.

Voters in the last election expressed serious doubt about some of the core tenets of Republican economic policy, including the idea that tax breaks for the very rich will make us all more prosperous, and spending on schools and other basic social goods is a burdensome waste. 

In the Republican radio address this week, incoming Republican Senate minority leader Julian Bradley acknowledged the stunning midterm rebuke to his party, saying “folks who are struggling to get by want to know that there’s a path to get ahead.”

“We hear you,” he said on behalf of his fellow members of Wisconsin’s severely diminished Republican caucus. Then he doubled down on the philosophy that got them where they are today: “If the new Democrat majority wants to focus on affordability, then we should be talking about meaningful tax cuts, returning the surplus to the families who earned it and clearing away the red tape that makes it harder to build a home or hire a worker.”

If voters wanted more of the same Republican tax cuts and deregulation Bradley is pushing, and which reached a new peak with Trump’s massive “One Big Beautiful” transfer of wealth from the many to the few, the election wouldn’t have gone the way it did.

According to Bradley, Democrats are talking about “higher taxes, more spending, redrawing maps” and “not a single one of these ideas will lower your grocery bills.”

It’s true that ending Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran that is driving record-high diesel prices would be the fastest route to cheaper groceries. But state Democrats can do a lot to improve Wisconsinites’ economic wellbeing by bringing back middle class jobs and union protections that raise wages. Using state money to support schools will lower property taxes. Investing in healthcare, child care, mass transit, environmental protection and clean energy will improve the economy and the future of our state.

Wisconsinites are eager to see government get to work to get those things done. 

A coalition of community and faith groups are calling on both the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor to expand a transitional jobs program.  In an open letter the groups state that the program provides short-term jobs “aimed at getting people who are isolated from economic opportunity into the productive workforce.” 

The letter, from WISDOM, MICAH, Guest House of Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Council of Churches and UMOS among other groups — asks Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley to expand transitional jobs programs support funding for the programs and expand the Earn & Learn summer youth employment program in Milwaukee so that all of its 3,700 applicants can work in 2027. 

The letter is signed by Pastor Joseph Ellwanger, a longtime grassroots activist who has been an organizer in Milwaukee since the civil rights movement. 

“These programs are very effective in getting participants into regular unsubsidized employment once the period of subsidy ends,” the letter states. “Many participants have significant barriers to employment such as being long term unemployed and having criminal justice system involvement. The Department of Children and Families’ own data analysis of thousands of transitional job participants over a five-year period shows that approximately two thirds of participants go on to secure and maintain long term unsubsidized employment.”

Transitional jobs programs are important because, the letter states, while “the unemployment rate is historically low in Wisconsin at present there are parts of our communities that suffer from high rates of joblessness.” It notes that the DCF’s Transform Milwaukee and transitional jobs programs help people who are “largely not counted in the narrow official definition of the unemployment rate,” including  “such groups as the previously incarcerated and people who have historically been only marginally attached to the labor force.”

The letter argues that ensuring that these programs are protected helps the people they serve earn money, pay taxes, receive insurance and live better lives. “They earn money in law abiding ways and are less inclined to seek money in informal or illegal activities,” it states. “They grow the labor force which is an important social and economic objective in a time of tight labor markets. They participate in the dignity of work which provides purpose and contributes to the economic well-being and strength of the community.”

DCF data shows that over 60% of transitional job participants go on to secure long-term, unsubsidized employment. 

The program also supports an estimated 16,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24. 

The community organizations that signed on to the letter are asking both Tiffany and Crowley to expand the Transitional Jobs and Transform Milwaukee Jobs programs to serve all 72 Wisconsin counties and  commit to providing $5 million annually in state funds, along with another  $8.2 million to expand the Earn & Learn summer youth employment program to support all 3,700 applicants in 2027.