State Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) argues in opposition to a bill that would repeal a 2023 partial veto by Gov. Tony Evers that extended an annual $325 per-pupil increase in public school revenue limits by 400 years. (Screenshot/WisEye)

The Legislature’s powerful budget committee voted on party lines Tuesday to endorse a bill repealing Gov. Tony Evers’ 2023 partial veto that enables Wisconsin public school districts to raise their revenue limits by $325 per pupil per  year for the next four centuries.

The measure was the only legislation to get any significant debate during the two-hour session of the Joint Finance Committee, even as its outcome was a foregone conclusion: an 11-4 vote with only Republican support.

The state Senate version of the bill, SB 389, has already passed that chamber on a party-line 18-15 vote. The Assembly version is AB 391.

The finance committee weighed in on the bill — along with the rest of nearly two dozen items it voted on Tuesday — under the Legislature’s rule requiring the panel to consider any legislation that appropriates money, provides for revenue or relates to taxation.

The committee’s action clears the bill for the Assembly floor, where it is likely to pass on a party-line vote before going to Evers to be vetoed.

In the 2023-25 Wisconsin budget, lawmakers agreed to increase schools’ revenue limits for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years by $325 per pupil each year.

In signing the budget Evers used his partial veto power to strike two digits and a dash from the years, extending the annual revenue limit increases through 2425. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that the maneuver was within Evers’ partial veto powers. The change didn’t funnel more money to schools automatically, but instead raised the annual ceiling in how much revenue they are allowed to collect.

The 2025-27 state budget approved in July 2025 did not include any general aid increase, so property taxes are the only source school districts have to pay for the additional $325 per pupil they were authorized to receive by Evers’ 2023 veto. The  increase is not automatic; school budgets are controlled by individual school boards.

At a media session before Tuesday’s meeting and during the debate, the Joint Finance Committee’s co-chair, state Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), blamed Evers’ 2023 veto for property tax hikes around the state.

Past state budgets have increased school aid, sometimes with “record levels, massive increases,” Born said shortly before the committee’s vote.

But Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said that after adjusting those increases for rising costs, per-pupil funding is $3,400 below what it was in 2009. “We’re actually giving them less money in inflation-adjusted terms,” Roys said.

Democrats pointed to the spate of school funding referendum questions over the last two years in which school district voters have agreed to raise their own property taxes to cover funding gaps.

“Referendums were never meant to fund the core operations of our schools,” said Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee). “Yet we see districts year after year leaning more on referendums.”

Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) told Republican lawmakers that they could have prevented property tax hikes if they had increased general state aid to public schools in the current budget. By not doing so, “you chose to put that pressure on property taxpayers,” he said.

Tax credits after stillbirths

The only other item that produced any debate Tuesday was SB 379/AB 373, creating a state income tax credit for the parents of a stillborn child. As originally created the legislation called for the tax credit — $2,000 for a couple filing jointly or $1,000 for each parent if filing separately or if they are unmarried.

As originally drafted the legislation calls for a refundable tax credit. A taxpayer whose total income tax liability is less than the amount of the credit would get a direct payment for the balance of the credit that exceeds their tax bill.

For example, a person who qualifies for a $1,000 credit but whose state income tax bill is $600 would get a check for the additional $400.

Finance Committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) introduced an amendment Tuesday that would make the tax credit non-refundable. For a person with a tax bill of $600, the $1,000 credit would only be worth $600, while a person with a tax bill of $1,500 would get the full $1000 credit, reducing their tax bill to $500.

“It’s very expensive in this country to go through labor, delivery and postpartum, and when someone has a stillborn baby they still have all these expenses,” Roys said. “When you say you’re not making this credit refundable, you’re hurting the lowest-income people.”

The amendment would save the state $200,000, changing the tax credit’s cost from $600,000 to $400,000, a Legislative Fiscal Bureau analyst told Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay). That would “make it less useful,” Andraca said.

While the amendment passed 11-4, with all the Democrats on the panel voting against it, the amended legislation passed on a unanimous 15-0 vote.