Gov. Tony Evers speaks at a round table discussion on the state budget in February. On Friday, Evers' office said the state will lose $210 million in federal funds for health care previously approved by Congress but part of $12 billion cut this week by the Trump administration. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin will lose more than $210 million in federal funds that were to be used for mental health, substance abuse prevention and bolstering emergency medical services, state officials said Friday.
The money involved is Wisconsin’s share of $12 billion to combat infectious disease and other serious health problems that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has summarily cut off, NBC News and the New York Timesreported this week.
In Wisconsin, the funds were to be used for suicide prevention; substance abuse prevention; public health departments, programs and laboratories, including EMS services; and the Wisconsin Immunization Registry, the office of Gov. Tony Evers said Friday.
The governor’s office discussed the health funds cutback along with other programs targeted for reductions or considered vulnerable under the Trump administration, including education funding, farm programs and in the Department of Veterans Affairs. On Thursday, theTrump administration announced it will cut 10,000 employees from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Reckless cuts by President Trump and Elon Musk to help pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires are causing devastating consequences for Wisconsin’s kids, families, and communities and services they depend on every day,” Evers said in a statement released Friday.
“With threats to Medicaid and Medicare, cuts to researching cures for Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, efforts to undermine food and drug safety, and continued attacks on the Affordable Care Act, the Trump Administration is jeopardizing health and access to health care in Wisconsin and across our country,” Evers said.
State Rep. Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), the Assembly minority leader, said Friday that the cuts “will be devastating for Wisconsinites who rely on these essential programs.”
“President Trump and Elon Musk are selling out Wisconsin families and communities, threatening our health and safety just to pay for unnecessary tax cuts for their billionaire friends,” said state Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison), the ranking Democrat on the Assembly Health, Aging and Long-Term Care Committee and chair of the Assembly’s Democratic caucus.
“This reckless move by the Trump Administration, coupled with cuts to vital medical research and threats to the future of Medicaid and Medicare, will have a devastating impact on the health of our state,” Subeck said.
Evers said his administration will explore “every legal option available to us” to fight the cuts.
The $12 billion that HHS cut this week was authorized by Congress through COVID-19 relief bills enacted in the first two years of the pandemic. The funds were later allowed for public health needs outside the pandemic, the New York Times reported this week.
The World Health Organizationreports that “COVID-19 continues to circulate widely . . . presenting significant challenges to health systems worldwide. Tens of thousands of people are infected or re-infected with SARS-CoV-2 each week.”
The UN-affiliated public health agency emphasizes continued surveillance of the viral pandemic. “It is vital that countries sustain the public health response to COVID-19 amid ongoing illness and death and the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, adapting it to the requirements based on the current COVID-19 situation and risk,” WHO says.
Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) speaking during floor debate Thursday. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
The Wisconsin State Assembly passed several bills Thursday that target transgender youth in sports, their medical care and decisions on pronouns and names used in school.
The bills are part of a national wave of actions targeting transgender people that have been taken since President Donald Trump took office. According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, 796 bills have been introduced across the country in 2025.
Hearings on the bills over the last two weeks were emotional and lengthy, lasting over 20 hours, with the vast majority of people testifying against the bills. Republicans dismissed the public feedback, saying the policies are popular. They cited recent surveys, including a Marquette Law School poll that found 71% of U.S. adults favor requiring transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth.
It’s unlikely the bills will become law as Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed similar bills in the past and vowed to veto any legislation targeting LGBTQ+ youth.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said lawmakers were still pursuing the bills because they provide an opportunity for the public to tell Evers what it thinks.
“At some point you would hope that public pressure would convince Gov. Evers that he has to change his stance,” Vos said. “We have seen some brave Democrats across the country realize that their party has veered way too far to the left, and then if they want to win elections again, and they want to be on the side of the public, they’re going to change their stance.”
When asked what he made of the overwhelming opposition to the bills at hearings, Vos referenced a saying by former Wisconsin Gov. Lee Dreyfus that Madison is “30 square miles surrounded by reality.”
“If you look at where the most part of Wisconsin is, I think everywhere there’s broad bipartisan support,” Vos said. The area surrounding the Capitol “is the one place where the majority of people think that it’s OK to mutilate your kids. It’s OK to have women never win another sporting event. Yes, did they succeed in getting a couple dozen people to come and testify? Yes, they did and to that, they deserve the credit, but the reality is, we had elections. This was an issue.”
Since the 2024 elections, some Democrats across the country, including U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have challenged other Democrats’ positions on policies related to transgender people. Wisconsin Democrats were mostly united against the bills, giving impassioned speeches about how the bills would do more harm than good and citing testimony delivered at the hearings.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said that denying children health care is a “new low” and accused Republicans of proposing the legislation in order to create a political issue and rile up their own base.
“We are here because the majority party is trying to gain an advantage in the Supreme Court election by bullying kids. We know it. You know it. It’s mean-spirited, and it’s not helping people of Wisconsin,” Neubauer said.
One Democrat, Rep. Russell Goodwin (D-Milwaukee), joined Republicans voting in favor of AB 100, which would ban transgender girls in Wisconsin K-12 schools from participating on teams that reflect their gender identity.
AB 102, which would ban transgender women attending UW System schools and Wisconsin technical colleges from participating on women’s teams, passed 50-43 along party lines. Goodwin left before voting on that bill or any of the other bills on the calendar.
Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) said the sports bills are needed to fill the “gaps” left by recent policy updates by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which recently barred transgender girl athletes from competing on teams that don’t correspond with their sex at birth. The changes came in reaction to an executive order signed by Trump.
The bill was amended to explicitly exclude transgender women from locker rooms and shower areas as well.
Dittrich said the bills are about fairness and inclusion for women, saying that a co-ed option for teams is included.
“If you want to play with boys, have at it, there’s a co-ed track for you to do that,” Dittrich said.
Rep. Angelina Cruz (D-Racine) and Rep. Angela Stroud (D-Ashland) questioned how the legislation would be enforced.
“This bill would inflict harm on girls. This bill is an attack on girls. This bill is about exclusion and not protection. This bill does not contemplate enforcement mechanisms — raising concerns about girls’ privacy,” Cruz said. “It is unclear whether the bill would require them to answer intrusive questions about their bodies or undergo physical exams.”
Stroud said it would likely require people to carry documents to avoid harassment and discrimination. She said the bill wouldn’t help women as a group.
“One of the reasons we so often celebrate Title IX is because sports have allowed women to defy narrow definitions of acceptable femininity. We could be strong. We could be aggressive. We could be tough. We could be leaders,” Stroud said. “No woman is benefited by narrowing the definition of what counts as being a real woman.”
Several Republicans complained throughout the debate about “name-calling” and harsh words that were said to them during hearings.
“The only bullying I saw was coming from the trans community,” Dittrich said, adding that she was physically threatened, called a Nazi and had to be escorted to her car from her office. She added that there were “vile” comments posted about her and her family on social media.
AB 103 would require school districts to implement policies that require a parent’s written permission for school employees to use names or pronouns different from a student’s legal name. There is one exception in the bill for a nickname that is a shortened version of a student’s legal first or middle name. The bill passed 50-43 along party lines.
Dittrich, the author of the bill, said it is necessary for parents to be included in those decisions.
“We don’t want to divide between home and school,” Dittrich said. “This is meant to heal that.”
AB 104 would ban gender-affirming care, including the prescribing of puberty-blocking drugs or gender-affirming surgery, for those under 18. It would also require revocation of a medical provider’s license found to be providing the care. It passed 50-43 with Democrats against and Republicans in favor.
Republican lawmakers said that the bill is necessary because children often change their minds about things, and shouldn’t make medical decisions that cannot be reversed.
“It would be a failure on our part to allow children to make life-altering decisions, decisions that they will have to live with for the rest of their life, even when that choice is made with parental support,” Rep. Rick Gundrum (R-Slinger) said.
Gender-affirming medical care is often a lengthy, multi-step process. For those under 18, it typically focuses on pubertal suppression or hormone therapy and surgeries are extremely rare for those under 18, according to KFF. Decisions in the process are made with the input of children, their families and health care providers, including mental health providers.
Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said her office had gotten many calls from people who have concerns about the actions lawmakers are taking, including a Wisconsinite she said was “afraid that standing up for trans people would result in retaliation to her business.”
Hong said the bill is “deeply shameful” and she was “embarrassed” to be there as the Assembly passed it.
Rep. Brent Jacobson (R-Mosinee) said extended supervision, probation and parole are tools that give people a second chance with the expectation that they will not commit other crimes. Screenshot via WisEye.
The Wisconsin Assembly passed a slate of criminal justice related bills Thursday, including a requirement to revoke probation or parole for people charged with crimes and implementing financial penalties if Milwaukee Public Schools doesn’t return police officers to school buildings.
Republican lawmakers said the bills were necessary to improve public safety in Wisconsin.
“Wisconsinites in almost every part of our state have seen that there are areas of our state that have sincere and real concerns,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said during a press conference.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said during floor debate that lawmakers should be crafting “smart” legislation to ensure people are safe across the state, but that the bills fall short of that goal. She said lawmakers should be focused on investing in safety.
“We can use evidence based, data driven practices to lower recidivism, to save taxpayer dollars and invest in rehabilitation and treatment to keep our communities safe,” Neubauer said. “Democrats are serious about safety, but the majority of bills in front of us today are not.”
Rep. Ryan Clancy said in a statement after the session that lawmakers spent the day on “considering badly written, badly conceived bills that will harm people and waste public resources” and said Republicans were refusing to acknowledge that mass incarceration and prison overcrowding are problems for the state.
“It’s wildly irresponsible to even consider increasing penalties and interfering with the very few tools of leniency we have with a prison system holding 5,000 more people than intended,” Clancy said. “But here we are.”
A couple of the bills would implement stricter requirements for dealing with criminal charges for people released from prison.
AB 85 would require supervising corrections officials to recommend revoking extended supervision, parole or probation for formerly incarcerated people who are charged with a new crime after their release. It passed 53-43.
The Department of Corrections found in a fiscal estimate that the bill would result in approximately 6,280 additional revocation cases each year. It also found that there would be an increase in operations costs by $85 million in the first year of enactment and a permanent increased operations cost of about $245 million after the population is annualized in the second year.
Vos said that the bill should be simple. He said that people who are out on parole have been given the “privilege” of being released from prison.
“Do you stand with the victim and the public or do you stand with the criminal who has reoffended and given up the privilege that he was briefly granted?” Vos rhetorically asked. “I think the price is worth it — $300 million to keep the people safe.”
Jacobson said the bill is necessary to address the “revolving door” in the prison system and ensure criminals don’t have the opportunity to victimize people. He said that extended supervision, probation and parole are tools that give people a second chance with the expectation that they will not commit other crimes.
“In far too many cases, a person released under state supervision continues the behavior that resulted in them going to prison in the first place,” Jacobson said. “It seems like common sense that someone who’s been convicted of a crime, is released under state supervision and returns to committing crimes, should have their release revoked. Far too often that is not the case.”
Clancy said in his statement that Republicans were “openly misleading the public and their colleagues about the contents and impacts of those bills.” He noted that the bill would be “triggered when someone is merely charged with a crime” but not found guilty.
AB 66 would require prosecutors to get a court’s approval to dismiss certain criminal charges. It passed 53-44.
Rep. Alex Joers (D-Middleton) said the bill would “remove prosecutorial discretion” and impose limits on those trying to uphold the law.
Jacobson, who authored the bill, argued it would support law enforcement and protect Wisconsinites from being victimized. He noted that Wisconsin law allows prosecutors to dismiss or amend charges or enter into deferred prosecution agreements.
“In the Legislature, we can pass all the penalties we like. It won’t matter if the justice system won’t apply those penalties,” Jacobson said. The bill, he said, would add an additional layer of oversight and transparency by requiring prosecutors to get court approval to dismiss or amend charges in cases involving one of seven serious crimes. Those include sexual assault, crimes against a child, theft of an automobile, reckless driving resulting in great bodily harm and illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.
“These crimes leave lasting impacts and it’s our job as officials to take these seriously,” Jacobson said.
Lawmakers also passed a couple of bills that would increase penalties for certain crimes.
AB 61, which would increase penalties for injuring or killing an animal used by police or firefighters, passed in a voice vote.
Specifically, the bill would increase injuring an animal to a Class H felony, which is punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment for up to six years. Killing an animal would be increased to a Class G felony, which is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 or imprisonment for up to 10 years.
AB 86 passed in a voice vote. The bill would increase the penalty for child sex trafficking if the crime involved at least three victims who were children at the time the crime was committed from a Class C felony to a Class A felony. As a Class A felony, the crime could be punished with life imprisonment.
AB 89 would allow multiple acts of theft or retail theft committed by the same person to be prosecuted as a single crime, and the value of the thefts to be combined in determining the penalty. It passed 71-26, with 18 Democrats joining Republicans in support.
School resource officers in MPS
Lawmakers also passed AB 91, which would implement financial penalties for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and the city of Milwaukee if either stop complying with a state law that requires police officers in schools.
Wisconsin Act 12, which passed in 2023, provided increased state funding for local governments and also implemented requirements that MPS place 25 officers in its schools by Jan. 1, 2024. The district was late to begin following the law, and a judge recently ordered the district and city to comply with the state law and instructed the district and the city to split the cost for the officers evenly. The Milwaukee Common Council and MPS Board both approved an agreement to make this happen earlier this month.
The bill was introduced, its sponsors said, to ensure the district complies both now and in the future.
An amendment to the bill changed the cost-sharing from 25% for the city of Milwaukee and 75% for the district to an even split between the two entities.
If there is noncompliance, 10% of the city’s shared revenue payment will be withheld by the state and 25% of the school district’s state aid payments would be withheld.
MPS has not had officers in schools since 2016, and the district ended its contract with the Milwaukee Police Department in 2020 in response to student and community opposition to the practice, a point that Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee) pointed out during floor debate.
Madison said that when he was a student at a school staffed with officers a friend of his had an encounter that left him in the hospital.
“Two students were fighting. School safety officers came in and de-escalated the situation. As a friend of mine went to go check on his sister, who had been involved in the incident, I got to see school resource officers grab him, lift him in the air and body-slam him on the concrete of our lunchroom floor,” Madison said. “His shoulder was dislocated and his lip was busted, and he had to undergo surgery to navigate that situation. That wasn’t the only time that this happened in our school, where students were harmed by school resource officers.”
Madison said police officers in schools are a “failed approach.”
“Thanks to Act 12, and thanks to this bill. We’ll continue to create harms for our students… Our schools shouldn’t look like prisons. They shouldn’t work like prisons, and we shouldn’t treat students like prisoners in a space of learning, creativity and exploration. This takes Milwaukee schools in a bad direction.”
Clancy pointed out that MPS is not the only school district without officers in schools. Some other districts are Madison Metropolitan School District, Sherwood, Nicolet, Glendale River Hills.
“This is an attack on Milwaukee, and this is an attack specifically on the Black, brown, and Indigenous young people,” Clancy said.
Bill author Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) said that the bill is needed because Milwaukee schools continue to call the police to deal with incidents. He cited a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that found MPS averaged 3,700 police calls each year over 11 years.
“If MPS doesn’t want cops in their schools, why do they keep calling them?” Donovan said.
“Some say that this legislation or the penalties are not necessary. What is the alternative? The state just allow open defiance of state law? It took an MPS parent to sue the district before any movement was made,” Donovan said. “This legislation ensures this never happens again… There must be consequences for breaking the law, and how can we expect MPS to teach our children respect for authority and the rule of law when they apparently have none themselves.”
Other bills passed include
AB 75 to require the state Department of Justice to collect and report a list of facts about each criminal case filed in Wisconsin. It passed 54-43. Rep. Russell Goodwin (D-Milwaukee) joined the Republicans in voting for the bill.
AB 87 to require a person convicted of child trafficking to pay restitution immediately, and would authorize the seizure of their assets in lieu of payment. It also would require that anyone convicted of a felony must pay all outstanding financial obligations from their conviction before their right to vote is restored. It passed 53-44.
AB 74 to require public school boards, private school governing bodies and charter school operators to notify the parent or guardian of a student who is an alleged victim or target of a school employee’s sexual misconduct. It passed in a voice vote.
AB 78 to allow municipalities to impound a reckless driver’s vehicle whether or not it belongs to the driver. It also requires police to determine if the vehicle has been reported stolen, and if it has been, to release it to the original owner at no cost. It passed in a voice vote.
Rep. Benjamin Franklin speaks about his bill to require 70% of funding in schools go towards "classroom" expenses. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Republicans in the state Assembly passed a package of education bills Wednesday to implement new standards for standardized test scores, school funding allocations, responding to curriculum inspection requests and for keeping cell phones out of schools.
Republicans argued that the state needs to ensure that schools are meeting certain standards, especially as they’ve provided some state funding increases in recent years and as school enrollments have declined. While Wisconsin schools did receive an increase in the last state budget, many schools continue to struggle to meet costs as funding has failed to match the rate of inflation.
“We need to make sure that, as we are increasing funding for education, we are also doing a better job, ensuring that the standards and the expectations that parents and taxpayers have across the state are being met,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said at a press conference.
Vos called some school districts “disappointing” and named Milwaukee Public Schools as an example. The district, which was an ongoing target of Republican lawmakers throughout the debate, has experienced turmoil over the last few years with turnover in staff, a financial crisis after delays in delivering required documents to DPI and reading and math scores that show continued disparities between Black and white students.
“I’m a huge supporter of local control. There are some districts that are so broken and expect us to have to pay for it as taxpayers, either on the front end through funding the school district or on the back end with the bad decisions that are made where people make bad choices,” Vos said. “Having that statewide standards is good for Wisconsin while still maintaining the flexibility to try to get there.”
Democrats said Republicans’ focus was in the wrong place and that the proposed solutions would not help address the real challenges that schools are facing.
Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) criticized Republicans for rejecting Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal that would invest heavily in Wisconsin K-12 education.
Evers unveiled his complete state budget proposal Tuesday evening, calling for more than $3 billion in additional funding for K-12 schools, including to support operational costs, special education and mental health supports.
“The level of investment from the Legislature is just not enough to provide these essential investments in our schools,” Neubauer said. “Here in the Capitol, the Legislature has failed our students … we just have not kept up our end of the bargain.”
“Instead of bringing legislation to the floor to support our schools, teachers and students, the best the majority party can do is to fast-track a bill that would require cursive instruction,” Neubauer said. That bill — AB 3 — passed 51-46 with Reps. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart), Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) and David Steffen (R-Howard) joining Democrats to vote against it.
Test scores
Another bill focused on reversing changes to standards on state tests that were approved by the DPI last year. GOP lawmakers slammed State Superintendent Jill Underly, who is running for reelection against Republican-backed education consultant Brittany Kinser, for approving the changes in the first place.
“Something is wrong in our communication system. It is not a lack of resources. It’s a lack of willpower to do something about the problems that we know are obvious because it is the fact that we have kids who can’t read,” Vos said. He added that only lawmakers should be allowed to “dumb down” the state’s standards.
Vos said there was only one person — referencing Underly — that “needs to pay a price” and “hopefully she will in April.”
Wisconsin students take standardized tests each year including the Forward Exam for third graders through eighth graders and the ACT and PreACT Secure for high school students.
Underly approved changes to the standards last year that included new terms — “developing,” “approaching,” “meeting” and “advanced” — to describe student achievement. Previously, the terms were “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” and “advanced.” The changes also included new cut scores — which are the test scores cutoffs needed to qualify to be placed in each performance level.
Underly and DPI have defended the changes, saying they were necessary to more accurately measure achievement; that educators and other stakeholders worked together to create the new measures with Underly signing off; and that it’s too late to take the state back to 2019-20 standards.
Republican lawmakers said the changes “lowered” state standards and were an attempt to “cook the books.”
AB 1 directs DPI to use score ranges and qualitative terms used on school report cards for the 2019-2020 school year and to tie the Forward exam score ranges and pupil performance categories to those set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
“There’s no legislative oversight on the scoring and assessment of our kids, so this bill will establish that,” bill coauthor Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Caledonia) said at a press conference.
“We will be once again allowed to compare ourselves to other states — let us know who’s doing well, are we on pace with them or not,” Wittke said. “Then it provides legislative oversight, so the only time these scores can be adjusted or changed is when we actually legislate.”
Rep. Angelina M. Cruz (D-Racine), who has worked as an educator for the last 20 years, said during floor debate that a variety of student assessments are used to measure students’ learning with each serving a “unique purpose” and reflecting the “expertise of professional educators.” She said that goes for the state tests as well and said the updates to standards weren’t made in a “vacuum,” noting that this isn’t the first time DPI has made changes and it shouldn’t be the last.
“Education is dynamic,” Cruz said. “The disconnect between the reality of classroom teaching and this body and the understanding of assessments has never been more clear… This bill is not about improving education. This bill is about playing political games.”
Cruz said lawmakers would be better served fully funding the state’s public schools.
During floor debate, Wittke said that Democrats were repeating political talking points by talking about increasing funding for public schools.
The bill passed 55-44 along party lines with Republicans for and Democrats against it.
Ban cell phones
Lawmakers also passed a bill that would mandate cell phone bans in schools statewide.
Under AB 2, school boards must require districts to adopt cell phone ban policies in their schools during instructional time. Policies would need to be implemented by July 2026 and would need to include certain exceptions in emergencies, cases involving student’s health care, individualized education program (IEP) or 504 plan and for educational purposes.
Kitchens said it was a “modest” proposal and would help schools enforce policies if they already have them and get other school districts on the same page.
“Part of that is putting them away when it’s time to do work,” Kitchens said, adding that the bill would provide a “unified” approach for the state. During the 40 minutes of debate on the bill, some lawmakers in the Assembly chamber could be seen with their phones out.
Of the 320 school districts that participated in DPI’s 2024-25 State Digital Learning survey approximately 90% of districts reported already having some sort of restrictive cell phone policy in place.
Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwautosa) said she thinks the original intent of the bill was genuine in trying to address challenges posed by phones in classrooms. However, she noted that it wouldn’t apply to the state’s private and charter schools that participate in voucher programs. Vining said the bill was modeled after legislation in Indiana, but Wisconsin Republicans intentionally carved out the voucher schools.
Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwautosa) called attention during floor debate to the fact that the cell phone ban requirement wouldn’t apply to voucher schools. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
“It’s not fair when the concerns of voucher lobbyists are considered valid by Republicans in the Legislature that while the same concerns are ignored when they come from public schools,” Vining said.
Kitchens said the issue shouldn’t be partisan and noted that Louisiana, a red state, and New York, a blue state, both have strict statewide cell phone ban policies.
The bill passed 53-45 with Rep. Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander) joining Democrats against.
Materials inspections within 14 days
AB 5, which would require school districts to comply with requests within 14 days, passed 54-43, also on a party-line vote, with Republicans for and Democrats against.
Parents can already submit open records requests to school districts to receive school materials. The bill adds that entities should respond “as soon as practicable and without delay.”
Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) said during the press conference that the bill seeks to help parents get information about materials more quickly. She noted that there are no time requirements included in state statute for responding to open records requests.
“I’m old enough to remember a time in our Wisconsin schools where our schools were begging parents to become engaged and then there came a huge fracture when COVID-19 hit,” Dittrich said. Some parents, she said, aren’t having their requests fulfilled before their child is out of the class. “[The bill] works at bridging this gap between schools and families so they can work together for the benefit of our students.”
This is the third time lawmakers have introduced a bill to implement a time frame for complying. In the 2021-23 session, the bill passed the Legislature and Evers vetoed it. Last session, the bill passed the Assembly and never received a vote in the Senate
Other laws in Wisconsin include one that requires a list of textbooks be filed with the school board clerk every year on an annual basis. Another state statute requires school boards to provide the complete human growth and development curriculum and all instructional materials for inspection to parents who request it.
Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said the bill is unnecessary given the current state laws.
“It’s trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist,” Hong said.
Requiring 70% of money to go to “classroom” expenses
AB 6 would require school boards in Wisconsin to spend a minimum of 70% of operating money on direct classroom expenditures and limit annual compensation increases for school administrators to the average percent increase provided to teachers in the school district.
An amendment to the bill would clarify that “direct classroom expenditures” would not include costs for administration, food services, transportation, instructional support including media centers, teacher training and student support such as nurses and school counselors. Those costs would need to fall under the other 30% of spending.
Rep. Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere) said the state has “a system that fails to put the money in the classroom where the education is happening” and said the bill would implement “guardrails” for school districts to ensure money is going to classrooms and teachers.
Rep. Joan Fitzgerald (D-Fort Atkinson) said she was voting against the bill — and others on the calendar — because they appeared to be written without “meaningful input” from teachers, administrators, superintendents, parents, students or community members.
“I’m here to let you know that if you want support in the educational community for any education bill, you should do your homework,” Fitzgerald said, “including having conversations with the public and reaching across the aisle.”
Fitzgerald said Franklin’s bill would take away local control from school districts and school boards and criticized the bill for including “vague” wording and “undefined terms,” saying the bills are unserious.
“What about all the additional staff needed to meet the special needs of my students — people like speech pathologists, nurses, counselors? People I could not have done my job without,” Fitzgerald said. “That definition does include athletic programs…. Does it include bus transportation to get to games because I’ve heard that actual bus transportation is not included as a direct class transmission? Although I’ll admit I’m incredibly confused about that one, since I would not have had kids in my classroom in my rural district without bus transportation.”
Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) called the proposal an “arbitrary, one size fits all budget crackdown that limits our ability to meet moral and constitutional obligations.”
The bill passed 53-44 with only Republican support.
The Assembly also passed AB 4, which would require civics instruction in K-12 schools, in a 52-46 vote. Sortwell and Goeben voted against the bill with Democrats.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan talks Wednesday morning about programs in Wisconsin that could be affected by Republican proposals to cut the federal budget. Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), left, and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton), right, also took part in the state Capitol press conference. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
As the Republican majority in Congress begins work on legislation to renew and expand the 2017 federal tax cut, Wisconsin Democrats met with reporters Wednesday to argue that the measure will have a devastating impact on the public.
The U.S. House has begun work on a budget reconciliation bill — complex legislation that will encompass a broad swath of federal programs. President Donald Trumpendorsed the effort on X Wednesday.
Senate Democrats at a Washington, D.C., press conference, including Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin,warned of “massive cuts” to Medicaid on the horizon Wednesday if the package is enacted, notwithstanding Trump’s comments this week that Medicare and Medicaid “won’t be touched.”
In Madison, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Town of Vermont) along with Democratic leaders in the state Legislature gathered in the state Capitol Assembly parlor, where they focused not just on Medicaid but on a host of other programs that they said were important to Wisconsin.
House Republicans are seeking a $1.5 trillion cut in spending over 10 years, Pocan said, while raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, with the goal of a $4.5 trillion tax cut over 10 years.
Calculations by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found thatsavings from extending the 2017 tax cuts enacted in Trump’s first term would favor the richest 1% of taxpayers most dramatically.
“So this is about a tax cut for the wealthiest,” Pocan said. “It’s about a transfer of money from programs that affect the middle class and those aspiring to be in the middle class to the wealthiest — so that the rich will get even richer.”
Budget reconciliation bill
Under the budget reconciliation process, Pocan explained, Republicans have assigned spending targets to U.S. House committees for the agencies in their purview. The House Energy and Commerce Committee alone has been instructed to find $880 billion in cuts, Pocan said — and Medicaid is the largest program under the committee’s jurisdiction.
“And you know, really the better way to describe Medicaid is — that’s funding for opioid treatment, that’s funding for mental health, that’s funding for nursing home care, for maternity and infant care, help for people with disabilities, and a whole lot more,” Pocan said. “So it’s really about programs that affect people in Wisconsin.”
Medicaid serves more than 1 million people in Wisconsin, Pocan said, including one-third of Wisconsin children, 45% of working age people living with disabilities and 55% of nursing home residents.
Proposals circulating in Washington would cut $230 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). “That would result in about a 23% cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP],” Pocan said. Some 702,000 Wisconsinites “benefit from the SNAP program, and it really is at risk.”
Pocan scoffed at the idea that a project to cut government spending, headed by Elon Musk, was intended to promote government efficiency. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is not an official federal agency.
“DOGE is something that was created to find waste, fraud and abuse in government,” Pocan said. “The reality is, that is a fraud. It is really about finding $4.5 trillion ultimately to have a tax cut.”
Lawmakers hear from anxious voters
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said she and her colleagues in the Legislature are hearing daily from constituents anxious about the prospect of federal cutbacks.
“We are getting calls from concerned Wisconsinites about whether they will lose access to their health care or housing,” Neubauer said. “We hear those stories every day, and we know that the actions that Trump is taking at the federal level have real impacts, and we are going to do everything we can to protect the people of Wisconsin from these attacks.”
Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, the Senate minority leader, said she’s heard from farmers, parents and Medicaid recipients, among others, worried about changes in Washington.
“What happens in Congress over the next few weeks and months matters,” Hesselbein said. She urged Wisconsin voters to let their congressional representatives know about concerns they have.
“Contact Ron Johnson,” the Republican U.S. Senator from Oshkosh, Hesselbein said. “Let them know these real stories and what that’s going to mean to the people in our community. People are upset, they are worried. They’ve had enough, and we need to stop the madness.”
Impoverished students and veterans’ health
Speakers who joined Pocan highlighted the direct impact of other programs that have been targeted for reduction.
Title I funds go to school districts with a large number of children living in poverty, while the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides additional aid to schools for teaching students with disabilities. Title I directs about $235 million a year to Wisconsin and IDEA about $271 million, Pocan said, and both have been targeted for reductions.
“Title I funding is a lifeline to my school right now, and for millions of students across America,” said Elizabeth O’Leary, a special education teacher in Madison. “These funds provide crucial support for instruction in reading, math, as well as special programs, after-school initiatives and summer learning opportunities.”
O’Leary described students with disabilities and students living in extreme poverty.
“Our school team works together to meet the basic needs of our students and also to teach them,” she said, adding that the school where she works has many students facing those and other difficulties.
“And while these students’ lives are difficult, they are so magnificent and they deserve the opportunity to learn and thrive,” O’Leary said. “Simply put, our students would not get the support they need, and staff would lose their jobs, without Title I funding.”
Other Trump administration actions outside the budget bill are also hitting Wisconsin, Pocan said, such as layoffs in the Department of Veterans Affairs health system.
Yvonne Duesterhoeft, a U.S. Air Force veteran, said the VA health system is a trusted health care provider for thousands of former service members.
“I wish everyone in America could have access to the type of efficient and comprehensive health care that I and many veterans have come to know in recent decades,” Duesterhoeft said.
Decades ago, she acknowledged, the system was underfunded and often indifferent to the needs of returning wartime veterans, but that has changed as Vietnam-era vets campaigned for, and won, important improvements in VA health care quality.
“We must guard against the recent and concerted fast-track effort to make VA health care terrible again,” she said.
Legislative Democrats led by Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer introduced a package of bills aimed at helping with the cost of prescription drugs, school meals and housing. Photo by: Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
Legislative Democrats started to present their vision for helping with high costs in Wisconsin Thursday, announcing bills that aim to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, food for school children and housing for low-income homeowners and renters.
The proposals — bundled together in what the bill authors called the “Lowering Costs, Improving Lives” package — are the first from legislative Democrats this session, who are back with bolstered numbers. With the most recent elections, Assembly Democrats added 10 seats, bringing their caucus to 45 out of 99 members and Senate Democrats gained 4 seats for 15 out of 33 total members. Republicans still hold majorities in both houses.
Freshman Rep. Ryan Spaude (D-Ashwaubenon) said at a press conference that the package of bills is “just the first of many proposals to come that will help Wisconsinites, who are struggling with the cost of living.”
At a press conference, Spaude introduced the first bill, aimed at alleviating the cost of prescription drugs and increasing price transparency.
Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison), the lead Assembly author on the bill, told the Wisconsin Examiner that Democrats wanted to come up with “targeted” and “tangible” legislative solutions for addressing costs.
“Drugs are a thing that hits us all and it doesn’t matter if you’re middle class or even if you’re very economically secure,” Subeck said. “Whether [it’s] an inhaler, whether it’s blood pressure medicine, whether it’s medicine for a complex condition, like psoriatic arthritis, people are on these medications all their life. It’s not just a one-time sudden expense. It is an expense that hits you over and over and over again every month when you fill your prescription.”
According to a KFF poll, about 28% of Americans who take prescription drugs report difficulty affording their medications. The poll also found that about three in 10 adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed at some point in the past year because of the cost, including 21% who say they have not filled a prescription, 21% who took an over-the counter drug instead and 12% who say they have cut pills in half or skipped a dose because of the cost.
The bill would seek to address the issue through a few avenues. First, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance would be required to take several actions including creating an Office of Prescription Affordability to administer new initiatives related to consumer assistance and prescription drug and supply chain regulation, studying the viability of creating a state prescription drug purchasing entity and awarding grants to health care providers to develop a tool for prescribers to disclose the cost of prescription drugs for patients.
It would also authorize Wisconsin’s drug repository program to partner with other states’ programs to allow participating pharmacies in Wisconsin to receive drugs from other states and vice versa.
The proposal also seeks to make insulin more accessible by prohibiting health insurance policies and governmental self-insured health plans from charging more than $35 for insulin and requiring insulin manufacturers to establish a program to ensure those in urgent need access insulin at a pharmacy.
Some of the other provisions in the bill include allowing pharmacists to count up to 10 hours of volunteer work at free or charitable clinics toward continuing education requirements, eliminate cost-sharing payments for prescription drugs for BadgerCare enrollees and creating a prescription drug affordability board.
The policy proposals aren’t new to the Wisconsin Legislature as the ideas came from the recommendations of a 2019 task force organized by Gov. Tony Evers to study reducing prescription drug prices. Subeck sat on the committee alongside other lawmakers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, health care providers and retailers.
During the task force, Subeck said she heard “the very real and truly heartbreaking stories of individuals who were deciding between buying food and filling their prescription, seniors who were skipping doses.”
Previous legislation to carry out some of the proposals has failed in the Republican-led Legislature. Subeck noted that a Republican, though he is no longer a member, was a part of the task force, and said she is hopeful her current Republican colleagues will “change their tune” this session to push the proposals forward.
“I get that there’s philosophical differences on different provisions but at the end of the day, I thought we all wanted to reduce costs. I thought we all wanted that,” Subeck said.
Reviving Healthy School Meals for All
The second bill — coauthored by Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) — would use state money to provide free school meals to all Wisconsin students, including those at public and private schools.
Sen. Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi), who introduced the proposal at the press conference, said feeding children is essential for helping them succeed in school and supporting their mental health.
“An unacceptable number of kids today are facing hunger in our state,” Keyeski said. “No child should be in school with an empty stomach or worrying about where their next meal is coming from.”
Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), who comes to the Legislature with an education advocacy background and some experience working in a public school, echoed this point in an interview with the Examiner. He said he used to notice that students who had behavior and attention span changes during the school day hadn’t had a nutritious meal.
“My personal experience is that there is no shortage of difficulty that kids have, that when you dig into it you then find out that it’s been a while since they had their last meal,” Phelps said. “It’s heartbreaking, but it’s not rare.”
Keyeski also emphasized that the proposal could help families with costs.
“If this proposal were implemented — and I sure hope it is — a Wisconsin family could save approximately $154 per month per child. That’s $1,848 annually,” Keyeski said. “With this bill, we have an opportunity to help students thrive and lower costs for working families at a time when every dollar counts.”
The amounts noted by Keyeski were calculated using the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Paid Lunch Equity Tool. According to the tool, an average school meal for the 2024-25 school year costs $3.85, and if a family were purchasing two meals a day for 20 days, the cost would be about $154 per month per child.
President of the School Nutrition Association of Wisconsin and mother of two Kaitlin Tauriainen said the savings would allow her to put more money back into her community.
Beyond the economic impact, however, Tauriainen said universal free school meals would help level the playing field for students. She said even with current programs there are students who may need the help, but don’t qualify or who qualify but don’t eat the meals due to the stigma that can be attached.
“We have kids who qualify for free meals who aren’t taking them because they’re afraid someone will figure out they’re low-income. We focus deeply on the mental health of our students, but then put them in a position where they’d rather skip a much needed meal than risk the off chance that a peer might find out that they’re low income, [and] share it on social media,” Tauriainen said.
Expand Homestead Tax Credit
Democrats’ final proposal aims to provide tax relief through expanding the homestead tax credit, which supports low-income homeowners and renters.
Currently, the homestead tax credit is available to households making less than $24,680, including low-income workers, people over age 62 and people with disabilities. The maximum credit currently allowed is $1,168.
Democrats want to raise the maximum qualifying income to $35,000 starting in the 2025 tax year, and index the income limit and other factors used to determine the credit amount to keep pace with inflation.
“It is especially critical for seniors who are living on a fixed income, who often do not have the resources to keep up with rising costs. Inflation has increased over the last several years. This tax credit has failed to keep up. Our bill would expand the Homestead Tax Credit to support Wisconsinites who are struggling with the cost of housing,” Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said.
Subeck said the three proposals span issues that hit every Wisconsinite.
“It doesn’t matter where in the state you live — where you fall on the economic spectrum. It doesn’t matter whether you’re old or young, all of us are impacted by prescription drug costs. All of us are impacted by housing costs and all of us are impacted by food costs,” Subeck said.
Assembly Republicans speaking about the voter ID constitutional amendment proposal at a press conference Tuesday. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
The Wisconsin State Assembly passed a proposal Tuesday that could enshrine voter ID requirements in the state constitution if the majority of Wisconsin voters support it. The passage sets it up to go to Wisconsin voters in April — on the same ballot as a consequential election for the state Supreme Court.
The proposal passed 54 to 45 along party lines, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats against. It was first introduced last week and quickly received public hearings before being passed by the Senate.
Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston) said during a press conference ahead of the session that he authored the proposal to “ensure that the people of Wisconsin have full confidence in the security and integrity of Wisconsin elections.” He noted that voter ID tends to poll well.
Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) said that there are “plenty of reasons” to pass the proposal, including being able to get it to the voters for the next available election in April. Wisconsin doesn’t have fall elections this year, so the next opportunity after that would be in 2026.
According to the proposal, the question will be asked to voters as follows: “Shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?”
Wisconsin is one of nine states in the U.S. that already have a strict voter ID requirement. However, lawmakers are taking the additional step of attempting to enshrine it in the state constitution for fear the Wisconsin Supreme Court could overturn the existing law.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has had a liberal majority since August 2023, and the Court may soon consider overturning other laws including Act 10, which ended collective bargaining rights for most public employees, and a challenge to an 1849 law that has been interpreted as a felony ban on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) said during floor debate that lawmakers “have been getting lawsuited out of relevance” and that they must “resist our laws becoming lawsuits.”
“We are the lawmaking body in the state of Wisconsin,” Knodl said.
With Justice Ann Walsh Bradley retiring at the end of her term this year, a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is up for grabs and puts the ideological balance of the Court in play. Judge Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel, a former attorney general, are running for the seat.
Democrats accused Republicans of wanting the voter ID measure on the ballot because of the Supreme Court race, and were critical, saying there are other priorities that lawmakers could be acting on.
“I’m disappointed that the majority has decided to make this the very first piece of policy that the Assembly takes up this session,” Assembly Minority Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said. “It is a transparent effort to preserve power for one party and to give an advantage at the ballot box in April.”
Neubauer said the amendment was to the “detriment” of voters “who have a more difficult time, obtaining an ID and casting their ballot.”
“We know that voter ID laws are frequently enforced in a discriminatory manner and that they disproportionately impact people of color, those with disabilities and people living in rural communities,” Neubauer said.
Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) said the proposal is about using the constitutions to “take away the rights of people” and that there are people in her community who can’t get an ID.
“This is about voter suppression,” Sinicki said.
Republicans pushed back on the arguments, saying voter ID laws don’t infringe on people’s ability to cast their ballots and that the proposal was ready to go.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) pointed out that “zero bills” have been introduced by the Democrats so far this session in response to the accusations that Republicans were taking action on the wrong issue.
Chair of the Assembly Campaigns and Elections Committee Rep. Dave Maxey said there has been an evolution of identification throughout history and said voter ID was just one step.
“Who knows? One day, we might have microchips planted in our arms to prove who we are. I’m not advocating for that future this year… In Wisconsin, voter ID requirements are already helping to save our elections, but enshrining these laws into our constitution would further affirm our commitment to election integrity.” He said the amendment will “preserve these protections for generations to come.”
Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) argued that voters don’t face significant obstacles to voting due to the voter ID laws, and pointed to Wisconsin’s voter turnout rates as proof. About 73% of Wisconsin voters cast ballots in the 2024 November elections.
“This is about making sure that a rogue Court cannot strike down a common sense law that is supported by over 80% of Americans from across the political spectrum, so rather than trying to scare Wisconsinites with outlandish claims of voter suppression, and rather than assuming that Wisconsin voters are not smart enough to obtain an ID, I encourage our colleagues… to actually look at the data.” Nedweski said.
In response to the Assembly floor session, Gov. Tony Evers repeated his recent pitch to lawmakers to allow the voters themselves to place constitutional amendments on the ballot.
“Poll after poll has shown Wisconsinites support common sense policies like protecting reproductive freedom, expanding BadgerCare, legalizing marijuana and gun safety reforms, among other critical efforts. Republicans have repeatedly rejected those policies, often with no deliberation, debate, or vote. That’s wrong,” Evers said. “If Republican lawmakers are going to continue ignoring the will of the people and legislating by constitutional amendment, then they should give the people of Wisconsin the power to pass the policies they want to see at the ballot box.”
Gov. Tony Evers announced the creation of the Office of Violence Prevention. Later, that day Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said it wouldn't be effective. Evers and Vos pictured at Evers' 2024 State of the State. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Tuesday to create the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention in response to the December shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison where a teacher and a student died and six others were injured.
Evers spoke about troubling gun death statistics in Wisconsin and across the country. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, the rate of gun deaths has increased 54% from 2014 to 2023 in Wisconsin, compared to a 34% increase nationwide. A recent report by the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE) Educational Fund, a leading gun violence prevention organization, found that guns claimed the lives of 830 Wisconsinites, including 529 firearm suicides and 277 firearm homicides, in 2022.
“Violence is a statewide problem with statewide consequences for people and families across our state,” Evers said at a press conference Tuesday morning, adding that people across Wisconsin deserve a comprehensive response. He said that the Office of Violence Prevention will be one important step in combating the problem.
Evers is directing $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money for the office, which will be housed in the Department of Administration. Its work will include administering grants to school districts, firearm dealers, law enforcement agencies, nonprofits and government agencies to support violence and gun violence prevention efforts. Those who receive grants could use the money for expenses including supporting law enforcement investigations, using crime gun intelligence tools, implementing suicide prevention education to identify people in crisis, promoting and administering safe storage and gun buyback programs and implementing suicide prevention and firearm safety training in schools.
Other responsibilities of the office will include helping coordinate state and local agencies to “ensure a whole-of-government approach to prevent violence, including gun violence statewide,” providing technical assistance to local violence prevention and intervention efforts; and developing public education campaigns to promote safer communities and identifying opportunities to improve statewide policies or laws.
While the office will be launched using federal money, Evers is proposing that Wisconsin make the office permanent in the 2025-27 state budget with ongoing state funding, but Republican lawmakers appeared opposed to the effort.
The proposal is unlikely to get the support of Republican lawmakers, who said the office wouldn’t help the issue.
“It takes a bureaucrat to think that another government agency is actually going to be effective,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Racine) said about the office Tuesday afternoon. “I think what we need to do is to increase funding for our police and public safety services, not create a whole bunch of touchy-feely bureaucrats that are going to go around wasting time, wasting money.”
Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) also appeared skeptical that the office would be effective in helping prevent violence, and pointed to a similar local office in Milwaukee, saying it hasn’t worked.
“Let me get this straight, Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention was so ineffective at preventing violence that they fired the director and renamed the office,” Wanggaard said in a statement. The office is now called the Office of Community Wellness and Safety, and its director recently resigned. “Now, Governor Evers wants to replicate that failure at the state level?”
Evers said that he will also propose the “most sweeping, comprehensive package of gun safety reform and violence prevention efforts” that he’s ever introduced while in office in his 2025 budget. He said additional details will be announced in the coming weeks.
“In 2025, that just cannot continue to be the case,” Evers said.
“I have no problem making sure that criminals are not able to access firearms, but I also want to make sure that if people have not committed a crime, they are not artificially held back from legally obtaining a firearm to protect themselves,” Vos said.
Democratic state lawmakers and local officials expressed support for Evers’ proposals.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (R-Racine) said that the office will help move Wisconsin forward when it comes to preventing gun violence.
“We should be doing everything in our power to keep our communities safe,” Neubauer said. “It’s far past time we take action on common sense policies to build a safer Wisconsin.”
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the issue of gun violence is a “public health” problem. She said the city has seen improvement through its violence prevention team, which in the last year helped over 100 people, including some who engaged in violence, some who were victims of violence and others who were affected by violence. She said the team works to address the root causes of violence and the aftermath of violence.
“We do not have to accept living like this,” Rhodes-Conway said. “Violence is contagious and if you can contain it by supporting the folks who are touched, we have a chance to reduce violence in our communities.”
Rhodes-Conway said she was grateful that Evers was creating and funding the statewide office to help support Madison’s efforts as well as other communities across the state.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said that he was “deeply grateful” to Evers for making violence prevention a statewide priority and is looking forward to working with his administration to help make the county and Wisconsin safe.
“Gun violence continues to devastate communities across Milwaukee County and beyond,” Crowley said. “However, we have seen encouraging progress, including reduced homicide rates and positive outcomes from targeted violence prevention efforts, such as the Advance Peace program.”
When the Wisconsin Legislature returns to work in January, Republicans will still be in charge but will have the narrowest majorities since taking control in 2011. That’s giving Democrats, including Gov. Tony Evers, optimism that both sides will be able to work together better than they have since Evers took office six years ago.
Both sides are eyeing the state’s massive budget surplus, which sits at more than $4 billion. What to do with that money will drive debate over the next two-year budget, which will be written in 2025, while questions hang in the air about whether Evers plans to run for a third term in 2026 and how the state will interact with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
Here is a look at some of the biggest pending issues:
New dynamic in the Legislature
Democrats gained seats in the November election because of redrawn maps ordered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Republican majority now sits at 54-45 in the Assembly and 18-15 in the Senate. Democrats have 10 more seats in the Assembly than last session and four more in the Senate and are hopeful about gaining the majority after the 2026 election.
“We have already seen a shift in the Capitol due to the new maps,” Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Greta Neubauer told The Associated Press.
She and other Democrats predict it will lead to more pressure from rank-and-file Republicans in competitive districts to move to the middle and compromise with Democrats.
“Everybody understands, at least at this point, that we need to work together, pull together,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told the AP. “And it’s important to get some things done.”
Pushing back against Trump
Democrats say they have been talking with Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul about how Wisconsin can push back against the incoming Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations. But Democrats say they are also looking at other ways the state can fight Trump’s policies on issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
“We’re worried about a lot of the things that former and future President Trump might do, especially when it comes to deportation and immigration,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he would support Trump’s efforts to deport people who are in the country illegally and commit crimes.
Republicans prioritize cutting taxes. Democrats are open
Republicans passed a $3.5 billion tax cut that Evers gutted to just $175 million with his veto in the last budget. With another large surplus, Republicans say they want to try again.
“People struggling to pay their bills,” LeMahieu said. “We heard that in our local races. And so we want to help help help families out there. We have the money to do it. And that’s going to be our number one priority.”
Both he and Vos said they would like a tax cut of around $2 billion.
Democrats say that they aren’t opposed to cutting taxes, but that they want it to be targeted to helping the middle and lower classes and families.
“We are not interested in tax cuts that primarily benefit rich Wisconsinites or corporations,” Neubauer said. “But we are certainly open to tax cuts that help those who are struggling to make ends meet.”
K-12 education funding
The state superintendent of schools, Jill Underly, proposed spending more than $4 billion on K-12 schools in her budget proposal, which is subject to legislative approval. That’s almost certainly not going to happen, both Republicans and Democrats said.
“We’re not going to spend $4 billion on education, I can guarantee you that right now,” LeMahieu said.
While Democrats say they are prioritizing education funding, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to match that,” Hesselbein said of the $4 billion request.
Universities of Wisconsin
Leaders of the cash-strapped Universities of Wisconsin have asked for $855 million in additional funding in the next budget, nearly an 11% increase. System President Jay Rothman says schools need the money to stave off tuition increases, cover raises, subsidize tuition, and keep two-year branch campuses open in the face of declining enrollment and flat state aid.
Evers has promised to include the request in his budget, but Republican leaders said they would not approve that much, and Democrats also said it was a goal that was unlikely to be met.
LeMahieu and Vos both said UW would not get what it wants.
“We’re going to need to see some substantial change in how they’re doing their programing,” LeMahieu said. “We can’t just keep spending more and more on a system that’s educating less and less people.”
Marijuana, health care and other priorities
Vos said he intends to create a state-level task force to improve government efficiency, similar to what Trump created at the national level dubbed DOGE. He also supports passing a bill that would allow for the processing of absentee ballots the day before Election Day, a measure that’s had bipartisan support in the past but failed to pass.
Democrats say they will continue to push for ways to expand and reduce costs for child care, health care for new mothers and prescription drugs. Both Republicans and Democrats say they want to do more to create affordable housing. The future of the state’s land stewardship program also hangs in in the balance after the state Supreme Court said Republicans were illegally blocking funding of projects.
Democrats also say they hope to revive efforts to legalize medical marijuana, an effort that was backed by some Republicans but that failed to pass last session.
LeMahieu predicted the slimmer Republican majorities will make it more difficult for any marijuana bill to pass because some lawmakers “are dead set against it.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
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