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.
The Wisconsin Assembly voted along party lines Tuesday to pass legislation penalizing counties with sheriff's departments that don't cooperate with ICE, the federal Immigration Customers and Enforcement agency. (Photo via ICE)
Legislation passed the Assembly Tuesday that would claw back state aid from counties where the sheriff doesn’t cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement service (ICE).
The legislation would require sheriffs to check the citizenship status of people being held in jail on felony charges and notify federal immigration enforcement officials if citizenship cannot be verified.
The state Senate, meanwhile, approved a bill that would block a judicial investigation of a police officer involved in the death of a person unless there’s new evidence or evidence that has not been previously addressed in court.
The immigration-related bill,AB 24, passed the Assembly on a straight party-line vote.
In addition to requiring citizenship checks, the bill would also require sheriffs to comply with detainers and administrative warrants received from the federal Department of Homeland Security for people in jail. Counties would be required to certify annually that they were following the law and would lose 15% of their shared revenue payments from the state if they were not.
Proponents described the measure as enhancing safety.
“We have the opportunity to emulate in many ways the best practices that are already happening across our country,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), the bill’s author, said at a news conference before the floor session. “We have seen since [President] Donald Trump took office that we have had a dramatic reduction in the number of illegal crossings that are happening at the southern border.”
Opponents said the bill would divert local law enforcement resources while driving up mistrust and fear among immigrants, regardless of their legal status.
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) said the legislation was “big government” and interferes with local counties’ policy decisions. It also undermines the presumption of innocence for a person charged with a crime, potentially strains resources for local jails, and could lead to holding people “longer than is necessary,” he said.
But he added that those weren’t his top reasons for opposing the bill.
“I’m voting against this because it’s wrong, because this legislation rips people from our communities and families based on the mere accusation of a crime, because our Republicans colleagues’ eagerness to make themselves tools in Trump’s attacks on immigrants, refugees, visitors and those who oppose him is vile,” Clancy said.
On the floor, Vos replied that he agreed with Clancy about the presumption of innocence, and that he also agreed with other lawmakers who said the vast majority of immigrants are not guilty of any crime.
“But I would also say that there is a burden of proof on both sides,” Vos said. “It’s not entirely on just the side of the government to ensure that you follow the law.”
Claiming broad bipartisan support for the measure, Vos said Democratic opposition was “clearly out of step, even with your base.”
Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) responded that he hasn’t heard constituents ask for the legislation or anything like it.
“They are asking us explicitly to make life tangibly easier for working class Wisconsinites,” he said, “and they have not been asking me to engage in redundant acts of political theater to satisfy the whims of a rogue president engaging in a campaign of intimidation and mass deportation that includes constituents in western Wisconsin.”
In Wisconsin, if a district attorney chooses not to file criminal charges, a judge may hold a hearing — known as a John Doe investigation — on the matter and file a complaint based on the findings of that hearing.
The legislation,SB 25, “simply says, if that case goes before a DA, and then the DA justifies their actions and they are deemed to be innocent of any wrongdoing … that case is closed and it is in a file never to be seen again,” said the bill’s author, Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield), on the Senate floor.
Hutton said the legislation allows a judicial investigation to proceed, however, “if a new piece of evidence is presented that wasn’t known before, or an unused piece of evidence is found.”
But Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) questioned carving out an exemption to the state’s John Doe law. “This bill does not apply to any other crime in Wisconsin,” she said.
Lawmakers, Drake added, should do more to address “the environment and the situations” that have led to officer-involved deaths.
Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee), said testimony at the bill’s public hearing discussed only two attempts to invoke the John Doe proceeding after a prosecutor declined to file charges in an officer-involved death — and one of them involved former Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah, who killed three people in five years.
Allowing for a John Doe investigation in an officer-involved death “protects the public,” Johnson said. “What it does is put a second eye on those cases that deserve a second look.”
The Senate passed the bill 19-13. Two Democrats, Sens. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton) and Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi), voted in favor along with 17 Republicans. Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto), who also opposed the bill in committee, joined the remaining Democrats who voted against the measure.
Reversing DPI testing standards: On a vote of 18-14 along party lines, the Senate concurred in an Assembly bill that would reverse a change that the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) made last year totesting standards.
AB 1 would revert the state’s testing standards to what they were in 2019 and link standards to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Republicans voting for the bill said that the DPI change “lowered” standards — a claim DPI and Democrats rejected.
Direct primary care passes — but Democrats object: The Senate also voted 18-14 on party lines to passSB 4, legislation that would clear the way for health care providers who participate indirect primary care arrangements. Under direct primary care, doctors treat patients who subscribe to their services for a monthly fee as an alternative to health insurance for primary care.
An amendment Democrats offered would have added a list of enumerated civil rights protections for direct primary care patients. That list was in a direct primary care bill in the 2023-24 legislative session that passed the Assembly but stalled in the Senate when two organizations protested language protecting “gender identity.”
After the amendment was rejected, also on a party-line vote, Democrats voted against the final bill.
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.
For months, Republican lawmakers on the powerful Joint Finance Committee have cast doubt on the reauthorization of Wisconsin’s land stewardship program following a July state Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the legislative committee from blocking projects after the funds have been budgeted.
A 2023 Wisconsin Watch investigation found that the GOP-controlled committee had increasingly used a secretive “pocket veto” power since Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was elected to block conservation projects under the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Lawmakers refused to take action on some projects, preventing them from moving forward.
The program has been funded at roughly $33 million annually since 2015 and is currently funded through 2026. But only $20.1 million of those funds were spent in fiscal year 2023-24, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
That $33 million allotment hardly stacks up to the amount the program used to be funded. In 2007, the program was reauthorized for another decade and allocated $86 million annually for land purchases, though that was reduced to $60 million a year in the 2011 budget, then $50 million in the 2013 budget before bottoming out at $33 million in the 2015 budget.
Since the 6-1 ruling — with two conservative justices joining the liberal majority — GOP lawmakers have seemed poised to let a popular, bipartisan program die because they don’t have final say over spending on the projects.
“It’s unfortunate that Gov. Evers’ lawsuit (which resulted in the Supreme Court ruling) removed all accountability of the stewardship program, which helped ensure local voices were heard and that taxpayer resources were spent wisely,” Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, co-chair of the JFC, said in a statement. “The entire program is now in jeopardy.”
In an interview with the Cap Times, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the odds that Republicans would renew the program were less than 50%.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, speaks to the Wisconsin Assembly during a floor session Jan. 14, 2025, at the State Capitol in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
But JFC vice chair Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc, told Wisconsin Watch that he is hopeful the program can continue and that nobody in his caucus wants the program to end.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure the program is sustainable for the future,” Kurtz said in an interview.
Since 1989, when the program began, the state has spent more than $23 million in stewardship funds in Kurtz’s 41st Assembly District. The program has funded nearly 330 projects in the district ranging from trail developments and campground upgrades to habitat protection and boat launch construction.
In his executive budget proposal last month, Evers proposed a 10-year renewal of the program with a $1 billion price tag. Kurtz said the budget committee isn’t going to adopt that proposal, but he’s committed to seeing the program reauthorized for “the next couple of years.” He said every lawmaker has a Knowles-Nelson project “in their backyard” that they might not even know about.
“It is a large price tag,” Kurtz said. “But we do need to make the investments. The investments are valuable for the long-term conservation of Wisconsin.”
Following a series of listening sessions held in his district, state Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said attendees spoke in support of the program.
“I am supportive of the program and hope to see it continue, but many of my colleagues in the legislature have reservations,” Marklein, co-chair of the JFC, said in a statement.
Kurtz said it’s unfortunate the program has become a partisan fight in the Capitol and that some lawmakers are “negative” toward the program, adding that Knowles-Nelson is “more than just one project.”
Conservation advocacy groups like Gathering Waters have pushed back against the JFC’s threats to kill the program, which provides millions of dollars in grants to local governments and nonprofits.
“I think legislative leaders were certainly unhappy about losing that Supreme Court case in such an unambiguous way,” Charles Carlin, director of strategic initiatives for Gathering Waters, told Wisconsin Watch. “There is constantly a temptation for lawmakers to get pulled into partisan battles where politics becomes more about winning than it does about good policy.”
When asked if he would veto a state budget that eliminates funding for Knowles-Nelson, Evers said he would use his partial veto power to reject “that part of it.”
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Gov. Tony Evers delivers his state budget address on Feb. 18, 2025. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Wisconsin Policy Forum cautions state lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers to consider the state’s past financial hardships when writing the next state budget in a new brief released Friday.
The report considers the state’s current financial position, Evers’ budget proposal, potential wants from Republican lawmakers and outside factors, including federal funding uncertainty, to explore questions lawmakers may consider in the coming months. And it suggests the state could be nearing a dramatic turn in its fortunes.
Evers introduced a vast budget proposal last month, and the process is now in the hands of lawmakers, who are likely to throw out Evers’ version, host public hearings and then write their own proposal. Lawmakers will then need to pass the bill in the Senate and Assembly before it goes to Evers, who will either sign it as is, sign it with partial vetoes or veto the whole bill.
“Throughout the 2000s, the state carried almost no reserves, leaving it exposed to the terrible fury of the Great Recession,” the report states. “Most of today’s lawmakers were not in their current offices during that dark time, and did not face the multi-billion-dollar shortfalls that had to be bridged in both 2009 and 2011 at great cost and sacrifice by taxpayers, schools, local governments and public workers.”
The report notes that “prudent decisions” by Republican and Democratic leaders have helped bolster the state’s finances and put Wisconsin in a position to “weather a recession much more effectively.”
By the end of the current budget, the state’s budget surplus will have gone from $7.1 billion to $ 4.3 billion, and Republicans and Democrats are both looking at the remaining surplus to fund their priorities for the next budget. The state also has a $1.9 billion rainy day fund. The report noted that this balance is greater than the state had throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s.
Gov. Tony Evers has introduced a budget that would increase state spending by 19% to fund increased investments in K-12 education, health care, child care and transportation. It would cut taxes for low- and middle-income residents and raise them on the state’s highest earners.
The spending would be paid for using the budget surplus, federal funds and revenues from raising taxes on the wealthiest Wisconsin residents. Evers’ proposal would leave the state with $646 million. Evers has said he’s reserved that amount due to potential uncertainty about federal money, though he recently questioned whether that is enough.
“If adopted, Evers’ plan would leave the state with a two-year structural deficit of roughly $4 billion,” the report states. “This would make it difficult to balance the 2027-29 budget, even if the economy remains strong and does not succumb to recent drops in the stock market and consumer sentiment.”
Legislature’s contrasting priorities
The final budget will likely look vastly different.
Republican lawmakers have said that they are likely to throw out Evers’ entire proposal, and that they want to use the budget surplus to prioritize widespread tax cuts and one-time projects. Lawmakers said they may propose their tax cut plans to Evers ahead of the budget in a separate bill, which they want him to sign before the budget as a whole. Last session, Evers vetoed GOP proposals that would have cut income taxes by over $1 billion a year.
“The state’s main fund is now spending more than it takes in, and its budget reserves, while sizable, are shrinking,” the report states. “Meanwhile, the Democratic governor and GOP Legislature are eying the state’s reserves and offering tax and spending plans that would deplete it and potentially leave the state with future budget gaps.”
The report notes that bipartisan compromise will be necessary to find a balance among varying priorities.
“Elected officials will have to consider the advantages of retaining [the state’s] fiscal safeguards and weigh those concerns against priorities such as investing in education and holding down increases in local property taxes,” the report states. “At the moment, the two sides appear sharply divided, but it is worth remembering that they have overcome such obstacles in the past and may yet do so again.”
The report considers the uncertainty for federal money given actions in Washington by President Donald Trump and the Republican majority in Congress to cut federal spending.
Evers’ budget leans in part on $18 billion in federal funding for programs including Medicaid, research and financial aid at UW schools and transportation projects.
The report says two objectives — preserving state funds and using state revenues to replace federal funds that are lost — “might come into tension with one another, since state spending now to make up for any cuts would leave less of a financial cushion for the state in the future.”
School spending, child care
The report also considers the growing number of school referendum votes across the state and ways to slow them, and it says lawmakers will want to ask how “aggressively” they want to act in response to that trend. Evers has proposed tying revenue limits to inflation, increasing state per-pupil aid and special education funding.
“If all of these increases came to fruition, they would likely curb referenda and property tax increases,” the report states. “However, they would also sharply increase state spending and are unlikely to pass the Legislature as written.”
It also touches on the challenges facing the child care industry. Evers is proposing dedicating $480 million to invest in the industry to continue the Child Care Counts program, which provides money to child care providers to help them meet costs but will run out by July.
The report cites tens of thousands of parents unable to find care as well as large numbers of centers unable to fill all their openings for care for lack of staff.
“We highlight these sobering figures not to advocate for or against such an investment but to note that child care accounts for a sizable chunk of the overall economy. To make an impact on child care costs, access, and quality that families in particular would notice, policymakers would have to free up substantial resources within the state budget from one of a limited number of revenue options,” the report states.
Other potential avenues to address the child care industry’s needs include using the TANF block grant to tap federal funds, implementing a mechanism to split child care costs among families, employers and the state, and enacting tax incentives.
The report also considers Evers’ $500 million prison reform proposal to close Lincoln Hills School for boys and Copper Lake School for girls, renovate Waupun Correctional Institution and close Green Bay Correctional Institution. It notes that even if Evers’ plan was approved there could be some challenges to implementation given that rates of reconviction and re-arrest haven’t changed significantly.
“The governor’s ‘domino’ plan also requires many steps to fall into place correctly in order to reshape the state’s correctional system,” the report states. “If any step fails, the state’s prisons could remain overcrowded with even less time to find a solution.”
The report expects the budget will draw on the budget surplus in light of the state’s ongoing challenges. It cautions, however, that “taxpayers have good reason to watch both sides in this process carefully to ensure the final budget does not erode too many of the state’s hard-won financial gains.”
Rep. Robin Vos and Sen. Julian Bradley testified on a bill to verify the immigration status of people being held for a felony charge. Screenshot via WisEye.
Republican lawmakers argued Wednesday that the state needs to require local law enforcement to report people with felony charges to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they can’t verify citizenship as a way to support public safety.
Proposed legislation would require local sheriffs to verify the citizenship status of people in custody for a felony offense and notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if citizenship cannot be verified. It would also require sheriffs to comply with detainers and administrative warrants received from the federal Department of Homeland Security for people held in the county jail for a criminal offense. It comes as President Donald Trump and his administration have started to ramp up deportation of migrants in the U.S. without legal authorization and taken other steps to restrict U.S. immigration.
Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) emphasized during Assembly Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee hearing that their bill, AB 24, would only apply in cases of felony offenses.
“This seems to get dragged into a lot of other immigration policy, but I want to repeat individuals who are here illegally who commit felonies,” Bradley said.
“Let’s be clear again. This proposal will make it easier to remove dangerous criminals from our communities,” Bradley said. “It’s shocking to think that a handful in law enforcement and our government would rather protect felons than work with our federal partners to stop the flow of crime and drugs into our neighborhoods.” He added that he hoped to see bipartisan support for the bill.
The lawmakers said counties that don’t comply with ICE are putting other counties at risk.
Vos brought up a 2024 arrest by Prairie du Chien police of a Venezuelan immigrant who they said was affiliated with a gang and was charged with assaulting a mother and daughter. Republicans have repeatedly used the case to make political points about immigration.
“Prior to his arrest in Wisconsin, he was arrested in Minneapolis on suspicion of vehicle theft, he was booked into the Hennepin County Jail and soon released. Hennepin County, unfortunately, is listed as a non-cooperative facility,” Vos said. “Prompt ICE notification could have prevented this terrible crime from occurring right here in Wisconsin.”
A 2024 ICE report lists Dane and Milwaukee counties as “noncooperative institutions” in Wisconsin. Seven counties in the state currently have formal agreements with ICE to hold in jail immigrants without legal status. There were eight at one point, but Lafayette County ended its participation in ICE’s 287(g) program.
Under the bill, the county of a sheriff who does not comply would lose 15% of its shared revenue payments from the state in the next year. Compliance would need to be certified each year with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) questioned why an additional mandate on local law enforcement was necessary and pointed out the potential financial impact the bill could have on local officials. The financial impact to counties was pointed out as a concern in written testimony provided by Badger State Sheriffs’ Association.
“Law enforcement already has the opportunity to allocate their resources as they need,” McGuire said. “That’s why we elect sheriffs. We want to put them in a position so they can make those determinations for their local community, and instead we’re mandating that they comply with the federal government in this case, and we don’t really know what the local circumstances are.”
County governments are “already struggling with challenges and staffing and their financial circumstances, and then we threaten to harm them financially if they don’t [comply],” he added. “What are we gaining?”
Public safety, Bradley answered, adding that as long as sheriffs don’t “do what Milwaukee and Dane County are doing” then they “don’t have to worry about the claw back.”
Vos justified the penalty with a reference to the long delay by Milwaukee Public Schools in placing 25 police officers in schools required by the 2023 state shared revenue law. He said not including a penalty in that legislation was a “mistake.”
“If you want to enforce it, then there has to be a penalty,” Vos said.
The bill lists fifteen documents that could be used to verify the status of a person arrested, including a U.S. passport, a birth record issued by a state in the US that bears an official seal or other mark of authentication, a certificate of naturalization and U.S. citizenship or a permanent resident card.
Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) asked how quickly someone would have to produce the necessary records.
“It’s people who are accused of a crime and not convicted,” Emerson said. “Because not everybody carries every single piece of paperwork and certainly not a notarized copy of a birth certificate around with them.”
Bradley said the bill would leave it up to the discretion of law enforcement but added he would be open to debating changes.
Emerson also asked if any consideration had been given to cases where a felony charge is potentially downgraded to a lesser charge.
The authors said that the bill doesn’t consider that.
“The people have already committed a crime by coming into the country illegally,” Vos said — although being in the U.S. without authorization is not a criminal offense in all cases.
“The second crime that they would be committing would be potentially a violent felony,” Vos said. “All we’re saying is you have to notify ICE and then at that point ICE will give them all the opportunity to prove they are here legally. There is no problem with that, but that’s not really the responsibility of the citizens of Wisconsin.”
Under federal law, entering the U.S. without the approval of an immigration officer is a misdemeanor offense that carries fines and no more than six months in prison. However, in a significant number of cases, such as when someone enters the country legally and overstays a visa, it is just a civil violation.
Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson told lawmakers the bill is necessary to address political and policy barriers between Wisconsin’s 72 counties and to enable federal, state and local enforcement agencies to enhance safety.
“This change in no way affects hard-working, undocumented people who may come to our jail for driving without a license. It will not even affect undocumented people who commit petty theft, who lie to the police about their identity, abuse their spouse with minor injuries, or drive drunk or impaired up to the third offense. None of those are felonies in Wisconsin,” Hanson said. “One could even argue under some of these circumstances this bill is not far enough, but it is a good start.”
Witnesses testifying against the bill said it could create fear in communities and discourage people from reporting crimes.
Alondra Garcia, who said she is a visa holder, former DACA recipient and current Milwaukee Public Schools educator, said recent anti-immigrant rhetoric since Trump took office has been “disheartening” and “dehumanizing.”
The bill, she said, “would allow racial profiling to be acceptable in our community.”
“Immigrants, including those with legal status, will fear interaction with law enforcement, making them less likely to report crimes or seek help when needed. It will separate families and destabilize communities,” Garcia said. “Families will live in fear that a routine traffic stop or minor interaction with law enforcement could lead to detention and deportation.”
Two groups — the Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association and Badger State Sheriffs’ Association — are registered in favor of the bill, according to the state’s lobbying website. Several groups are registered against the bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Inc, Kids Forward, Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Wisconsin Council of Churches, Wisconsin Counties Association and the Wisconsin Education Association Council.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) speaks at a WisPolitics event. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) criticized much of Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal on Tuesday, saying Republicans wouldn’t get behind the spending increases and taxation proposals. He said Republican lawmakers are starting the process of coming up with their own proposals, including for a broad tax cut plan.
Evers’ 2025-27 state budget proposal dedicates $4 billion to K-12 and higher education, cuts nearly $2 billion in taxes and raises income taxes for the state’s wealthiest residents. Evers said during a Wisconsin Counties Association conference on Tuesday that his proposal was “realistic” and that he hopes the Legislature will agree.
Vos said the plan was unrealistic, however, because it would increase state spending by about 20% and included plans to raise taxes. He also complained Evers presented his plans without speaking with lawmakers first.
Wisconsin has an estimated budget surplus of about $4 billion. Democrats are seeking greater investments in the state’s public services while Republicans want to limit state spending.
Vos told the audience at the WisPolitics event people are thinking about the budget surplus the wrong way.
“People believe we have this huge surplus, which is true on one-time money, but we have very little money for the government to be able to expand or increase funding for programs,” Vos said.
Wants broad tax cuts
Vos said the last state budget was “really disappointing” because Republicans met Evers’ goals by increasing spending on education, but Evers vetoed most of Republicans’ tax cut proposals. In the upcoming session, Republicans will seek to focus on using the budget surplus for cutting taxes.
Evers proposed an array of tax cuts in his budget including eliminating taxes on cash tips, sales taxes on electricity and gas for Wisconsin homes and on over-the-counter medications. Vos compared tax cuts to “chocolate cake,” saying they are all good. However, he said his caucus will likely look at doing broader tax cuts and that he wants cuts that “people can actually feel.”
“My preference is something that is ongoing and meaningful to families,” Vos said.
Vos said that lawmakers will work to pass a tax cut bill package before the end of the budget process.
“Hopefully that’ll get signed, but if not, unfortunately, the budget will probably have to wait until we can find consensus on that tax cut,” Vos told reporters after the event.
Evers also proposed a new tax bracket with a marginal rate of 9.8% for the state’s wealthiest residents — those making above $1 million for single filers and married joint filers. The current top tax bracket has a 7.65% rate and applies to single filers making $315,310 and joint filers making $420,420.
Vos said Republicans would not support increasing taxes.
Continued no on Medicaid expansion (even postpartum)
Evers for his fourth budget in a row proposed that Wisconsin join the 40 other states in the country that have taken the federal Medicaid expansion, which ensures coverage for people making up to 138% of the federal poverty line. One difference in this budget cycle, however, is that the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are seeking to cut Medicaid funding in order to help pay for tax cuts. The new reality, Vos said, appears to validate his ongoing opposition to accepting the federal Medicaid expansion.
“Thank goodness we never expanded Medicaid,” Vos said.
Vos said he would prefer block grants from the federal government, and that it would be better for Wisconsin to get 90% of the money from the federal government without “strings attached” than to get 100% of the money and have to follow federal guidelines for how to spend it.
Vos was also critical of expanding postpartum Medicaid to cover new mothers for the first year after giving birth, casting doubt on a Republican-backed bill that supports Wisconsin joining the 48 other states that have done this. Currently, Wisconsin only covers up to 60 days after birth for eligible mothers.
Evers included the extension in his budget proposal and a Republican-authored bill that would extend coverage has 23 Senate cosponsors and 67 Assembly cosponsors.
Despite the widespread bipartisan support for extending postpartum Medicaid, Vos said he was not the only person in his caucus who opposes expanding coverage. He said it doesn’t make sense to expand Medicaid coverage because those with incomes up to 100% of the federal poverty line can still keep coverage after the 60 days and those who could lose coverage could seek coverage through Obamacare.
“I am not the only person in the Legislature who is opposed to it. Many Republicans are opposed to expanding welfare, it’s just they are more than happy to let me stand in front of the arrows,” Vos said.
Calls language changes ‘dystopian’
Vos also critiqued changes to the state budget proposed by Evers that would update language to be gender neutral.
The proposal would change certain words like “father” to “parent” and “husband” to “spouse.” Another section that is about artificial insemination would change “the husband of the mother” to “the spouse of the inseminated person.”
Republicans have locked on the latter phrase to claim that Evers is trying to erase mothers and fathers.
Evers told reporters Monday that the changes were made to ensure with “legal certainty that moms are able to get the care they need,” noting that same sex couples could have been excluded from coverage under the old language. He accused Republicans of lying about the issue.
“I didn’t know that Republicans were against IVF, but apparently they are because that is what it’s about,” Evers said.
Vos said the change was “dystopian” and said the changes don’t fix any issue and Evers was just coming up with an explanation. He later told reporters that the language made the state a “national embarrassment.”
Prison reform
Vos also complained about Evers’ process for coming up with a plan to reform the state’s prisons, saying he should have included lawmakers in developing it.
The proposed plan, which would cost over $500 million, would make wide changes to many of the state’s facilities including transitioning Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth correctional facilities into adult facilities, updating Waupun Correctional Institution, the state’s oldest prison, and eventually closing Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Vos said it’s known that lawmakers have had an interest in the issue and questioned why they weren’t consulted in developing the plan.
“He chose not to do that because he has one way of operating, which is his way or the highway. Those of us that have some interest in corrections reform will get together and come up with our own package and present it to the governor and say, ‘Here it is,’” Vos said.
DPI and Supreme Court elections
Vos also weighed in on Wisconsin’s upcoming spring elections.
State Superintendent Jill Underly, the Democratic-backed candidate, is running for a second term in office against education consultant Brittany Kinser, the Republican-backed candidate.
Vos said that Kinser is “the best candidate” because she supports school choice and appears willing to work with the Legislature. He added that he isn’t sure whether he has ever met with Underly. He also criticized Underly for changes to the evaluation of Wisconsin’s standardized test scores.
He described the recent February primary as “low profile” and said that with a “different electorate” at polls in April, Kinser likely has a chance to win.
The higher profile spring election is for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The technically nonpartisan race pits Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate against Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, the conservative candidate.
Vos said he thinks that the race will be about the candidates, but it is “possible” that the race could be a referendum on Trump. He noted that Democrats are seeking to turn out voters who agree with them and billionaire Elon Musk and Trump are trying to bring out Republicans in the race. A group tied to Musk canceled a social media ad this week that featured a photo of the wrong Susan Crawford.
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.
Gov. Tony Evers delivers his 2025 state budget address. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Gov. Tony Evers unveiled a sweeping 2025-27 state budget proposal Tuesday evening that would come at the cost of $55.5 billion in state funds across the biennium — an increase of about 18%. The proposal lays out many priorities including investments in education and initiatives to protect the environment, tax relief for middle class Wisconsinites, tax hikes for the wealthy Wisconsinites and expansion of Medicaid access.
Evers’ address was his fourth budget address since taking office in 2019 and comes at the beginning of a state budget cycle when Wisconsin is expected to end the 2023-25 biennium with $4.3 billion in its general fund. The state had a record-high balance of $1.9 billion in its rainy day fund at the end of fiscal year 2023-24.
Altogether, with federal and other revenue, the state would have an operating budget of $119 billion over the next two years under Evers’ proposal and a total increase of about 20%. In addition to the funding, Evers’ budget would add about 880 state positions with federal funds for a total of about 75,613 state employees by July 2026. It would also add 1,302 positions, a total 36,766 positions, using state funds.
During his approximately 40-minute address to the state Senate and Assembly, Evers laid out major parts of the proposal to the standing applause of Democratic lawmakers and the seated stares of Republican lawmakers.
“The budget I’m proposing balances our priorities of investing in our kids and needs that have long been neglected while providing real and sustainable tax relief and saving where we can,” Evers said during his address. He declared that the budget would be the most “pro-kid” budget in state history.
Towards the end of his speech, Evers called on lawmakers to focus on “doing what’s best for our kids, delivering real solutions for real problems Wisconsinites face every day and doing the right thing.”
Republican lawmakers, however, said that most of Evers’ budget proposal would be “dead-on-arrival” and criticized him for trying to increase spending and grow the size of government.
Environment and water quality
Evers proposed more than $300 million towards eliminating lead from service lines, bubblers, schools, homes and child care centers. He also called for the state to invest $145 million towards combating PFAS contamination statewide and providing emergency resources, including bottled water for communities affected by water contamination.
The state allocated $125 million towards the effort in the last budget, but lawmakers and Evers never agreed on a bill that would allow the money to be used, so it remains unused.
“Addressing PFAS and other contaminants grows harder and more expensive with each day of delay,” Evers said. “Republicans and Democrats have to work together to finally get something done on this issue.”
Evers also proposed dedicating $100 million annually towards reauthorizing the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program for an additional 10 years — a total $1 billion investment aimed at supporting projects that improve the state’s water quality, protect key habitats and support investments in state and local parks and other public lands.
Adds $4 billion for K-12 and higher education
Building on his declaration in January of 2025 as ‘The Year of the Kid,’ Evers announced a vast education budget proposal that would invest $856 million for the University of Wisconsin System, nearly $60 million for the technical colleges and $3.15 billion in K-12 education across the state.
“Every Wisconsin kid should have access to a high-quality public education from early childhood to our K-12 schools to our higher education institutions,” Evers said. “I’m urging the Legislature to do what’s best for our kids by approving significant investments in public education at every level in Wisconsin.”
Evers acknowledged recent actions from the Trump administration and federal lawmakers affecting higher education. Most recently, the administration told universities to get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or risk losing funding. Universities, including UW-Madison, have also been grappling with the potential impacts of cuts to research funding.
“Politicians in Washington don’t know a darn thing about what’s going on at campuses across Wisconsin,” Evers said. “They don’t understand that our UW System has been part of Wisconsin since we first became a state — it’s enshrined in our state constitution. They don’t know how important our UW System has been to our state’s success or how important it is for our future.”
Evers’ UW System proposal would be one of the largest investments in the system in state history. He said the reinvestment in the UW System is necessary due to impacts of attacks and disinvestment over the last many years and the ongoing challenges that the state’s 13 campuses are facing.
“UW is facing campus closures and program cuts, students are facing tuition increases, and faculty and staff are facing layoffs, and with new federal efforts to cut higher education funding, things for UW could get a whole lot worse,” Evers said. “It’s up to us — each of us, together — to invest in our UW System, to defend it and to protect its promise for future generations.”
Some of the funding would include $128 million for financial aid; $308 million to support expanding access to schools through dual enrollment, direct admissions and transfer pathways; $56 million to support recruiting and retaining educators and staff; $22 million to support mental health services; $104 million to invest in innovative technologies and $166 million to increase wages.
He called on lawmakers and elected officials to help increase funding for public education, saying that many of them benefited from it when they were younger.
“Don’t tell our kids they don’t deserve to have the same opportunity you did,” Evers said.
Evers’ largest education investment proposal would be to the state’s K-12 schools, and he argued that the investments are necessary to help address student outcomes.
“I know some legislators have tried using student outcomes to argue against investing in our kids and our schools. Folks, you’ve got it backwards,” Evers said. “The outcomes we’re seeing are exactly why we must do more to do what’s best for our kids.”
The budget proposal includes $212 million towards raising per-pupil funding by $108 across the biennium, with additional support for economically disadvantaged students. He also wants to link the state’s per pupil revenue limits for school districts to inflation starting in fiscal year 2025-26. His budget projects that the change would raise limits by $334 per pupil in 2025-26 and $345 per pupil in 2026-27.
Evers called on lawmakers to approve his $147 million plan to provide free school meals to students, his nearly $300 million plan to invest in mental health support in schools and to ensure clean drinking water in schools.
“If the state isn’t committed to meeting our kids’ basic needs, then we can’t have serious conversations about improving outcomes,” Evers said. “It’s that simple.”
Evers also called for investing $80 million to support new literacy initiatives in the state, including literacy coaches and tutoring, that are meant to help improve reading scores statewide.
The proposed funding would include the $50 million to support a new literacy law enacted in the 2023-25 budget cycle, but after disagreements over implementation and a veto by Evers, most of the money remains stuck and unused. If it isn’t released by the end of the fiscal year in June, it will lapse back into the state’s general purpose revenue.
Evers also proposed dedicating $1.1 billion towards raising the state’s special education reimbursement to 60%. The current rate is about 30% for public schools.
The governor said the current system for funding schools isn’t working and called attention to the trend of districts asking taxpayers to raise their property taxes through referendum measures so schools can cover operational and building costs.
“This system isn’t sustainable — it creates winners and losers, haves and have-nots, but referendums are not inevitable,” Evers said. “Wisconsinites wouldn’t have to raise their own property taxes to keep school lights on and doors open if this Legislature invested in K-12 education from the get-go.”
Evers’ budget proposal also calls for making changes to Wisconsin’s voucher programs including the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, the Racine Parental Choice Program and the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program.
He wants to freeze the number of slots available to students, a proposal that comes as the caps on enrollment are slated to come off in 2026. He also wants to require participating schools to license educators by July 2028 and to require schools to allow students participating in the Special Needs Scholarship Programs to opt out of religious activities at written request. Evers also proposes putting the cost of Wisconsin’s voucher programs on people’s property tax bills.
Evers also wants to support the child care industry by investing $440 million in state funds to subsidize providers with the Child Care Counts program.
$2 billion in tax relief, raising taxes for wealthiest
Evers called for nearly $2 billion in tax relief and for raising taxes on the wealthiest Wisconsinites.
Part of the relief would be targeted at trying to limit further property tax increases. Property tax burdens across the state have grown in recent years in part because schools and local governments have turned to referendums as a way of securing funding.
“My budget would create a new incentive for local governments to freeze their local property taxes. If local governments agree not to raise local property taxes, they’ll get a direct payment from the state,” Evers said. “This will ensure local partners can still afford to pay for basic and unique local needs alike without property taxes going up.”
Under his proposal, about $1 billion would be directed towards aid for local governments that pause property taxes and direct property tax credits to taxpayers over the biennium.
His proposal would also increase the school levy tax credit by $375 million across the biennium.
Evers is also proposing eliminating taxes on tips — similar to a recent proposal from Republican lawmakers — and eliminating sales tax on electricity and gas for Wisconsin homes and on over-the-counter medications.
“Working to prevent property tax increases is a key part of my plan to lower costs for working families, but we can do more to reduce everyday, out-of-pocket costs for folks across our state,” Evers said.
One major proposal that went unmentioned in Evers’ speech would create a new, higher income tax bracket for high-income residents. The administration’s budget brief said the measure would “ensure millionaires and billionaires in Wisconsin pay their fair share.
Evers’ proposal calls for a new individual tax income tax bracket with a marginal rate of 9.8 % on taxable income above $1 million for single filers and married joint filers, and above $500,000 for married taxpayers who file separately. The current top tax bracket has a 7.65% rate and applies to single filers making $315,310 and joint filers making $420,420.
The proposal would bring Wisconsin an additional $719 million in the first year of the biennium and $578 million in the second.
Expand access to health care
Evers called for his fourth budget in a row to expand Medicaid to cover people up to 138% of the federal poverty level — a proposal that would expand eligibility to approximately 95,800 low-income individuals and allow the state to save $1.9 billion in state money and receive an additional $2.5 billion in federal funds over the biennium.
“Health care should not be a privilege afforded only to the healthy and the wealthy,” Evers said.
Wisconsin is one of 10 states to not expand Medicaid, according to KFF.
The budget also includes a proposal to extend Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers to a year after the birth of a child. Wisconsin is one of two states that haven’t accepted the federal expansion.
“Nothing against Arkansas, but come on, folks. I’ve proposed this in every budget I’ve introduced as governor. There’s also a bipartisan bill to get it done that almost 90 legislators support,” Evers said. “One legislator should not be able to single-handedly obstruct a bill that’s supported by a supermajority of the Legislature.”
The comments got some of the loudest cheers from Democrats during the whole night.
Evers was alluding to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), who held the policy up last session after the proposal passed the Senate and has said this session that he doesn’t support expanding “welfare” in response to questions about the policy. A bill that would accomplish this, with 23 Senate cosponsors and 67 Assembly cosponsors, recently received a hearing in the state Senate.
Evers also is proposing making Wisconsin the first state to start auditing insurance companies over denying health care claims. The state would provide a corrective action plan for insurers found to have too high denial rates. The plan would also create a “Public Intervenor Office” that would focus on helping Wisconsinites who have claims denied.
The governor said the measure would increase accountability and transparency for health insurance companies.
“If an insurance company is going to deny your health care claim, they should have a darn good reason for it. It’s frustrating when your claim gets denied and it doesn’t seem like anyone can give you a good reason why,” Evers said.
Preparing for Trump administration, potential tariffs
Evers’ budget would leave the state with about $646.3 million at the end of June 2026. Evers said this would be to ensure the state remains in a good financial position into the future and because of the unpredictability of the Trump administration.
“We must continue our work to be reasonable and pragmatic. The needless chaos caused by the federal government in recent weeks has already made preparing a state budget that much more difficult,” Evers said. “We prepared for the worst: popular programs that kids, families, schools, veterans, seniors and communities rely upon every day being drastically cut; resources and investments that Wisconsin is counting on and budgeted for, suddenly stalled or gutted; trade wars with Wisconsin’s largest export partners hurting our ag industries and our economy; costs for working families skyrocketing to the point they can’t make ends meet.”
Evers said that with the unpredictability, it wouldn’t have “been wise or responsible” to spend everything.
Evers also took aim at the Trump administration and the potential impact a trade war and tariffs could have on agriculture one of Wisconsin’s ’s largest industries.
The state, according to the USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, has 58,521 farms with 13.7 million acres producing $16.7 billion in agricultural products.
Trump threatened to place 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada in January, then paused implementing them for a month. While it was unclear which items would be included, fresh produce could be one category of goods.
“Wisconsin is on its way to becoming a top 10 state for ag exports — we can’t afford to lose our momentum because of tariff wars in Washington,” Evers said.
To help blunt impacts should the tariffs return, Evers proposed creating an agriculture economist position in the state government to help farmers navigate market disruptions and volatility caused by tariffs. He also wants to increase investments in the Wisconsin Initiative for Ag Exports and invest $50 million in the Agricultural Roads Improvement Program, which was created in the last budget to enhance roads, bridges and culverts in rural communities.
Lawmakers’ reaction
With Evers’ budget proposal introduced, the Republican-led Legislature’s 16-member Joint Finance Committee will go to work writing the state budget. The committee will hold some public hearings in the coming weeks.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says Evers’ budget is “dead on arrival.” (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
GOP leaders were quick to throw cold water on Evers’ plan. “We are not going to let Wisconsin become Tim Walz’s Minnesota,” Vos said after the address.
JFC Co-Chair Sen. Howard Marklein said all the policy changes that Evers included would be stripped out and the next budget will be built from the current state budget, “the base.”
“We’re going back to base like we have for the last several budgets. We’re going to build a budget that’s fair, that’s sustainable into the future and doesn’t impact our businesses and our families adversely,” Marklein said.
Marklein also emphasized that the budget surplus is “largely one-time money” and said it should be used to support one-time spending, not ongoing programs.
JFC Co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said that Evers budget was “bloated” and included “reckless spending.”
“Just finding ways to grow the government, making up all sorts of new agencies or sub-agencies or offices again tonight,” Born said. “We know we have to toss it to the side.”
Born said that instead, Republicans will focus on finding ways to shrink the size of government and find ways to support families and businesses “without the heavy hand of government.”
Republicans reiterated their intention to cut taxes, which they’ve repeatedly called a major priority.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said at a GOP press conference that the budget surplus only exists because Evers rejected the majority of their tax cut proposals last session. He called Evers’ tax relief proposals “gimmicky.”
“What we’re going to do is provide broad-based tax cuts to all taxpayers in Wisconsin, and that’s what we’re going to do before we send a budget to him,” LeMahieu said.
Vos and LeMahieu both said that President Donald Trump winning Wisconsin in November is a sign that voters don’t want increased government spending.
“Wisconsin voted for Donald Trump and his agenda to cut spending and find inefficiency in government,” Vos said. “Giving a 20% increase to the bureaucracy is the exact opposite of what people voted for.”
Vos said that Republicans would unveil specific tax cut proposals in the coming weeks.
In contrast to Republicans’ scorn, Democratic lawmakers called on their colleagues to get on board with Evers’ budget.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said in a statement that the budget proposal would help “lower everyday costs for working people and improve the lives of residents across our state” and said it would do what is best for kids.
The budget, Hesselbein said, showed Evers’ “commonsense and comprehensive leadership on issues that matter to working people and families.”
“I hope my Republican colleagues put partisanship aside and do what is best for our state,” Hesselbein said.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) called the proposal “ambitious” and said it would “move our state forward, deliver good things for the people of Wisconsin and set our state up for long-term success.”
Justin Hubly, executive director of the Nebraska Association of Public Employees, speaks at a news conference in December 2023 in Lincoln, Neb., about Republican Gov. Jim Pillen’s executive order mandating state employees return to offices. Leaders in several other red states are following President Donald Trump’s lead on scaling back working from home for government workers. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
A yearslong conflict over whether Nebraska’s governor can unilaterally force state workers back to the office will ultimately be sorted out by the state’s highest court.
The Nebraska Association of Public Employees, which represents more than 8,000 state employees, challenged Republican Gov. Jim Pillen’s November 2023 order requiring workers in offices full time. The group argues that Pillen cannot do so without labor contract negotiations.
Justin Hubly, executive director of the union, said most of Nebraska’s state employees would continue working from physical offices, as they did before the pandemic. But he said many state jobs could be performed remotely.
“Who cares where our IT application developers are working, what time of the day they’re working, as long as their assignments are done in a timely matter?” he said.
Hubly said the issue has become needlessly politicized in Nebraska and across the country. In recent weeks, Republicans in states nationwide have echoed President Donald Trump’s skepticism that government work can be effectively done remotely.
“It seems that everything in America today has to become a political issue and then immediately has to be chosen to be a conservative red-state issue or a liberal blue-state issue,” Hubly said.
Last week in the Oval Office, Trump repeated his rationale for requiring federal workers to be in the office, part of his push to shrink the workforce. He claimed without evidence that many of them are balancing two jobs and only devoting 10% to 20% of their government time to working.
“Nobody’s going to work from home, they’re going to be going out, they’re gonna play tennis, they’re gonna play golf,” Trump told reporters.
Experts say the president’s push has turned the work-from-home debate into a partisan fight.
“I would analogize it to many states launching their own DOGE commissions, to sort of signal affinity with what’s happening in Washington,” said Peter Morrissey, senior director of talent and strategy at the Volcker Alliance, a nonprofit that works to support public sector workers.
Earlier this month, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine ordered state employees back to their offices starting March 17. Similarly, Oklahoma GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an order in December that requires employees to work full time from offices as of this month. And Republicans who control Wisconsin’s legislature are pushing legislation and pressuring the state’s Democratic governor over the issue.
In Nebraska, a labor court last July ruled against the public employees union, though the union has appealed the decision to the Nebraska Supreme Court. The July decision came down on a Thursday, and Pillen said he expected state workers to be back in offices the next Monday.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is long over, and it is likewise long overdue that our full workforce is physically back,” he said at the time.
Before Pillen’s executive order, 2,250 employees in Nebraska’s 25 largest agencies were working remote or hybrid, said Pillen spokesperson Laura Strimple. She said 1,100 — or 8% of those agencies’ workers — are now working remotely or hybrid and that the state is “still evaluating available space in the future to return even more public servants.”
The politicization of remote work
Like private employers, states have been grappling with the complications of remote work since the COVID-19 pandemic. But nearly five years later, the issue is as political as ever.
Trump is requiring a return to office in part to have federal employees quit as his administration seeks to shrink the government workforce, according to a November Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Department of Government Efficiency task force head Elon Musk and his then-DOGE partner, Vivek Ramaswamy.
This is clearly all about reducing headcount. By making work more unpleasant, the hope is employees quit.
– Nicholas Bloom, economics professor at Stanford University
Morrissey noted that state, local and federal governments compete with the private sector for workers. And with less competitive pay in many government roles, a lack of flexible work arrangements could prove a competitive disadvantage — particularly for some of the most specialized workers.
He added that legitimate debate over worker productivity and taxpayer savings related to remote work should not be an excuse to use “the public workforce as a culture war item or a punching bag.”
Morrissey expects state political leaders will leave flexibility for agency directors and department management to craft hybrid or remote work arrangements.
Even the White House’s order allowed agency leaders to “make exemptions they deem necessary.”
Research has found slight productivity dips from remote work, though it can help with employee recruitment and retention, said Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who researches remote work.
Fully remote workers also can deliver employers significant cost savings through reduced office expenses and less employee turnover. But evaluating the performance of remote employees is tricky, particularly so in government work. Bloom said hybrid arrangements — such as requiring workers to come into the office three days a week — might make the most sense for governments to maximize productivity, employee satisfaction and office savings.
“This is why 80% of Fortune 500 companies have managers and professionals on a hybrid schedule,” he said.
But Bloom views the Republican return-to-office trend in government as a way to reduce staffing. Employees often prefer to work remotely and view hybrid schedules as providing the equivalent benefit of an 8% pay increase.
“This is clearly all about reducing headcount,” Bloom said. “By making work more unpleasant, the hope is employees quit.”
Republicans rethinking remote shift
Long before the pandemic, the Utah government embraced remote work as a way to cut costs.
Then-Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, called himself a “televangelist for telework” in 2019, after a successful pilot program. As governor, Cox in 2021 signed an executive order requiring state agencies to review whether work could be performed remotely. The order said remote work saved taxpayers millions, improved Utah’s air quality by cutting commutes and improved employee satisfaction.
But last month, Cox said the state is reevaluating its framework.
He said remote work could lead to increased productivity — if it’s accompanied with specific oversight and training. But those guardrails weren’t always implemented when the pandemic suddenly sent state workers home, he said.
“You don’t just send people home with a computer. It’s much more detailed than that,” Cox told reporters.
Cox said the state had been bringing more workers back into offices over the past few years as the administration weighs both employee productivity and taxpayer savings.
“Remote work has its place, but so does being together,” he said.
In Wisconsin, the remote work debate has split state leaders along partisan lines.
In November, Republican House Speaker Robin Vos proposed as part of the budget requiring all state workers to return to offices three or four days per week.
“A lot of employees aren’t working or they’re working only from home and not doing it very well with very little supervision,” he told a local television station.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers pledged to veto any such requirement. He noted that Wisconsin in recent years made significant efforts to hire workers across the state outside the major population centers of Madison and Milwaukee.
More than a dozen state agencies have already consolidated office space as the administration sought to develop a work environment better suited to help with employee recruitment and retention, Evers’ office said in a statement to Stateline. In recent years, Wisconsin’s government has shed 230,000 square feet of office space with nearly 400,000 more planned, according to a January report.
The governor’s office said reversing course now would drive up costs and negate millions of expected taxpayer savings. Implementing in-office work arrangements would require more private lease arrangements or reopening buildings that are slated for closure and sale.
Aside from ongoing budget negotiations, Republican lawmakers introduced stand-alone legislation that would require employees who worked in offices before the pandemic to return by July 1.
State Republican Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who leads the state Assembly’s new committee on Government Operations, Accountability, and Transparency, or GOAT — mirrored after Trump’s DOGE effort — testified last week in favor of a Senate return-to-work bill. But she said the majority caucus isn’t against remote work entirely.
In an interview, Nedweski pointed to a 2023 legislative audit on remote work that found the state lacked data on the extent of remote work and recommended more detailed monitoring.
Nedweski said there may be potential efficiencies from telework, but said the state needs “to get a handle on who’s doing what and from where and why.”
“And what are they missing out on by not having that opportunity to collaborate with co-workers on a regular basis?” she said in an interview. “We miss out on the opportunities to innovate when people are isolated and not working together.”
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
A majority of Wisconsin lawmakers support a bill to provide mothers on Medicaid who have just given birth with a year of coverage, but whether the bill becomes law hinges on persuading the Republican Assembly leader to let it through.
Pregnant patients in Wisconsin are currently eligible for Medicaid coverage for childbirth if they have an annual income of up to 306% of the federal poverty level. In Wisconsin, people are typically only eligible for Medicaid coverage if they make up to 100% of the federal poverty level.
Medicaid covers about 41% of births in the U.S. and 35% of births in Wisconsin, according to data compiled by KFF, an independent health policy research and news nonprofit. A newborn whose mother is a Medicaid recipient receives a year of coverage. But mothers whose income is above 100% of the poverty level risk losing their coverage after 60 days if they don’t otherwise qualify for Medicaid.
Federal Poverty Guidelines
Based on household size
1 person: $15,650
2 people: $21,150
3 people: $26,650
4 people: $32,150
For 300% of the poverty guideline, multiply income by 3
For the second time in two sessions, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are advocating for a bill to extend the mother’s postpartum coverage period to a year.
“I want to support the families,” said Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston), a coauthor. “It’s just the right thing to do. It’s not political. It shouldn’t be.”
Gov. Tony Evers has been proposing covering mothers for a year in each of his budget proposals since 2019, but Republicans have removed the provision each time. In 2021, lawmakers passed a law to extend coverage to 90 days and the state applied for a federal waiver, but the federal government has never responded.
The federal government gave states the option to extend coverage to a year postpartum in 2022 in the American Rescue Plan Act, and since then, states have gradually opted in.
In Wisconsin, the proposal gathered significant momentum in 2023 with a bill that passed the Senate with only one opposing vote. It also gained the support of a majority of Assembly lawmakers, but it never came to a vote.
When Wisconsin considered extending coverage in 2023, Wisconsin was one of 12 states that hadn’t implemented the extension. Now, it’s one of two.
“It’s just us and Arkansas,” Snyder said. “Are you kidding? The only states that don’t do this.”
Despite widespread support, the bill will face a challenge in becoming law this session due to opposition from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). During a press conference in early January, he said it was “unlikely” that the proposal would become law this session.
“Our caucus has taken a position that expanding welfare is not a wise idea for anyone involved,” Vos said.
Snyder said he’s heard “rumors” that Vos may assign the bill to the Assembly State Affairs Committee. “I hope he doesn’t because a lot of times that’s where bills go to die,” he said.
Snyder, who chairs the Assembly Children and Family Committee, said his experience serving there has shown him the importance of the legislation.
“I just see the impact of families that are disrupted with something like this,” Snyder said. When mothers die as the result of a preventable issue, he noted that it results in “trauma” for the child and families.
A 2024 report from the Wisconsin Maternal Mortality Review Team found that from 2019 to 2020 there was a 30% increase in deaths of mothers within one year of the end of pregnancy, regardless of cause. In 2020, there were a total of 49 deaths.
According to the CDC, over 80% of U.S. deaths during pregnancy, delivery, or up to one year after pregnancy in 2020 were preventable.
Snyder said Wisconsin’s continued holdout means “either we don’t understand the whole gravity of it or we’re just stubborn.”
Snyder told the Examiner that bipartisan support for the measure continues this session with the majority of Senators and around 65 Assembly representatives signing on to the bill as of Wednesday afternoon.
Co-authors on the legislation alongside Snyder explained a number of ways a year of coverage would benefit Wisconsinites.
Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek) called the legislation a “no-brainer,” noting the number of medical and other issues that can arise for mothers after giving birth.
“Moms are most vulnerable after giving birth to a child. There's just a lot of issues that occur right after not to mention sleep deprivation and just being exhausted, tired,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez noted that the legislation would ensure that mothers covered under Medicaid when they give birth are able to see doctors throughout the first year after birth and allow issues to be addressed early on.
Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) said his experience as a husband, father, grandfather, law enforcement officer and state legislator has shown him firsthand the importance of taking care of moms.
“In my opinion, there should not be a price tag on it. It shouldn't matter how much we invest because healthy mamas bring healthy babies, which bring healthy families to Wisconsin,” James said. “Our moms go through the wear and tear of pregnancy, carrying the baby for nine months, through all the body changes… Once that mom is done giving birth, the care just doesn't end there.”
In considering the actual cost to the state, however, James said he thought it would be worth it.
A fiscal estimate by the state Department of Health Services of the 2023 bill found that the cost of the program would be about $21.4 million in all funds, including $8.4 million in state general purpose revenue. The estimate found that Medicaid would enroll an additional 5,290 people a month.
“That's a very small investment," he said, suggesting that in return, mothers would get better health care and get it sooner, while also saving the system money in the long run. “Then that's a success. We're making them healthier.”
Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) spoke about the legislation at a roundtable hosted by Protect Our Care, a health care advocacy group, in Milwaukee on Wednesday — just after the Trump administration paused federal spending and Medicaid portals froze in states across the country. Postpartum expansion became a point of “optimism” during the conversation, which included U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore and patients who spoke about their varied experiences with Medicaid and fears about potentially losing Medicaid coverage.
“When my daughter was born, I had a job. I was working. It didn't provide medical benefits. Not only did I give birth to a premature child, but two days after, I had to go back to work,” Johnson said. “What I know personally is that relying on Medicaid, it's considered a privilege that you have to fight too hard for.”
Participants at a roundtable in Milwaukee discuss their concerns about Medicaid on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Securing coverage could have a significant impact for Black mothers and children, Johnson noted.
Wisconsin has sharp racial disparities in maternal health. One DHS report found that from 2016 to 2023 Black women were at the highest risk for severe maternal morbidity — unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to a woman’s health. Another study found that between 2006 and 2010 the maternal death rate for Black women in Wisconsin was five times that of white women — outpacing the national disparity during that period.
“The only way to improve the odds is to make sure that we have the coverage that we need, to follow not only that baby for 12 months, but also that mom,” Johnson said.
Johnson told the roundtable group that she thinks the bill is a priority for lawmakers, though there is a long way to go on it.
Snyder said he plans to have another conversation with Vos soon, and other lawmakers say they’ll continue to work to persuade the speaker to come around.
James said he is ready to provide his supportive colleagues with talking points and that he hopes to speak with Vos in the near future.
“I'm just hoping that he's willing to have a conversation,” James said. “I have no issue in hearing him out… they tried to do that 60 to 90 day waiver, and the federal government says they're not going to take anything less than one year, so I think as we progress through we just — we need to make things happen. We need to take care of our families.”
Vos has told Wisconsin Watch that he wants to see the 90-day waiver resubmitted to the Trump administration.
The proposed bill’s cosponsors said they would potentially be open to compromise, but that a year of coverage would be the easier and more impactful option.
“If we could get his support in bringing it down to 90 days, that would be great, but we've already done. In order to do the 90 days, we have to ask for a waiver and the state never got a response back on that,” Rodriguez said. It'd be easier, she said, to pass legislation for the full year already authorized by the federal government.
“Most of the mortality occurs between five and nine months,” Snyder said. “Between five and nine months, there is anything from cardiac arrests, preeclampsia and even suicide, so 90 days isn't going to always help.”
Snyder said that he is hoping that Vos might change his mind.
“Hopefully enough advocates will come to him and say ‘It's not really expanding welfare, it's extending from two months,” Snyder said.
Rodriguez acknowledged that Vos’ “philosophical beliefs” are part of his opposition to the legislation.
But if Vos doesn’t support the legislation, “Hopefully we can find a place where he can allow this to move forward,” Rodriguez said, “maybe not support it but at least allow this bill to get to the floor.”
Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee) said at a press conference that everyone in Wisconsin and the U.S. is protected from unreasonable searches and seizures regardless of immigration status. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
Wisconsin Democrats announced legislation Tuesday that would block state and local government officials from cooperating with federal deportation efforts — getting ahead of an expected bill from Republican lawmakers this week that would instruct the opposite.
The legislation comes as President Donald Trump has launched highly publicized immigration raids across the country yielding close to 1,000 arrests. Last week, the new administration threw out guidelines limiting enforcement in or near “sensitive” areas, including places of worship, schools, health care facilities, relief centers and social services centers.
Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee) said at a press conference that everyone in Wisconsin and the U.S. is protected from unreasonable searches and seizures regardless of immigration status.
“We want people in Wisconsin’s kids to feel safe in Wisconsin schools, places of worship, places where child care services are provided, in places where medical or other health care services are provided,” Ortiz-Velez said. “Kids deserve to feel safe in school. People deserve to seek medical care without fear of separation or detainment.”
The bill would prohibit state agency and local government officials, employees and agents, including law enforcement officers, from aiding in the detention of a person if they are being detained on the “sole basis that the individual is or is alleged to be not lawfully present in the United States” unless there is a judicial warrant. It would only apply to detentions in a public building or facility, school, place of worship, place where child care services are provided, or place where medical or other health care services are provided. Under the bill, civilians also wouldn’t be required to aid unless there is a judicial warrant.
The bill would also prohibit the state from using its money to aid in detention efforts.
Ortiz-Velez said that Wisconsin should protect the law-abiding residents of the state regardless of immigration status and emphasized that Wisconsin doesn’t have to comply with the federal government in its deportation efforts.
“While as a state we may not stop the federal government from exercising its legitimate power within the state’s borders, a state is not required to help the federal government in the exercise of its powers,” Ortiz-Velez.
“Good, hard-working people deserve to be treated with dignity — a pathway to citizenship, fair wages. We need real and meaningful immigration reform from Washington DC,” Ortiz-Velez continued. “And I’m urging Congress and the president to move forward with solutions that secure the border but also work to reform our broken immigration system.”
It’s unlikely the bill will become law given that Republican lawmakers, who hold a majority in the Assembly and Senate, plan to introduce legislation soon that would do the opposite.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said last week at the State of the State address the Republicans plan to propose a bill this week that would require local law enforcement to cooperate with the deportation efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
GOP lawmakers have argued that Wisconsinites, in voting for President Donald Trump in November, signaled support for his immigration policies. Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 30,000 votes — or 0.9% of the vote.
Forward Latino National President Darryl Morrin sought to address some misconceptions about undocumented immigrants. He cited research showing that undocumented workers pay taxes in the U.S. without benefiting from the social services they help to pay for, and most are not criminals and are in the U.S. solely to work. One report found that in 2022 undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue.
“The overwhelming number of undocumented immigrants are guilty of one thing: wanting to provide for their families and do so in a safe and nurturing environment,” Morrin said. “Being undocumented in the United States is not a crime, despite what is being repeated on the airwaves nightly, it’s a civil violation. It’s the same thing as if I had a parking ticket.”
Lawmakers and advocates said the bill was necessary as a way to protect people from inhumane treatment.
“What is happening at the federal level is not a safety plan. It is fear weaponized, targeting the most vulnerable among us, and we know that this approach silences victims of violence who are afraid to speak out,” Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said. “It fosters exploitation and fractures trust. Chaos is not a safety solution. Hate is not a policy, and fear is not safety. The only path to a freer, fairer future is through humane constitutional policies. It’s through investments in communities, not draconian crackdowns.”
Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) said the actions of the federal government, under the guidance of Trump, have caused “significant anxiety and chaos across America.” He quoted the Bible, Leviticus 19:33: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner resides among you and must be treated as your native-born.”
Christian and religious teachings were a repeated theme throughout the press conference as multiple advocates and faith leaders spoke in support of the bill.
Executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches Rev. Kerri Parker speaking at the press conference Tuesday. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
Executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches Rev. Kerri Parker said it’s necessary for religious and human services workers to be allowed to do their jobs without fear of disruption by “state violence.” She said she was delivering the message with the backing of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Council of Churches.
“We live in an age of fear and separation, but Wisconsin, we can do better,” Parker said. “A practice of care and accommodation, feeding and clothing, healing and safety has been in place among people of faith for millennia. Hospitality is a central piece of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. How then are we to allow simple human need to be treated as a trespass? We can’t.”
The pleas from Wisconsin faith leaders come as others across the country have been calling for the Trump administration to treat immigrants with dignity. Last week, Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, directly pleaded with Trump during a service to “have mercy” on vulnerable people in the U.S. including those who “pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants.”
“We have many messages from churches, supporting those who live in fear because of the color of their skin, their national origin, their immigration status. Our neighbors are seeking help, solidarity and peace,” Parker said. “We desperately need reconciliation, something that will not be achieved by making us more fearful and suspicious of one another or by adding more violence to an already violent world.”
The U.S. and Wisconsin flags at half staff in commemoration of those killed and wounded in a December school shooting in Madison. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Republican lawmakers are proposing bills they say will help protect children from gun violence by arming teachers, providing grants to schools to improve building safety and staff training and eliminating taxes on gun safes.
In the aftermath of the December school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, in which a teacher and student were killed and six others were injured, Gov. Tony Evers announced at the State of the State address that he plans to propose stricter background checks and red flag laws to address gun violence.
Republican leaders were not receptive to the proposals. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said there are already some gun control measures in state statute and added, “sometimes people do bad things and there’s only so much that we can do to prevent it.”
Republican lawmakers in the last week have started circulating three proposals they say would be more effective in curbing gun violence.
One of the proposals, from Rep. Scott Allen (R-Waukesha) and Sen. Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee), would allow teachers with a gun license to carry firearms on campus if school boards adopt a policy saying it’s allowed.
“School shootings are tragedies we hate to see… The knowledge that no one on the premises has the firepower to stop them emboldens bad actors,” the lawmakers stated in a co-sponsorship memo.
Asked at a Monday press conference why his proposal is preferable to Evers’, Allen noted that an armed guard is typically stationed outside his office in the state Capitol.
“Must be for a reason. If you travel with the governor, you’ll find that he has Wisconsin State Patrol armed with him wherever he goes… Why should he deserve that kind of protection and not our kids in schools?” Allen said. “The reality is that if somebody is intent on doing evil, and they have a weapon of any sort — whether it’s a firearm or a knife or anything — they’re dangerous, and we need to meet force with force, if we’re going to stop it.”
Allen also said that he thinks many actions could be taken to address school shootings including working to improve mental health.
“We’ve supported things in the past regarding that — supported the governor in increasing mental health aides and improving our schools’ ability to communicate with students and address mental health issues in schools,” Allen said. “We need to harden the targets. We need to make it impossible or practically impossible for any perpetrator to get in our schools to begin with.”
According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), there were 503 mass shootings in 2024 and as of Jan. 27, there have been 18 in 2025. GVA defines a mass shooting as one where there are “a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.”
Wisconsin’s current law prohibits people — with the exception of law enforcement officers — from carrying firearms on school grounds, and any individual found knowingly possessing one could be charged with a felony.
The bill making it legal for teachers to carry guns to school would also seek to make it easier for teachers to obtain a gun license by waiving the cost of the initial application fee, renewal fee and background check fee for teachers who apply for a license.
This is the second time the lawmakers have introduced the proposal. They introduced it for the first time in 2023 at the request of the Germantown school board. The board passed a resolution in August 2022 following a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 children and two teachers and injured 17 others.
“We need to protect our students from bad actors who perversely seek infamy, and we should allow local school boards, with community input, to determine the right policies to ensure that students are protected,” the lawmakers stated. “Sometimes the best way to deter bad actors is with the threat of force, and this bill gives that choice to school districts.”
Grants to schools
Another proposal from Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp), Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart) and Allen would provide grants for Wisconsin public, private and tribal schools to improve the safety of their buildings and provide security training for school personnel.
The bill would invest $30 million in a one-time grant program that would be administered by the Office of School Safety. The office, which is a part of the Department of Justice, was created under the 2017 Wisconsin Act 143, and under that law, $100 million was appropriated to the DOJ in fiscal year 2018-19 for awarding school safety grants.
In 2018, the DOJ was able to award 1,325 grants totaling $94.5 million to school districts, private, independent charter and tribal schools and the remaining funds went to supporting other school safety initiatives, including adolescent mental health training.
“As a state, we need to ensure that our Wisconsin schools have the necessary tools and resources needed to create and maintain a safe learning environment for all students,” the lawmakers stated in a memo to their colleagues. “Just like the funding from Act 143, we are confident that these additional funds will achieve this goal of giving more Wisconsin schools the chance to further enhance and update their safety measures.”
The new proposal would give priority to schools that did not receive any grant funds or missed the deadlines in the prior funding rounds, but it would be open to any schools. The DOJ would be able to award a maximum amount of $20,000 to an applicant.
Under the bill, the program would sunset on July 1, 2027.
Tax exemption for gun safes
Another pair of lawmakers — Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) and Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) — are proposing eliminating taxes on gun safes as a way to help people afford them.
The lawmakers said in a memo that they are putting the legislation forth “to encourage people to store guns securely, and keep children safe from accidental injury, death, and suicide.”
“Simply put, this bill promotes responsible gun safety,” the lawmakers stated.
Evers included a similar measure in his 2023-25 budget proposal, but it was removed by Republican lawmakers. A handful of states — including Michigan, Tennessee and Washington — have adopted this policy.
A similar bill was also proposed in 2019 with bipartisan support, though it failed to pass either chamber. At the time, the state Department of Revenue estimated that the bill would have resulted in $309,000 in lost tax revenue.
One Democratic senator is skeptical the measure would adequately address the gun violence problem facing the state and that lawmakers should be taking stronger actions to reduce the harm that children face from guns.
“Wisconsinites want safe communities where our kids have the freedom to learn and reach their potential without the fear of gun violence. Instead of implementing proven measures to reduce firearm injuries and gun violence, like safe storage laws and universal background checks, GOP politicians are offering a tax exemption,” Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said in a statement.
Safe storage laws — which have been adopted by 26 states across the U.S. — require gun owners to store their firearms in a way that prevents unauthorized access, in order to keep guns out of the hands of children.
“We need to ensure that kids can’t access guns, and that if a house with kids has guns, they are stored safely away from kids,” Roys continued. “This bill will do virtually nothing to keep kids safe, but the GOP politicians now cynically backing it are hoping it will keep them safe during their next election.”
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature on Tuesday asked that a liberal state Supreme Court justice step aside in a pending case that seeks to overturn a 2011 law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most state workers.
If Justice Janet Protasiewicz agrees not to hear the case, the court would be deadlocked 3-3 between liberals and conservatives. The lawsuit has massive implications for union rights in the battleground state.
A Dane County Circuit Court judge last month overturned the bulk of the law, saying it violates equal protection guarantees in the Wisconsin Constitution by dividing public employees into “general” and “public safety” employees. Under the ruling, all public sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored to what was in place before 2011.
The judge put the ruling on hold pending the appeal. School workers unions that brought the lawsuit have asked the Supreme Court to take it directly, skipping the appeals court. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, controlled 4-3 by liberals, has not yet decided whether to take the case.
Republicans enacted the law in the face of massive protests 14 years ago that made Wisconsin the center of the national fight over union rights. The debate also catapulted then-Gov. Scott Walker onto the national stage, sparked an unsuccessful recall campaign and laid the groundwork for his failed 2016 presidential bid. The law’s adoption led to a dramatic decrease in union membership across the state.
Protasiewicz is the court’s newest member and ran in 2023 as an opponent of the union law, known as Act 10. Her victory gave liberals the majority on the court for the first time in 15 years. That majority is on the line again in the April 1 Supreme Court election to fill the seat of a retiring liberal justice.
Protasiewicz said during the campaign that she believes Act 10 is unconstitutional. She also told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she would consider recusing herself from any case challenging the law. Protasiewicz participated in protests against it and signed the petition to recall Walker.
The Legislature’s top Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, said Tuesday that it would be “right and ethical” for her to step aside. The motion seeking her recusal references comments she made during the campaign about coming from a union background, her belief that the law was unconstitutional and her opposition to Walker.
“Recusal is warranted because of the appearance that she has prejudged the merits of this case,” Republicans argued in the motion.
Protasiewicz declined to comment when asked via email if she would recuse herself. The decision on whether to do so is entirely hers.
Jacob Karabell, attorney for the unions seeking to overturn the law, called the recusal request “meritless” and an attempt to delay a final ruling.
Protasiewicz is not the only justice on the court with a potential conflict.
Conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn was Walker’s chief legal counsel and had a role in drafting Act 10. During his successful run for the court in 2019, Hagedorn would not promise to recuse himself if a case challenging Act 10 came before the court.
No motion has been filed with the court asking Hagedorn to step aside, but Democratic legislative leaders on Tuesday said he should. Hagedorn did not respond to an email seeking comment.
If both Protasiewicz and Hagedorn recused themselves, liberals would have a 3-2 advantage.
Supporters of the law have said it provided local governments more control over workers and the powers they needed to cut costs. Repealing the law, which allowed schools and local governments to raise money through higher employee contributions for benefits, would bankrupt those entities, backers of Act 10 have argued.
Democratic opponents argue that the law has hurt schools and other government agencies by taking away the ability of employees to collectively bargain for their pay and working conditions.
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.
State Superintendent Jill Underly with Madison La Follette High School Principal Mathew Thompson and Madison Public School District Superintendent Joe Gothard in the hallway at La Follette in September 2024. Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner
Wisconsin lawmakers are seeking to reset the state’s testing standards to what they were in the 2019-2020 school year after the Department of Public Instruction implemented new performance level standards last year — a decision that DPI Superintendent Jill Underly has repeatedly defended.
The co-authors on the bill — Sen. John Jagler (R-Watertown), Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Caledonia) and Rep. Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville) — say it’s needed to “reinstate” high academic standards in Wisconsin. In a statement, Jagler accused DPI of making the decision to change the way the state measures academic standards in a nontransparent way.
“These changes were made behind closed doors in advance and revealed only when the test scores were announced,” Jagler said in a statement. “Not surprisingly, the massive uptick in artificial performance gains was confusing at best and misleading at worst. We also lost, because of these changes, the ability to compare performance from previous years.”
The changes and reactions
Wisconsin students take standardized tests every year with third graders through eighth graders taking the Forward test, which was first created in 2016, and high school students taking the ACT and PreACT Secure. The tests are meant to help inform schools, teachers and families about “what students know in core academic areas and whether they can apply what they know.”
According to DPI, evaluating standards is a routine process. Specifically, every seven years the state reviews, and may update, its state standards in various subject areas to ensure they remain current. This process happened for English, Language Arts (ELA) in 2020 and math in 2021.
The new standards meant that DPI also needed to reevaluate the Forward exam and corresponding performance level standards and “cut scores” — the minimum scores needed to qualify for categories including “advanced” and “developing.” The DPI started the process of reevaluating cut scores in 2023.
A similar process for setting standards took place in June 2016 when the Forward exam was administered for the first time, under the guidance of then-Superintendent and now-Gov. Tony Evers.
Last year, two changes were made to the cut scores after an evaluation process.
First, new terms were established to describe student achievement — “advanced,” “meeting,” “approaching” and “developing.” Previously, the terms, which were established in 2016, were “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” and “advanced.”
The new terms were announced in early June 2024 after DPI received feedback in December 2023, including 800 responses and 500 comments to a survey sent to educators, administrators, parents, families and education groups.
“I’ve often heard confusion from parents, families, and legislators on what performance terms on tests meant in regard to where students are at academically,” Underly said at the time. The new terms, she said, are “not only clearer, it also recognizes the endless potential each of our students has as learners.”
The second change was to the state’s cut scores, which came after a standard-setting meeting also held in June.
According to DPI, about 88 educators — including mathematics and reading specialists, classroom teachers, school principals, curriculum and instruction coordinators and specialists, interventionists, instructional coaches, gifted and advanced coordinators and CESA staff — participated in the standard-setting meeting. The group included representatives from each of Wisconsin’s CESAs, the five largest school districts, private schools in the school choice program and rural, suburban, and urban school districts. The group then submitted a recommendation to the state superintendent, which was approved later in June.
The new cut scores switched the state from a 3-digit number to a 4-digit number score for the math and ELA test and changed the test scores needed to qualify to be placed in each performance level. For example, under the previous cut scores, a third-grade student would need a 624 on the ELA test to be considered “advanced.” Under the new cut scores, a third-grade student would need a 1622 on the ELA test to be considered “advanced.”
Under the new standards, the 2023-24 test results showed that the public school student proficiency rate in ELA was 48% and Wisconsin students had a proficiency rate of 49% in math. In the previous year, public school student proficiency rates in ELA and math were at 38.9% and 37.4% respectively.
The changes mean that the test was no longer aligned with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Prior to the changes Wisconsin’s scores were aligned to NAEP, and its performance level expectations were among the highest in the nation. Underly has said tying Wisconsin’s standards to NAEP’s created a “misalignment” in how success was measured and that the state’s standards were excessively high when compared to other states.
The changes, however, drew pushback from Evers and Republican lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester).
“I hate to even talk about things that aren’t my purview anymore in the Department of Public Instruction but I just think there should have been some information and dialogue happening with all sorts of people before that decision,” Evers said at a press conference in January. “It’s hard to compare year to year if one year you’re doing something completely different. “I think it could have been handled better.”
“Superintendent Underly wants to make it harder for parents to understand when their school is succeeding or failing,” Vos said at a press conference earlier this month. “She wants to make it easier for failing schools to somehow seem like they’re succeeding.” He said he wants to see “speedy discussion” and “bipartisan support” for raising Wisconsin’s educational standards.
“I would hope that no one, the most liberal person or the most conservative person, would want to dumb down our standards so kids aren’t able to read, and the parents aren’t able to even know whether or not their kids are succeeding,” Vos said.
Critics of the change have also complained that the new cut scores “lowered” educational standards in Wisconsin and have made it difficult to compare data to earlier years.
Republicans’ proposal
Republicans’ new proposal would require that Wisconsin revert its educational assessments to using the cut scores, score ranges and qualitative terms that DPI used for report cards published for the 2019-2020 school year.
The bill would also require DPI to align the Forward exam cut scores, score ranges and pupil performance categories to the cut scores, score ranges and pupil performance categories to those set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
When it comes to the PreACT and ACT with Writing in English, Reading, and Mathematics, the bill would require DPI to use the same cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories that DPI used in the 2021-22 school year and for DPI to use the terms “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” and “advanced” for pupil performance categories on these assessments.
“There is no doubt we have many great schools in Wisconsin but when every school is given a ‘C’ or better it makes it impossible to have an honest discussion of where we need improvement,” the lawmakers wrote.
Wittkes said in a statement that it was “troubling” to see “changing testing protocols is the path the State Superintendent has chosen in response to students’ poor reading and math performance.”
“Let’s set the bar as established by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and make a better effort to understand student needs for academic improvement,” Wittke said.
Underly has repeatedly defended the changes, and did so again in a statement rejecting the claims that Wisconsin’s standards were lowered and criticizing lawmakers for seeking to interfere with the changes that were made.
“As I have repeatedly said, standards have not been lowered,” Underly said, adding that the process for changing the standards was “transparent” and changes reflected the recommendations of experts.
“The updated assessment, developed with significant and transparent communication with the field, is more accurate and reflective of student performance for Wisconsin families,” Underly wrote.
“As it relates to report cards, we share legislators’ belief that the system can be improved but the right answer is not to look to the past, but to work together to create the best system for the future,” Underly said. “It’s disappointing but unsurprising that some politicians believe they know better than our educators. When historic numbers of teachers are leaving our state or classroom altogether, they should be investing in education, not picking political fights on false premises.”
Underly is running for a second term as DPI superintendent and faces two challengers — Brittany Kinser and Jeff Wright — in a February primary. Both candidates said they support the bill.
Kinser said she “strongly” supports the effort to restore the standards that were in place under Evers.
“As a former teacher and principal, I know students rise to the expectations set for them,” Kinser said in a statement. “Lowering standards deprives our kids of the opportunity to be college- or career-ready, and that is unacceptable in Wisconsin. Our kids deserve more, not less, and I look forward to working with the legislature to pass this proposal.”
Wright said the changes came at “the worst possible time” given that schools are still trying to assess students’ progress after COVID, but said it’s “unfortunate” that lawmakers are stepping in.
“This is happening because of the absence of system-wide collaboration and open communication,” Wright said. “I look forward to working with our Legislature as a nonpartisan problem solver to do what is right for our schools.”
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers used his seventh State of the State speech Wednesday to urge the GOP-controlled Legislature to enact a wide range of proposals Republicans have rejected in the past, including numerous gun control measures just a month after there was a school shooting not far from the state Capitol.
Republicans were quick to dismiss his proposals, much as they have the past six years.
Here’s what to know about the speech from Evers, a Democrat who may run for a third term next year in the battleground state:
Bipartisan approach to immigration and health care
Evers, without mentioning President Donald Trump by name, said “there is a lot of angst about what may happen in the days, months and years ahead.”
“I have always been willing to work with anyone who is willing to do the right thing for the people of Wisconsin,” Evers said. “And that has not changed. But I will not compromise on our Wisconsin values of treating people with kindness, dignity, empathy, and respect.”
Evers called for bipartisan efforts to address immigration.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Republicans would next week introduce a bill that requires cooperation with federal law enforcement officials who are working to deport people who have committed a crime and are in the country illegally.
“He didn’t pay attention to what happened in this state in the election in November,” Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August said of Evers. “President Trump won Wisconsin, and one of the cornerstones of his campaign was about illegal immigration. … He’s clearly pushing back against the president.”
Wisconsin is one of the “blue wall” states that Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020. Trump carried Wisconsin in 2024 on his way back to the White House.
Gun control is renewed priority despite Republican opposition
Evers called for a series of gun control measures five weeks after a school shooting just 6 miles from the Capitol left a teacher and a 14-year-old student dead. The 15-year-old shooter shot and killed herself.
Evers called for universal background checks for gun purchases and restoring a 48-hour waiting period for gun purchases, a law that Republicans repealed in 2015.
He also called for banning the purchase of “ghost guns” and closing a loophole that allows for domestic abusers to own firearms.
Evers also called for incentives and new requirements to safely secure firearms and a “red flag” law that would allow judges to take guns away from people determined to be a risk to themselves or others.
Republican legislative leaders said that all of the gun control measures would be rejected.
The governor last week created a state office for violence prevention, which Republicans vowed not to fund after federal funding runs out in two years.
Evers, a former teacher and state superintendent of schools, also called for spending $300 million to provide comprehensive mental health services in schools statewide. That would be 10 times the amount the Legislature approved for school mental health services in the last budget.
Republicans vow to reject proposals, push for cutting taxes instead
Republican leaders immediately rejected the bulk of what Evers called for, saying they instead would be pushing for a tax cut of nearly $1,000 for every taxpayer in the state.
Evers’ speech “was chock full of liberal wishes, empty promises and a whole lot of things that are not going to happen in Wisconsin,” Vos said.
Declaring 2025 as “The Year of the Kid,” Evers called on Republicans to approve $500 million to lower the cost of child care. The bulk of that would go toward funding the Child Care Counts program for the next two years. Without more funding, the program — which was created during the COVID-19 pandemic — is slated to end in June.
Republicans said they would not support that additional funding.
Evers also called for creating new programs designed to set price ceilings for prescription drugs and improve oversight of drug companies, removing the state sales tax on over-the-counter medications and capping the copay on insulin at $35.
In an emotional moment, Evers welcomed the widow and parents of former state Rep. Jonathan Brostoff, who died by suicide in November. Evers, his voice cracking with emotion, talked about Brostoff’s death when introducing a new program that would allow people to temporarily and voluntarily register to prevent themselves from purchasing a firearm.
Vos said that invoking Brostoff was a “cheap political stunt” and “kind of sad.”
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.
Gov. Tony Evers delivers his seventh State of the State address while standing in front of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate President Mary Felzkowski. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
In his seventh State of the State address Wednesday night, Gov. Tony Evers started to outline his budget priorities — declaring 2025 the “Year of the Kid” and laying out investments and policies to support children and their families.
The address came at the start of a legislative session in which Republicans continue to hold majorities in the state Senate and Assembly, though with smaller margins than last session, and a $4.5 billion budget surplus remains unspent. Wisconsin also has about $1.9 billion in the state’s rainy day fund.
“We begin the new year with a new Legislature elected under new, fair maps,” Evers said in his address. “For the first time in a generation, this Legislature was not elected under some of the most gerrymandered maps in America. I am hopeful this will mean more collaboration, more partnership, a little less rancor and a renewed commitment to do right by the will of the people.”
Evers announced an array of proposals to support schools, including by providing free meals to students, expanding mental health resources, supporting child care for families and implementing better gun violence prevention measures.
Bipartisan collaboration will be necessary for Evers to accomplish the priorities he laid out, and the road could be difficult as Republican lawmakers were mostly critical following the address.
“What we heard tonight was Gov. Evers’ longest State of the State address and it was chock full of liberal wishes, empty promises and a whole lot of things that are not going to happen in Wisconsin,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) told reporters.
“The things the governor talked about tonight, every single thing that he talked about, was a new government program, new government spending,” Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August (R-Walworth) said. “I really am at a loss for words at how ridiculous the things he talked about were tonight.”
Highlighting lower taxes
Before speaking about his proposals, Evers highlighted the state of taxation in Wisconsin, pointing to a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report that found the local and state tax burden has fallen to the lowest level on record.
“Just two decades ago, Wisconsin was in the top five states for our tax burden and the taxes Wisconsinites paid as a share of their income. Today, Wisconsin is in the bottom 16 states in the country,” Evers said. “We have seen the largest drop in our tax burden of any state over the last 20 years.”
Evers said tax cuts have been a bipartisan priority. He noted that he has proposed tax cuts in each of his budget proposals targeted at middle class Wisconsinites. He has also accepted some of the proposals that Republicans have sent him. Evers’ emphasis on the state’s declining tax burden came as Republicans have said their top priority for the next state budget will be to further cut taxes.
August accused Evers of taking credit for work that Republicans did — pointing out that Evers vetoed Republicans’ major tax proposals last session.
“[Evers] actually vetoed the biggest tax cut that has ever been proposed in the state of Wisconsin. He vetoed that,” Rep. Tyler August told reporters. “Everything that he took credit for tonight economically was because of legislative Republicans’ work over the last 20 years. He’s an educator, he should know you can’t take credit for somebody else’s work.”
Evers pivoted from taxes to his vision for increasing spending and implementing new policies that would help children across the state.
“I will soon introduce our next state budget, laying out our state’s top policy priorities for the next two years. Every budget I have ever built began first by doing what is best for our kids, and this one will be no different,” Evers said.
Proposals to support kids in school
“If we want to improve our kids’ outcomes, then we have to shorten the odds,” Evers said. “If we want our educators and schools to be able to do their very best work in the hours our kids are with them, we have to set them up for success, and we have to start by making sure our kids can bring their full and best selves to our classrooms.”
Evers said he would propose “historic investments in K-12 education” and “meaningful” investments in early childhood education, the University of Wisconsin system and the state’s technical colleges.
Evers also called for lawmakers to release $50 million that was allocated in the last budget to support new literacy efforts in classrooms. Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee have withheld the money due to disagreements over exactly how the money should be spent, and if the money isn’t released before June 30, it will lapse back into the state’s general fund.
“Our kids and their futures are too important for petty politics,” Evers said. “Republicans, release those investments so we can get to work improving reading outcomes statewide.”
In addition, Evers said that he would propose ensuring that children have access to food and clean water by reintroducing his “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids” plan, which would provide free lunch and breakfast in schools, as well as by seeking to address the issue of lead in water.
“Making sure our kids are healthy — physically and mentally — is a crucial part of improving outcomes in our classrooms. But we have to connect the dots between school achievement and the challenges our kids are facing at home and in our communities,” Evers said. “Take lack of access to clean and safe drinking water, for example. There is no safe level of lead exposure for kids.”
Evers is proposing that the state dedicate $154.8 million for his “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids” initiative. The initiative, he said, would use the money to provide free breakfast and lunches to students as well as for other programs including modernizing “bubblers” in schools to remove harmful contaminants.
Evers called for urgency when it comes to addressing a mental health crisis among Wisconsin children.
“The state of our kids’ mental health continues to be concerning for me, both as a governor and as a grandfather. A kid in crisis may be distracted or disengaged and may not be able to focus on their studies, if they are able to get to school at all,” Evers said.
Evers noted that the 2023-25 state budget included $30 million for school-based mental health services, but it was “just a fraction of what I asked the Legislature to approve.” His renewed call for more mental health resources comes as children in Wisconsin have reported increasing levels of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts over the last decade, especially among girls, kids of color and LGBTQ youth.
Evers said he’ll propose dedicating almost $300 million to supporting mental health services in schools. This would include about $168 million for comprehensive school mental health services aid, $130 million to modify the existing aid for school mental health programs to provide 20% reimbursement for the costs of pupil services professionals, $500,000 for peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs and $760,000 to increase the amount and types of mental health trainings provided to schools.
“Making sure our kids are healthy—physically and mentally—is a crucial part of improving outcomes in our classrooms. But we have to connect the dots between school achievement and the challenges our kids are facing at home and in our communities,” Evers said.
Violence prevention — including for gun deaths
Highlighting the recent school shooting in Madison and the recent death by suicide of a former state lawmaker, Evers said gun violence prevention will be another priority this year.
“Thirty-seven days ago, a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison took the lives of Erin and Rubi — a student and an educator — who woke up and went to school that morning and will never return home. Six others were injured, and countless lives will never be the same,” Evers said.
Evers urged lawmakers to come together to work to prevent the next school shooting.
Specifically, Evers called for a law that would require background checks for any person seeking to purchase a gun, and implementing “red flag” laws in Wisconsin so “law enforcement and loved ones” have a way to remove guns from people who pose a risk to themselves or others.
“We aren’t here in Madison to quibble about the semantics of the last shooting. We are here to do everything we can to prevent the next one,” Evers said. “We do not have to choose between respecting the Second Amendment or keeping kids, schools, streets and communities safe.”
Evers said that he would also propose a $66 million investment to support services for crime victims statewide and help critical victim service providers, which would help address recent reductions in federal funding under the Victims of Crime Act.
Evers also outlined proposals that would help address deaths by suicide, and spoke about the recent loss of Former Milwaukee Rep. Jonathan Brostoff, who died by suicide in November.
“We are so deeply saddened that he is no longer with us,” Evers said before asking the room to recognize Brostoff’s wife and parents, who stood in the gallery looking over the lawmakers.
According to the Department of Health Services, Wisconsin reported 932 deaths by suicide in 2022 with almost 60% of those deaths involving a firearm.
“If you talk to someone whose loved one died by suicide, many will tell you their loss was not a foregone conclusion. That maybe — just maybe — if the person they loved had just made it through one more dark night to see with certainty that the sun again would rise, things might have ended up differently,” Evers said. “I’m asking this Legislature to give the next family and the next one, and the family after that, hope for that same opportunity.”
Evers proposed the creation of a “Self-Assigned Firearm Exclusion” (SAFE) Program, which would allow people to temporarily and voluntarily register to prevent themselves from purchasing a firearm.
Evers also called for lawmakers to reimplement a law that would require a 48-hour waiting period for buying firearms.
“The window for intervention is very short. Being able to purchase and possess a gun in minutes significantly increases the risk of firearm suicide — and firearm homicide, as well,” Evers said.
Republican lawmakers said they likely wouldn’t take up any of Evers’ proposals related to guns.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) talks to reporters after Gov. Tony Evers’ State of the State address Wednesday evening in the state Capitol. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Vos said that there are already some measures in place including background checks and that some money has gone into helping schools protect against shootings. Background checks are required for purchasing a handgun or long gun from a licensed dealer, but aren’t required for private sales or at gun shows.
“Unfortunately, sometimes people do bad things and there’s only so much that we can do to prevent it,” Vos said.
Vos said that everyone feels “bad for Jonathan Brostoff’s death,” but accused Evers of using it as a “cheap political stunt to try to get a piece of legislation passed.” He said Evers’ response “demeans Jonathan’s death.”
Lower costs for family through supporting child care
“There are a lot of ways we can lower everyday, out-of-pocket costs to make sure Wisconsinites and working families can afford basic needs,” Evers said.
Describing child care as “too darn expensive,” he highlighted a bipartisan bill that he signed into law last year that will expand the child care tax credit once it goes into effect this year.
Evers also said he will propose investing $480 million to continue the state’s Child Care Counts program, which has provided funding assistance to eligible child care providers to support operating expenses, investments in program quality, tuition relief for families, staff compensation and professional development. The program was started in March 2020 using federal funds and Evers wants to keep it going with state funds. He also wants to dedicate another $20 million to other programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and he wants to use the budget to create the framework for community-based 4K.
Cautions against forgetting immigration history
Evers cautioned Wisconsinites about forgetting the state’s historical ties to immigrants during his address, appearing critical of President Donald Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday and immediately issued orders sending troop to the U.S.-Mexico border, calling for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and even attempting to end constitutionally protected birthright citizenship.
“A lot has happened in Washington in the last 72 hours, and I know there is a lot of angst about what may happen in the days, months and years ahead,” Evers said. “I want to talk about what that means for Wisconsin and how we move forward together.”
“Wisconsin began as a land of many people, of many origins, each important and none any better than any other,” he continued, “and that is still who we are 177 years later. The state of Wisconsin was born of immigrants, but today, there are those who would have us forget this fact.”
“Let’s agree to be honest about the fact that, in this state, some of our state’s largest — and most important — industries and companies have always welcomed the hard work of immigrants,” Evers said. “Let’s agree to be honest about the fact that the story of our state’s success today is told in the labor of over three million Wisconsinites, including tens of thousands of workers whose only transgression to date was not having the good fortune of being born in this country.”
Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul have joined a multi-state federal lawsuit that was filed in Massachusetts to challenge the order trying to deny birthright citizenship.
Republicans, meanwhile, were supportive of Trump’s work, saying that Wisconsinites voted in favor of it when the state voted for Trump in November.
“[Evers is] clearly pushing back against the president. He’s lashing out because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were not only resoundly rejected by the American people, but by the state of Wisconsin,” August said, adding that Republicans would be ready to lead on the issue of immigration in Wisconsin.
Vos said that a proposal will be coming from Republicans next week that will require cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to ensure that “if someone is here illegally and committed a crime” they are deported.
Vos said that he is “open” to the idea of repealing birthright citizenship.
“I certainly think that there’s a legal case to be made. It wasn’t enacted until sometime, I think, around the year 1900, so it’s only been part of our country for about half of our nation’s existence,” Vos said.
Apart from immigration legislation, Vos said that Republican priorities would include a tax relief proposal, which he says would provide $1,000 to Wisconsinites, and a proposal to ensure “high educational standards” if there is an increase in funding for schools.
Evers will deliver his budget address and announce his full 2025-27 budget proposal on Feb. 18.
Assembly members being sworn in in January 2025. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
Wisconsin Assembly committees look different this session with new committee names and several old committees now made up of fewer members. The differences will affect the way legislation is shaped.
Each session the Assembly Speaker has the responsibility for determining the number of members per committee, unless a rule specifies otherwise. The Speaker also determines the ratio of majority to minority members on each committee. The committees are essential to the lawmaking process given that they are where bills are first moved to be discussed after being introduced, where bills receive public input and are debated by lawmaker before ever being considered for a vote by the full body.
Democrats have complained about losing members on committees despite winning additional seats in the full body. Despite Republican’s narrower majority this session, in some cases Democrats make up a smaller proportion of members on committees than they did in the last session.
“Unfortunately, Assembly Republican Leadership has chosen to begin the legislative session in a highly partisan fashion, reducing Democratic positions on the vast majority of committees despite the people of Wisconsin choosing to replace ten incumbent Republican legislators with Democrats in the last election,” Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said in a statement announcing Democratic committee membership. “I hope my Republican colleagues will choose to shift course and join Democrats in putting the people of Wisconsin over partisan politics in the coming legislative session.”
Neubauer’s staff said they were not consulted by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) about the committee sizes or ratios.
Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) said there was a “general understanding” that with more members in the house overall, Democrats were expecting that to be reflected in committees. Democrats picked up 10 additional seats in the Assembly, making the body about 55% Republican and 45% Democratic.
Instead Republicans and Democrats both lost seats on some committees, but the losses were exaggerated for Democrats, who now make up a smaller percentage of representation on several committees. For example, the Campaigns and Elections Committee last session had six Republican members and three Democrats. This session the committee is made up of five Republicans and two Democrats — or a 71% Republican to 29% Democratic makeup.
Vining described the change to committee membership as a punishment.
“We were penalized for maps that the Republicans actually passed themselves…,” Vining said. “They're penalizing us for having more seats and I think that's unfair to Wisconsinites.”
Vining said having diverse representation on committees matters because of how it shapes the way legislation turns out.
“Our job in committee is to vet bills. We're supposed to bring our perspective to the room and bat it around and figure it out… We need voices in the room,” Vining said. “When you have less voices in the room, I would argue that there's less there to vet a bill, to put a bill into the best form that it could possibly be in for the Wisconsin people.”
Vining is the ranking member on the Assembly Mental Health and Substance Abuse Prevention Committee this session. She also sits on the Children and Families, Health Aging and Long Term Care and Small Business Development committees.
The Mental Health committee is one where Democrats lost representation. The committee last session had eight Republicans to four Democrats — meaning Democrats made up 33% of the committee. This session the committee includes seven Republicans and three Democrats — bringing Democrats to only 30% of the committee.
One Democrat not returning to the Mental Health committee, Vining noted, is Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde (D-Milwaukee).
“I have one less member, which means I have one less microphone around the state of Wisconsin,” she said, “one less community that's represented on the mental health committee and one less person going out to destigmatize mental health, so yeah, that's a loss.”
Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa). Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
Vining said Omokunde’s absence is also notable given that one of the goals of the committee this session will be to discuss the issue of male loneliness. She noted that he has done a lot of work within the Black Caucus on Black mental health, including Black men's mental health.
“We'll find another way to keep that conversation going and I'm sure he will because he is fantastic at that,” Vining said. Still, she said that it is important to have ethnically diverse representation and gender representation on committees.
“Something I'm very aware of is we have two wonderful women who are joining me on the mental health committee but all the Democrats are women,” Vining said.
It’s not just Democratic lawmakers who have expressed disappointment about committee memberships this session.
Rebecca Aubart, executive director of Ladies of SCI, a nonpartisan prison reform advocacy group, said the situation is upsetting to the group. The group has been working to improve the state’s correctional system, including by advocating for an ombudsman to serve as a watchdog.
“This isn't what Wisconsin voted for. We voted for more fair representation. We voted for both of the sides to have to come together because it was going to be more fair representation,”Aubert said. “This seems like such a power struggle that just makes me sick.”
Aubert said the group had been waiting for several months to see how committees would turn out this session given the new legislative maps, and so they could return to their advocacy work. She said she was looking forward to there being new discussions with fresh ideas this session, and feels like that may not end up being the case.
“Most of our meetings are between 65% and 68% Republican, because that is who has been in control, but the Democrats have really good points too and are very sympathetic and their voices aren't heard,” Aubert said. “They have a lot of good ideas that would help straighten out corrections, but their voices are still going to go unheard.”
“If we want new legislation to come through, everything comes through the committee first, and then it goes to everybody else. I just don't think the people of Wisconsin are aware that even though our votes changed a lot in the Assembly, it actually didn't change anything because of how these committees are picked.”
Aubert said that she thinks there should be rules that the Speaker should have to follow, including that the partisan balance on committees should match the Assembly as a whole.
Vining noted that she encouraged her Republican colleagues in a public statement to push back on the decision made by their leadership.
Vos did not respond to requests for comment from the Examiner.
Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) is leading the newly formed Government Operations Accountability and Transparency (GOAT) committee and also serves as vice-chair of the Assembly Colleges and Universities committee. In an interview discussing her new roles this session, Nedweski said she didn’t think the fluctuation in the committee memberships were intentional or political.
Nedweski said having fewer people on committees isn’t a disadvantage given that the committee process is public and anyone is still welcome to show up to committee meetings.
“People who are interested in being on that committee are there and, you know, if there's legislation that comes before the committee that people who are not on the committee are interested in, they can always come and testify and you know, be a part of discussion,” Nedweski said. “No one's being locked out of anything.”
New committees highlight Assembly priorities
Other changes this session include several new and revived Assembly committees, highlighting some of lawmakers’ priorities in the coming months.
Vos put a special emphasis on the GOAT committee this session. In a statement, he said the committee — with Nedweski at the helm — would help the caucus’ focus on its “renewed goal of identifying and addressing government inefficiencies.”
Nedweski said the committee is the result of “demands from the people” and a “mainstream interest in fiscal conservatism and government efficiency.” She said part of the interest in having Wisconsin lawmakers take on the work was driven by President Donald Trump announcing the creation of a federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). While a committee existed last session focused on government operations and accountability, Nedweski said it wasn’t very active and the new committee will be.
Rep. Amanda Nedweski. Photo courtesy of her office.
“We had so many people reaching out saying ‘Who's going to be the state DOGE?’” Nedweski said. “I think there are opportunities around every corner to find quick and easy ways for improvement for some things and then certainly there are much bigger problems that could take solutions that are multi-year.”
Nedweski said her background in corporate finance and doing work that involves finding efficiencies inspired her to want to take on the role of chairing the new committee.
“In the private sector, there are natural forms of accountability driven by bottom lines, and government just doesn't have those built in, but we should,” Nedweski said.
The committee is still exploring what exactly its work will include, but Nedweski said it will focus on issues big and small. Ultimately, she said she wants to ensure that the state is using the taxpayers’ resources efficiently and effectively.
One issue she said the committee will likely look at is the number of state employees who are working remotely, which has been a contentious issue over the last several years.
“Are we getting the most productivity out of those people who are working from home? How do we measure that, and if we're seeing that it's not the most productive situation, why aren't those people back in the building?” Nedweski said. “Maybe they are productive, maybe that's the best situation for them, but then what do we do with that physical building? If the solution is we don't need in-person employees, then we don't need to pay for the space either, and I think we have a responsibility to the taxpayer to make sure that we're not wasting.”
Nedweski said other committees could also bring issues to GOAT to explore.
“Our intention is to have the entire body involved in this process where maybe… we're going to maybe do a joint hearing with the education committee, or the college's committee,” Nedweski said. “How do we use our resources within GOAT to help them further explore some of the areas that they identify for us that are in need of oversight, transparency, accountability or efficiency?”
Another issue Nedweski mentioned as an area of interest is “administrative bloat” in Wisconsin’s K-12 schools and in the University of Wisconsin system.
She also mentioned looking at programs and laws as they sunset. She noted that Texas has a Sunset Advisory Commission, a mission that the GOAT committee takes on.
“There's all these statutes on the books that maybe there's appropriations tied to, and sometimes things fly under the radar and are there any circumstances — and I can't say that there are — are there any circumstances where we have continued to fund something that was supposed to end? Maybe GOAT has an arm of that... where we're diving into the weeds and looking at where we spend money and should this have ended five years ago?”
One revived committee this session is the Assembly Small Business Committee. Last session, it became part of the Jobs, Economy and Small Business Development Committee.
Vining said she commends Vos for bringing the committee back because it gives a greater opportunity to speak about the issues affecting Wisconsin small businesses.
“Ninety-nine percent of Wisconsin businesses are small businesses. We're a small business state. We should have a small business development committee. We should be talking about how access to capital is more difficult for women and people of color,” Vining said.
The Assembly is also reviving the Assembly Urban Revitalization Committee this session with Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) serving as its chair. Donovan, who served as a Milwaukee alderman for about 20 years, said he is excited about the opportunity.
“It's certainly fair to say that Milwaukee has some neighborhoods that are very challenged, and we need to work on that, but I suspect other cities around the state may be suffering from the same challenges, so I'm hopeful that we can work a number of initiatives to help revitalize those struggling neighborhoods,” Donovan said.
Donovan said that the “sky's the limit” when it comes to the issues the committee may look at, but that public safety concerns, educational issues and housing, including more home ownership, are some areas that he is interested in exploring.
As the committee’s work is only just starting, Donovan said that he has requested that the Legislative Reference Bureau provide the committee with some information about revitalization efforts that have gone on in other cities across the country as well as about what the 2017 committee did.
“I've always believed we don't need to reinvent the wheel. If something is working in another community, I see no reason why we couldn't make it work here in Wisconsin,” Donovan said.
Donovan said that he is prepared to communicate with local leaders in Milwaukee and other cities. He said he already had a “very good” conversation with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley about some concerns at the county level when it comes to parks and other services.
“[I] just wanted to open up or continue the lines of communication,” Donovan said.
Other new committees include the Commerce Committee, the Constitution and Ethics Committee, the State and Federal Relations Committee, the Public Benefit Reform Committee and the Science, Technology and AI Committee.
The fate of postpartum Medicaid expansion, a bipartisan effort in the state Legislature, yet again falls in the hands of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who said Tuesday that it’s “unlikely” his chamber will get to vote on it.
Congress previously gave states a permanent option to accept federal funds for 12-month extensions of postpartum Medicaid coverage. Wisconsin and Arkansas are now the only two states that have turned down the federal extension. Wisconsin’s coverage currently lasts 60 days after birth, far shorter than what health experts recommend.
Extending the coverage has emerged as a way for states to fight maternal mortality rates. Though pregnancy-related deaths are rare, a third of them in Wisconsin occur beyond the 60-day coverage window, according to the Department of Health Services.
Rep. Patrick Snyder, R-Weston, on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would expand coverage to 12 months. The legislation mirrors the extensions that have been introduced in previous sessions, yet have failed to pass the Legislature. That same day, Vos, R-Rochester, said a vote on the 12-month extension would be “unlikely.”
“Our caucus has taken a position that expanding welfare is not a wise idea for anyone involved,” Vos told reporters.
Republican lawmakers previously agreed to a three-month coverage period. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ 2021-23 state budget proposal asked for a 12-month extension, but Republican lawmakers on the powerful Joint Finance Committee amended it to instead require DHS to request federal approval to extend postpartum Medicaid eligibility to 90 days instead of the 60 mandated by federal law.
Vos accused the Evers administration of not applying for the 90-day extension the Legislature already granted, which isn’t true — something Vos acknowledged in response to a follow-up question to his office. DHS submitted the application for the extension, but the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last year said it would not approve a waiver request for coverage shorter than one year.
“I’m glad that I was wrong and it has been submitted,” Vos responded. “The waiver request should be resubmitted to the Trump administration.”
“Going from the 60 to 90 days is pretty negligible,” said Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, chair of the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care.
During the last legislative session, the Republican-controlled Senate passed a bipartisan bill in a 32-1 vote that would have extended postpartum coverage to 12 months. The lone opponent was Duey Stroebel, who lost his re-election bid in November. In total, 73 lawmakers cosponsored the bill — over half of the state Legislature. The bill authored by Snyder this session is currently circulating for cosponsors.
Interest groups from both sides of the aisle came out in support of the previous legislation, including Pro-Life Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Kids Forward.
“It made sense to me because if I am pro-life and I don’t want people to abort their babies, why would I not do everything I could to support those mothers to have the babies,” former Republican Rep. Donna Rozar, who authored the bill last session, told Wisconsin Watch.
But despite bipartisan support, the Assembly never scheduled it for a hearing before adjourning for the rest of the session in February last year.
Rozar said she and other lawmakers couldn’t get Vos on board. “He dug his heel in, there was no doubt about it,” she said.
Moses put the bill on the agenda for a hearing. But in addition to Vos blocking it, the committee was jammed near the end of the session and didn’t have time to schedule it, he said.
“There’s 132 people in this building. I don’t think we should legislate by one,” Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said of Vos. “It’s up to his caucus to elect a different speaker or change his mind. So his members have to put enough pressure on him to get it done.”
‘There’s 132 people in this building. I don’t think we should legislate by one.’
Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk
Without Vos’ approval, Moses said it’s not likely that lawmakers will secure a 12-month extension, but he’s hopeful that an extension of at least six or nine months can be agreed to in this year’s state budget, despite the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ indication that anything less than 12 months would not be approved. Moses is willing to schedule a hearing for the upcoming bill, but if Vos remains opposed, it may not get referred to him, he said.
“When it comes to the budget, if there’s something that we want that would be attractive to negotiate this out with, I think that’s a possibility,” Moses said.
A fiscal estimate last session estimated the bill expansion would cost $21.4 million per year, including $8.4 million in state taxpayer funds with the rest coming from federal taxpayers. It would increase monthly Medicaid enrollment by 5,290 members. Felzkowski, who sponsored the Senate version, said it’s an extension for those who are already covered rather than an expansion that puts more people on Medicaid. She also said it’s good for taxpayers.
“The reason states have done this — blue states, red states, purple states — is it’s a return on investment for the taxpayers and it makes sense to do it,” Felzkowski told Wisconsin Watch. “We see the number of complications that happen in that first year, and those complications, by not being covered, cost money — cost a lot of money.”
Wisconsin’s 306% Medicaid income eligibility limit for the 60 days of postpartum coverage is one of the highest in the country — something Vos has pointed to.
“When you make a choice to have a child, which I’m glad that people do, it’s not the taxpayers’ responsibility to pay for the delivery of that child,” Vos said in 2023. “We do it for people who are in poverty. We’ve made the decision to go to 300%, that’s the law. But to now say beyond 60 days, we’re going to give you free coverage, no copayment, no deductible, until a year out, absolutely not.”
A 2021 version of the bill failed to get a floor vote in both the Senate and the Assembly, yet had only one lobbying group registered against it.
That group was Opportunity Solutions Project, the lobbying arm of the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability. The conservative advocacy group did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s requests for comment. FGA has a track record of lobbying against Medicaid expansion and other bills in Wisconsin.
“I think it’s a little premature to have any discussions about the Medicaid budget right now. We have a brand new administration coming into D.C.,” Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth, said in a Tuesday press conference with Vos. “I think the Trump administration is actually going to put some common sense into some of these programs federally.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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.”
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