(The Center Square) – Wisconsin voters are very confident in the state’s elections, with 54% of respondents saying so in a new poll released by the bipartisan Democracy Defense Project.
That’s a 7 percentage point increase in those who said they were very confident after the 2024 presidential election.
The polling was conducted with the Tarrance Group and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates asking 600 registered likely voters in Wisconsin questions from April 7-10.
“Wisconsin elections are important as ever and we will continue to have all eyes on us as we head into another election cycle,” the defense project members said in a statement. “Despite running a tight ship throughout the election season and faith in election integrity rising, Wisconsin still has a reputation problem.
“There has been an erosion of faith in our democracy with politicians undermining election integrity to bolster their campaign allowing false narratives about ‘stolen elections’ to take root.”
The Wisconsin group includes former Attorney General JB Van Hollen, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, former U.S. Representative Scott Klug and former Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate.
Van Hollen and Klug were Republican politicians while Barnes and Tate were Democrats.
The poll showed that 48% don’t trust what will happen in Milwaukee County, up 2 percentage points from a July 2024 poll.
But those who believe election workers and officials are “partisans trying to manipulate the process” went down 12 points.
Most of the respondents believe that pre-processing of ballots on Monday of elections to speed up the process of vote counting is a good idea with 76% supporting the idea, 40% of which strongly supported it.
Voters also want statewide drop box rules with 79% favoring it and 51% strongly supporting the idea.
“This poll shows we need to continue working to restore faith and trust in institutions currently under attack and we need a two-pronged approach to educate voters on the process to restore credibility and we need reforms like pre-processing to instill more confidence in the process,” the group said. “These together will bring meaningful change.”

(The Center Square) – There’s once again anger in Wisconsin over what to call pregnant women.
Republicans in the state are furious with a piece of legislation from Democrats that replaces the word mother with a slew of gender-neutral terms as part of an LGBTQ agenda.
“[Thursday], Democrats introduced a 164-page bill that strikes out the word ‘mother’ over 370 times and replaces it with phrases like ‘pregnant person,’” Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie wrote on social media. “They also use phrases like ‘person’s breastfeeding’ because apparently men can breastfeed. The Party of Science, everyone.”
It’s not just Republicans at the state capitol.
Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany also took to social media to express his outrage.
“First, Gov. [Tony] Evers tried to change ‘mother’ to ‘inseminated person.’ Now, Wisconsin Democrats want to change ‘expectant mother’ to ‘pregnant person,” Tiffany wrote. “Why are they so hell-bent on erasing mothers? It’s disrespectful and absurd.”
Evers touched off a wave of anger in February when a piece of his budget changed mother to “inseminated person” in a change to state law dealing with parental custody.
Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol offered a similar defense.
“More than ever we must take steps to ensure equal rights and protections under the law for our Wisconsin LGBTQ+ community and their families. As we have seen basic rights and freedoms be threatened or denied at the federal level, it is important that Wisconsin take our own legislative steps to make sure that every resident of Wisconsin can live authentically as themselves without threat to their marriage, parentage, mental health or safety,” Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleon, said in a statement. “All Wisconsin citizens deserve equal rights and opportunities under the law and these bills make meaningful steps toward making that a reality.”
The changes to mother are part of one bill, that is part of a larger LGBQ package from Wisconsin Democrats.

(The Center Square) – Separating the funding for Wisconsin’s school choice program from the state’s public school funding formula would have saved local property taxpayers $337 million this year but that expense would have been shifted to $343 million in additional state funding, according to a new report from Forward Analytics.
The report called the process decoupling and said it would lead to lower property taxes in 407 of 421 districts while increasing the amount needed for state funding. That state funding would need to come from higher state taxes from something such as income or sales tax or cuts to other state programs.
Forward Analytics is a division of the Wisconsin Counties Association. Wisconsin counties are generally funded through property taxes and state aid. In 2020, Wisconsin counties received 39% of their funding through property taxes and 27% from state aid.
The Forward Analytics report said that the state funding needs will likely increase in coming years.
“During the first two years, there would likely be some volatility in school property taxes, with relatively large declines in the first year followed by increases in the second,” Forward Analytics Director Dale Knapp said in a statement. “For nearly all districts, though, these second-year increases would still keep school property taxes below current levels.”
The report argues that the current system makes an already complex funding formula even more difficult to understand.
“The current funding system adds another layer of complexity, which, among other things, ‘hides’ the impacts,” the report states. “The bottom line is that the current system replaces the aid deduction for the cost of these programs with property taxes. It also changes the distribution of state equalization aid resulting in ‘hidden’ property tax shifts for districts with no students in these programs.”

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump’s administration is investigating the Green Bay Area Public School District over a complaint of racial discrimination against a dyslexic student.
The investigation will also look into whether or not the school district delayed the student’s special education evaluation.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of the complainant Colbey Decker, a mom from Green Bay whose dyslexic son was denied reading resources because he is white, according to OCR’s notice of investigation.
“It is heartbreaking to think that, in America, a school would consider whether to provide services to a disabled student based not on that student’s needs, but on the color of his skin,” WILL education counsel Cory Brewer said in a statement. “This is not only unlawful, it is an affront to the character of the American people. We appreciate the Department of Education taking this important step today.”
The statement by WILL said the school district admitted practices of racial preferences through its “School Success Plan” in a message conveyed directly to Decker by a school principal during an in-person meeting.
King Elementary’s School Success Plan, which has been since removed from the school’s website, shows policies prioritizing access to support and resources to certain groups, including First Nations, Black and Hispanic students.
According to WILL, Decker’s son was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2022 and she has been seeking support from the school since he enrolled in January 2024.
Throughout 2024, Decker “repeatedly” provided documentation and made formal requests for one-on-one reading interventions. Even in April 2024 when he was placed on a waitlist for reading intervention in a less intensive program, his needs required more support.
After WILL sent a Dec. 9 letter to district Superintendent Vicki Bayer, the school requested a meeting with Decker and WILL attorneys. According to WILL’s statement, in the meeting a school official asked her to identify specific students who were treated more favorably than her son based on race.
WILL argues the questioning was unfair because she only had access to documentation for her son and information about his experience, but not district data.
“This isn’t the first time in our nation where we have seen liberal ideology prevent students from receiving the services they need,” Rep. Joy Goeben, R-Hobart, the vice-chair of the Assembly Committee on Education, told The Center Square. “I am grateful for organizations such as WILL who stand up for students and their families in the face of injustice.”
Goeben stated she will continue to monitor the investigation as it moves through the judicial process.

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan should not be prosecuted for her actions related to a defendant in her courtroom set to be arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside the courtroom due to judicial immunity, her lawyers argued in a memorandum supporting her motion to dismiss that was filed Thursday.
“This indictment breaks new ground,” the motion argues. “Dismissing it will not. Since 1788, by its allocation of governmental power horizontally across three very different branches, and vertically among federal government, state governments, and the people themselves, our Constitution has provided the hope and the means to hold power to principled, public account.
“This indictment would change that. But the rule of law itself, here rightly in service of justice, long has barred what the indictment threatens. Judicial immunity forecloses this prosecution.”
Dugan is charged with obstruction of a federal proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent discovery or arrest. The obstruction charge could lead to up to a $100,000 fine and a year in prison while the second concealment charge can lead to up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Recently released video depicts Dugan speaking with ICE officers in the hallway outside her courtroom and defendant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz walking through a back hallway with a person identified in an affidavit as his attorney before heading to an elevator and then being chased down and arrested on the street outside of the courthouse.
Dugan has a trial date set for July 21 after pleading not guilty.
“As courthouse video shows conclusively, after he finished in her courtroom, E.F.R. emerged into the same public hallway where agents expected him,” the filing argues. “He emerged just a few feet from the back doors of the courtroom. At least two agents saw him walk into that hallway and followed him to the elevator. When and how they then decided to arrest had nothing to do with Judge Dugan.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin should grade all of its K-12 public schools along the same standards, follow nationally recognized standards and make sure simplified summaries are available each year by Aug. 15, a policy statement from City Forward Collective said Thursday.
The policy brief comes after Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction announced it has formed a committee to evaluate state report card standards. The response came following pushback, and a bill passed by the Legislature and vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers, asking DPI to go back to standards from 2021-22 rather than using revised standards from the past several years.
A recent City Forward Collective CEO, Brittany Kinser, ran and lost to DPI Superintendent Jill Underly in a recent statewide election. Colleston Morgan Jr., is the group’s current executive director.
“Our position is clear: WI students and families deserve honesty, transparency, and accountability to high expectations – and DPI’s current Report Card fails to meet the mark,” Morgan wrote.
A committee of more than two dozen educators and leaders from public, private, and charter schools will begin meeting in June but names of the committee members were not released.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty urged Evers to sign Assembly Bill 1, pointing out where the state lowered school report card cut points in 2020-21, changed the labels on those in 2023-24 and lowered the cut points again that year as well.
City Forward Collective pointed to a recent school report card showing that 7,000 students taking the ACT were marked as “Meets Expectations, Not College Ready.”
“The changes were done in a way that disproportionately impacted students in historically undereducated groups – widening Wisconsin’s already abysmal opportunity gaps, including our worst-in-the-nation disparities between Black and White students,” the policy statement said. “And, the changes were implemented with little input or feedback even from most K12 school systems – leading to implementation challenges and reduced stakeholder confidence in results.”
The group also pointed out issues within the data with 80% of Milwaukee students not meeting standards but 63% of those are enrolled in schools marked as “Meets Expectations” or higher.
Overall, the Milwaukee school district is rating as three out of five stars and meeting expectations even though less than one in five students in the district – including fewer than one in 10 Black students – meet state expectations.

(The Center Square) – A hearing over interest earned on COVID-19 federal relief money left lawmakers thinking three things could happen – a veto, a court fight with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers or an impeachment trial.
A bill alleging Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has illegally kept $172 million in interest earned from unspent COVID relief funds recently had its first hearing.
Senate Bill 280, co-authored by Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, and Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia, says the money must be deposited into Wisconsin’s general fund, citing state law.
“[Wisconsin Statute] 20.906 indicates that in that circumstance, when there’s revenue being generated of any kind, that it ought to be deposited into the treasury,” Wimberger testified. “That money has not been deposited into the treasury.”
The accrued interest was first discovered at $68 million in a 2023 audit by the Legislative Audit Bureau.
An updated number from the bureau, reported to the co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, indicates the funds have accrued almost $172 million in interest and the DOA still holds the interest earnings.
“This bill might seem redundant in that it’s telling the governor to obey the state law, but apparently that’s needed,” Wimberger said. “We need to tell the governor to obey state law.”
However, both Republican and Democratic legislators acknowledged the bill opens a complex, unprecedented legal gray area, raising numerous legal questions about whether the interest is a federal or state fund.
Although Wimberger claimed the DOA mistakenly classified the interest earnings as federal funds, Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, argued the DOA may have indeed viewed it that way and may not have thought that state law applied.
“Essentially, my understanding of DOA’s legal argument is that in a more typical circumstance where we get funds from the federal government, we wouldn’t be depositing that interest in the general fund but we would generally be required to give it back to the federal government,” Spreitzer said.
“But, in this case for this particular COVID relief program, the federal government said you may keep that interest, and therefore, they are viewing that as additional federal money given to the state…that the administration believes they can use in the same way as the principal fund,” Spreitzer said.
Spreitzer said he could not speak directly on behalf of the DOA, as no spokesperson from the DOA had come to testify at the hearing.
Wimberger responded to Spreitzer, stating the DOA never considered the interest earnings to be federal funds in the first place because it did not follow federal law of designating and returning the money by certain due dates.
“That money was never designated by Dec. 31 or returned by March 31, so you can conclude that it’s not actually federal money,” Wimberger said. “That $170 million is sitting there without any designation or purpose. They have no possession or authority over it, so by their deeds of not designating the money and not returning it because it’s not been designated, you can logically conclude DOA doesn’t even believe they’re federal funds.”
Wimberger argued the problem is that Wisconsin and the federal government are operating under two separate legal systems when it comes to the interest earnings.
“The federal government is treating them as state funds, but the state of Wisconsin is currently treating them as federal funds,” Wimberger said. “Therefore the federal government is coming for them, and the state government isn’t abiding by state law. So we have the two different systems applying two different sets of law.”
Wimberger said the DOA’s decision to ignore the Dec. 31 and March 31 deadlines implies motive to use the funds however they wish.
Spreitzer said Evers will simply veto the bill anyways and spend the funds as he chooses until someone sues to settle the matter in court, concluding that the issue will inevitably need to be resolved through court, not legislation.
Wittke and Wimberger later affirmed litigation could be a future option, but also hinted at an impeachment effort.
Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, criticized the DOA for not coming to testify.
“I asked the chairman if anybody from DOA was here because this directly impacts them,” Bradley said. “I thought it would be nice to hear from them so they could defend their position and answer some questions as to why they should control the purse strings instead of the legislature.”
Neither the governor’s office nor the office of the DOA secretary responded for comment on this story at the time of publication.

(The Center Square) – A Dane County judge is getting suspended by the Wisconsin Supreme Court after it found Judge Ellen Berz violated the court system’s s ethical code.
“Judge Berz willfully violated certain provisions of the Code of Judicial Ethics; namely, Supreme Court Rules (SCRs) 60.02, 60.03(1), 60.04(1)(d), and 60.04(1)(e). In a Joint Stipulation, Judge Berz admitted the factual allegations of the complaint and agreed that she had violated the Code as alleged,” the high court said in its order.
The justices dinged Berz for two incidents.
The first was her overuse of sarcasm during a hearing in 2019. The justices say Berz unprofessionally antagonized a defendant who wanted to reschedule a hearing.
“I’m going to allow the reschedule,” the court quoted Berz as saying at the hearing. “And just let me make this abundantly clear to you, Mr. Harrison. You’re not playing that game anymore after this. It’s not a look, I found another rabbit in the hat; look, there might be something underneath this rug. If this trial – when this trial is rescheduled, we’re not playing that game. So, play the game with other people you’re with. Go to the prison and talk to them about all the games you can play. We’re done here. Clear?“
The other incident got much more attention.
Berz left her courtroom in 2021, and started to drive to a local hospital to personally arrest a suspect who skipped a court date.
“After obtaining Hodges’ location, Judge Berz directed the bailiff, who was responsible for the security of Judge Berz’s courtroom, to leave the courthouse in order to arrest Hodges. After learning this was not possible, Judge Berz told those present in her courtroom that she would retrieve Hodges from the hospital herself. Judge Berz also stated that, if something happened to her when she went to pick up Hodges, they would hear about it on the news,” the court wrote in its finding against Berz. “Judge Berz then drove from the Dane County Courthouse in her personal vehicle with Hodges’ attorney seated in the front passenger seat.”
She turned around before getting to the hospital, but was not happy the court noted.
The Supreme Court’s ruling against Berz will cost her a week’ s worth of pay.

(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin Republican lawmakers is looking to increase spending by $31 million annually in state payments to municipalities to cover the expense of providing services to state buildings.
A group of seven Republican sent a budget motion to the state’s Joint Finance Committee asking it to ensure that the state will meet its agreed-upon payments for police, fire and waste services to municipalities.
“We as a state should fulfill our statutory commitment with municipalities,” co-author Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, said in a statement. “It is not right to require municipalities to provide service to the state and not reimburse them.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers put $17 million in his proposed budget to increase payments starting in the 2025-26 fiscal year through the Municipal Services Payments Program while adding automatic payment increases into budgets for the years following.
The program was created to decrease property tax liabilities for local taxpayers by making services for state-owned buildings a state cost.
The program was fully funded in 1980 but the co-sponsors say that it has been underfunded since 1982.
The state only covered an estimated 37% of the costs in 2024 and the budget motion is aimed at having the state pay the entire cost of those services.
“Our first priority in budget spending must be to meet our obligations,” Allen said. “That is responsible budgeting.”
The motion is co-sponsored by Reps. Allen, David Armstrong, R-Rice Lake, Rick Gundrum, R-Slinger, Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin, Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, Jerry O’Connor, R-Fond du Lac, and Rob Swearingen, R-Rhinelander.

(The Center Square) – There’s another deep dive into the case law behind judicial immunity in Wisconsin as federal prosecutors continue with their case against Milwaukee County’s arrested judge.
The Institute for Reforming Government on Wednesday released its latest Court Watch primer, this time focusing on Judge Hannah Dugan.
“A Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge, Hannah C. Dugan, faces federal charges for allegedly directing a defendant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, to exit her courtroom through a jury door to evade federal agents executing an administrative warrant,” the primer states. “Dugan is claiming judicial immunity, arguing her actions were official judicial acts, exempt from prosecution because she acted within her role as a judge.”
But IRG’s Jake Curtis said the idea that a judge has unlimited power to do as they please is not only misplaced, it’s not based in legal reality.
“Judicial immunity is not a blanket defense that protects judges from any and all conduct,” Curtis said. “Judge Dugan’s defense will hinge on whether the court will view her alleged acts as exercising her authority within the scope of her role as a state judge or not.”
The IRG primer points to a 2019 federal case, United States v. Richmond Joseph, which Curtis said mirrors Dugan’s case in that judge a Massachusetts federal judge Shelly Richmond Joseph “schemed to help a defendant escape via a rear exit, deemed a non-judicial use.”
“Dugan’s defense asserts absolute judicial immunity, claiming her actions were part of her courtroom management authority and protected under common law principles dating back to 17th-century England. However, when Judge Richmond Joseph claimed immunity, the court found it inapplicable to allegedly corrupt acts,” the IRG primer reads. “The prosecution contends that directing a defendant to evade arrest is not a judicial act, likening it to aiding a fugitive, and falls outside her jurisdiction and scope of her work as a state judge. In Richmond Joseph, the court upheld the indictment, noting that corrupt conduct falls outside judicial immunity.”
Federal prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against Judge Joseph, but the IRG primer explained that other federal cases have largely struck down the idea of limitless judicial immunity.
Dugan has both pleaded not guilty and filed a motion to dismiss the charges against her. She is facing six years in prison if convicted. She is charged with both concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of justice.
IRG’s report states that it is not clear whether Dugan will actually go to trial on both charges, or whether the court will fully answer her legal theory of unlimited judicial immunity.
Dugan is due back in federal court in Milwaukee in July.

(The Center Square) – Government red tape is contributing to the crisis in Wisconsin child care affordability and staffing, a new report finds.
The report, written by Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty in partnership with Archbridge Institute, claims strict regulations can place unnecessary burdens on providers, limit workforce participation by parents and drive up prices for families.
Wisconsin ranks as the 10th most restrictive state for child care regulations overall, the report reveals.
“Wisconsin families are facing a crisis of affordability and access when it comes to child care,” WILL policy associate Miranda Spindt said in a statement. “This report demonstrates that unnecessary regulations are a significant contributing factor. While ensuring the health and safety of children is paramount, the current regulatory framework is simply outdated and places a significant financial burden on hardworking families.”
The report comes shortly after legislative Democrats introduced a $480 million child care bill in response to Republicans cutting child care funding from Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal.
The $480 million plan would fund Child Care Counts, a program that only supports regulated child care providers.
However, expanding regulations and funding only regulated child care providers could become a burden to Wisconsinites, according to the report.
In Wisconsin’s current child care system, families pay an average monthly child care cost of $915 per child. This comes to an average cost of $10,980 for a single child per year, which is 17% of the median household income for families with young children.
The financial burden places Wisconsin families at a disadvantage compared to neighboring states, where child care consumes 3-7% less of household income.
Further research suggests allowing the infant-to-staff ratio to increase by one infant could reduce child care costs by 9-20%, while regulations requiring lead teachers to have a high school degree is linked to a 25-46% cost increase.
Therefore, the best solution moving forward is to prioritize regulatory reform, the report argues.
“Wisconsin has an opportunity to become a leader in child care access and affordability by embracing targeted regulatory reforms,” said Edward Timmons, senior fellow at the Archbridge Institute. “Our research, in partnership with WILL, underscores the need for a balanced approach that prioritizes the well-being of children while removing unnecessary barriers that limit child care options and drive up costs for families.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s senior U.S. Senator says his problems with the reconciliation plan have not changed in the few days since Hosue Republicans in the House put their stamp on it.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson was on CNN recently, explaining he continues to want to see a lot more spending cut out of President Donald Trump’s big beautiful bill.
“We need to be responsible. The first goal of our budget reconciliation process should be to reduce the deficit. This actually increases it,” Johnson said.
Johnson didn’t have a specific price tag for how much he’d like to see cut. Instead, he once again said that the federal government needs to go back to pre-pandemic spending levels.
“President Obama averaged about $910 billion of deficits per-year. President Trump, in first three years, averaged about $810 billion. Then COVID hit, and [we saw] over $3 trillion in deficit. It should have ended there,” Johnson said. “But President Biden averages $1.9 trillion in deficits over his four years.”
Johnson said those Biden deficits have now grown to $2.2 trillion, which means $22 trillion more on the national debt over the next 10 years.
Johnson is one of the loudest critics of the reconciliation package. And he has not backed down, even though Trump and other top Republicans said all Republicans need to get on-board with the plan.
Johnson said he’s been a deficit hawk since his first days in Washington, D.C., and said he’s not changing that now.
“In 2010, I sprang on the Tea Party movement and as I did parades, I would shout ‘This is a fight for freedom. We are mortgaging our children’s future. It is wrong, it’s immoral, and it has to stop,’” Johnson said. “I haven’t changed. My campaign promise in 2010, and in every campaign after that, was to stop mortgaging our children’s future.”
Johnson said this is the best chance Republicans have had in decades to reduce the size of the deficit, and he doesn’t want it to slip away.
Despite Johnson’s critiques of the reconciliation package, he has not said whether he will ultimately be a ‘no’ vote for the plan when it comes up for a vote in the Senate.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction has formed a committee to review and set new state report card standards.
The committee comes after a bill that would have moved the state back to 2021-22 standards passed the Wisconsin Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers.
The committee of more than two dozen educators and leaders from public, private, and charter schools will begin meeting in June. Names of the committee members were not released.
“Just as you wouldn’t rely on a decade-old GPS to find your way today, we can’t use outdated performance benchmarks to guide school improvement,” State Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement along with the announcement. “In Wisconsin, where we maintain a high academic bar aligned to rigorous state standards, it is essential that our accountability systems keep pace with changes to performance measures — based on today’s data, today’s measures, and today’s expectations…not yesterday’s.”
Underly has been criticized for changing those standards over recent years.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty urged Evers to sign Assembly Bill 1, pointing out where the state lowered school report card cut points in 2020-21, changed the labels on those in 2023-24 and lowered the cut points again that year as well.
“While I have been critical of processes for recent changes to school scoring and standards, I am nevertheless vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to the Legislature’s attempts to undermine the constitutional authority and independence of the state superintendent of public instruction,” Evers wrote in his March 28 veto.
The new standards from the committee will begin with report card grades released this fall.
DPI says the process will be “guided by” the Wisconsin’s Technical Advisory Committee and “facilitated by” the Center for Assessment.