(The Center Square) – The plan from a couple of Wisconsin’s progressive lawmakers to block ICE efforts in the state is drawing sharp, quick criticism.
Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, blasted the “Keep Families Together” package.
“The so-called ‘Keep Families Together’ package would funnel taxpayer dollars into immigration defense, block state, county, and city facilities from detaining individuals based on immigration,” Moses said in a statement.
Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, and other members of The Wisconsin Legislative Socialist Caucus introduced a handful of pieces of legislation they say would address “the fear and chaos stoked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
“President Trump is commanding ICE to detain and deport people to fill his arbitrary quotas, almost always without a judge’s oversight, often while agents are masked and unidentified,” Clancy said. “This is textbook authoritarianism. Fascists always attack marginalized communities first, but they won’t stop there. Ultimately, attacks on our undocumented neighbors undermine everyone’s safety.”
The Socialist Caucus’ legislation would:
● Fund immigration defense work
● Prevent government actors from acting while masked and unidentified
● Prohibit the use of state, county or city facilities for detaining people based solely on their immigration status
● Ban agreements appropriating local government resources for immigration enforcement
“This is nothing more than a blueprint for turning Wisconsin into a sanctuary state at the expense of hardworking Wisconsinites,” Moses said. “I will not stand for legislation that shifts costs onto our communities or puts Wisconsinites in danger.”

(The Center Square) – Polly Colvin will be allowed to sell her handmade products, which include religious themes, at Bonduel’s farmers market after the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty advocated on her behalf to sell the products despite farmers market rules.
WILL sent a letter to Bonduel after reading the farmers market rules, which says that the sale of politically or religiously affiliated merchandise is prohibited.
The policy violates the First Amendment related to both freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, WILL wrote.
Bonduel responded quickly with a letter stating that Colvin’s “Life With Polly Anna LLC” is free to apply and sell merchandise at the farmers market.
“We appreciate and understand your concern regarding the language in the Village’s market rules and regulations,” wrote Bonduel Clerk-Treasurer Michelle Maroszek. “These rules were originally modeled after those of another local farmer’s market whose program has been successful. The specific section you referenced will be reviewed by the Village Board at its next meeting.”
WILL said that it intends to closely monitor the details of the upcoming village meetings to ensure that the rules are changed.
“The Village of Bonduel’s farmers market restriction is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, which protects both freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion,” WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber said in a statement. “I am glad our team was able to secure a quick win for our client here so that Polly and others can share their hard work freely. Our team will continue to monitor the actions of the Village of Bonduel to make sure these restrictions are formally removed as soon as possible.”
Maroszek wrote that both “Growing with Him Farms,” which markets religious literature as well as sells produce, and “Lost Leg Bakery,” whose logo features religious symbols, have previously sold products at the farmers market.
“I’m so grateful for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Library and their willingness to help preserve the rights of all Americans, no matter how small the issue might seem,” Colvin said in a statement. “It matters a great deal to small business owners!”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is claiming the new federal reconciliation bill will cost the state $142 million annually related to increased work requirements for health care and food assistance benefits along with limits to incorrect food assistance payments.
Evers announced the report on the costs of the bill on the same day Vice President J.D. Vance is visiting a steel fabrication plant in La Crosse, Wis.
The cost increases include an estimated $72.4 million for the state to offer employment and training services to Medicaid members so that those who have BadgerCare Plus who are ages 19 to 64 but do not have a child living with them under the age of 19 can meet the requirement of 80 hours per month of work, training or volunteering.
The report from Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services says that requirement will put 63,000 in the state at risk of losing health care coverage but does not explain why the state would have to provide employment or training services instead of the individuals finding work, training or volunteer hours to fulfill the requirement on their own.
“I’ve been clear from the get-go that Republicans’ so-called ‘big beautiful bill’ is bad for Wisconsin – for the 270,000 people kicked off their healthcare coverage, and the tens of thousands of kids, seniors, and families who won’t be able to afford basic food necessities,” Evers said in a statement. “And now, it’s also clear this bill is just as bad for Wisconsin taxpayers, who will be forced to help foot the bill for Republicans’ red-tape requirements just to make it harder for folks to get the care they need and food to eat.”
The bill will lead to a $3,183 tax cut for the average Wisconsin taxpayer starting in 2026, according to The Tax Foundation. That compares to an average 3,752 tax cut nationwide, according to the group.
Evers’ administration, meanwhile, claimed that it will cost $43.5 million annually for Wisconsin and its counties to administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program while costing an additional $11.4 million annually for additional staff to ensure that Wisconsin has an annual SNAP payment error rate below 6%. The state’s 2024 error rate was 4.47%.
States with payment error rates higher than 6% will be required to pay 5 to 15% of SNAP benefit costs for the state, which DHS estimated could cost as much as $205.5 million annually.
Similar to BadgerCare Plus, DHS said that it could cost the state $14.6 million each year to help adults up to age 64 without a child aged 14 or younger living in the home to complete mandated work requirements, which could impact up to half of the 43,700 Wisconsinites who fit the work requirement category.
“In terms of costs to Wisconsinites – this is just the tip of the iceberg,” DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson said in a statement. “From increases in uncompensated care for hospitals to lost revenue for Wisconsin’s farmers, grocers, and local economies and thousands of Wisconsinites losing Medicaid and FoodShare, these cuts will cause a ripple effect throughout the state and put a financial strain on all of us.”
The bill also removes funding for food education programs through SNAP.

(The Center Square) – A pair of Republican lawmakers are questioning why the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is spending less than half of the state’s fish and wildlife money on hunters and fishermen.
A new audit shows DNR is spending 49.8% of its hunting and fishing money on programs that “primarily benefit hunters and anglers.”
“Wisconsin Statutes require DNR to spend hunting and fishing license fees only for purposes related to exercising its responsibilities specific to the management of the fish and wildlife resources of the State. DNR spends the funds for activities such as fisheries and wildlife management, law enforcement, customer service, license administration, and property and equipment management,” the auditors wrote. “We determined that $46.3 million, or 49.8% of Fish and Wildlife Account expenditures supported by state revenue, was spent for activities that primarily benefited hunters and anglers.”
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, and Rep. Bob Wittke, R-Caledonia, said 20 years ago Wisconsin was spending almost 60% of its hunting and fishing money on hunters and fishermen.
“These funds come from license fees & taxes on sporting goods and are supposed to be used on projects that benefit fishing and hunting across the state,” the two said in a statement. “The DNR must provide reassurance that it will be more accountable with its own finances before it comes back to the Legislature asking us to pass its costs onto outdoor enthusiasts.”
The two said there should be no reason for the Fish and Wildlife Account to be running a $16 million deficit.
State law limits DNR to spending no more than 16% of the Fish and Wildlife budget on administrative costs. The audit found that the DNR spent more than 10% on admin costs last year, though there were some exemptions.
“We found that DNR included $5.2 million of expenditures that should have been excluded because they were neither department or division level administrative costs, and DNR excluded $960,900 in division level administrative costs that should have been included,” the auditors noted.
In fact, fixing those accounting mistakes is one of the nine recommendations that auditors made.
“There is no reason that the Fish and Wildlife Account should be over $10 million in deficit, while also spending less than fifty percent of its funds on activities that primarily benefitted hunting and fishing,” Wimberger and Wittke added.

(The Center Square) – Recent flooding in southeastern Wisconsin led to 1,500 homes being destroyed or receiving major damage with an estimated $33 million in residential damage over three counties and $43 million in public sector damage across six counties.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers requested federal disaster assistance in a Wednesday letter to President Donald Trump.
“Due to the severity of this event and the urgent need for immediate assistance by Wisconsinites in affected areas, I am submitting this request for a major disaster declaration prior to completion of the preliminary damage assessments for Public Assistance to expedite the process and bring critical assistance to our communities as quickly as possible,” Evers wrote.
The damage estimates would make the early- to mid-August flooding event one of the most costly in Wisconsin history.
The most costly was $49 million in flood insurance claims in 2008 along with $24 million in 2018.
Initial damage assessments have been conducted in the area with Federal Emergency Management Agency arriving on Aug. 21 to verify reported flood damage to private homes along with the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management and Wisconsin Emergency Management.
“Milwaukee County residents have shown incredible resilience in the face of this disaster,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in a statement. “The completion of FEMA’s Preliminary Damage Assessment is an important milestone, but it’s just one step in the process toward federal assistance. We will continue to stand with our communities, fight for the resources families need, and keep residents informed every step of the way. I am grateful to our local municipalities, the State of Wisconsin, and FEMA for their quick action. This collaboration helps us respond to disasters with both speed and compassion.”
The flooding led to one death and one hospitalization.
Damage to infrastructure occurred in all six counties along with the property damage, according to Evers’ letter. Some areas of Milwaukee County received 14.55 inches of rain on Aug. 9 during a 24-hour period.
“We will leverage all available resources and funding to maximize the impact of any additional federal resources received through a federal disaster declaration to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and effectively, and to minimize the impact of any future similar disaster event,” Evers wrote.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin has a spending problem, according to MacIver Institute.
The state’s recently approved budget calls for $113.7 billion of spending over two years, an average of nearly $56.9 billion per year, with $3.6 billion of deficit spending over the two years.
That’s after the state planned for $6.3 billion of deficit spending in the last biennial budget, which was saved when taxes came in 11% higher than expected to bring in $2.1 billion in additional funds in financial year 2024 alone.
“Currently, that $4.4 billion in the general fund is what will pull the state through its current budget’s $3.6 billion deficit,” MacIver Content Director William Osmulski wrote. “That will leave a balance of $714 million for the start of the next state budget. That will not be enough to cover another multi-billion-dollar deficit, and the state will have to make deep cuts to, what has become, permanent spending.”
Wisconsin’s annual spending has surpassed other neighboring states with Minnesota spending $66 billion over two years, Ohio spending $60 billion over two years, Illinois approving a $55.2 billion spending plan and Indiana approving a budget with $53.5 billion in spending in fiscal 2026 and $54.7 billion in 2027.
The Michigan House has proposed a plan that, combined with previously approved higher education spending, would cost $79 billion annually.
Wisconsin ranks 20th nationally in population with just below 6 million residents while Illinois (12.7 million) is sixth, Ohio (11.9 million) is seventh, Michigan (10.1 million) is 10th , Indiana (6.9 million) is 17th and Minnesota (5.8 million) is 22nd, according to U.S. Census estimates.
Wisconsin’s population is expected to drop to 5.71 million by 2050 due to an aging population and fertility rates that are lower than the projected death rates.
Wisconsin officials seem oblivious to the issues surrounding their current deficit spending, Osmulski wrote, saying that will be an issue for the next governor and Legislature.
“By next June, the state will know whether or not that gamble is paying off,” he wrote. “Gov. Evers will still be in office, as will this current legislature, and they will take the first steps in writing the 2027-29 state budget. If tax collections are falling short of repeating their historic levels, the state will be facing a serious financial crisis going into the summer of 2027.”
If increased tax collections over estimates continues, Wisconsin leaders could again overspend and lead the state into an “inevitable and catastrophic losing hand,” Osmulski said.
Wisconsin had a $6.9 billion budget balance entering the last biennial budget and a $4.4 billion general fund surplus entering this budget with an estimated $714 million balance after this budget spends down $3.6 billion of the surplus.
It has been 12 years since the state budgeted a surplus, Osmulski wrote, with 15 years of planned deficit spending and 10 with a planned surplus between 2002 and 2027.
The average budgeted deficit since COVID will be $1.8 billion of spending above revenues each year for the seven years while the state budgeted for an average $120 million in annual surplus before COVID.
“Even if these unusually bountiful tax collections continue, it won’t be enough to keep up with the state’s spending trends forever,” Osmulski wrote. “For example, although tax collections were 11% higher than expected in FY24, they needed to be 24% higher to cover the deficit that year. That should have been a wakeup call.”

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee Public Schools are getting some better news as it gets ready to open for the new school year.
New Superintendent Brenda Cassellius took city leaders and reporters on a tour of one of the newly cleaned lead-tainted schools in the city.
“I know that there’s some that didn’t think we would get it done but we had a great team in here,” Cassellius said of the work at the Auer Avenue School.
Auer Avenue is one of 30 schools that crews cleaned over the summer. Cassellius said she hopes to have as many as 50 schools cleared of lead by the time students report to the first day of class Tuesday.
That would leave more than 50 others that are still lead-tainted. Cassellius said there were 106 schools on Milwaukee’s lead clean-up list at the end of the last school year.
“They’re working all weekend to get it ready, and now we just get the air tested in there and then we can go into those affected areas, but those areas are closed off,” she added.
There are also 25 MPS schools that saw damage from this month’s floods.
Riverside University High School and the Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education were hardest hit. MPS said they will both have to have asbestos crews come in to deal with damaged tiles.
The clean-up news comes as MPS got some better financial news this week as well.
Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction on Monday released $17 million in state funding that had been withheld because of MPS’ late financial reports. Those reports were for the 2023-2024 school year and were due in December.
Last week DPI released a separate $16 million in once-held state aid.

(The Center Square) – A federal judge denied Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s request to dismiss charges against her based on judicial immunity in a Tuesday afternoon ruling.
“There is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of a judge’s job,’” wrote U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman.
Instead, Dugan will face the charges of 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.
Dugan’s lawyers had argued that she 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
“According to the government, there is no general rule of immunity, and what defendant calls exceptions are simply examples of the types of prosecutions that have been brought against judges,” Adelman wrote. “A review of the relevant history reveals the government has the better of the argument.”
The next hearing on the case will take place in September.
Courthouse video showed Dugan walking a defendant through the court building past Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers there to arrest defendant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.
Flores-Ruiz was ultimately arrested outside the courthouse after Dugan is accused of concealing Flores-Ruiz, who was previously deported and came back to the U.S., where he was facing charges in Milwaukee of domestic battery and abuse.

(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin Democrats are pushing to fund the state’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship public land purchasing program with $72 million each year for the next six years while creating a new board to oversee future land purchases.
The program has become the subject of a power struggle between Gov. Tony Evers and legislative Republicans over who should oversee what is purchased and how the program’s funds are spent.
No new funding for the program was authorized in the recent two-year state budget and funding for the program is set to end in July 2026.
Evers had put $100 million for the program in his initial budget proposal while a pair of Republican lawmakers proposed funding for the program in a separate bill in June.
That proposal would include a requirement that all future land purchases over $1 million go into an annual proposal that must be approved by the full Legislature, something that Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay, said would “not prove workable in most circumstances” and would create “partisan gridlock.”
Habush Sinykin said that the Democratic proposal is funded between Evers’ $100 million proposal and $28.5 million in the Republican proposal.
Democrats on Tuesday called their proposal the start of a conversation and not a finished product.
“We hope our colleagues across the aisle will see this important gesture, said Rep. Vincent Miresse, D-Stevens Point.
Republicans have pushed back on the program, saying that too much land has been purchased while not enough maintenance has been done on current public-owned land and parks.
The program has acquired 646,000 acres of land in the state, according to Badger Institute, with three-fourths of the land in northern counties, including 60,000 acres in Oneida County and 16% of all land in Iron County.
Overall, the state holds about 5.9 million acres, one-sixth of the state, in undeveloped government-owned land.
“You live in this beautiful area of the state,” Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, told Badger Institute. “Well, yeah, we do, but we still need to pave our roads. We still need to educate our children.”
The Knowles-Nelson team put out a statement on the process, saying that it was concerned about the Republican proposal for full Legislature approvals of purchases.
“This standalone legislation has some positive elements—it provides stable funding for land trusts and local governments, offers four-year planning certainty, and creates new grants to help manage already-protected lands,” the team said. “However, it also includes concerning provisions that could make it harder to protect new land by always prioritizing management over acquisition. The proposed oversight process for major purchases lacks clear timelines or guarantees that projects will even get a vote.”
Instead, the team said that it prefers a process with a bipartisan advisory board to approve purchases.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources conservation wardens and county recreation deputies will be out Labor Day weekend looking to enforce and educate those driving all-terrain and utility off-road vehicles of state safety laws as part of a Think Smart Before You Start campaign.
There have now been 27 fatal ATV/UTV crashes this year, many which involved drivers not wearing helmets or safety belts.
The most recent include a 12-year-old who died after an Aug. 9 rollover in Wyocena where the driver lost control on a turn and the UTV came to rest on the driver. A 70-year-old man died on Aug. 19 when his ATV struck a deer on a road and he was ejected from the ATV.
Those under 18 must wear a helmet on a UTV and all riders must wear a seatbelt.
“These campaigns have been an effective tool for us to work with our partners and address risky behaviors that lead to crashes,” Lt. Jake Holsclaw, Wisconsin DNR off-highway vehicle administrator, said in a statement. “Things like operating while intoxicated (OWI), speed and careless operation are always a focus for us. At the end of the day, our goal is to prevent fatalities and make our trail and route systems safer for all users.”
Officers will be looking for those operating while intoxicated, speeding or carelessly operating and both helmet and seatbelt use.
Alcohol and unsafe speeds have been a factor in the fatal accidents along with helmet and seatbelt use.
“This gear takes very little effort to wear but makes a huge difference in the event of a crash,” Holsclaw said.

(The Center Square) – There are felony voter fraud charges for a woman who used to work for the Milwaukee Police Department.
Prosecutors filed charges against 45-year-old Marcey Patterson. Investigators say she voted in 12 city elections between 2018 and April 2025, despite the fact that she hasn’t lived in Milwaukee since 2018.
Investigators say Patterson filled out a new residency form in June that showed she moved to Glendale in 2018, and then moved to Brown Deer in March 2024.
“These forms, filled out and submitted by Patterson, established that for the entirety of her employment at MPD she did not (reside) within the City of Milwaukee,” prosecutors said in their charging complaint.
Patterson served as Milwaukee’s Police Community Relations Engagement and Recruitment Director from 2022 until she resigned last month.
Prosecutors say she listed both her house in Glendale, then her house in Brown Deer as her permanent residence, but also claimed that she stayed with her mother at her Milwaukee home from time to time.
While Patterson is facing voter fraud charges, she may also face charges for collecting Milwaukee’s city resident pay bump.
City workers who live in Milwaukee are eligible for a 3% bonus. Prosecutors say Patterson collected that bonus for years, totally more than $8,000.
The charging documents show that Patterson believed she qualified for the bonus because she lived within 15 miles of Milwaukee’s border. The mayor’s office, however, said there is no 15-mile exemption.
Patterson is the first person in Milwaukee to be charged with voter fraud since the city’s former Deputy Election Director Kimberly Zapata was charged with sending fake ballots to a state representative back in 2022. Zapata was convicted last year and sentenced to a year of probation.
Patterson could be sentenced to three years in prison if convicted.

(The Center Square) – A new lawsuit is fighting against a Wisconsin law that prevents the Public Service Commission from considering air pollution when approving power plants.
Midwest Environmental Advocates and Our Children’s Trust filed the lawsuit on behalf of 15 Wisconsin minors, who claim the dangers of fossil fuel power generation is endangering their health, threatening their homes and their futures while endangering their life and liberty.
“These laws force Wisconsin’s energy regulators to ignore the biggest crisis of our time,” said Nate Bellinger, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney at Our Children’s Trust and lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “Because of these unconstitutional laws, the Public Service Commission continues approving new fossil fuel-fired power plants while turning a blind eye towards Wisconsin’s smoke-filled skies, rising temperatures overflowing rivers, and harms to children’s physical and mental health.”
The lawsuit comes as Wisconsin faces a future with rising energy costs and more energy needs. A large factor in those energy needs is five large data center projects in the works.
A data center in Port Washington is set to use as much energy as the entire city of Los Angeles.
The lawsuit, meanwhile, connects the use of fossil fuel to, “mental health trauma” due to climate anxiety and lost access to lakes and rivers due to potential pollution.
“The bluffs on the Mississippi River in Wisconsin brought my ancestors to this great state in the 1860s because of its beauty. However, as a result of the climate crisis in Wisconsin, the bluff where my family and I lived became unstable and dangerous, and we were forced to move,” lead plaintiff Kaarina Dunn said in a statement. “Living this trauma in my home state was almost unthinkable and is directly linked to climate change. This fight to protect my right to life and liberty, to a stable climate system, and to access and enjoy our rivers and lakes does not end with my actions.”
Several Wisconsin lawmakers also have been pushing the development and re-development of nuclear power in the state. New laws will require a temporary board to plan and hold a Wisconsin Nuclear Power Summit and a nuclear siting study for identifying potential communities ideal for nuclear power generation, including both existing and new sites.
The plaintiffs in the environmental lawsuit are asking for the laws to be overturned to allow PSC to consider fossil fuel pollution in its approvals.
“These laws force my government to ignore science and pollution—that’s wrong and unconstitutional,” plaintiff Ted Schultz-Becker said in a statement. “Young people have power, even when we can’t vote. Our voices matter, and we trust our Constitution and courts to protect us.”