(The Center Square) – Wisconsin would have received an estimated more than $43 million in annual tax revenue from sports wagering if it had created an open marketplace for sports wagering, according to estimates from the Tax Foundation earlier this year.
The estimates were based upon a number of factors within the state including the population of more than 2 million between the ages of 18 and 144, the $77,488 median household income and the attendance figures at the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks and Wisconsin Badgers home games, which showed a relatively higher interest in sports than other states.
The estimate was based upon a 10% tax on a projected $432 million in annual gross gaming revenue.
Instead, state lawmakers opted to create a hub-and-spoke model similar to Florida where the state’s 11 tribes operate mobile sports wagering in the state through servers on tribal lands.
Gov. Tony Evers signed the sports wagering bill into law April 9 and now must negotiate gaming pacts with the tribes, which then must be approved by the federal government.
The Center Square was unable to receive an update on those negotiations from Evers’ office before publication.
“I have heard from each of the 11 affected Tribes that this bill offers an opportunity for their governments and for their people to improve the quality of life, health, and stability of their communities,” Evers wrote in a statement after signing the bill. “As governor, I am responsible for ensuring the state of Wisconsin upholds Tribal treaty rights and appropriately respects Tribal sovereignty in Wisconsin.
“Most importantly, this means respecting every Tribal Nation’s right to do what is best for its people. I do so today as I always promised I would, but I am not without reservations about signing this bill.”
Wisconsin currently receives payments that are a portion of the net win from tribal casinos but does not separately report sports wagering payments.
In 2024, the state received more than $66 million in shared revenue payments with nearly $66 million in 2023 and nearly $57 million in 2022. An open sports wagering market would have increased the gambling collections in the state to nearly $110 million, using the Tax Foundation estimates.
The Wisconsin sports wagering law received opposition from large national sports wagering companies like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Fanatics and Bet365 through the Sports Betting Alliance because those groups believe the agreement will keep them out of Wisconsin sports wagering in favor of the tribes and partnering with the tribes would result in deals that would not cover the large sportsbook’s expenses.
“Wisconsin voters definitely want to have a say in this policy and they haven’t gotten that opportunity,” SBA President/CEO Joe Maloney said previously.
During committee discussion on the bill, Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia, pointed testimony from Sports Betting Alliance Counsel Damon Stewart, who said that a requirement that 60% of the gross revenue from mobile sports wagering under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act would be too high of a cost for top national brands such as DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Fanatics and Bet365.
“I think our citizens in Wisconsin are better served by keeping this new platform within our current gambling structure,” Wittke said.

(The Center Square) – The average price of a gallon of unleaded gas was $4.43 on Friday heading into the Memorial Day weekend.
That price was down 14 cents from the week before but up 75 cents from the same time in April, according to the American Automobile Association. The U.S. average price is now $4.55.
GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick DeHaan estimated that, overall, Americans will spend $2 billion more on gasoline over the four-day Memorial Day weekend compared to a year ago, which amounts to roughly $22 million more every hour.
Gas prices are the highest they have been on Memorial Day in four years, according to AAA, with demand rising and the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz impacting those prices.
Wisconsin was not one of the 16 states on track to set an all-time Memorial Day gas price record, above the current records set in 2022. Michigan and Ohio are expected to set record highs.
The average price of a gallon of unleaded gas was $4.49 in Madison, $4.44 in Appleton and $4.43 in Milwaukee as of Friday morning.
Diesel prices in the Wisconsin were $5.71 per gallon on Friday, down from $5.84 a week before.
“For the first time since May 6, wholesale diesel prices in the Great Lakes have dropped below $4/gal- get ready to ditch those $6 and $7 prices in MI, IN, OH, IL and WI- at least for now,” DeHaan wrote on social media.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor says he is trying to give the state’s election clerks the freedom and ability to do their jobs, but not everyone is buying it.
A federal judge dismissed the Trump Administration’s lawsuit that sought to get Wisconsin’s unredacted voter list.
The judge ruled that Wisconsin’s “voter registration lists are not documents subject to production under [federal law]. That makes it unnecessary to decide whether the government has complied with the other statutory requirements to demand records.”
Gov. Tony Evers cheered the ruling.
“The Trump Administration only wants this info so they can prevent eligible Wisconsinites from voting, sow doubt in our secure elections, make it harder for our clerks and administrators to do their jobs, and claim there’s fraud when they lose elections,” Evers wrote in a post on X. “This is great news.”
But Dan Lennington with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty said the Trump Administration is not “sowing doubt.” Instead, he said the Trump Administration simply wants to make sure Wisconsin is doing what it has promised it would do for years.
“The Wisconsin Elections Commission has received about $77 million over the last two decades from the federal government to maintain its computer systems, which includes the statewide voter registration database. The feds now just want the opportunity to inspect what they are largely paying for,” Lennington told The Center Square. “They do this all the time in other areas like Medicaid, unemployment, and other federally funded areas.”
Evers has also refused to turn over Wisconsin’s food stamp and Medicaid lists, as well. The governor said he has worries about the privacy of the information on those lists.
“What’s really going on here is that the Evers Admin and the Elections Commission are desperately trying to prevent anyone from finding out whether illegals or felons are on the voting rolls. They are hiding behind ‘privacy’ as a pretext,” Lennington added. “They just don’t want scrutiny about who they are allowing to vote in this state.”
The Trump Administration already has a copy of Wisconsin’s public voter roll. But it wants more.
The administration said it needs names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers for Wisconsin voters in order to cross-check with other data bases.
Lennington said the judge’s Thursday ruling is a “very cramped reading of a broad federal law.”
He said he expects the decision to “be carefully scrutinized on appeal.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment remained the same at 3.5% but the state had 12,800 less confirm jobs than it did a year before.
The April numbers showed the state continues to have just more than 3 million people employed with a 64.4% labor force participation rate. The national average is 61.8%.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Office of Economic Advisors Section Chief Scott Hodek said there has been a deceleration of the national economy that could also be seen in the Wisconsin numbers.
Hodek said that the underlying employment issue remains the aging baby boomer population, explaining the losses in employment.
“We’re not seeing an associated climb in unemployment claims,” Hodek said.

(The Center Square) – Quitting smoking has health benefits but the trend of less Wisconsin residents smoking cigarettes led to a nearly $370 million drop in cigarette tax last fiscal year, which ended in June 2025.
That amounted to an 8.2% drop in tax collections and the lowest cigarette tax collections on an inflation-adjusted basis since 1992 after the revenue peaked at $950.9 million in 2010, according to a new report from Wisconsin Policy Forum.
“Wisconsin’s massive cigarette tax increases in 2008 and 2009, adopted during a time of enormous strain on state finances, generated substantial revenue for the state’s main fund,” the report said. “They may also have contributed to our state’s long-term decline in smoking, which has been a major benefit for the state.
“Yet developments since then underscore how these two outcomes actually exist in tension. Using tax policy to reduce rates of use of a harmful substance may achieve that goal, but at the expense of diminishing a key source of revenue to fund state priorities.”
Wisconsin is unique in that it only taxes vapor liquid when it is sold along with a vapor product or device, not alone. The tax is 36 cents per four-pack of vaping cartridges and the state’s e-cigarette tax went from collecting $1.3 million when it began in fiscal year 2020 to $8.1 million in fiscal 2025.
At the start of the year, 34 states had a vaping tax.
“As our state increasingly trades cigarette tax revenues for vapor tax revenues, one implication is that the role of tobacco and nicotine excise taxes is dwindling as a contributor to the state’s general fund,” the report said. “As recently as 2010, nearly $6 out of every $100 that went into the state’s general fund, came from these taxes. That share has since declined from 5.8% in 2010 to 2.3% in 2024.”

(The Center Square) – People in Wisconsin continue to buy homes, even as prices steadily increase.
The Wisconsin Realtors Report for April shows both a jump in sales and a jump in prices.
“For the second straight month, existing home sales grew at a healthy pace, rising 7.4% compared to April 2025. Likewise, median prices increased to $340,000, which is up 6.3% over the last 12 months,” the report states.
The real estate agents say 5,573 homes were sold in Wisconsin last month. That’s up by about 400 from the year before.
Once again, most of those homes were sold in and around Milwaukee and Madison.
The report notes that 38% of homes sold last month were sold in southeast Wisconsin. Another 20% were sold in south central Wisconsin.
Home prices are also highest in those two areas. The median price tag for a home in southeast Wisconsin hit $345,000 and $400,000 in south central Wisconsin.
Still, the agent Amy Curler said people continue to buy.
“We’re pleased to see March’s sales momentum extend into April across Wisconsin. Even with limited inventory, the consistency in activity reflects resilient buyer demand and continued strength in our existing home market,” she said.
Strong sales, however, do have a downside.
“The spike in sales has put significant stress on the limited supply. With just 3.7 months of supply, we would need inventory to increase by nearly 62% to get to a balanced market with six months of supply. For potential sellers, this is an excellent time to list as we move into the all-important peak summer market,” Realtors CEO Tom Larson said.
The real estate agents said 21,587 homes were on the market in April, that’s almost the exact same number of homes for sale in April of last year. The average house is on the market for 76 days.

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty reached a settlement to end the race- and sex-based criteria in three grant programs from the United States Department of Agriculture following WILL’s June 2025 lawsuit against the USDA.
The USDA also agreed to pay attorney fees to WILL as part of the settlement.
The lawsuit was filed regarding the USDA’s Loan Guarantee Program, Dairy Margin Coverage Fee and its EQIP Grant Program on behalf of Chilton farmer Adam Faust.
“The Trump Administration inherited dozens of discriminatory programs that supported certain farmers over others based on race and sex,” WILL Managing Vice President and Deputy Counsel Dan Lennington said in a statement. “Those shameful days are now behind us. We appreciate the USDA’s hard work in reforming important programs for American farmers.”
The USDA said in September 2025 that it would not defend the policies related to the Biden-era USDA programs, saying that it “determined that the [USDA] programs at issue in this case are unconstitutional to the extent they include preferences based on race and sex.”
Faust also won a 2021 lawsuit against the Biden administration for race discrimination in the Farmer Loan Forgiveness Plan with the help of WILL.
The lawsuit claimed that 2 million white male American farmers, accounting for 60% of all farmers, were harmed by discriminatory policies in the USDA programs.

(The Center Square) – A handful of Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol are asking for a second chance to vote on the proposed tax deal that died last week.
Six Assembly Republicans sent a letter to Gov. Tony Evers, asking him to call another special session.
“We appreciate the progress made through those discussions, particularly efforts focused on returning surplus funds to taxpayers, providing property tax relief, supporting schools, and helping hardworking Wisconsinites manage rising costs. These are the kinds of issues where collaboration matters most. While we may not agree on every issue, we remain committed to working toward responsible outcomes and ensuring politics does not stand in the way of doing what is best for the people of Wisconsin,” Reps. Shannon Zimmerman, Todd Novak, Bob Donovan, Ben Franklin, Pat Snyder and Clint Moses wrote in the letter.
All six voted for the plan that would have sent tax rebates of up to $600 to Wisconsin taxpayers. The plan also would have ended income taxes on tips and overtime and given schools $300 million to “buy down” local property taxes.
Schools also would have gotten $300 million more for special education.
“Despite last week’s setback, we encourage you to call the Legislature back into Special Session to continue work on the common-sense reforms that received broad bipartisan support through months of negotiation. The failure of this legislation to advance does not change the reality that Wisconsin families are still facing rising costs and growing pressure on household budgets. We cannot allow political gamesmanship or ideological extremes on either side of the aisle to prevent meaningful progress on issues where common ground clearly exists,” the lawmakers added.
Evers, over the weekend, blamed politics for the tax deal’s demise. He said it was a “done deal” until Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany publicly criticized the deal.
Evers also blamed Democrats at the Capitol for the tax deal’s death.
“They believe that somehow putting money back into people’s pockets that are struggling financially across the state, apparently they don’t believe that’s an issue,” Evers said.
But Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate are not softening their opposition to the plan.
Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, who is also running for governor, on Monday said she remains a no vote.
“It’s never bad politics to do the right thing. We can’t afford to risk a $2.9 billion deficit with Trump hellbent on crashing our economy. We WILL fund schools & take pressure off property taxes, but can’t if they blow a projected (not existing) surplus & necessitate future cuts,” Roys wrote on X. Turning a *projected* (not existing) surplus into a $2.9b deficit as the Trump economy is in chaos is reckless.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin collected $2.4 billion in general purpose revenue taxes in April, a 13.7% increase from the year before.
Those numbers matched the revenue estimates released before last week’s failure of a $1.8 billion surplus spending bill in the Wisconsin Senate.
The April numbers showed that state collections through April were up 5.2% year over year to nearly $17.4 billion in the fiscal year compared to $16.5 billion in collections in fiscal 2025.
That increase led to the Department of Administration’s new economic forecast showing that it expects the state to collect $300 to $350 million more in taxes from Wisconsin residents than its revised estimates in January showed.
More than half of that total, between $175 and $185 million, will come from individual income tax collection increases while $70 to $80 million will come from corporate tax collections.
“While a portion of the gain in individual income tax collections results from a favorable comparison due to processing season anomalies in fiscal year 2024-25, growth has significantly exceeded the 1.4 percent growth rate estimated in January for fiscal year 2025-26,” the Department of Administration wrote in a memo.
Part of the processing season anomalies were noted in the April revenue report for the state.
“Individual income taxes and Total GPR in Fiscal Year 2025 were negatively impacted by third-party check receiving and processing delays in April,” the report noted. “Those check payments, estimated at over $200 million, are included in the May revenue report.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor says politics sank last week’s $1.8 billion tax deal, but he is also saying that he didn’t do much to help the deal.
Gov. Tony Evers sat for an interview with UpFront on Channel 12. He blamed Wisconsin Senate Democrats, Republicans at the Capitol, and Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany for the tax package’s failure.
“It’s all politics,” the governor said. “We had it. We worked with the leadership, majority leadership in both houses, and things were in a place where I thought, everybody thought, that we’d be in good shape, and in the Assembly, it did work that way; in the Senate it didn’t. And we could blame Tom [Tiffany] because he reached out to people, but at the end of the day, whatever he does in his spare time isn’t really germane to me.”
The tax plan would have meant tax rebates of up to $600 for married couples, as well as no taxes on tips or overtime, and $600 million for schools.
Tiffany, who is the only Republican running to replace Evers, said on the morning of the vote that he wouldn’t vote for the package if he was still at the Capitol.
“The Tiffany thing sure didn’t help, when he’s corralling people, saying, you know, ‘If you vote for this, you’re going to be in a bad place,’ whatever he was saying,” Evers added.
But the plan died because every Senate Democrat voted against it. The governor then admitted that he didn’t look to change their minds.
“It was a done deal. After that it kind of fell apart,” Evers said.
Evers said he didn’t try and whip any Democratic votes or change the minds of Democratic senators.
Instead, he blamed them for playing politics.
“They believe that somehow putting money back into people’s pockets that are struggling financially across the state, apparently they don’t believe that’s an issue,” Evers said “They’re going to say, ‘Well, we’re going to fix it next time when all these wonderful things happen after Evers is gone, and we’ll get a new governor and we’ll have Democrats all over the place.’ That’s fine. That’s a wish list.”

(The Center Square) – A judge said the Line 5 reroute project could proceed but that work needed to stop at four waterway crossings in a late Friday ruling in Iron County Circuit Court.
The 41-mile Line 5 reroute in northern Wisconsin by Enbridge has been challenged in court by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and environmental groups at every step of the process since permit applications were initially submitted in 2020.
The partial stay order from Judge John P. Anderson will be intact until the court lifts the stay.
“We’re very happy the Court made such a quick and decisive action. This is a good day for Bad River and Lake Superior, both of which are in danger if the Enbridge reroute is allowed to proceed,” Bad River Band Chairwoman Elizabeth Arbuckle said in a statement. “I’m grateful for the support Bad River has received from other Tribes, our local neighbors, and people across the nation.
“To see such an outpouring of concern and solidarity from these disparate communities shows how at our core, we are bound by a need and desire for clean water to drink, a clean environment for animals and plants to thrive in, and a commitment to the highest quality of life for our people. We hope the Court will keep the stay in place and hear us out fully in the weeks to come.”
The Wisconsin Jobs and Energy Coalition said that it appreciated Anderson approving most of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources permits for the project, stating that additional permits for the four water crossings are well along in the permitting process.
“This decision further reaffirms the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources did their job diligently and the Line 5 Relocation can and will be built safely and without harming our state’s environment,” Terry McGowan, President and Business Manager of the Operating Engineers Local 139, said in a statement. “The 700 union men and women that will work on the Line 5 Relocation Project have waited long enough; it’s time for them to get to work.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin is ranked 36th in a new report on financial transparency.
The Truth in Accounting Financial Transparency score looks at how each state discloses its true financial condition in audited reports. Wisconsin received a score of 67 out of 100.
The report graded states on audit quality, timeliness, pension reporting and accounting practices that can distort a government’s financial position.
Wisconsin received the lowest score on its reporting of its net position as one of 13 states that overstated the liability side of their balance sheet.
The state also received zero points for its timeliness and just one point for the timing of pension data.
“Timely financial information is crucial during government decision-making, such as budgeting,” the report said. “However, most states filed their 2024 annual financial reports after completing their budget process.”
States were also marked down for not reporting retirement debt related to teacher pension liabilities.

(The Center Square) – Some of Wisconsin’s education and business groups are on the same page after the death of the state’s proposed $1.8 billion tax deal.
The National Federation for Independent Businesses in the state said lawmakers let a chance for meaningful tax reform slip out of their hands.
“To call this a major missed opportunity to deliver real, meaningful tax relief for Wisconsinites is an understatement,” NFIB Wisconsin State Director Luke Bacher said. “Putting politics ahead of taxpayers risks the well-being of Wisconsin’s economy and ability to compete with other states.”
The Wisconsin Assembly on Wednesday approved the plan that would have sent rebate checks to taxpayers. The tax deal would also have spent about $300 million to “buy down” local property taxes, and the plan would have ended taxes on tips and overtime in the state.
The package also included $300 million for special education funding. That is what school districts and school groups across the state wanted.
“This legislation represented a rare moment of bipartisan compromise in Madison and an opportunity to act on behalf of kids and taxpayers alike,” the Wisconsin Association of School Boards said in a statement Thursday. “This bill was not a cure-all. Although it promised levels of special education reimbursement not seen in decades, it would not have resolved the structural funding challenges that continue to push school districts toward referenda, program cuts and difficult choices. But it would have been a productive first step toward continuing conversations on both sides of the aisle for the betterment of students and taxpayers.”
The school board asked lawmakers to give it another try.
“In the coming days, there will be no shortage of finger-pointing and competing narratives about what happened. What will not change is the reality on the ground: Schools across Wisconsin will continue to struggle, and the families and taxpayers who support them will continue to carry that weight,” the Association added. “We call on the governor and legislature to return to the table, set aside political gamesmanship and find a path forward for Wisconsin’s students and the communities that support them.”
A second vote looks unlikely.
Not a single Democrat in the Wisconsin Senate voted for the plan, and three Republicans also voted against it.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin is projected to have a $2.7 billion surplus by the end of the current two-year budget cycle is complete and now lawmakers will wait until next year with a new Legislature, leadership and governor before determining what will happen with that surplus.
The plan to send $300 or $600 refund checks to individual tax filers and those who filed jointly failed in the Wisconsin Senate by an 18-15 vote, leading lawmakers to respond to constituents Thursday on why they did or didn’t support the plan.
Sen. Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, voted for the surplus bill and said that he supported a plan to give larger refunds of $1,000 to joint filers and $500 to individuals.
“I know that not everyone on my side of the aisle is happy with this deal, and ultimately, the bill failed,” Tomczyk said in a statement. “I am confident that I made the right decision and voted ‘Yes’ on this bill to send money back to the taxpayers and cut their taxes rather than leaving it sitting in Madison. Unfortunately, that is what happened, and Republicans will come together in the next budget to decide how to move forward.”
Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, said before the vote that he was against it.
“We have a one-time budget surplus that should be returned as a one-time refund to the Wisconsin taxpayers who were overcharged,” Kapenga wrote on social media. “That’s simple budgeting math every household can understand. But leave it to government to give you only a small portion back, and then spend the difference—not once, but every year into the future – assuming we’re too dumb to notice the bait and switch that will end up costing my constituents billions over the course of a decade.”
Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesan, noted the compromise was a deal that didn’t include everything he wanted but believed it was a good plan to return some of the surplus to taxpayers.
“I will always fight to cut taxes and return surplus dollars back to the hardworking taxpayers of Wisconsin,” Dallman said. “I ran for this office to attain meaningful government reform and to get stuff done for our citizens. I am incredibly disappointed that due to a few fringe senators from both sides of the aisle, the 39th Assembly District will miss out on more than $3 million in property tax relief.”
Democrats, meanwhile argued that the $300 million in general school aid that would substitute for property tax dollars for one year would not make a large difference, stating that it would amount to less than $9 per month off a mortgage payment that includes taxes and insurance on a median value home worth $312,000.
“I understand that our local schools and property owners are hurting and really need this money,” Rep. Vincent Miresse, D-Stevens Point, said in a statement. “However, for the last 15 years, Republicans have deliberately manufactured the school funding crisis, stolen your pubic tax dollars and put it in the private, voucher schools which has resulted in raising your property taxes to fund the education your kids are entitled to.
“And now, instead of tackling the structural issues in our education funding system, Republicans and the Governor want to put a band-aid on an amputation.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Thursday barring executive branch employees from disclosing or using any nonpublic information to profit from prediction markets.
The order cited a recent story of a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier used nonpublic information to earn $410,000 on a prediction market.
Prediction markets including Kalshi offer markets on election results and other occurrences like government actions.
“State workers in Wisconsin work hard every day in dedicated service of the people of our state, often going above and beyond their job description and daily responsibilities to support Wisconsinites and our communities and meet their needs,” Evers said in a statement. “Maintaining public trust and confidence in our state government demands and depends upon transparency, accountability, and integrity, and upholding the fundamental tenet of public service that, above all, the work must be for the benefit of the public good and not for personal greed or gain. That is a commitment we take seriously, and we must continue to do so.”
Illinois, New York, Maryland and California recently took similar actions while the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a rule barring senators from trading on prediction markets.

(The Center Square) – Two of Wisconsin’s Democratic candidates for governor voted against the deal to send $600 million to schools in the state and send taxpayers up to $600 in tax rebates.
State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, and Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, are the only two Democrats running for governor who had a vote on the $1.8 billion tax deal late Tuesday night. Both women voted no.
“We need more than a band aid – we need a long-term fix to lower property taxes and sustainably fund our schools,” Roys wrote on X.
“Wisconsin lawmakers saw through the con of election-year gimmicks with long-term threats to our stability. We will fix the real structural issues our schools and communities face, but that takes smart and intentional investment, not backroom deals and high-pressure tactics,” Hong added.
They are not the only Democrats to vote against the plan. Most of Wisconsin’s Assembly Democrats voted against the plan, as did every single Senate Democrat.
Three Senate Republicans also joined with Democrats to kill the proposal.
But Hong’s and Roys’ votes are also part of the race for governor.
Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate in the race, said earlier this week that he would not vote for the tax package. He didn’t say anything about Wednesday’s failed vote, though Gov. Tony Evers blamed Tiffany for the tax plan’s demise.
“Wisconsin’s kids and schools aren’t going to get the investments they desperately need this year because Tom Tiffany and a few Republican and Democratic lawmakers chose to blow up a bipartisan plan to invest in our K-12 schools, lower property taxes, and help working families afford rising costs, all because they’d rather do what’s best for the next election than what’s right for the people of our state,” Evers said in a statement.
The tax deal would have sent $600 million to public schools in Wisconsin. It was earmarked for both special education funding and to “buy down” local property taxes.
There was also a plan to send either $300 or $600 rebate checks to taxpayers. It also included a proposal to end taxes on tips and overtime as part of the deal.
With its failure, the tax plan is now dead. Wisconsin’s $2 billion-plus surplus will now sit until at least next spring.