Wisconsin in Focus

The majority of Wisconsin Republican state senators are on board with the new $99 billion state budget. Almost every Republican voted for the two-year spending plan Thursday night. "Overall, our budget invests in core priorities and returns a record amount of money back to the taxpayers,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told lawmakers during the vote. Support this podcast: https://podcasters...

The plan to allow Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to raise their sales taxes and take themselves off a fiscal cliff are now state law. But the city of Milwaukee is preparing to go to court to fight the spending restrictions that are also now law. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told reporters at the Wisconsin Capitol Wednesday that’s a bad idea. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/s...

The president of the University of Wisconsin is not ruling out closing more two-year campuses as he continues to debate the university’s budget with state lawmakers. President Jay Rothman testified before the Senate Committee on College and Universities on Monday, and hinted that UW-Platteville's Richland County campus may not be the only one to close or see cuts. Support this podcast: https://pod...

Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol are furious with the Republican plan to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion money from the University of Wisconsin. Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday said the plan to cut $32 million in DEI money from the UW System’s $6.5 budget is part of a “decade-long war on higher education.” “It’s clear Republicans have no real or meaningful solutions to address our state’s longst...

The plan to share $500 million with local governments across Wisconsin has begun its quick journey to Gov. Evers desk. The budget-writing Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday approved the Assembly version of the shared revenue plan with several Democrats voting against it. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wisconsininfocus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company....

The retention policy requirement in a Republican-backed education proposal is a "non-starter" and opposed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The literacy bill, Right to Read, would provide $50 million to train Wisconsin teachers on new methods of reading. Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, said the focus would be on phonics and the science of reading. Support this podcast: https://po...

The Institute for Reforming Government says its analysis of IRS data shows most of the people who left Wisconsin went to states with either flat, or no income taxes at all. “We found that 92,000 people, in the latest numbers from back in 2021, left the state,” IRG Vice President Chris Reeder told The Center Square. “When you look at where they left, they went largely to states that had a better ta...

Wisconsin’s members of Congress are pretty much exactly where you’d expect them to be on the debt ceiling proposal on Capitol Hill. Republicans support the agreement, while Democrats have concerns. Western Wisconsin Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden said on Twitter that the deal handles the nation’s debt without risking default or draconian cuts. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spo...

The state of Wisconsin could soon be expected to return as much as $447 million in federal funds to the government as part of the debt ceiling agreement brokered by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Gov. Tony Evers told reporters his administration is now planning for the possibility of returning the untapped funds, which were originally part of the windfall the state received...

Two of Green Bay’s state lawmakers are asking for millions of dollars to welcome the NFL Draft to town. The NFL on Monday announced that Green Bay will host the 2025 Draft. On Tuesday, state Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay, and state Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, submitted a formal request for $2 million to help “offset” the costs. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/w...

Milwaukee’s mayor is predicting bankruptcy within two years, as well as possibly hundreds of layoffs for police officers and firefighters if Wisconsin lawmakers can’t come to terms on a shared revenue deal. Mayor Cavalier Johnson was one of several people to speak at the Senate’s first hearing on the plan to send as much as $500 million to local governments across the state, “Without question, my...

There are complaints, and at least one possible lawsuit brewing about Milwaukee’s new proposed food truck rules. Two aldermen, Jocasta Zamarripa and Johnathon Brostoff, last week proposed a new two-zone approach for food trucks in the city. “This heavy regulation seems to be picking winners and losers. And is set-up in a way that only the connected are able to get it,” Chris Reader, executive vice...

Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly used a routine resolution to honor fallen police officers to try and make a point about gun control. Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, spoke during the usually perfunctory debate time for the resolution recognizing May 2023 as Law Enforcement Appreciation Month in Wisconsin. “Acts of appreciation, like this joint resolution, are important. But actions speak lou...

The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says six months of negotiations over the plan to send more money to local governments is enough. Speaker Robin Vos on Wednesday said the latest version of their shared revenue proposal is pretty much a take-it-or-leave it proposal. “We are done negotiating,” Vos told reporters Wednesday. “We are not going to make changes. We are not going to change the...

There is zero early support on the Milwaukee County Board to spend taxpayer funds on the hundreds of millions of dollars of improvements at the Brewers’ ballpark. The county’s Committee on Intergovernmental Relations on Monday unanimously voted for a resolution opposing the use of any local tax dollars to pay for upgrades at American Family Field. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.c...

Last weekend’s murder of a St. Croix County deputy has made 2023 the deadliest year for law enforcement in Wisconsin in the past 20 years. Deputy Kaite Leising died during a drunk driving stop Saturday night. Investigators with the Wisconsin Department of Justice say a convicted rapist and registered sex offender pulled a gun and shot her. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/s...

Wisconsin’s weekend TV shows provided a stark difference between Republicans and Democrats at the State Capitol on the new shared revenue proposal. State Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-R-Wonewoc, was on both UPFRONT in Milwaukee and Capital City Sunday in Madison. He said on both shows that Republicans are willing to work with local leaders and Gov. Tony Evers on a final version of the plan to share more mone...

Shared revenue restrictions on Wisconsin local governments are drawing rebukes in financially troubled Milwaukee. Republicans on Tuesday released the details of their plan to send more money to local governments. State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, D-Milwaukee, said the state-imposed restrictions are too much. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wisconsininfocus/support Hosted by...

Attorney General Josh Kaul argued against a motion to dismiss his challenge to the state’s century-old abortion law on Thursday. Kaul is suing the district attorneys in Sheboygan, Dane and Milwaukee counties – the only places where abortions in the state used to be performed – to block the enforcement of Wisconsin’s 1849 law that bans abortions in every case except to save a mother’s life. Support...

Top Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol say they are working on a plan to send more state money to local governments across the state, but the city of Milwaukee this week added a bit of urgency to that work. On Monday, Milwaukee’s Steering and Rules Committee proposed cutting the city’s entire sixth police district to find the money to pay Milwaukee’s skyrocketing pension payment. Support this po...

Supporters of a flat tax in Wisconsin know it won’t happen this year, but that’s not stopping them. Dozens of Republican lawmakers, advocates, and business owners from across the state crowded a Senate hearing Tuesday to talk about the plan that would move Wisconsin from its current progressive income tax to a flat 3.25% income tax in three years. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.c...

Another flat tax plan is all but dead at the Wisconsin Capitol. State Reps. John Macco, R-Ledgeview, and Rep. Jerry O’Connor, R-Fond du Lac, this week introduced legislation that would lower Wisconsin’s top three tax brackets to 4.5%, and make sure people in the state’s lowest tax bracket wouldn’t pay any income tax at all. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wisconsininf...

For the second year in a row, the Wisconsin Capitol became fixated on marijuana on the 20th of April. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard took two very different approaches to pot on Thursday. Vos told the Associated Press that there’s no support for a fully legal, recreational marijuana law in the state legislature. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify....

There is a plan at the Wisconsin Capitol that would allow teachers and school workers to carry a gun inside a school. State Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, is circulating the legislation for co-sponsors this week. Allen said the idea is to allow local school boards to set their own rules about guns in school. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wisconsininfocus/support Host...

The push for a universal free school lunch program in Wisconsin is running into opposition at the State Capitol. Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction on Monday shared the testimony it plans to deliver to the legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee about its Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids initiative. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wisconsininfocus/su...