Thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Good morning, everybody.
Thank you very much for being here
today on what I believe is our
last session day of
the Assembly and the Senate coming
together on a deal that should make
everybody in Wisconsin proud.
One of the things that we have heard
consistently from voters in
Wisconsin is they want you to work
together, stick to your principles,
and find things that can actually
make our lives better.
This bill does all of those things.
Make sure that we increase funding
for schools at a time when they
are struggling with the rising costs
of everything inside their own
budget. Makes it better for families
who are dealing with the same
stresses by giving them a rebate and
actually holding down their property
taxes.
It increases the ability for people
who are hardworking to make
sure that they keep more of their
money from overtime.
And of course, if you're a server,
your tips would no longer be subject
to the Wisconsin income tax.
It is a win.
Um, it is an exciting day.
It's one of the things that I am
most proud of when we have the
ability for our caucus to deliver
for the people that sent them to
madison.
Now, I have the benefit of not going
door to door as much as my
colleagues behind me are.
But one of things that i have heard
from my friends and neighbors as
they are coming up to me saying,
what are you gonna do with all your
free time is they still want us
toe work on fixing the problems that
affect their daily lives.
And that's why what we're gonna do
today is we're gonna pass this bill,
send it to the Senate, get it to the
governor. So that people will begin
to see the relief immediately, and
they will be able to know that we
are working hard, no matter what's
happening around the rest of the
country. So with that, I'm gonna
turn it over to Representative Franklin.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My name is representative Franklin.
I represent the 88th assembly
district up by the greater Green
Bay area.
Um, so we're here today, uh,
in essence for a special session
which addresses our state surplus
here in the state of Wisconsin.
What we are trying to do is we're
trying to get $1.8 billion
in this package out to
taxpayers.
That's done in a variety of
forms that has to do with direct
payments to in state residents.
It eliminates tax on tips and
overtime wages.
And it's also in the form of
property tax relief via the school
formula.
I can tell you from personal
experience, I've knocked on hundreds
of doors already this year and
people are not happy with some of
the stuff that this bill actually
addresses.
They're not happy when they open
their property tax bill in December
and property taxes
were shooting up through the roof.
So this helps address that.
This also addresses an issue where
we're in an economic pinch right now
in the state of Wisconsin.
By doing the no tax on
tips and no tax on overtime, that
puts more earned money back into
the workers here in Wisconsin, into
their pockets.
And then the schools.
I'm super happy for our schools
because I think that
this might give some relief to where
we see less referendums throughout
the state. That's my hope anyway.
And so this is a really big deal for
constituents for a lot of the issues
that I'm hearing.
Around the district that I represent
and with that being said I
will turn the time over to
representative Novak.
I'm representative Todd Novak from
the 51st Assembly District in
southwest Wisconsin.
I specifically want to talk
about the special education
piece of this package
for our schools.
As you all remember when we passed
the budget, it was our intent for
the first year to fund 42%
of special education and
up and then 45% the second
year. Figures were a little off
So during the months of negotiations
that the speaker and leadership kept
us in discussions with,
I was very pleased to see that
it actually got up to 50% in this
package.
I have 14 school districts.
The biggest issue facing
my school districts is steep
declining enrollment, so anything we
can help them to
do that is fantastic.
The bill provides $85
million in one year one for
special education, $230 million
more in the second year.
LFB put out yesterday the report
of all the school districts and how
much they're getting and I can tell
you, I heard from
probably three quarters of my school
superintendents, school board
members thanking
me, the suspendable money that will
help them.
And also just want to add a piece.
Um.
I think people like it when we work
together. I think that's one thing,
and I enjoy
doing that, and I have a career of
working across the aisle, and I
think this is one of those bills
that may surprise a lot of
people because it's a bipartisan
bill working with the governor that
I don't think many people thought we
could do and we did, and overall,
it's good bill.
It helps our school districts.
They're very happy, at least the
ones in my area.
It alleviates some
of their pain, gives them more
spendable money and they're very
happy.
With that, I'll turn it over to
Representative Moses.
Well, thank you, Representative
Novak. Yeah, I'm Representative
Clint Moses. I represent the 92nd
Assembly District up in Northwest
Wisconsin, beautiful communities
of Menominee and Chippewa Falls.
I am gonna touch on just one
key piece of this, the no
tax on tips and overtime.
We're out there talking to people
every day right now.
And one of the things that comes up
from our servers, our wait staff,
the people working in our businesses
that receive tips, they are
excited about this part.
This piece of legislation mirrors
what's going on at the federal
government.
Except one bonus, it doesn't
end in 2028.
We've set aside $230 million
of tax relief to help
our servers, our wait staff,
and then locally another piece.
And I know it was touched on a
little bit before, but the special
ed funding.
Making sure we're honoring what we
had committed to in the budget.
And like Representative Novak had
said, the figures were off a little
from what we were given.
And it's kind of a bonus that we got
to that 50% rate.
So my three districts, I have
Menominee, my hometown,
$1.1 million, they're gonna benefit
from that.
Chippewa Falls is gonna benefit 1.5
million. And Elk Mound, my smaller
one, is gonna actually get a little
over 300,000.
So all working together,
I would have liked to have been down
here about a month ago so we could
be out enjoying the nice weather.
But this is part of compromise.
And this is what my partisan looks
like in the state of Wisconsin.
Working for the people of our state.
So with that I'm going to turn it
over to my friend Representative
Snyder.
Well good morning everyone, it's
good to be here.
I'm gonna talk a little bit more
about the property tax relief.
I know in my district, I'm Pat
Snyder, district 85, central
Wisconsin.
They've had some projects in this
city of Wausau, which the city
has put a lot of pressure
on property tax, and now this.
And anything we can do to be able to
help alleviate a December
bill when you're supposed to be
celebrating Christmas and suddenly
get a shock like we did last time.
More than $300 million is
going into the property tax relief
to all the school districts, and
that's via the school funding
formula.
This relief will go to the
districts, even those with zero
aided through the general formula
calculations.
$50 million in property tax
will be provided via the tech
colleges by lowering the amount
of debt they're allowed to
levy. Plus, the Assembly Republicans
have also led in recent years,
kind of chipping away.
At uh... The avenue of tax relief
these cuts remaining one hundred
million dollars of debt levy in
half to fifty million so there's
a lot to accomplish this and that
and i have to echo some of my
uh... Colleagues here the special ed
uh...
Funding was important because you
know what as legislators were
supposed to listen to our
constituents we're supposed to list
to superintendents that's what i did
in the season nine and my dc everest
superintendents. It was a special
ed. That was taken out of their
Fund Ten or General Fund,
which hampers them from fully
executing their fiscal
solvency.
So this is incredible because
it's hard to find special
eds, you know, teachers are kind of
like the soldiers that
are going out teaching our kids, but
special ed teachers are kind of
special forces because
they have extra
responsibilities and more challenges
a little bit with their teaching.
So I'm so glad we were able to get
this done.
And as Representative Franklin
said, maybe this will ease up
on the referendums
that come out. But mostly,
what's wrong with compromise?
I don't understand.
When I look at some of the comments
being made, it's like,
are you thinking about your
constituents?
Don't just don't think about your
high density, whatever party you're
from and your own district.
Think about the whole state.
And that's what I try to do, and
that's this bill does.
So with that, I'll turn it over to
Representative Donovan.
Thank you Pat.
Representative Bob Donovan, the 61st
Assembly District, and I want to
talk briefly to you about property
taxes.
Last week I got a call from a former
constituent of mine.
Lives on 28th and National
in the city of Milwaukee.
If any of you know the city you'll
know and agree with me that that
is and I'm being kind when I
say challenged neighborhood.
It has
many problems.
His assessment went up $30,000.
In one year,
Milwaukee assesses every year $30
thousand.
He told me, Bob, I'm going to
get killed on my property
tax.
He is a retired
individual.
He's on a fixed income.
He and his wife.
And I'm so pleased that
this compromise bill.
Has some property tax
relief in it.
I will tell you, does it go as far
as we want it to go?
Certainly not.
But it's going in the right
direction, and I am hopeful that
we can carry the ball in the
next session to go even
further.
And something else I want to talk
about.
I've heard a lot about property
taxes being at the doors and
from my constituents, but I've
also heard people say
Bob, I just want
government to work.
We're sick and tired of the
gridlock.
Let's work together for
the good of all of us.
That's what this bill does.
This is a good bill.
It is a compromise,
and I am proud to support
it. And with that, I'll turn it back
to the speaker.
Speaker, if you
have done a vote count, I'm assuming
your confidence will pass today.
Will Democrats vote with you?
Well, I'm very confident it's going
to pass the assembly.
What about the Senate?
Do they know what's going on over
there? I'm not in the state Senate,
you'd have to ask them. You know
what is going on in the negotiations,
though.
I am an eternal optimist.
You know, we have done this a long
time. We have always found a way to
get to yes.
Republicans are the people who want
to make sure we get the relief
delivered.
I think in the end, we have a
Democrat governor who worked with
us. It's a good deal that both sides
gave and took.
And I think now we just need to make
sure that legislators understand
that the process is give and take.
In the making. This would be great.
Your seven is no deal.
With margins so close, why not have
it with Democrats in the Senate?
That's part of the negotiation.
Well, that would be a question to
have talked to the governor about.
I mean, we represent the
legislature, right?
We represent our caucus.
We are able to deliver our caucus, I
feel very confident in the assembly.
The question comes down to what will
it take to be able to get through
the state Senate, you have to ask
that.
Mr. Speaker, inflation has dropped
to its highest level since 2022.
That's according to the latest PPI
report.
As we know, that impacts not only
consumers, it impacts local
government, it impacts things you
guys do here in this building.
Do you feel that this is still a
good move to dip into the surplus
despite these numbers?
Well, we're doing it exactly because
of those numbers.
Remember, the inflation rate we
heard yesterday is almost as almost
as high now as it was under Joe
Biden. So we know that the world
was super challenging when
President Biden was in.
We now know that it continues to be
challenging for families.
And again, you have a question to
ask. Do we focus on making sure we
can take resources that are sitting
the state's checking account and
giving the people who need it?
So yes, I would rather have money go
to families where they have the
ability to spend it as they see fit
school districts to sure they have
the resources and ultimately to get
more money in the people's hands to
be able to spend it. The government
doesn't need the money.
Are you concerned that you guys
might hit a roadblock
at some point because of these
numbers?
The state might see something.
Actually no, I mean if you look
yesterday it was kind of buried in
many of the stories that came out,
but our increase in revenue is so
strong in Wisconsin, the Ebers
administration took the already rosy
January numbers and increased those
by 300 million.
That money is still going to stay in
the state's checking account, that's
not part of our deal.
So the surplus is larger than it was
in January, we're not spending all
of it.
Frankly, I wish we were spending
more, but in the art of compromise,
I think this is a reasonable move.
Would you accept any changes?
Would you accept any changes if
the Senate wants to change it?
I mean, we're always open to
compromise. I think we have a good
deal as we have it.
Again, it's about 80% tax relief,
20% spending on special
ed kids.
If there was something that was a
tweak, of course, we could certainly
be willing to listen, but I feel
very confident that Assembly
Republicans are ready to vote for
the package that we have before us.
Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Janet.
Thanks everybody, make sure you hit it.
Thank you.