Of those who voted no, many didn't
care for the fact the package was
hatched by leaders not running for
re-election and a lame
duck governor, also not running.
The bill saw bipartisan passage
in the state assembly with ten Dems
voting in favor along with all
Republicans, among them Republican
Representative Tony Kurtz of
Wannewok, Vice Chair of
the Joint Finance Committee.
He joins us now.
Thanks a lot for being here.
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for
having me.
So how surprised were you that
this blew up and failed?
I was uh...
Incredibly shocked uh...
I'm actually you know or how many
days after the fact that i'm
still i'm so a little shocked
and and and dismayed to
be very very frank with you
I just think it's a good package.
I mean, I understand there's people
on both sides of the aisle that
have their differences
with it.
And I know you just talked about,
you know, a lame duck
governor and a new speaker and
a majority leader, but.
You know, really, since January,
we've been working with the governor
in good faith on this.
So for those that say this
was done out of the blue, that is
not true.
This is something that we've been
working on.
Anybody inside the
Madison bubble know we've been
working on that.
We've taken votes on no tax on tips
and no tax on overtime.
The special ed is something that we
all know our school districts know
that they they need that.
And so that's what
kind of shocks me the most.
That we couldn't get this across the
finish line, even though people
knew we were working on this.
As to the day in question
of the vote,
the assembly sat on this for hours
before it finally passed.
Were you negotiating with Senate
Republicans or Democrats during that
time?
To be very frank with you,
both.
I mean, we were trying to get a
deal. I mean I'm in
the state assembly, and I'm trying
to whip votes over in the
State Senate.
Yeah, we are trying to this done.
This is something that we truly
wanted to get done.
I think.
Personally, and I'm just speaking
for me, I hope the governor
calls us back in for a special
session. I really do.
Because we have some unfinished
business to do.
On this or other matters.
On this particular matter, I mean,
what bothers me the most about
this entire package is,
you know, you have some of my
Republican colleagues that, you know
obviously, you know, they want to
save the money for a large tax cut
next year. Okay, that's fine.
And then you have my Democrat
colleagues that obviously want to
save all this money for next session
because, you know, what they have
their various programs that they
want to do.
But the problem is
people are hurting right now.
The economy is suffering.
Our school districts could use the
money for special education and
the further we keep pushing this
down the down the road is
we're another year behind because
let's say.
January, and you know
this, you've been around this longer
than I with your experience.
In January, everything's now focused
on the state budget, and
historically the state budget gets
signed into, you know, late July,
and then once
again those programs have to get
implemented. So we
are another 14 to 15
minutes, months further
down the road to try
to get tax relief for those folks
that need it. And also...
The special education funding that
our schools so desperately need.
And so that's if you want to know
the truth, that's what frustrates me
the most
is we had a really good deal
now. I mean, yeah, it had its
issues, but now we're just kicking
the can down the road, honestly,
probably 15 to 16 months
before we get something else
that's going to help Wisconsinites.
Why would coming back in be any
different?
Um, maybe it would give time
for people to possibly
reflect, see if there's something
that we can tweak.
Cause it's like, just like you even
mentioned, you know, we,
we were truly trying to
find, uh, something that
would get some of our Democrat
colleagues or some of the Republican
colleagues on board.
Uh, maybe, it gives us more time
to do that now.
Um, I thought we, uh
we've heard a lot of that before.
Thank you very much.
But that's my hope, because once
again, the longer we wait,
I don't see a point in waiting,
I'll put it that way.
What were some of the pot sweeteners
that were going back and forth?
Obviously, talking about
the different things,
you know, we saw that at the end, we
did put the veterans tax
cut it. I'm a veteran.
I know, you, know, it's funny,
last week, the week before, excuse
me, the VA Secretary Dave
Collins was actually in the state of
Wisconsin. I got to
talk to the DFW
State Commander there, the American
Legion State Commander.
And the property tax exemption
for disabled veterans,
that was part of a sweetener.
That is something incredibly
important to those organizations.
We thought that was going to help.
Disaster relief, that
is something.
And that's had broad bipartisan
support as well.
You know, in my area, we had just
had some tornadoes a couple of weeks
ago, you know, up there by the
Wausau area, in the Milwaukee area,
the flooding last year.
So we thought that that was a
way.
To sweeten the pot.
But once again, this is
an opportunity for them to
come back to us and say, hey, we'd
like to maybe see this or like to
say that.
They wouldn't even entertain that.
That's what's kind of frustrating
about the whole thing.
We got to the point where, you
know, they didn't even want to sit
down and talk in a reasonable way.
When Republican candidate for
Governor Tom Tiffany blasted
the measure, did that give you any
pause?
No, because and
because what I just mentioned
earlier, I mean, I understand and I
respect Tom and I understand what he
wants to do.
But the fact of the matter is
it's today.
I mean we have the surplus, the
state is very, we are in
a great financial position to
get some of this money back to
taxpayers, but also help
our schools with special education
and I'm sympathetic to that.
I know that's an incredibly costly
program.
So, no, that does not give me
pause. I mean, I understand why he
did what he did, and I respect that,
but, you know, let's be honest.
I mean the Democrats on
the Senate side did the same thing.
You know, they dug their heels in
too for various reasons, and I
expect that as well.
It's just the
time and place is now.
Why do we want to wait?
Because like I mentioned before, the
timeline is not,
why do something that we
all collectively know we should
do?
Why are we going to wait 15
to 16 months next
year to do that?
The rebate checks per the bill was
supposed to go out no later than the
15th of September
2026.
Property tax relief, people would
see that immediately on their taxes
in December when they
get their property tax bills.
The interesting about the no tax on
overtime. That would have took
effect immediately with the
whole with holding tables being
being affected.
So people would have seen that
relief immediately.
And then once again, the schools I
talked to one of my superintendents
yesterday, I'm not going to say
names, because he's a wonderful
person. And I don't want to, you
know, put words in his mouth, but he
was just in disbelief that
this failed.
And that would've been a million
dollars for this one particular
school district that would help
them immediately to
help that on the special ed.
So the other money They could pull.
Or they wouldn't have to spend on
special ed. So there's a lot of
frustration out there.
I hope you hear it in my voice.
It's just, I guess I
go back to the thing, why wait?
We know we have needs.
People are hurting because of the
economy and prices.
So let's try to give some of that
back.
Just coming back around on this a
bit, Tom Tiffany also called the
measures in this temporary
gimmicks. What about that?
I don't, no tax
on tips and no tax on overtime
as a gimmick.
I respectfully disagree with that.
You know, the special education
funding, once again, that
is, and if you want anybody to
blame and like the state legislature
on who really is a hawk
on the special ed, it's me,
because as you know, from your
experience, once we put money into
special education, funding
regardless of what the economy does,
that is money we as a state can
never pull back because we have a
federal requirement.
Once we put a dollar amount in
special education, it has to stay
there. We can never call that back
if we have another horrible economy.
So I am a little careful on what
we do for special ed.
Do we need to do it?
Absolutely.
And so to say that's a gimmick, once
again, I respectfully disagree with
that. That's permanent funding for
our schools.
Like the Reedsburgs of the world,
like the Westons of the World,
like the Richland School
Districts of the world can count on
for months
and years ahead.
So I'm
going to respectfully disagree.
I don't think it's a gimmick at all.
Now, let's be fair, both sides have
said that.
I know some of my Republican
colleagues like you pointed out, but
also some of my Democrat colleagues
pointed the same thing out.
So I.
I disagree on the
premise on both of those.
So as to the economy,
some people wanted to be prudent,
hold on to any projected surplus,
in case it sours
potentially more than
it has.
What about that persuasion?
You know, I've heard that that's
an argument some have tried to make.
The fact of the matter is,
we had a really good state budget.
Coming out of the state budget late
fall, we saw our
projection numbers higher than
anticipated.
Just in January, you know,
the numbers really, like our economy
is doing better than we anticipate.
Even on Monday.
You know, Monday, the fiscal Bureau
and wonderful Bob Lang and his
incredible team over there came out
with another is going to be $300
million that we are above
projections.
So I would never,
and let me repeat this, I would
never sign or vote on a bill if
I knew that was going to put us in
financial peril. That's not the way
we've been doing budgeting over the
last four or five budgets.
We live within our means
and and this budget
And the proposal that unfortunately
failed Wednesday night lives within
our means. Once again, people think
about if this was all said and
done, we'd still probably well
well over have probably nine,
eight hundred to nine hundred
million, a million dollars in
our checking account.
But then a lot of people don't
forget about the rainy days and the
rainy day fund is like our savings
account, and that's well over two
billion dollars.
And that's earning interest.
It's almost seven and a half.
A million dollars a month just in
interest.
So financially the state is
doing very well and I would
never, once again, I never would
put any of that
in jeopardy if there was a question
about if we could not afford this or
not.
So, finally,
in your mind, how tough might it be
for people who voted no
at the doors in their
campaigns for their elections?
I personally think it's going to be
pretty tough.
I cannot tell you.
I honestly can't make clone calls.
I have gotten over the last two
days about what
in the world happened.
How did this fall apart?
I mean, being inside the bubble,
I know how it's
failed, and that's what frustrates
me the most.
So I couldn't imagine going
into campaign season and walking to
a door and talking to
a wonderful young lady,
well, a server just in my area,
Allison, and how to tell her,
oh, by the way, you're
not gonna get the no-tax on tips
like we wanted to.
Or Brad, which is a good
friend of mine, who is a factory
worker. Who was just ecstatic
about the no tax on overtime,
how do you tell him that,
oh, by the way, I voted no against
that? It's, or,
or even more importantly,
you know, how do tell a
superintendent or school board
member, oh, the way you know
we had this other $300
million we were gonna help with
special education funding and I
voted, no on that.
It's a hard sell in my
very humble.
Representative Tony Kurtz, thank you
very much for joining us.
Hey, thank you for your time.
I hope you have a good weekend.
That was so good.
Thank you.
I don't know about that.
I'm probably gonna get blasted by
yourself. I don't know.
Aren't we all all the time, you
know, but you do
the work.
So we are and it's uh i'll
tell you it is um