2026 special session.
Will the members and visitors please
take your seats?
Thank you very
much.
Will the members and visitors please
rise? The prayer today will be
offered by the representative of the
25th Assembly District,
Representative Timm.
Thank you.
My favorite Bible verse is
Nahum 1-7.
Yes, that is in the Bible.
It's a very, it's a minor
prophet in the Old Testament.
And it says, the Lord is good and
a stronghold in the day of trouble.
And he knows them that trust in him.
Have you trusted him?
Let's go to the Lord with her.
Lord God, we thank you for this day.
We thank you this special session.
Lord, we pray that you would just
give us kindness in our
words.
Love in our heart,
and righteousness in debate.
Lord God, I pray that you would just
help us to
be the examples that we need to be
of you in this
chamber, and Lord, guard our hearts
and our minds towards you, in Jesus'
name I pray. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
The Pledge of Allegiance will be
offered by the gentleman from the
59th District.
Of the United States
of America, and to the Republic
for which it stands, one
Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
The first order of business is to
call the roll, the clerk will open
the roll.
Andy Claus, I'm going to say.
OK.
Remember that?
Oh, yeah.
All right.
Okay.
That's it.
Thank you.
It's not grants of a carver problem.
Thank you.
Have all members recorded their
presence? If so, the clerk will
close the roll. There are 95 members
present. The quorum is present.
Gentlemen from the 60s.
Mr. Speaker, I ask your
consent for a leave of absence for
the gentleman
from the 82nd.
A gentleman from the 68th asked to
announce consent to the lead.
Be granted for the balance of the
day. The gentleman from 82nd has
written an objection.
Hearing none, it is subordinated.
Pardon me while I knock the phone
off the desk.
I rise to ask for a leave of absence
for the balance, or unanimous
consent for a Leave of Absence for
the Balance of the Day for the
representative from the 42nd,
the representative from the 9th,
and the representative for the 52nd.
Lady from the
79th asked unanimous consent to
leave for the balance of the day.
We ran into the lead from the 49th,
the 90th, and the 52nd.
Is there any objection?
Hearing none, those leaves are
granted.
We are in the 10th order of
business. It has the May 2026
special session calendar.
Let's look at the title of the bill.
May 2026 Special Session
Assembly Bill 1 relating to income
tax subtraction for qualified
tips and for qualified overtime
compensation.
State aid for school districts,
surplus refund payments, increasing
funding for special education and
school agent program.
State aid to technical colleges and
the technical college district
revenue and information
appropriation.
Represented from the 32nd for an
introduction.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
I would just like to take a moment
to recognize the Kenosha County Law
Day Group, sponsored by the American
Legion County Council and led by
the Kenoshia County Sheriff's
Department.
These students participate annually
in an essay contest.
This year's theme is The Rule of Law
and the American Dream.
Sorry I can't be with you guys
today. I'll try to catch up with you
a little bit later. Thanks for being
here.
The question is, shall May 2026
Special Assembly Bill 1 be ordered
engrossed and read a third time?
All those in favor, we'll sing a
nice A and I.
All those no, the ayes have it, the
bill is engrosed.
Representative from the 33rd.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I stand for the Central Rules of the
Hispanic 81B.
Again, sir, greetings.
Represent.
Representing the 31st session and
consent that the rules be suspended
in May 2026.
Special session assembly bill 1 be
given a third reading.
Misery objection.
Hearing none, the clerk read the
title of the bill.
May 2026 Special Session Assembly
Bill 1 relating to income tax
subtraction for qualified tips and
for qualified overtime compensation.
State aid for school districts,
surplus refund payments, increasing
funding for special education and
school age parent programs.
State aid to technical colleges and
the technical college district
revenue limit to make an
appropriation.
The question is may 2026
special session assembly bill one
have been read three times she'll no
be passed there's three and a half
hours to debate on this bill
representative from the 33rd
Thank you, Mr. Speaker and members.
Good morning.
I thought when we left
last, that would be our final
session day.
And I am extremely excited to
say that we are here to do more good
business today.
You know, it's interesting.
It took some time as
I was leaving my
post and kind of thinking about what
the next chapter is going to be.
And the thing that gets me the
most is we
think about the things that we did.
The positive impacts that we made
and what did we run for
in the first place.
The reason we are here is to do all
of those things one more time and
that is to say we have good things
that we can do.
We can show people that we listen
and that we are willing to act And
most importantly, that compromise
in Wisconsin is not a dead
word.
Compromise is defined as
getting something that you want by
giving up something that your
partner or your opponent wants.
That is really what we did here.
We sat down with the governor in
good faith for months.
He started at a different place, so
did we.
Things that we wanted he clearly
couldn't accept.
Things he wanted we clearly couldn
t accept. You know what that is?
That is Then it's
saying, let's put aside the things
that can never happen to focus on
the things that can't.
That's where we are today.
I think it's unanimous,
or you would hope it would be
unanimous that when we have a bill
where 80% of the
money that we are appropriating
goes back in relief to people who
need it the most.
It goes back to people that own
property.
It goes to people are renters.
It go back to rich
and poor.
People who are old and young,
urban and rural.
Everyone in Wisconsin is
going to stand to get benefit from
the deal that we put together today.
How did we get here?
Prudent, good budgeting.
Wisconsin's economy is in a good
spot for most people.
Now some are suffering as we deal
with rising costs.
No doubt about that.
But the good news for Wisconsin is
that our surplus is strong
and it's growing.
Now we have a couple options of what
to do with that surplus.
Option one, keep it in the check
and save it to spend it later.
Option two.
Use it to grow the size of
government because we need more
government programs, not less.
Option three, give all of
it back.
I would have chosen option three,
right, if I got to have a compromise
that was literally with myself, but
that's not the way of the world.
I think all of the surplus should go
back to be able to deal with the
rising costs in our society.
But in a world where the voters of
Wisconsin have said no one
side gets to make all the decisions,
the side that says it should be all
spent on growing government, they
don't get their way either.
And that's why this compromise says
we're going to give it back to
people who work overtime.
That to me is one of the most
important.
We have got a workforce crisis
in America where we need more people
pulling the wagon to be able to
make our country the place that
we all know it has been and it
needs to continue to be.
But what that means is we need
everybody working harder.
And when the idea of giving relief
for people who are in overtime came
up, right away I thought what a
great idea. Because what do we want
to do in Wisconsin?
Incentivize people to work hard
and give them a reward for
doing so.
This bill finally does it.
We passed it before.
Unfortunately, I think all my
Democratic colleagues in the past
voted no.
But they have a chance to write the
record. Because here we are,
standing up for working people who
work by the hour.
They need the help.
How about waitresses and waiters,
people who literally work in
service to others?
They deserve a break that we're
giving them today. So if you are a
waiter or a waitress, you work on a
tip, you're not going to have to pay
income tax on that, just like the
feds. You're not gonna have to worry
about getting a federal rent
deduction, but not getting one for
the state. And last I knew,
rich people aren't waiters,
and rich people don't work by the
hour. So this is not something
geared toward the rich, which is
what my Democratic colleagues
normally have a problem with.
So we have listened to their
concerns, and we are targeting
our winnings.
The second thing that we did was to
say, look, Governor Evers' four-year
veto is a trap.
It should never have happened.
We have done everything that we
possibly can to overturn it.
And God willing, in November,
there's a referendum on the ballot,
and the voters are going to get a
chance to say we're going to do it
ourselves around the political
bureaucracy.
That's on the Ballot in November.
So we have the ability to overturn
that and never let it happen again.
That's important to occur.
We also need to elect a new governor
to make sure that this priority
happens for the state of Wisconsin.
But in the meantime, for
the people who are here suffering
with the consequences of that
four-year veto and the inaction
of my Democratic colleagues to give
a dime about property taxes.
We're going to take the matter into
our own hands because we had a
governor who was willing to
compromise and work with us
to find a better answer.
So here we are for one year, it's
not permanent, it's going to be
every one of the 399 years,
but the one-year relief this year is
permanent forever.
That property tax will help every
single Wisconsin homeowner and
property owner to be able to afford
their property tax bill when they
get it in December.
Lastly, we focused on making
sure that in an area where we made a
promise now I know very few
Democrats voted for the budget
when it passed, even though it was a
record investment in education We
got income tax cuts.
We did record investments in a lot
of priorities There was a promise
that was made to make sure that we
funded special education going
forward Now it was an estimate
a good faith effort from the
governor's office and the fiscal
bureau again a compromise to say
What does that number need to be to
be able to meet a certain freshman?
It came in higher than we
anticipated. No one's fault.
It wasn't done intentionally.
So here we are back to fix a
problem that was actually
no one's' fault, but the people who
would ultimately pay the price.
And that's local school districts
and property taxpayers at the local
level.
Easy answer to say, why
wouldn't we use some of the surplus
to not only help keep property taxes
down in local areas, but to make
sure that if you're a child with
special needs or the parent or
a loved one, we're gonna get more
services so those kids get what they
need. Should be easy because
this bill today is
a record investment in
special ed. The highest level
ever.
It not only keeps our promise from
the budget, but it actually
increases the spending because we
had that surplus coming in.
Now, you're going to hear from my
Democratic colleagues that they want
to save the money because they want
it invested in growing the size of
government. That's what they're
going say, even though they might
not use those words.
We know the truth.
We want to give it back.
Some Democrats want to keep it.
Luckily, Tony Evers isn't one of
those.
He actually had the ability to say,
let's compromise, let each give,
let find a consensus because the
people of Wisconsin expect us to do
better than to just stand up and
shake our fist. Maybe today
some of them will be persuaded by
their own government believe it or
not. I actually was And
I feel like I'm probably a more
harsh critic than the people on the
left So if people on
our side are willing to listen and
can compromise why can't you?
Why can't people have left just one
time?
Put aside politics and
say, let's do the right thing.
Money for schools, money for
people who are at the normal income
wage, people who work hard,
all with a surplus, and we have
plenty of money left in the till.
Don't forget, we have $2 billion in
our surplus still, even
after this.
On Monday, it kind of got lost in
the news, but we also had a $300
million increase, or almost
a 15% increase,
in the amount of money in our
surpluse, because the economy in
Wisconsin is so strong.
So, we didn't choose to spend that.
That's still going to be in the
state's checkbook. So, a record
amount in the rainy day fund,
a bunch of money still in our
checkbook, and we get to make good
investments. This is the easiest
green vote I have probably ever
taken in my service in the
legislature.
We're spending money, making sure
that it goes back to people.
We're spend money that some of it's
permanent. The funding for schools
is permanent.
So are some of the tax cuts.
And we're using the balance for a
one-time rebate. It is a
win-win-win.
So for the people of Wisconsin, have
confidence. Your state government
works.
Republicans and Democrats hold to
our principles but in the end we
find a way to get to yes because
that's the Wisconsin way.
I urge all my colleagues to vote yes
and have hopefully a good long
debate where we can agree that
getting the money back is way better
than keeping it for some other
person to suspect.
The question is, May 2026
Special Session, Assembly Bill 1,
having been read three times, so the
bill be passed, representative for
the 73rd.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'm rising in opposition to this
bill because I cannot support a
piece of legislation that spends so
much state money and does so
little in terms of solving big
problems.
I find the so-called tax rebate
provision particularly
objectionable.
At a time when our president and his
party are taking away healthcare
subsidies, slashing funding to
address food insecurity,
and actively harming all of us
with a reckless war of choice, with
no plan.
That is driving up gas prices,
this bill fails to help
the people who need it most.
But to understand why, we have to
get past those talking points that
were just shared, and we need to
look at actual substance.
This bill is promoted as giving
single people $300 rebate checks
and married couples $600.
But everyone should know that
1.36 million Wisconsinites
won't be getting a check at all.
Maybe they don't file taxes, either
because they don't make enough to
feel that it's worth it, or because
they live on social security.
Or maybe, like it was true with me
when my kids were young and I was a
very broke graduate student,
they do file taxes but they have so
many deductions and they make so
little that they actually have a
negative tax rate and don't have
a tax liability.
So if you have kids and
don't t make much money, just know
that you might not be getting any
help at all.
Not $300, maybe not even
$50, maybe you'll get a check
for five bucks.
Time will tell.
The argument that people in that
position don't pay taxes so they
don't deserve any part of this is
wrong.
Everyone pays taxes, whether
it's sales tax on buying school
supplies, property taxes on your
mortgage or factored into your rent,
or the gas tax to
fill up your car to go to work.
We all contribute.
To only consider income tax
is patently regressive and
morally wrong.
In this bill, a significant portion
of the people who need our help the
most are being left out.
This is bad policy.
On the other hand, households
that make $300,000 or more,
nearly all of them are going
to get checks for the full amount.
In this Bill, joint filers who make$
300,000 more, would get $600.
If you ask all the people who make
$300,000 or more in this state, this
bill is costing us $47.5
million.
I do not understand
how the people negotiating this
bill could so callously duck their
responsibility.
How is it okay to give the nearly
9,000 households that
make $1 million or more $600
each, but
we can't figure out how to help
someone who's trying to get by on
Social Security alone?
This is not how to stabilize a
society at a time of economic
strain.
And what about property tax relief
we heard about?
If your home value is at the state
median, which is $312,000,
you'll be saving $107,
not per month,
for the entirety of
the year.
And not this year,
next year.
If you pay your taxes through an
escrow account, like most do,
Starting in January 2027,
you'll save $8.91 per
month.
That's less than two gallons of gas
today.
Who knows how much gas
will cost by then?
But what's most depressing about
this bill is the treatment of our
public schools.
In my district, I have two schools,
where, two school districts, where
the per pupil revenue limit is at
the floor for the state.
One of my districts is so broke, my
home district, where my son
graduated, is so broken that
they are constantly having to cut
services.
So you might think, well then, yeah,
vote for this bill. Don't they need
the money? Yeah, they do.
That's why it makes this no vote
hard.
They desperately need the funding,
thanks to the actions of the
majority party over the last 16
years.
But our job in this building is to
see the bigger picture.
And I see the bigger play that
Republicans are making.
Give wealthy families in our state
what's left of the surplus so that
next year we are left with crumbs to
fix what the majority have broken.
This deal puts us in a significant
structural deficit in years three
and four.
This fiscal burden says, I
mean the fiscal bureau says, that we
will need to grow by 4% to make up
for that.
At a time where we're seeing
projections that we're going to see
retrenchment economically.
This is irresponsible.
Even more than the flood of
Republican retirements, drained
state coffers shows that Republicans
know that the voters will not want
them back in the majority next
session.
They've been defunding essential
public institutions for years, and
on the way out the door, they want
to try to make it harder for us to
clean up the mess that they have
made.
I know Governor Evers is desperate
to help public schools.
No one wants to help them more than
our party.
But not like this.
Not recklessly, not in
a way that makes real solutions, but
long-term solutions harder.
This is irresponsible policy.
The vote is red.
It's represented from the 30th.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
It's wonderful to see so many
youngsters in the gallery here today
and welcome to the state capitol.
And I want to say something to all
of you.
What you're witnessing here today is
going to look nothing like the real
world when you enter it later on.
Where compromise is actually common.
That happens and it's effective and
it works.
So the speaker I think did a great
job in framing this initially.
It is about compromise.
It IS about balance, right?
This is balanced governing
that we're witnessing here today.
I applaud Governor Evers for
working with us to advance this.
And what you're hearing is,
but it's not great.
It's not right.
Today I'll take good.
I will take good for Hudson,
Wisconsin, for River Falls,
Wisconsin.
The service industry is an industry
where these individuals rely
upon those tips.
That is their primary income.
I worked at a dishwasher, went to
bus boy in advance, it's a great
journey.
Today is a great day for them
because more of their money is going
to be theirs.
That is impactful, that is not
trivial, and that is something we
should all support.
When I first was elected, I spent a
lot of time in one of my local
schools.
And I saw firsthand the challenges
with special education, the
implications to those school
districts.
Today we have an opportunity also
to do something special for
those individuals, for the kids,
for the faculty, for staff, for our
communities as well.
We talked about, you know, on joint
findings yesterday, it was suggested
that we robbed education
over the past number of years.
Robbed education?
We put more money in education than
we ever have before.
It was also noted in the Joint
Finance Committee that we've got to
spend more.
And these schools need to know that
this money is going to be the
victim. They need predictability.
Here's the issue.
You want to talk about structure.
You want talk about the root cause
in education.
Then let's do it.
Let's talk about the fact that we
have, in our demographics,
declining student population.
That's just a thing.
It's not a bad thing, it's just a
real thing that we had to take on.
So sending more money,
or guaranteeing it and continuing to
increase it, is not the answer.
We have to look at alternatives to
the model.
4% growth, it was suggested,
boy, I can be reliant on that.
Well, I look back over the past 10,
15 years, it's always been there.
But what we don't talk about is
there's a delta in that 4%.
What if we actually saved some money
somewhere within the state budget?
Now they'll come in steps, sometimes
in government, but we do it in the
private sector all the time.
Today is a wonderful example for
all of you watching of compromise
with a split government and
we're getting something done that
will be impactful for those in
our communities.
The vote is absolutely agreed Mr.
Speaker.
Representative from the 93rd.
Mr. Speaker,
I'm trying to wrap my head around
the distinction between what
we are talking about today and
what we're actually hearing back
home in our communities because
Wisconsinites are demanding
structural and responsible
solutions to the structural
challenges that they're facing.
They are not new
to the economic pain that they're
feeling right now.
They have lived in Wisconsin
that has been governed by
Republicans in the legislature for
15 years, and they're felling the
structural impacts of the pain
that's been inflicted on the economy
over that time.
The proposal that we're discussing
right now, instead, is at
best a short-term
band-aid and does not offer
enough, and does offer
the structural solutions that people
are demanding.
And worse yet, it continues a
pattern of Republican bills that
make empty promises that will not be
kept.
In the last budget,
the Republican-led Joint
Finance Committee and legislature
promised public school students
and districts 42%
of their special education costs.
But that promise was broken,
and legislative Democrats introduced
legislation to compel the
legislature to keep its promises on
special education.
That proposal was not taken up or
even given a hearing.
Now, this proposal
promises 50% next
year, but does not
make the structural change to
the law or the way that special ed
is administered to guarantee that
that money will hit school
districts. So it will once again be
a broken promise.
And the bulk of this legislation
spent on one-time expenditures
in the form of so-called checks
will be another broken promise we've
already heard about.
The narrative created by
the majority, around $300 per
person, well that's going to be
awfully difficult to defend when so
many people open their mailboxes and
find a check for $10,
$40, $0,
as so many will.
Another broken promise.
And so in addition to those
disappointments, just imagine my
disappointment when I
saw on Monday the proposal put
forward by three outgoing
politicians that
looks like this, when there was
already an affordable and
structural proposal on
the table for weeks.
Assembly Bill 1176
was written with
the current surplus projections
in mind, and it was introduced by
every single assembly done craft
weeks ago.
It would offer structural,
sustainable support to people
struggling with the cost of housing
through property taxes and
to kids and families in public
schools.
It would also offer enough funding
and general aid to public schools to
buy down property taxes for
education this year.
And it would offer 60% of
special education costs in a
sub-sufficient way,
meaning the promise would be kept.
Districts would be offered 60%, they
could budget for 60%, and then they
would actually receive it.
And the plan that we
put forward would save
500 million more
dollars than the reckless
spending bill that was
proposed this week by the outgoing
speaker, the outgoing senator,
public and leader, and the outgoing
governor.
This one would instead drain the
piggy bank and
reward wealthier school districts
through some new funding
model at the expense of
poorer districts.
And it's just not lost on
me that there was already a good
proposal on the table that was
ignored in favor of
this one.
And working class Wisconsinites that
we all represent, all of us
represent, are the people
who have to live with the decisions
that we make today.
So they deserve honest
decisions that will make promises
and keep them.
Responsible decisions that would
be good stewards of
public funds, directing resources
to make structural change,
to fix the structural problems
causing people structural
economic pain.
And that's why I'm opposed to this
bill today.
The question is, May 2026,
special session, assembly bill one
and then read three times.
Shall the bill be passed,
represented on the 8th?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Wow.
I keep thinking to myself,
this bill that was put forward was a
compromise, and
our last speaker, I was thinking to
myself, if it was such a great
bill that the Democrats put
out, why didn't the governor start
with that?
Why didn't he start negotiating with
that, he didn't.
Because he realized it wasn't going
to make it, and it wasn't t a
compromise. I don't mind, in
my district, when people talk to me
and say, can you just work
together? That's what I hear.
Can you just work together?
All that seems to be partisan.
So now we put this bill out, which
is, I think, a tremendous bill.
Sure, there's things in here that I
wasn't totally fond of,
but in the essence of getting things
done, you go forward with
that.
But we're hearing on both sides
of the extreme miles that
we're somehow wrong, that we are
terrible. And we got gubernatorial
candidates, will you know this,
who have no impact, because whoever
wins won't be here until next
January, just like us.
So this surplus is now.
CESA 9 and my two school districts
told me they need special
ed funding.
That's the number one thing, coming
out of their Fund 10, out of the
General Fund.
They never brought up, when I am at
our last CESO meeting,
and I know the gentleman from the
35th was with me, they never brought
anything about, hey, there's a great
Democrat bill that you should look
at that's going to fund it.
They didn't.
They said, what can you do to
help us with special ed, because
that is where we need help.
This doesn't.
D.C. Everest is finishing up 25-26
over a half million dollars.
In the 26-27,
1.36 million
dollars for special ed.
I mean, in Wausau,
over three quarters of a million
dollars for this first year and
2.1
million in the next year.
So it's interesting,
as this bill comes together, because
it doesn't fit everything you want,
you're going to be a no.
And I keep thinking to myself,
if I was a no on this bill,
my colleagues on the other side
would hammer me.
He hates education.
He didn't vote for special ed
increase.
But now, since you weren't invited
to the party of negotiations,
you're upset.
Well, I think about the
people. I've said it countless
numbers of times in some of the
bills that I passed this session.
It's about the People.
It's not about me, it's not my
own agenda.
When you're a legislator, you
legislate for the people, and too
many representatives take their
small, loud minorities,
making them think that they're the
majority.
What I want to hear from both sides,
and actually have some property
tax relief, surplus release,
and especially special effort.
So I am a yes on this and
I tell you, anyone who votes no
on either side or you're pressured
by the media, which I'm going
to start listening to music now, the
heck with talk radio in general,
but in any case,
let's move forward.
The vote's yes. Thank you.
Represent from the 19th.
Thank you.
Speaker, half of this $862
million set out by this bill
will go to people making $60
million.
And most people across Wisconsin
will not be getting, regardless
of what you're hearing, by some
media, by some press releases,
$300 or $600 checks.
In fact, 1.36
million Wisconsin residents
will not get a check at all
under this plan.
Many people in poverty will get
zero.
Many older adults will get a zero.
When you factor those folks in,
here's what the numbers look like.
If you're making more than $150,000
a year and you need assistance to
lease, your joint filing household
is going to get a check on average
of $547.01.
That's very close to the $600
distribution in Maine.
I don't think that they're there.
But if you're in the greatest need,
if you are making less than $30,000
a year in Wisconsin,
your average distribution is just
$45.24.
But worse, if your household is
in extreme poverty and
you're making less than $15,000
a year and a $600 check
might make a real difference,
the average amount that you would
get is going to be 74
cents.
And I want to say that one more
time.
Including the people who would get
nothing, that is many, many people.
People making under $15,000
a year would get an average payment
from this plan of 74
pennies.
That's less than the cost of a stamp
in Illinois.
So if you're sending out press
releases noting how this will
somehow do anything to help the
affordability crisis that you
and federal Republicans have
created to make worse,
save the ink.
This is another redistribution of
wealth to folks who need it the
least, and does nothing sufficient
or sustainable for our schools.
AB 1176, on the other hand,
offered by our own reps, fellows,
and crews, is half the cost
and has twice the benefit to
public schools.
If you were serious about investing
in Wisconsin, we'd pass that
instead.
This building, authored by
three people who will not thankfully
be here next year, just rips
the copper out of the walls on the
way out and heads us to a structural
deficit.
We deserve better than the phone is
now.
Represent from the 38th.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's time to return the
surplus to the taxpayers.
I know that many of my Democratic
colleagues in this room don't
want to do that.
Be very, very clear about
that.
But that's not what the people of
Wisconsin want.
Wisconsinites want their money
returned to them.
And that, at the core of this bill,
is what it's about.
This bill provides single tax
filers a $300 rebate
and married couples filing
jointly with a $600 rebate.
Now whether you're one of those rich
teachers, those rich
plumbers, those rich
construction workers that we keep
hearing about that the rebate's
going to people somehow.
One of your one of those rich
paraprofessionals or window
and door installers to
meet they're not rich They're
the people who make
our economy work.
Well, they're the backbone of
this state They work hard and
it's their money We're
getting them that tax relief
here today This
bill also buys down property taxes
by providing over $300 million
in relief through
the school funding formula.
That's real property tax relief.
This bill also does other great
things that we already
did.
It eliminates the tax
on tips.
It eliminates state income tax on
overtime.
What great provisions!
We already passed that, and
now...
We can do it again and actually get
it done.
The governor said he's going to sign
it. In fact, for those of
you who may be on social media, if
you head over to Governor Tony
Evers' Facebook page right now,
he calls this deal a
no-brainer.
That's the current governor.
I don't see eye to eye with the
governor on most issues.
I really don't.
But the governor calls this a no
brainer.
Additionally, this bill is a record
investment in special education.
Those are great things.
As a part-time substitute teacher in
my district, I know the challenges
around special education,
I do.
And this bill provides relief.
Now, there's some in this room who
are going to claim that this bill
doesn't go far enough.
But then in the next breath, they're
going to say it's fiscally
irresponsible.
Mr. Speaker, we're in special
session.
This isn't a budget.
This is about the surplus,
a projected $2.4 billion surplus
that this bill only spends
$1.8 billion on.
It's not even the whole thing.
The will of the people is the law of
the land.
And I'm confident that the
people in my district and the
entire state want property
tax relief. They want to
keep more of their hard-earned
money.
And they want great schools and
a great education for their kids.
Today, Republicans in this body
have once again shown that we're
listening to the people
and that we are working to
get things done and make a
difference.
My vote for the people on behalf
of the great people of Dodge and
Jefferson Counties is a definite
yes.
The question is, May 2026
Special Session of Assembly Bill 1.
I haven't been read three times, so
the bill will be passed.
Representative, the 23rd.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Let's talk about conference.
I've heard that so often
here today in
the media cover leading up
to this vote.
And I really wish the students who
are in the gallery were back,
because I know they're studying
about the legislative process.
And in the legislative process, they
probably learn that you introduce a
bill, that bill goes to committee,
and they'll learn that
representatives get together and
make factual compromises.
They offer amendments so that the
bill in the end can be
signed by a governor and signed into
law.
Well, that doesn't work this way
in this building.
Let's talk about compromise.
Democrats introduced more than
500 bills this session.
I think more than,
probably more than in the past
decade.
3% of those bills got
a public hearing.
I'm not even talking passage.
I'm talking a public hear.
So all of those bill had an
opportunity for compromise,
and 3% percent of them had
that opportunity.
I am not going to stand here and be
lectured about compromise for
people who won't even listen to
us or give our bills
the light of day.
So now let's talk about the proposal
in front of us.
Um, we all like
fun schools.
We have offered plenty of
bills to fund schools.
We're talking about the
ability to fix structurally
the underfunding of
the past decade of our public
schools. And I know you're all
standing up and congratulating
yourselves on giving more money to
schools. And yes, that
is good, but you don't get
a prize for boarding up
a window that you broke in the first
place.
Thank you.
So I had the opportunity,
I should say, another opportunity,
was fortunate of living in Texas for
a few years, about 25 years ago.
And, this has a point.
And Texas has some great Tex-Mex
food, but one of the things that
they have there was something very
odd.
And it's called a turducken, which
is a turkey, and it's stuffed
with a chicken and a duck.
In this film today, Okay.
This proposal isn't your docket
because it's a turkey
that was put together
by a bunch of lame ducks
by a republican legislator
that is too chicken to
confront the structural
affordability and education
issues facing this state.
Now, I am all
here, I'm here to say yes
to schools and yes to school
funding. And we are willing to
compromise on structural change.
We have been all session, we were
the session before that and the
session that I was here.
And you've ignored every single one.
We will compromise.
We're here for it.
We want to talk to you.
I carry the Blue Ribbon Report
around.
You know I talk to so many
of you. We have a lot of the
solutions.
I'm being sued right now.
A lot of my colleagues on the Joint
Finance Committee, it shouldn't
have to come to this.
Every one of us here will talk to
you about fixing the school funding
formula. Every single one of we'll
talk all day, all night, but don't
tell us we won't.
We're not going to do this.
When you have spent a decade
ignoring us,
and ignoring the will of our voters,
and ignoring schools in your home
district.
The vote on this is no.
Represented from the 51st.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I actually was going to ask the way
to speak because I'm actually
enjoying my colleagues on the other
side have a meltdown.
And why are they having a melt down?
Because we are giving more money to
schools.
We are giving money back to the
taxpayers who actually pay
taxes.
We are getting money for
property tax relief because
we had a 400-year veto
that ruined a
lot of schools.
And we worked with
a governor that's Democrat.
We were bipartisan.
And they're having a meltdown.
What's missing with this picture?
So I'm a little confused because
I've sat here all session
and I've said there are many
sessions and it's always getting
pounded for schools,
more money for schools.
Here we go.
We are.
I have talked to my superintendents.
I'm confused, too, about this
three retired men,
which I'm glad they're all retiring,
by the way, but, um, anyhow.
You
I'm kidding, Mr.
Speaker.
You're sitting there so I can't hear
you. But anyway,
we have, I don't know about you
guys, but the 54 of us
have been in caucus since January
when the surplus was announced as
they were negotiating.
The Speaker and the leadership team
kept us in the loop in where we were
at getting the parameters where we
thought we wanted to be.
And it was not a deal done
by three people.
I believe the Senate leader, too,
was in touch with his caucus.
So this all was just
behind a curtain is just ridiculous.
I have talked to my superintendents.
They're very happy.
And I will go back and
tell them what happened here today.
I'm assuming some of my friends
on the other side will vote for
this. I would hope they would.
But this is a win-win for the people
of the state of Wisconsin.
This idea that we need to
give all this money back
to people that don't even pay
taxes I don't
I'm scratching my head and if
you're talking to the people in your
district and that's what they say
they're a lot different from my
district I'm all for
helping those in need and we have
programs for that and I'm more than
willing to look at giving more money
for those programs but
I think we're getting a little
out there with some of this
rhetoric today about
the sky is falling because oh
my god we did a bipartisan deal
we're giving more money to schools
we're given more money than
taxpayers
and it's just i'm actually
enjoying this so thank you very
much Mr. Speaker.
Represent from the 20th.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
You know, there's been a lot of talk
about legacy
when talking about this bill.
I want you all to think about this.
Many of the people in this room will
not be coming back next session,
either by choice or not by choice.
You want this?
Vote to be your legacy,
Mr. Speaker.
I'm not having a meltdown.
I'm perfectly calm.
For now.
But, you know, when we really
started to look at this bill and
realized what the
impact is going to do, is going be
on the people of the state of
Wisconsin, you're
not talking about the 4%
tax increase.
That they're going to be looking at
session after
session after session.
You're not talking about the fact
that you are going to leave the
state in a structural deficit.
Now Mr. Speaker, I would be more
than happy to vote
on a couple little things in this
budget like well maybe one big thing
special ed funding, which we have
been talking about for years.
That's probably about the only good
thing in this particular bill.
I have constituents who
believe that they're going to get a
$300 or $600 check.
Chances are most of my constituents
are going to be less than
$100.
Some maybe $7.50.
I don't know, that might buy them a
gallon of gas these days.
People are...
And we're not helping them in
this bill.
Mr. Speaker, compromise means
we are all talking about
what needs to be done.
Nobody on this side of the aisle had
any input into this.
We heard rumors, but
we were actually slapped with this
on a Monday morning.
This huge bill that spends, what
is it, over a billion dollars?
And we've had two days to actually
look at it and figure it out.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to vote
for this bill because it's
nothing but smoke and mirrors during
campaign season.
Thank you.
Representative from the 22nd.
I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker,
I thought you said 27th.
I rise today, I'd like this bill,
and I'd like to first thank
leadership for bringing it to us,
especially represented from
the 33rd.
I, unlike some, will miss him
being here.
This is a bipartisan deal.
The governor, obviously we know it's
bipartisan, so I don't know why it's
so hard to get $1.8
billion back.
To our taxpayers,
to our voters, to our constituents.
This place kind of amazes me
that could be that big of a problem.
One thing I like to bring up though
is that I'd like to
compliment my colleague from
my Senate district from
the 22nd or 20th,
yes, from the 23rd
for bringing up Turducken.
I like that one that's football on
Thanksgiving and it's John Madden
and it's a good memory, but
so I like Turducken's.
As far as the bill goes, I'd
just like to quickly say a
couple of things I like the most
about the no tax overtime and
the no tax on tips.
We've passed those in
our assembly and in the Senate and
I'm happy today that the governor
looks like he's going to get on
board with that and
prove that if we get this through.
It's a middle class tax cut.
It is for people.
I was in the bar restaurant business
for a long, long time.
People work for tips, and
this is important to get them the
tax cut out of those tips.
I think it's going to be beneficial
to a lot of folks.
And as far as no tax
and overtime...
You know, we're talking about
nurses,
9-1-1 operators, working class
folks, factory workers that
work overtime.
And I think it's a great thing that
they're going to get a break also.
And on top of that, these bills,
they match the federal law that we
have today.
So this will be more
simplicity for tax
preparers and for taxpayers when
they go to pay their taxes.
So, I'm happy that we're
doing this bill today and I am,
and one last part too,
I've been remiss my wife won't be
mad at me because she's about
special ed.
I'm that we are doing more in
special ed, my school district, so
I've talked to them, they're very
excited about the possibility of
getting more special ed funding, so
I'm very much in favor of that also.
So, the vote for me is green, thank
you.
Question is, May 2026,
Special Session Assembly Bill 1M had
been read three times.
Should the bill be passed?
Representative from the 48th.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise in opposition to this bill.
I talked to constituents in the
doors of my district, which includes
part of Madison and some Prairie,
and I constantly hear about
the burden that people,
homeowners are facing due to their
property taxes.
Mr. Speaker, this bill will not
fix Wisconsin's property tax
problem.
Over the past 16 years,
it's been Republican fiscal policy
that has led to our crazy
high property taxes.
Because of decisions made by the
majority of this body,
schools today are
receiving $3,400 less
per pupil in inflation-adjusted
dollars.
Multiply that by the kids in your
school, and it's really clear
why Wisconsin is in the top 10
states for property taxes
This is a structural problem.
It's a structural product created
by Republican fiscal policy.
They have taken your income and your
sales tax for years, and they've
not given it back.
Instead, they've kept the money and
forced you to raise your local
property taxes, like my constituents
have had to do year after
year.
And so now we have this election
year political gift.
We'll give you, or at least
some of you, a $300 check.
For example, if you're a senior on
Social Security, sorry.
And now due to Trump's
illegal tariff taxes,
and now his Iran
gas tax and gas
price increases, we're dealing
with record costs.
People in my district are getting
crushed just for
the luxury of going to work or
buying groceries.
So 300 bucks simply isn't enough,
because it doesn't fix the
structural problem.
And you guessed it, you're going to
pay thousands more in property taxes
in the years ahead.
So instead of political tricks,
let's index state school
funding to inflation.
It's so simple.
Why come out here and play act that
you care about schools and
ignore what we all know and put an
end to our property tax nightmare?
Today, in this situation,
when politicians promise you a tax
cut, we will all end up paying
more.
Reserved from the 92nd.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
You know what, I'm not 100% happy
with this bill.
I don't think anyone in here is,
but that's what compromise looks
like.
First, I'm going to start out with
the special ed funding.
The special ed fund, I am happy
that we are honoring and actually
exceeding what was promised in the
budget. Next year, 50%
funding and that's
more than double of what it was
in 2019 prior to
when I was in the legislature for
funding going to special ed.
You know, obviously all of us are
getting out and talking to a lot of
people this time of year and going
forward through November and
that is one of the top things I'm
hearing. What are you doing for
special ed?
You promised this in the budget.
Why isn't it this?
And I got to explain that
calculation with the Fiscal Bureau,
which people don't care about that.
They just want to know why didn't
you follow through?
Well, we are following through and
exceeding what we have promised
actually in the budget on that.
And I'll tell you what it means
locally.
I have primarily three districts
that reside directly in my district.
The largest benefactor,
Chippewa Falls High School or
Chippow Falls Unified, is going
to be getting 1.5 million dollars
just in the special ed additional
funding.
Elk Mound, which is my smallest,
is going to get it beginning just
over 300,000 and
the best one because I'm the alma
mater from there is the Monopoly
Mustangs are going to beginning 1.1
billion dollars. So it does make
an impact right now.
This is not something that can wait
sitting in checking account.
So we need to get it out there.
And then property tax relief,
you know, people have been
obviously complaining as they open
up their tax bills and they see
what our taxes are in the state of
Wisconsin.
And I find it very ironic that we've
got people on the other side of the
aisle that are complaining about,
you don't know, not doing enough for
property tax release.
I doubt that many of them have even
received a property tax bill or even
opened it, let alone actually see
what the numbers are inside there.
But this does help with that.
Then we've got tips and overtime.
Now, personally, I'm not super
happy about the tips portion of
it because I don't receive very many
tips personally, but I know
a lot of people that are happy about
it. The servers, the wait
staff, the workers,
the massage therapists, the people
that have done a really good job and
deserve to receive that tip as
an actual bonus as it was originally
intended for.
And then no tips on overtime,
or no tax on overtime.
That is a big deal because
I think it's important that we
encourage people that want to
actually work a little extra, maybe
save up a little bit more money,
maybe pay some bills,
and not penalize them.
And as stated before,
this just echoes basically what the
federal government has done, only it
doesn't end in 2028.
This is going to be ongoing.
And then, rebate checks.
I think it's important that the
people that receive rebate checks
are those that actually help create
the state surplus.
So if you paid in, yes,
you're going to get that money back.
You're going get $300 if you're an
individual, $600 if you are
a married couple filing jointly.
So I do think that is important
because I think its unethical
to maybe give money to people back
as a tax rebate.
It's kind of like me going into a
store and asking for a rebate
for something that I didn't even
buy.
And then the bipartisan
work obviously I was
hoping this would have been done
like a month ago But this is
how these negotiations go it takes
time You're not
always going to get everything you
want, that's kind of how governance
works.
And the number one thing I'm hearing
at the door is work
for us.
We don't care about what's going
on in Washington, we don't even
care about what's goin' on in
Madison, and all they ever see in
the news is the bickering back and
forth. Well, we have a deal with the
governor on this.
And I'm glad that Governor Evers,
on his way out, along with our
speaker, have come to a compromise
that we can vote for.
Yeah, I don't like every single
piece of this, but I think it's
a win for Wisconsinites.
And that's what they elect us to do,
is to come down here and work.
Not sit and play political theater
and go back and forth about picking
apart the bad parts of a bill.
Because quite frankly, you can do
that with every piece of legislation
in this building.
And I will say this session, I've
been proud to author 15
bills that have passed this floor.
13 of those 15
have passed with bipartisan support
and I look forward to doing the same
thing next session.
So with that, the speaker,
Mr. Speaker, the vote is green.
Represented from the 60th.
Thank you Mr. Speaker and my fellow
colleagues.
Let me preface my comments.
This is the last time I'll speak on
the floor of the assembly and
I want to thank you for a collection
of memories that go from
this was exciting, this was
educational, to this was frustrating
and I can't believe this is
the way we make decisions.
I said here today, I'm listening to
arguments on the other side.
Somehow they think we are dealing
with the state budget.
We're looking for structural
adjustments if you do it at that
time. Let me know.
In this last budget,
we increased state spending by 12.4
percent.
It was $12.3 billion.
It's not like we're not spending
money in addressing the needs that
we have around this.
With regard to the bill we're
looking at today.
Let me start with this
note. We have good news.
The state's coffers are
flush with cash.
Here's the bad news.
You put it there.
You were overcharged for the goods
and services that you paid for.
Let's compare that.
If you walk into a store
in your community and you buy an
item for $17, you walk
up to the counter, you give the
clerk a $20 bill.
And the clerk says nothing.
And the Clerk gives you back
nothing.
And when you ask, what did you do
with my money?
And the clerks says, well we've
decided in our organization, we are
better prepared to deal with your
excess funds, so we're going to
keep it.
That is not acceptable to you in
your local store, and it should not
be an acceptable outcome when
we look at our state budget.
We have a $2.5 billion dollar
surplus. We are willing to spend
$1.8 billion dollars and
return it in different forms
back to you, the taxpayers.
We look at special ed.
We have problem that we
have an increasing number of
students in our
public schools that are dealing with
special ed issues.
We are stepping up to help
fund that issue, and I'm
happy about that.
But everyone that ever came into my
office and said, I need more money
for special ed, I would always
ask this question.
Have you questioned why
the number of special ed
students have increased
at a dramatic level going
back to 2012?
Yeah, back to the time that we came
up with a smart phone, back to time
that social media started shaping
our public.
If we don't address that problem,
you're just going to keep spending
more money.
The answer is not to spend more
money, it's to figure out how to
reduce the number of kids that are
designated as special ed.
Then we look at providing property
tax relief.
I think it's the number one issue
all of us have heard from with
our constituents.
Between the general school
aid and the tax schools, it's over
$350 million that
we're going to send back.
So it will help reduce the increases
in your property taxes that are
otherwise going to take place,
especially under the 400-year veto.
With property taxpayers, their
payments, that makes no sense to
me.
No tax on tips.
We have all kinds of people in the
service industry, they are lower
income people, and we are gonna give
them the advantage of not having to
pay a state income tax that will
match the fact that they won't have
to pay federal income tax.
The one that I am most excited
about in this sense is the no tax
on overtime. I live in a district
that's primarily manufacturing and
construction.
And then medical-related
services. We have a lot of
overtime.
And I have super respect
for those people that are working
for their families and they're out
there 50, 60 hours a week.
This is a relief valve that
I think is one of the most
beneficial things we can do for the
hard workers of Wisconsin.
Finally, we come to the remake
checks.
Remember not getting change
when you went to the store and you
didn't get your three dollars back?
Well, this is a way of doing that.
This can provide up to three hundred
dollars for an individual who, what,
pays income taxes.
And it's a full-year resident of
Wisconsin.
That, if you made a payment,
you're the one that will fight for a
rebate.
That's the way it works at Menards.
And I don't think Menards can
operate without it.
You also look at six hundred dollars
per joint filers.
Some people say, well that's really
not a lot of money, that's not going
to make a difference.
It's $862 million!
This is real money!
And we're sending it back to the
people that overpaid for the
products and services provided by
the state of Wisconsin.
So today, it's a good day for
Wisconsin.
What we're doing is we're taking the
bad news about you paying in
too much money and trying to get any
good news by creating credits
back to you, the taxpayers.
And this is a very easy green.
Thank you.
Represented from the 56th.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
As a retiring legislator,
I just want to say that I'm proud
to be able to vote for this
bill as maybe the last act that
I will have in this chamber.
I have to say that I'm really glad
that the person
that's running to follow me in this
seat is a doctor,
because we may need a doctor
here to remove the knife
from Tony Eber's back that's
been placed there by Democrats.
This is unbelievable to me.
I feel like it
reminds me of a Seinfeld episode
in which they talked about the
bizarre world where everything was
backwards.
We're trying to pass a bill here
that gives a
large increase in
special education funding to our
local schools,
and Democrats want to vote against
it.
And I look at that and think,
why?
Why would that be?
How can that be.
Well, then I look Look at
the fact that there's
no tax on tips.
And they'll tax on overtime and
I think this is the stumbling block
for them.
These are proposals
that came from
Donald Trump in Washington.
And they had Trump Arrangement
Syndrome, so they're not going to
vote for anything
that looks like they might support
something that Donald Trump would
do. Even
though...
When I've gone out in the public
in the last week and
I talk to people, I talk to people
in my lion's club and there
are a lot of workers in there
that are in trades and
they talked about the fact that
Not having tax on their
overtime is a really big deal
to them, and they really like that.
I also talk to some waitresses
in the restaurants that I frequent,
and they would love to
have no tax on your
tips.
Some of my colleagues over here are
trying to make out like we
heard we heard one of them talk
about 74 cents
That's somebody would be up
We're giving $1.2 billion
in tax relief
at
74 cents,
it would take 1.6 billion people
to get rid of that
money.
And we know that's not the case
here. We only have 6 million people
in Wisconsin.
So obviously people
are going to get reasonably
good tax
relief from this bill.
As a legislator,
there are three really important
things
that I've always tried
to keep in mind and I
would like to accomplish whenever
I'm doing my work.
Number one is
public safety for
our citizens in Wisconsin.
Number two is providing
a good education
for our young people.
And number three is making
sure that we do those things
without overburdening
the taxpayers.
We've had a surplus here for
a long time.
And the people back home are
telling me it's time
that we get some of the
money that we paid in,
in excess,
that we'll get that back.
And we have a surplus here
at the same time
back home, their property
taxes are going through the roof.
That's why we need to
pass this bill.
A bipartisan piece
of legislation negotiated
with a Democratic governor
and a Republican legislator.
This is how the people want us
to do our work.
And this is why this
bill needs to pass and
the vote is green.
The question is, May 2026,
special...