will the members and visitors please take your seats.
Will the members and visitors please rise.
The prayer today will be offered by the representatives
of the 25th Assembly District, representative Ted.
Thank you.
My favorite Bible verse is name whom one seven.
Yes, that is in the Bible.
It's a minor prophet in the Old Testament
and says the Lord is good and a stronghold in the day of trouble.
And he knows them that trusted him.
Have you trusted him?
Let's go to the Lord with her.
Lord God, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for this special session.
Or 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.
Lord, guard our hearts and our minds towards you.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
The Pledge of Allegiance will be offered by the gentleman
from the 59th District.
The Lord gives us a flag on the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands.
One nation, honor God, and indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
The First Order, the First Order of Business
is to call the roll to clerk below for the roll.
Okay.
Remember that?
Oh, yeah.
All right.
And thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's not Grant's.
I'm a parallel problem.
If all members record their presence,
if so, the clerk will close the roll.
There are 95 members present.
The forum is present.
Gentlemen from the...
Mr. Speaker, as you said,
for a new book, absence for the...
for the state, for the gentleman from the 80 second.
A gentleman from the 68th ask for now is presented to the lead
be granted for the balance of the day of the gentleman from the 82nd
as for any objection. Hearing none, it is supported.
Lady from the 79th.
Fire and wine, knock the phone off the desk.
I rise yes for leave of absence for the balance,
or unanimous consent for leave of absence,
for the balance of the day for the representative from the 42nd,
the representative from the 9th,
and the representative from the 50th.
Lady from the 79th ask unanimous consent for leave of the balance of the day
be granted the lead from the 49th,
the 19th and the 52nd are the objection.
Hearing none, those leaves are granted.
We are in the 10th order of business as of May 2026,
special session calendar.
We'll look for the title of the bill.
May 2026, special session assembly bill 1,
relating to income tax attraction for qualified tips
and for qualified other type of conversation.
State aid for school districts, surplus refund payments,
increasing money for special education,
and school aged parent programs.
State aid for technical colleges,
the technical college district,
remember the major appropriation.
Represented from the 32nd for an introduction.
Come on up.
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 Kenosha 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 that I can't beat with you guys today.
I'll try to catch up with you a little bit later.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you.
The question is,
shall May 2026, special assembly bill 1 be ordered
to gross and rent a third time.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
All those in favor say aye.
The five of us know the ayes have it,
and the bill is in gross.
Representative from the 33rd.
I think Mr. Speaker, I said since then the rule's in
the 21st.
Representative from the 31st session,
and since then the rule's be suspended in May 2026,
special session assembly bill 1 be given a third degree
of indigent hearing on the code,
read the title of the bill.
May 2026, special session assembly bill 1,
related in income tax attraction for qualified tips
and for qualified overtime compensation.
State A for school districts, surplus refund payments,
increasing funding for special education
and school age program programs.
State A for technical colleges
and the technical college district
are going to make an appropriation.
The question is, May 2026,
special session assembly bill one,
have a member of three types,
shall the bill 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,
but 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 was.
That is really what we did here.
We sat down with the governor in good faith for months.
He started a different place, so did we.
Things that we wanted, he clearly couldn't accept.
Things that he wanted, we clearly couldn't accept.
You know what that is?
That is confidence.
That is saying, let's put aside the things
that can never happen to focus on the things that change.
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
and relief to people who need it the most,
it goes back to people who own property.
It goes back to people who are renters.
It goes back to people who are rich and poor,
people who are old and young, urban and rural.
Everyone in Wisconsin is gonna stand to get benefit
from the deal that we put together today.
How did we get here?
A prudent, good budget.
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 grown.
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 us.
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 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 weight either.
That's why this compromise says,
we're gonna 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 hard
and the idea of giving release
for people who are in overtime came up right away.
I thought, what a great idea
because what do we wanna 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 that.
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 waitress, you work on a tip,
you're no longer having income taxes on that,
just like the said.
You're not gonna have to worry
about getting a federal rid 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 lives.
Second thing that we did was to say,
look, Governor Andrew Sport in your veto is a threat.
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 gonna get a chance to say,
we're gonna 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 400 year veto
and the inaction of my Democratic colleagues
to give a dime about property taxes,
we're gonna 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 not gonna 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 into seven.
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 it compromised to say what does that number need to be
to be able to meet a certain pressure.
It came in higher than we anticipated.
No one's fault 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 tax payers 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 have that surplus coming in.
Now you're gonna hear from my Democratic colleagues
that they wanna save the money
because they wanna invest it in growing the size of government.
That's what they're gonna say,
even though they might not use those words.
We know the truth.
We wanna give it back.
Some Democrats wanna keep luckily Tony Evers isn't one of those.
He actually had the ability to say let's compromise,
let's each give, let's 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 on the 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 if 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 kinda got lost in the news,
but we also had a $300 billion increase
or almost a 15% increase in the amount of money
in our surplus because the economy in Wisconsin
is so strong.
So we didn't choose to spend that,
that's still gonna be in the state's checkbook.
So in 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 spending money that some of it's permanent,
the funding for schools is permanent,
so we're 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 here
for some other person to spend.
The question is, May 2026 special session
assembly bill one,
they have a number of three types
of mobility pairs from there from 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 this 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 we're just shared
and we need to look at actual substance.
This bill is promoted as giving single people
$300 rebate checks and married a couple of $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 what's 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 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 months.
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 or property taxes
on your mortgage or factory to do your rent
or the gas tax.
To fill up your car 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 meet or help the most are being left out
is in 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 or more
would get $600.
If you have 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
can so callously dump 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 $107,000, 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, it's so broke
that they are constantly having to cut services.
So you might think, well then, yeah, both of those bills.
Don't they need the money?
Yeah, they do.
That's what makes this no vote hard.
They desperately need the money.
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, the Republicans are amazing.
Give wealthy families in our state what's left in surplus.
So that next year, we are left with crumbs
to the face with the majority of the broken.
This deal puts us in a significant structural deficit
in years three and four.
But this fiscal burden says, I mean,
the fiscal theory 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 retirement,
drain 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 Eversa 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
long-term solutions harder.
This is a irresponsible policy, the vote is read.
Representative, from the third year.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's wonderful to see so many youngsters
in the gallery over 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 there will be nothing like the real world
when you enter it later on
where compromise is actually common,
that happens in its effective and its worst.
So the speaker, I think, did a great job
in framing this initially.
It is about compromise.
It is about balance, right?
This is balance governing that we're witnessing here today.
I applaud Governor Eversa for working with us
to advance this.
What you're hearing is, but it's not great.
It's not great.
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 your primary income.
I walked it.
This washer went to busboy in advance.
It's a great journey.
Today is a great day to them,
because more of their money is going to be theirs.
That is impactful, that is not trivial,
and that is something that 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 challenge of this
was special education and the implications
to those two districts.
Today, we have an opportunity also
to do something special for those individuals,
for the kids, for the faculty, for the staff,
or communities as well.
We talk about, you know, on joint findings yesterday,
it was suggested that we have run out of education
over the past number of years.
Rob education, we put more money in education
than we ever have used for.
It was also noted in the Joint Finance Committee
that we've got to spend more
and these scruples need to know
that this money is going to be to make any predictability.
Here's the issue.
You want to talk about structure.
You want to talk about the root cause and education,
and let's do it.
Let's talk about the fact that we have,
in our demographics, declining student population.
That's just a thing.
If not a bad thing, it's just a real thing
that we have to take on.
So setting 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 that,
boy, can we rely upon 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 net 4%,
what if we actually saved some money
somewhere within the state budget?
Now, it'll kind of step, sometimes in government,
but we do in the private sector all the time.
Today is a wonderful example for all 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 great, Mr. Speaker.
Representative, the name is 30.
Okay.
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 aren't demanding structural
and responsible solutions to the structural challenges
that they're facing.
They are not news to the economic pain
that they're feeling right now.
They have lived in a Wisconsin that has been governed
by Republicans in the legislature for 15 years
and they're feeling 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 mandate and does not offer on you.
Enough is not offered a structural solution
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 joined 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 out for anybody here.
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 won't 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 rebate checks
will be another broken promise.
We've already heard about the narrative created
by the majority around $300 per person.
Well, that's gonna 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
Democrat 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 offer enough funding in general aid
to public schools to buy down property taxes
for education this year.
And it would offer 16% of special education costs
in a some sufficient way,
meaning the promise would be kept.
Districts would be offered 60% they hit budget for 60%
and then they would actually receive it.
And the plan that we put forward would save
$500 million than the reckless spending notice
that proposed this week by the outgoing speaker,
the outgoing Senate and the Republican leader
and the outgoing governor.
This one would have said during the pig 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 in responsible decisions
that will 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
is set with Bill 1, and we've been ready three times.
So the bill be cast, representative from the APF.
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 cut 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 a compromise.
I don't mind, in my district, when people talk to me
and they say, can you just work together?
As I'm right here, can you just work together?
All it 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're terrible.
And we've got gubernatorial candidates waiting on this,
who have no impact,
because whoever wins won't be here until next January,
just like us, so this surplus is now.
CISA 9 in 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 their general fund.
They never brought up when I am our last CISA meeting,
and I know the gentleman from the 35th was with me,
they never brought up anything about pay.
They're the great Democrat bill
that you should look at that's gonna fund it, they didn't.
They said, what can you do to help us with special ed,
because that is where we need them.
This doesn't.
DC Everest is finishing on 25, 26,
over a half million dollars.
In the 26, 27, $1.36 million for special ed.
I mean, and also, 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 gonna be a no, and I keep thinking to myself,
if I was a no on this bill, my colleagues
on the other side were hammered, he hates education.
He didn't vote for special ed increase,
but now, since you weren't invited to the party
of a negotiation, you're upset.
Well, I think about the people.
I've said it accomplice numbers of times
of some of the bills that I passed.
This session, it's about the people.
It's not about me, it's not about 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 wanna hear from both sides,
and actually have some property tax relief,
surplus relief, and especially special ed.
So I am a yes on this, and I tell ya,
anyone who votes no on either side,
or you're pressured by the media,
which I'm gonna start listening to music,
now the head will talk radio in general,
but in any case, let's move forward.
The vote's yes, thank you.
Represented from the bank team.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, the half of this $82 million
set out by this bill will know what people may insist to do.
And most people across Wisconsin will not be hitting
regardless of what they're hearing,
by some media, by some press releases,
$300 or $600 in the tax.
In fact, 1.3 million Wisconsin residents
will not get a check at all under this plan.
Many people in a poverty union,
and the older adults won't get zero.
In fact, with those folks,
and 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 gonna get a check
on average of $547.01.
That's very close to the $600 distribution
to make it a little big there, yeah.
But if you're in the greatest need,
if you're making less than $30,000 a year in Wisconsin,
your average distribution is just $45 and 24 cents.
But at worst, 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 may be under $15,000 a year,
we get an average payment from this plan of 74 cents.
That's less than it costs to stay out of the mail now.
So if you're sending out press releases,
noting how this will somehow do anything
to help you afford a medical crisis,
that you and federal Republicans
have created to make worse, so save the game.
This is another redistribution of
whether folks need a release,
and does nothing sufficiently more sustainable for ourselves.
AB 1176, on the other hand,
offered by our own reps, fells, and crews,
is half their loss, and has twice the benefit of the public schools.
You were serious about investigating in Wisconsin,
we passed that instead.
This bill, offered 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 the structural deaths.
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 tax base.
I know that many of my Democratic colleagues in this room
don't want to do it.
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,
they $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 would keep hearing about the rebates going to rich people,
somehow, or one of those rich pair of professionals,
or window and door installers, to me, they're not rich,
they're the people whom 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.
Eliminates the seed income tax and 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 are in special education.
I do, and this bill provides relief.
Now, there's some in this room
where we're going to claim that this bill
doesn't go far enough.
But then in the next breath,
they're going to claim it's fiscally irresponsible.
Well, 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.
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 party
once again showed that we're listening to the people
and that we're working to get things done
and make a difference.
My vote for the people on behalf of the great people
of Dodger Jefferson Cowies is a definite yes.
The question is, maybe 2026 special session
is simply bill 1 and a number of three types
of ability to pass.
Represented by the 23rd.
Thank you, Speaker.
Let's talk about compliments.
I've heard that.
So often here today in the media cover
and leading up to this vote.
And I really wish the students
who were in the galleries were back
because I know that it was studying
about the legislative process.
And in the legislative process,
they thought we learned that we need to reduce a bill
that bill goes to committee
and the learned and representative to get together
and make back to 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 half a quarter in the past decade,
3% of those bills got a public hearing.
I'm not even talking passage.
I'm having a public hearing.
So all of those bills had an opportunity for compromise
and 3% of them had that opportunity.
I do not understand here if you lecture 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 and the correctness of us.
We all like money schools.
We have offered plenty of bills to fund schools.
We're talking about the ability to fix structurally
the underfunding of the power decade of our public schools.
And I know you're all standing up
and graduating yourself.
I'm 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.
So I had the opportunity, I should say,
not the opportunity to listen to the ability to Texas
for a few years, about 25 years ago.
And this has a point.
And Texas has some great text-text food,
but one of the things that they have there
is something very hot.
And it's cold at a turkey, which is a turkey,
and it's stuck with a chicken and a duck.
In this bill today, this proposal is a turkey,
because of a turkey that was put together
by a bunch of lame ducks, wire of public and loans
like that is too chicken to confront
the structural affordability and education issues facing
this state.
Now, I am all here.
I am here to say yes to schools and yes to school funding.
And we are willing to compromise structural change.
We have been all session, we were the session before that,
and the session before that that I was here.
I need to ignore it every single one.
We will compromise.
We are here for it.
We want to talk to you.
I carry the blue ribbon report or a rattle.
You know I talk to so many of you.
We have a lot of the solutions.
I've made soon right now a lot with my colleagues
on the joint finance committee.
It shouldn't have to come to this.
Everywhere busier, we'll talk to you
about fixing the school funding for you.
Every single one of us, we'll talk all day, all night,
but don't call as we both vote for you.
When you have spent a decade ignoring us
and ignoring the will of our voters
and ignoring the schools in your own district,
the vote on this is no.
Representative from the 51st.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I actually was going to ask a way to allow to speak
because I'm actually enjoying my colleagues
on the other side have a meltdown.
And why are they having a meltdown?
Because we are giving more money to schools.
We are giving money back to the taxpayers
who actually pay taxes.
We are giving 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 sat here 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 anyhow.
I'm kidding, Mr. Speaker.
You're sitting, I'm so excited.
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
and 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, oh, behind the 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.
And 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 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 giving more money to taxpayers.
And it's just, I'm actually enjoying this.
So thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Representative, the 20th.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
You know, there's been a lot of talk about legacy
when talking about this film.
I want y'all to think about this.
Many of the people in this room will not be doing that 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've perfectly gone.
For now.
But you know what I mean, really start to look at this film
and realize what the impact is going to do
is going to be on what 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.
Mr. Speaker, I would be more than happy
to vote on a couple of little things in this budget.
Like, well, maybe one big thing, special ed money,
which we haven't 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 $360 check.
Chances are most of my constituents are going to get less than $100,
some maybe $7.50.
I don't know.
That right by the 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 in this county aisle had any input into this.
We've heard rumors.
But we were actually slapped with this on 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 a small
ten years during campaign season.
Thank you.
Representative for the 22nd.
I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker.
I thought you said 27th.
I raised it.
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, me and 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.
The place kind of amazes me that they could be that big of a problem.
One thing I'd like to bring up to, though, is that I'd like to compliment my
colleague from my Senate district from the 22nd, or 20, yes, from 23rd.
I like that one as football on Thanksgiving and it's John Mann and it's a good memory,
but so I like traditions.
As far as the bill goes, I'd just like to quickly say a couple of things I'd like
the most are the no tax overtime and the no tax on tips.
We've passed those in our assembly area 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's 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 the tips.
I think it's going to be beneficial to a lot of folks.
And as far as there's no tax on overtime, 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 our simplicity for tax payers and for tax payers 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 through this by way for me to make this cheap stuff.
Well, especially, I'm happy that we're doing more especially like my school districts.
I've talked to them.
They're very excited about the possibility of getting more especially fine.
So I'm very much in favor of that also.
So the vote for me is green.
Thank you.
The question is, May 2026, special session assembly bill 1,
and I've read three times since the bill be passed, representative from the 48.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise saying opposition to this bill.
I talk to constituents in the doors, my district, which includes hard bass 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 a Republican fiscal policy that has led to our crazy high property taxes.
Because the decisions made by the majority in this body, schools today are receiving $3,400 less per people in inflation at just a dollar.
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 problem 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 had to do year after year.
And so now we have this election year, political giving.
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 I ran 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 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 a play act that you care about schools and ignore what we all know when putting ed to our property tax nightmare?
Today, in this situation, when politicians promise you a tax cut, we will all end up paying more.
Represent 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 at.
It looks like.
So first time to start with the special ed funding.
The special ed funding, I'm happy that we're honoring and actually exceeding what was promised in the budget.
Next year, 15% 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 promise this in the budget?
Why isn't it this?
And I got to explain the calculation of the fiscal bureau, which people don't care about that.
They just want to know, why don't you follow through?
Well, we are following through and exceeding what we promised actually in the budget on that.
And I'll tell you what it means locally.
I have primarily three districts reside directly in my district.
The largest benefactor, Chippewa Falls High School, or Chippewa Falls Unified is going to be getting $1.5 million just in the special ed.
I'm going to be getting just over $300,000.
And the best one, because I'm the only moderate from there, is the monogamy mustangs are going to be getting $1.1 million.
So it does make an impact right now.
This is not something that can wait and sit in the state checking account.
So we need to get it out there.
And then property tax relief.
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 not doing enough property tax relief.
I doubt that many of them may have 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 in 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 are doing a really good job and deserve to receive that tip is 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 pay it in, yes, you're going to get that money back.
You're going to get 300 if you're an individual, 600 if you're a married couple filing jointly.
So I do think that is important because I think it's 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 going 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
taking 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 board.
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.
Representative, this is 60.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker and my fellow colleagues.
Let me preface my comments that 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.
I can't believe this is the way we make decisions.
I sit here today at listening to arguments on the other side.
Somehow, they think we are dealing with the state budget.
And 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%.
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'll 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 clerk 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 and your local store, and it should not be an acceptable outcome
when we look at our state budget.
We have a $2.5 million surplus.
We are willing to spend $1.8 million and return it in different forms back to you, the taxpayers.
We look at special ed.
We have a 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?
Back to the time that we came up with a smart chart back to the 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 tech schools, it's over $350 million that we're going to send back.
So we'll help reduce the increases in your property taxes that are otherwise going to take place, especially under the 400 year veto.
So we complain because we're helping taxpayers with property taxpayers, their payments, that makes no sense to me.
No tax attempts.
We have all kinds of people in the service industry, they're lower income people, and we're going to give them the advantage of not having to pay a state income tax
that will match the fact that you don't have to pay a federal income tax.
The one that I am most excited about in this sense is that no tax on overtime.
I live in a district that is 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 in Wisconsin.
Finally, we come to the rebate checks.
Remember not getting a change when you went to the store, you didn't give you $3 a leg?
Well, this is a way of doing that.
This can provide up to $300 for an individual who want peace income taxes.
And it's a full-year residence in Wisconsin that if you made a payment, you were the one that not all fight for a rebate.
That's a way it works up in arts, and I don't think when arts can operate without it.
You also look at $600 for 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 turning it in good news by creating credits back to you, the taxpayers.
And this is a very easy green.
Thank you.
Representative from the 56.
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 sees a doctor.
Because we made me a doctor here to remove the knife from Tony Evers 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 for local schools.
And Democrats want to vote against it.
And I look at that and say, why?
Why would that be?
How can that be?
Well, then I look at the fact that there's no tax on tips and no 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 have 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 lines 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 overtime is a really big deal to them.
And they really like that.
I also talk to some waitresses in restaurants that I frequent.
And they would love to have no tax on their tips.
Some of my colleagues over here are trying to make out like we heard one of them talk about 74 cents that somebody would get.
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 may 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.
They've always tried to keep in mind and I would like to accomplish when I'm doing my work.
Number one is public safety or our citizens in Wisconsin.
Number two is providing a good education for other 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 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 in the voting screen.
The question is maybe 2026 special.