Reading Bill Vetoed

Late last week, Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-Fond du Lac) and I sent a letter to Gov. Evers urging him to sign into law our Roadmap to Reading Success legislation.

You can read that letter by clicking here.

Shortly thereafter, the governor vetoed our bill that would give our schools the tools they need to ensure that all our students can learn to read proficiently.

If you are interested in reading my response to the governor's veto, please click on this link.

I am obviously disappointed in the governor's decision to veto this important legislation, but please know our fight is not over. Our children and parents deserve better than this.

Clean Water Legislation

I am honored that the state Assembly has passed my bill that enhances the Safe Water Loan Program and Clean Water Fund Loan Program by lessening the administrative burden on water and wastewater utilities.

Over the past 30 years, both programs have been tremendously successful in providing below-market interest rate loans to help fund water and wastewater utility projects that are necessary to comply with state and federal regulations. These projects also make it possible for municipalities to both protect the environment and ensure that our residents have access to clean water.

While the SWLP and CWFLP have been utilized for decades, there remained a need to amend certain provisions to cut red tape and add consistency between the two programs. These changes were recommended and are supported by the Department of Natural Resources.

Because the bill has already been passed by the full Senate, it now heads to the desk of the governor to be signed into law.

In related news, I also testified in front of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Tourism on my legislative package that takes several approaches to improving our water quality across the state.

You can read my testimony by clicking here.

Tax Burden Decline

Over the past 20 years, the decline in our state's tax burden has been among the largest in the nation, according to a recent analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. 

Back in 1999, Wisconsin residents paid $17.4 billion in local and state taxes. That represented about 12.2 percent of the total personal income in our state, which was the fourth-highest percentage in the country.

In 2019, the $30.6 billion in collected taxes accounted for just 10.3 percent of our total personal income, which put us at a ranking of 23rd.

  The Wisconsin Policy Forum attributes part of this shift to economic and personal income growth following the Great Recession. However, the majority of the decrease came from a drop in individual income taxes and property taxes as a share of income.

If we had the same tax burden today as we did in 1999, the Wisconsin Policy Forum says we would currently be paying billions of dollars more in taxes.

To read the full report, please click here.