Your Cup of Joe

Hello and welcome back to my bi-weekly newsletter! It has been a busy two weeks, and I have a lot to update you on.

Today is July 4th, and you know what that means. Happy Independence Day! The Fourth of July marks the day our beautiful nation gained freedom from tyranny and injustice. I’m glad to be a part of preserving the same principles our nation was founded on: freedom, liberty, and justice for all. This morning I had the honor and privilege to walk in the Sheboygan Independence Day Parade. The smiles and sounds of joy from the crowd on such an important day in our nation’s history was truly heartwarming to see. The day is not over yet though! I’m still looking forward to the beautiful fireworks show the city throws every year on Lake Michigan, where families and friends come together to gather by the lake and see the magnificent light show. If you have never seen the fireworks show in Sheboygan, I highly recommend stopping by. No one celebrates Independence Day quite like Sheboygan.

On the third I voted on the 2025-2027 biennial budget. After lots of conversations and careful consideration, I voted no. Though this budget made great strides in investments for childcare and the UW system, too many needs for public education were not met. This budget included $0 in general education funding over the next two years, which would continue our current slide from 11th to 24th in school funding nationally. The budget did include a small increase in the special education reimbursement to 42% the first year and 45% the second. After talking to our local superintendents I learned that this is not enough. Republicans voted down an amendment I authored that would have brought this rate up to 60% for public schools, which would have created a budget I could have voted for. Raising this rate allows school districts to stop transferring general education money to offset special education costs. However, by not increasing the general aid money and not increasing the special education reimbursement by enough, districts will have to continue to have operational referenda just to keep the doors open. This property tax increase will wipe out any tax break in this budget and then some. The responsibility for funding our k-12 education should be on the state, not on property taxpayers, and because of this, I had to vote no.

A few weeks ago, I sent out a poll asking you what our next townhall should focus on and overwhelmingly, you said education. In the next few weeks, watch for a communication from my office on this event. I am excited to see what ideas everyone has and talk about what we can do to support our students in Wisconsin.

That’s all for now! Please reach out to my office if we can ever help you in any way. I will be in touch again soon.

Yours in service

Joe Sheehan

State Representative

26th Assembly District