Column: Focus on Basic Priorities in Next Session

One of the honors of holding public office is hearing from constituents about what issues are most important to them, issues they have on their mind because their lives are affected by them every day.

More specifically, “THESE” are the issues we should prioritize on a bi-partisan basis: Taxes, Healthcare, Education, Safety, and the Economy.

Taxes

Wisconsin has a higher combined local and state tax burden than 31 other states, according to the Tax Foundation’s 2022 report. Lowering that burden must continue to be a top priority. This past session we successfully eliminated the state’s personal property tax, which is meaningful relief for businesses. But we must do more.

Governor Evers vetoed three rounds of tax cuts, including significant income tax cuts for middle income workers and eliminating taxes on retirement income. Especially now, Wisconsin citizens need more relief from our state’s unnecessarily high taxes.

Healthcare

Wisconsin has the 5th highest healthcare costs in the entire country, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Costs continue to rise and shortages of healthcare professionals continue to grow. While many factors contribute, one of them is that healthcare is not truly a free market with robust competitive forces reacting to consumer demands.

I was glad to co-sponsor a healthcare cost transparency bill in the last session. Next session, we must continue the work of injecting market-based reforms into healthcare so consumers have the options to find affordable, accessible, high quality care.

Education

Just 12% of low-income students in the state’s five largest school districts are proficient in reading and just 10% are proficient in math. In Milwaukee, there are 9 schools with zero children proficient in math, according to an Institute for Reforming Government review of DPI data.

Wisconsin has many excellent public schools, but clearly too many kids are being left behind. Statewide, Wisconsin is in the bottom 11 among all states for reading, tied for last in history and civics, and dead last in math for Black students, highlighting our shameful racial achievement gap, the worst in the country. This is despite $644 million more in the 2021-23 budget and $1 billion more in 2023-25 for K-12 education and billions in federal Covid aid.

One of my top priorities has been the modernization of our higher education systems. With a future of declining enrollment and rapid changes in workforce needs and student preferences, our siloed approach to career preparation must be reformed and streamlined to offer students at all points in their lives as many options as possible to get the skills they need to prosper.

Our children and young adults are quite literally the future—they are relying on state leaders to come up with real solutions, not just argue over how much more money to put into failing and outdated systems.

Safety

As of this writing, there have been 46 homicides in Milwaukee this year. Milwaukee was the eighth-worst city for vehicle theft in the nation in 2021. Thankfully these numbers are down markedly, but it comes after several straight years of record breaking violence, and car thefts remain 38% higher than before the pandemic threw society into chaos.

Police staffing levels remain a real concern, but Governor Evers recently vetoed a commonsense bill to improve a key source of turnover. He also vetoed legislation to slow the revolving door by preventing prosecutors from letting violent criminals off the hook.

There have been some bipartisan agreements, but I know we can and must do better to keep individuals intent on victimizing others off the streets of our communities so people can feel safe going about their lives.

Economy

The economy remains one of the top concerns for Wisconsinites. The price of all basic necessities has gone through the roof, making it difficult for many of our fellow citizens to buy gas and groceries without checking their bank balance and tapping into retirement savings.

Major utilities are planning significant rate hikes, and that’s at least partially attributable to transitions to less-reliable, costlier wind and solar. Our state’s 30.9-cent gas tax is 22^nd highest in the country. In Milwaukee, massive property tax hikes, new local sales taxes, double-digit property value re-assessments and spiking home and rent costs are making the cost of living dramatically worse. All of this most harms those least able to afford it.

Inflation is largely the result of runaway spending and costly regulations at the federal level. The attempt to correct this self-inflicted damage has only spread the economic pain by raising interest rates on everyone from credit card holders to hopeful homebuyers. But there are some steps state lawmakers can take to ease the cost of necessities.

We can repeal the price-increasing Minimum Markup law, resist renewable energy mandates that would worsen rate hikes, scrutinize every element of state spending and hold the line on tax hikes at all levels. That would be just a start to easing the cost of living and improving our economy over the long-term.

While certain areas of our economy like construction and manufacturing remain strong, addressing these challenges is important to ensuring our state is in the best position for future prosperity.

I hope that in the next session, members of both parties can agree on sensible solutions to tackle THESE issues Wisconsin citizens face every day by empowering the people of our state instead of well-connected Madison interests.