About

Funding Our Obligations and Priorities

State Senator Howard Marklein was first elected to the Wisconsin Legislature in 2010 as a State Representative. After serving two terms in the State Assembly, he was elected to the State Senate in 2014. Howard is currently serving his third term as a State Senator for the 17th Senate District after re-election in 2022.

During his time in the State Assembly, Howard served as the Chair of the Assembly Committee on Ways & Means and the Vice-Chair of the Joint Audit Committee.

Howard has served on the powerful budget-writing Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) during his entire tenure in the State Senate. He was appointed Co-Chair of JFC in 2021. He was re-appointed Co-Chair of JFC for the 2023-24 session.

In addition to the JFC, he currently serves on the
• Senate Committee on Agriculture and Tourism (Vice-Chair)
• Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER)
• Joint Legislative Audit Committee
• Joint Legislative Council

He has also been appointed to the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority Board of Directors, the State Fair Park Board of Directors and the Wisconsin Mississippi River Parkway Commission.

A Lifelong Wisconsinite

Howard was raised on a dairy farm with his four younger siblings in Spring Green, Wisconsin. He is married to Peggy, a registered nurse. Howard has two children and three step children, as well as seven grandchildren.

He is a graduate of River Valley High School (’72) and alumnus of UW-Whitewater (’76), where he received a BBA in Accounting. After graduating college, he began his public accounting career by working at First Wisconsin National Bank (now US Bank) and later advanced to become a partner at the firm Virchow Krause (now Baker Tilly). His practice was focused on forensic accounting and white collar crime investigations. He is also credentialed as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Howard is a current member of St. John’s Catholic Church in Spring Green (finance committee member), the Knights of Columbus, the Sauk County Farm Bureau, and the National Rifle Association.