The Democrats want credit for a back-to-school sales tax holiday even though the school year has already begun.
State Senator Brad Pfaff of Onalaska and Representative Jenna Jacobson of Oregon are advocating for a bill that would temporarily exempt clothing priced at under $150 and school supplies priced at under $100 from sales tax. The proposal came out late last week, as classes throughout the state were already in. A tax-free weekend in the first days of August 2027 won’t help families who have already purchased the notebooks, but it is a shameless and hollow attempt to buy votes.
The fine print is worse. This latest bill was introduced well after the legislative session ended and the next session does not begin until January 2027. The first Friday-to-Sunday window in the bill would therefore be in August 2027 — that is, a full school year from now. And the bills’ authors are the most vulnerable: 32nd, Sarah Key; 18th, including Kristin Dassler-Alfheim; and 8th, Jodi Habush Sinykin. This faux-affordability talk in late August, when control of the Senate will be decided in the November election, is a clear effort to deceive voters and secure votes.
The Republicans have already received this lecture – from the opposition side.
In 2018, then-Governor Scott Walker and the GOP lawmakers passed a one-off version of the measure, which took effect from August 1 to 5. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated the cost at around $14.8 million. Walker also approved a $100 rebate for each child. When the Republicans carried out the measure, the Democrats did not refer to it as assistance for working families; they regarded it as a stunt.
“There was no real action on something like this until Gov. Walker realized his poll numbers were in the tank,” then-Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh said in February 2018. Sen. Jon Erpenbach of Middleton described it as “more of an election-year gimmick than anything else.”
David Crowley was in the Assembly at that time. On February 22, 2018, the Assembly voted 61 to 35—again mostly along party lines—to pass AB 944, the child rebate and August sales tax holiday. Two Democrats from Milwaukee, Jason Fields and Leon Young, voted yes. Crowley voted with the 35 who opposed the measure. The individual now running statewide as the candidate for affordability voted against the last instance when Wisconsin provided families with a back-to-school sales tax reduction.
The bill is not a simple copy of Walker’s proposal. In fact, it consists of more than a dozen pages of definitions, with belt buckles, costume masks, protective gear, and sports equipment all excluded. GOP Representative William Penterman of Hustisford stated that families would end up at the checkout counter arguing about what did and didn’t count.
Pfaff now says Republicans talk about affordability but take no action. In May, the Senate Democrats voted together to defeat a bipartisan surplus bill that included provisions for school funding and property tax relief. They are now asking for a three-day exemption next August and positive news coverage this fall. That is the same move they denounced when Walker signed a sales tax holiday that took place before school began.
Kids are already back. The holiday they are advertising cannot happen until 2027. The last time Republicans proposed this, Crowley and his party described it as an election gimmick and voted against it. Voters will remember this when the same party asks for credit this November.
