The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature is reportedly on the verge of a deal with Gov. Evers on property tax relief. As Dan O’Donnell writes, this would be a massive mistake.
Rumors are circulating in Madison that the Legislature is ready to cut a deal with Governor Evers to essentially let him off the hook for the havoc his 400-year veto has wreaked on property tax rates.
This would be the height of political stupidity.
Sky-high property taxes are the single biggest issue for Wisconsin’s voters right now, and allowing Democrats to take credit for alleviating them takes that issue off the table less than seven months before November’s election.
Evers and Democrats made this bed when they all supported the veto, now Republicans must make them lie in it or else risk losing both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion this fall, thereby ensuring that all taxes in this state rise even higher and faster next year.
Voters just last week sent a clear message about property taxes, and Republican legislative leaders would be wise to listen to them. Just 60 percent of the 75 school referenda on the ballot in the Spring Election passed, and several of them passed by just a tiny handful of votes. Even in liberal districts like Whitefish Bay, homeowners rejected referenda that they perceived as jacking their property tax bills to high for comfort.
The result was surprising, but should not have come as a total shock. Marquette University Law School polls conducted in both February and March both revealed that a full 60 percent of respondents said they were more concerned about property tax rates than whether K-12 public schools were adequately funded.
Despite Evers’ apocalyptic rhetoric to the contrary, schools are better funded than they ever have been. Wisconsin is spending more per pupil than ever before and even adjusted for inflation the state is spending more to educate fewer students than it has in several generations.
On top of this record state funding, Evers used his partial veto authority in 2023 to turn a temporary two-year boost in school funding into a 400-year debacle. In a grossly unconstitutional Frankenstein veto that was nonetheless upheld by the liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court, Evers allowed for every school district in the state to increase its per-pupil spending by $325 per year every year until 2425.
The results were immediate and disastrous for homeowners, as property tax rates in 2025 jumped by the highest margin in at least 30 years. Evers’ veto is rather obviously to blame, but instead of spending the next seven months reminding voters of this fact Republican leaders in the Senate and Assembly (both of whom are not seeking re-election) seem content to let Democrats off the hook for their gross excesses.
Handing the governor a deal wouldn’t just allow him to save face, it would allow Democrats to claim credit for “relief” and rob Republicans of the clearest contrast they have against Evers’ legacy of veto tricks and fiscal gimmicks.
The Legislature should instead stand firm and force Evers and his party to own every last consequence of the veto. Instead of compromising, highlight Evers’ recent veto of a Republican bill to overturn the 400-year veto and put his dismissive “get over it” attitude in every campaign ad from now until November.
Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee, has made repeal of the 400-year veto his day-one priority, promising an immediate special session followed by a property tax freeze. Republicans in the Legislature can align perfectly with that message by refusing half-measures now.
If voters want their taxes to go down, elect Tiffany and a Republican Legislature and they won’t just undo the veto, they’ll cut property taxes, income taxes, and the sky-high utility rates that have ballooned on Evers’ watch.
If Republicans surrender their strongest issue through a premature compromise, they risk squandering a golden opportunity. Hold the line. Make property taxes the central battleground of the fall campaign and make Democrats fight it form a position of extreme weakness.
