Governor rejects plan that would have provided tax relief to servers, nurses, and first responders
Evers Vetoes Tax Relief for Working Wisconsinites: Taxes on Tips and Overtime Remain Law of the Land
Governor Tony Evers has once again turned his back on Wisconsin’s hardworking families. On the final Friday of Lenten fish fry season, one of the busiest nights for tipped service workers statewide, Evers vetoed two bipartisan bills that would have eliminated state income taxes on tips and overtime pay. This leaves servers, bartenders, nurses, police officers, and factory workers stuck footing the bill to fund his out-of-touch priorities.
The vetoes target Senate Bill 36 (no tax on tips) and Assembly Bill 461 (no tax on overtime). Both passed the Republican-led Legislature with bipartisan support after Evers had floated a narrower cash-tips exemption in his 2025-27 budget. GOP lawmakers then strengthened the proposal into meaningful, Trump-aligned relief.
SB 36 would have created a state income-tax deduction of up to $25,000 for qualified tips, cash or credit, for tax years 2025 through 2028. This directly mirrored the federal “no tax on tips” provision signed into law by President Donald Trump as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Department of Revenue projected a similar exemption would have delivered $53.2 million in tax relief in fiscal year 2026 and $44.1 million in 2027. AB 461 went further, making the overtime exemption permanent. Single filers could deduct up to $12,500 in overtime pay, joint filers up to $25,000, with a phase-out for higher earners. Unlike the temporary federal version, Wisconsin’s plan had no sunset.
In his veto message for SB 36, Evers complained that Republicans chose a “temporary income tax provision instead of working to provide comprehensive and lasting relief to Wisconsin taxpayers.” He also griped that the bill “ceded control” of state tax policy to Congress by linking it to federal changes, ignoring that his own budget included a plan to eliminate tax on tips.
Conservative leaders didn’t hold back:
The vetoes come as Wisconsin families are already squeezed by high property taxes, inflation, and a cost-of-living crisis. Republicans had positioned the bills as common-sense relief for the very workers Democrats claim to champion, yet Evers chose ideology over relief, just as he has with dozens of other tax-cut measures.
