As Wisconsin’s political season heats up, meet Juliana Bennett: a proud 20-something Democratic Socialist charging ahead in the Democratic primary to replace equally unserious Francesca Hong in Wisconsin’s 76th Assembly District.
Her social media feed reads like an idealistic, far-left manifesto rife with empty bumper sticker slogans: tax the rich, deliver tuition-free college, impose a $23 minimum wage by 2030, impose single-payer healthcare, abolish ICE, and fully fund public schools through massive redistribution (while somehow lowering your property taxes by 44%). She openly celebrates Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Zohran Mamdani (New York is being destroyed as we speak), while declaring Wisconsin must return to its “rich history of democratic socialism:” a reference to a 20th-century experiment in Milwaukee that delivered decades of high taxes and regulation.
At the heart of her pitch is supporting Francesca Hong’s AB 1209, the bill she touts as the fix for high property taxes. Bennett repeatedly posts “Property taxes? AB1209. It exists,” claiming it would slash property taxes by 44% by hammering higher earners. She insists someone making a million dollars can afford to pay $0.17/every dollar earned over $1 million, but offers no additional context when pressed.
The problem? Wisconsin doesn’t have enough millionaires to fund a 44% statewide cut in property taxes without high spending increases elsewhere. Property taxes are driven primarily by spending by local governments and school districts. It’s the same failed logic that treats taxpayers as an endless ATM while ignoring how excessive government drives up costs for all Wisconsinites.
This bill would also make Wisconsin #1 in the nation for income taxes. Many Wisconsinites who would be hit by this 17.7% tax hike are small businesses, not millionaires, who pay the individual tax rate. Read that again: #1 in the nation for income taxes. This would destroy small businesses in Wisconsin which make up 99% of job creators.
Does this sound business-friendly to you? Of course not. But democrat socialists like Julianna can’t see beyond social media likes to actually understand the consequences of this massive tax hike. Not only will that likely mean large corporations looking at Wisconsin will look elsewhere. It will force your favorite mom and pop Main Street shops to shoulder a tax burden most of them cannot afford and will not tolerate.
And when confronted with opposition to the “17%” figure, she simply…repeats that she supports it alongside shallow, emotional political talking points.
High taxes are just the beginning. Bennett pushes a $23 minimum wage, arguing $7.25 an hour isn’t enough for the Butter Burgers she professes to love. She demands tuition-free college because UW-Madison costs over $30,000 while the current minimum wage yields just $15,000 a year. She calls for single-payer healthcare, no-cost childcare, rent controls, a Tenant’s Bill of Rights, and massive new spending on public education and housing. All of it funded, of course, by “taxing the rich” and putting government “back in the people’s hands.”
Promising voters a huge tax cut funded by someone else sounds appealing in a progressive district, but it erodes fiscal responsibility and economic freedom. Wisconsin’s economy runs on small businesses, manufacturing, and private investment- the very sectors these tax hikes and wage mandates would punish hardest. Pass-through businesses get hit directly. Job creators leave for lower-tax states. The tax base shrinks. Working families pay more while opportunity dries up.
For voters who value economic vitality over feel-good experiments, her candidacy warns against more of the same failed policies that drive up the cost of living. Governor Evers’ policies already led us down a path of less prosperity. Bennett’s are impractical and little more than attention-grabbing talking points.
