Five Assembly Democrats failed to be present for a vote when the Wisconsin State Assembly voted on Senate Bill 389, the Republican measure to end Gov. Tony Evers’ automatic $325-per-pupil school revenue limit increase.
The official roll call was a 54-40 party line vote with five members not voting, according to the Assembly record. Every aye came from a Republican.
The members recorded as not voting were Democrats, Reps. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska; Jodi Emerson, D-Eau Claire; Tara Johnson, D-Town of Shelby; Ryan Spaude, D-Ashwaubenon; and Priscilla Prado, D-Milwaukee.
The Assembly journal shows a full house when the chamber convened Thursday afternoon. Several of the five appeared on earlier roll calls the same day before the SB 389 vote.
To explain why he failed to make the crucial vote, Doyle later said he missed a stretch of Thursday votes because he was ill. In a local radio interview, he said he left the floor about 2 p.m. with a migraine, stayed in his hotel room, and returned around 6 p.m. after missing about 14 votes. He said he inherited migraines and voted later that night once he could function.
Conveniently, four of the five hold some of the closest Assembly seats in the state after the 2024 maps. Doyle beat Republican Ryan Huebsch 50.3% to 49.7%, a margin of 217 votes. Emerson won 51.5% to 48.3%. Johnson flipped a Republican-held seat 51.0% to 49.0%. Spaude took an open Green Bay-area district 51.3% to 48.5%.
Property taxes sit at the center of races across the state including the governor’s race. SB 389 targets the main driver of recent school levy spikes: Evers’ 2023 partial veto, which stretched a two-year $325-per-pupil adjustment through the year 2425. Regardless if the vote were a yes or a no, surely it would be a wedge issue for a political campaign.
Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, the bill’s lead author, told a Senate committee the veto “will raise property taxes on our constituents for 400 years.” The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that ending the adjustment in 2027-28 would cut statewide revenue limit authority by about $254 million a year compared with current law.
Democrats who voted argued the bill would squeeze schools. Republicans said it would stop an automatic tax increase that never goes before voters. With a 54-45 GOP majority, the Assembly did not need Democratic votes. A no vote would have put swing-district Democrats on record against reducing property taxes in a year where this message is so potent. A yes vote would have put them on record with Republicans against the teachers unions and the governor’s veto. They cast neither.
