Badger on the stump
As a nonprofit research organization, the Badger Institute is not in the business of campaigning for any politician or political party.
We are, however, in the business of championing ideas that support individual liberty against the encroachment of government.
Here are several such ideas — ones which the Badger Institute has researched extensively — being debated ahead of the 2026 gubernatorial and legislative elections.
Issues
Explained:
Starting in 2027, federal taxpayers will be able to take a dollar-for-dollar credit against their tax liability for donations they make toward “scholarship granting organizations” that help children with K-12 school costs.
In essence, the tax credit lets individual taxpayers use some of the money they’d otherwise pay to the federal government to instead help children with a wide variety of education-related costs.
Gov. Tony Evers has declined to opt Wisconsin into the program, citing concerns over a disproportionate benefit for private school students. Public school administrators, however, are countering Evers’ alarm with enthusiasm for how community support could spur student success.
Explored:
🔗 Facts to help you decide whether Wisconsin children should be eligible for donor-funded scholarships
🔗 Public school leaders look forward to possible private donations for scholarships
🔗 Wisconsin eventually will opt in to donor bonanza for schools, business leader predicts
On the record:
‣ Tom Tiffany: “I will get this $1,700 scholarship in place so families that are truly in need, that want opportunity, they’re going to be able to get it for their children to get a good education.”
‣ Joel Brennan: “If there are tools for us to invest in kids in Wisconsin, if there are dollars that we can keep here in Wisconsin to invest in Wisconsin kids … I am for that 100 times out of 100.”
‣ Missy Hughes: “As Governor I will opt Wisconsin into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit so that Wisconsin families, students, and communities benefit from resources that would otherwise flow to other states.”
Explained:
Technically known as the Unfair Sales Act, minimum markup was enacted to help stymie the tsunami of small business failures during the Great Depression of 1929 through 1939. It originally called for a mandatory 2% markup on wholesale prices and a 6% markup on retail prices on all merchandise sold in Wisconsin.
The law remains in place today for a select number of goods, such as motor vehicle fuel, tobacco and alcohol. In 1997, the minimum markup on gasoline was raised to 9.18% of the “average posted terminal price,” which many consider a proxy for wholesale costs.
Several legislative attempts to repeal the statute (including one as recently as 2023) have not succeeded in eliminating the law that artificially raises prices for Wisconsinites.
Explored:
🔗 Minimum markup: The price is not right
🔗 It’s long past time to end Wisconsin’s minimum markup law
🔗 Could Wisconsin spend less, live better and be freer?
On the record:
‣ David Crowley: “It is about replacing a Depression-era price floor that does not work with targeted protections against the actual predatory behavior we want to stop. Minnesota just did this. Wisconsin should be next.”
Explained:
Beginning in April 1984, vehicle emissions testing was implemented in Wisconsin counties where ozone levels failed to meet standards set by the federal Clean Air Act.
The affected counties were Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington and Waukesha. Sheboygan County was added in 1993.
Drivers who reside in those counties are required to test their vehicles every other year; vehicles must pass in order for owners to renew their license-plate registrations. Yet for all of the dollars and time spent and inconveniences imposed, it’s nearly impossible to determine if the program meaningfully decreases exhaust emissions that form ozone and damage air quality.
Explored:
🔗 Forty-year-old vehicle emissions program under new scrutiny
🔗 The suspect value of Wisconsin emissions testing
On the record:
‣ Tom Tiffany: “These rules unfairly punish seven counties in SE Wisconsin. As governor, I will secure a waiver from the EPA to end vehicle emissions testing.”
Explained:
The 2022 Wisconsin Clean Energy Plan, coordinated by Gov. Tony Evers’ administration and championed by former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, includes as its first objective, “Putting Wisconsin on a path for all electricity consumed within the state to be 100 percent carbon-free by 2050.”
That path would totally eliminate use of both coal and natural gas, which are currently responsible for 75% of all electricity generated in Wisconsin.
Nuclear currently provides 16% of all electricity generated in the state. Wind and solar produce 5%, and both are by nature intermittent: available when wind blows or sun shines.
Explored:
🔗 Wisconsin needs to crank up electricity supply
🔗 Why support a pro-nuclear resolution?
🔗 The cost of outlawing fossil fuel heat in Wisconsin
🔗 Prairie-chickens and the land-eating solar industry
On the record:
‣ Mandela Barnes: “I proudly authored Wisconsin’s first-ever Clean Power Plan as chair of the Climate Change Task Force.” Subsequent reporting demonstrated Barnes was not responsible for authoring the plan.
‣ Tom Tiffany: “We should embrace nuclear once again, especially the new nuclear technologies that are out there. … It’s time to put a greater
emphasis on nuclear as part of our mix here in Wisconsin.”
Explained:
Passed in 2011, Act 10 limited most unions in Wisconsin’s state and local government sectors to bargaining over wages. The law also required public-sector unions to regularly seek recertification from workers they purported to bargain for, required them to collect dues rather than having the money taken from employees’ paychecks by government employers, and required public sector employees to contribute toward their health benefits as most private-sector workers do.
The reforms are estimated to have saved Wisconsin taxpayers up to $35 billion since 2012, according to the MacIver Institute.
Explored:
🔗 Economist vindicates Act 10 and common sense
🔗 Act 10 was a godsend for property taxpayers
On the record:
‣ Tom Tiffany: “If Act 10 goes away, you’re going to see [property taxes] go up significantly more than what we saw happen in December.”
‣ Mandela Barnes: “Repealing Act 10 is the first step. … If we’re talking about even a billion to two billion dollars per year … We have paid so much more in terms of the consequences of a workforce that has been decimated because people haven’t gone into these jobs.”
‣ Francesca Hong: “Fran will nail the coffin of Act 10 shut and lead the fight to enshrine a constitutional right for all workers, public and private, to organize.”
‣ David Crowley: “As governor, I will repeal Act 10 in full.”
Explained:
Wisconsin’s right-to-work law was passed in 2015. The statute prohibits employers from automatically requiring that workers pay union dues as a condition of employment. Under right-to-work, workers can still join a union if they so choose.
Twenty-six states including Wisconsin have enacted right-to-work legislation. Michigan repealed its right-to-work law in 2024.
Research shows that states with right-to-work legislation have experienced greater per capita personal income growth than other states.
Explored:
🔗 Right-to-work: Freeloading or just freedom?
🔗 The economic impact of a right-to-work law on Wisconsin
🔗 Unions favor telling to asking with Wisconsin’s right to work
On the record:
‣ Francesca Hong: “I’m going to repeal right-to-work, enshrine the right to organize in our constitution, and make Wisconsin the easiest state in the country to join a union.”
‣ Mandela Barnes: “When I am Governor, I will fully repeal so-called right-to-work laws.”
Mandate for Madison 2026
Over the past 15 years, Wisconsin has made meaningful progress toward greater economic freedom and a public policy environment supportive of growth and opportunity. This progress is real, but it is also incomplete and fragile.
The 2026 Mandate for Madison aims to provide evidence and insight to inform public debate and decision-making at this crucial juncture in the state’s history. Through an expansive and rigorous research program publishing expert analyses across a wide range of policy areas throughout the year, the Mandate will help policymakers, regardless of partisan affiliation, protect the gains of the past 15 years and continue building a prosperous and economically vibrant Wisconsin.
