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Get the latest news and research from Badger Institute
- Teachers in flight
- Grades now hyper-inflated at UW-Madison
- Ethnic studies courses required to graduate at all 13 four-year UW schools
- Crucial Badger-supported housing bill passes through Senate
- School levy tax credits reward big spenders at the expense of frugal districts
- Lawmakers split on how to keep WisEye broadcasting
- Medicaid mission-creeps its way into the housing business
- Time for UW-Madison to do away with ethnic studies requirement
Browsing: Taxes
You might be paying higher school property taxes this year because of a referendum to exceed a school district’s revenue cap — one that you did not get a vote on in a district your kids do not attend.
Some lawmakers in Madison, however, led by members of the Assembly’s Socialist Caucus, want to implement an estate tax with a top rate of 20 percent. Currently in draft form before being introduced, their legislation would propel Wisconsin to a tie with Hawaii for the second-highest state rate in the nation.
Policymakers are scrambling for solutions as Wisconsin property tax burdens continue to rise. As homeowners clamor for relief, Gov. Tony Evers (D) has proposed using $1.3 billion from the state’s surplus to buy down property tax bills. Unfortunately, the proposal does nothing to address the structural drivers of high (and rising) property taxes and, if anything, puts more pressure on them in the future. His proposal commits the state to subsidies that shift burdens rather than alleviate them.
The average Wisconsin taxpayer will pay $3,183 less in taxes in 2026 due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act going into effect next year, analysis by the Tax Foundation shows.
There are 541 days until the next Legislature’s sworn in, and there’s plenty of unfinished business
Wisconsin’s expanded retirement income exclusion will undermine the tax code’s neutrality and shift burdens onto working families over time.
Progressives object because proposed Wisconsin tax relief goes to people they envy.
Legislative Republicans’ proposed tax measure “is a relatively well-structured way to provide relief for lower- and middle-income Wisconsinites,” said Katherine Loughead.
President Trump’s executive order to halt federal funding for public broadcasting will save taxpayers nearly $8.5 million annually in reduced federal outlays to public television and radio networks in Wisconsin alone.
Taxes in the Badger State are simply too high and too uncompetitive — which is why Wisconsin must consider a low, flat-rate individual income tax.
Wisconsin’s governor talks of new 9.8% top tax rate — one that would wallop businesses that don’t flee.
A single-rate tax reform would change Wisconsin’s tax picture from a grave liability to an advantage.
Providing free breakfast and lunch for all Wisconsin schoolchildren will burden taxpayers with the cost of assisting households that likely do not need the benefits.
The residents of Milwaukee, Dane and Winnebago counties paid the highest effective property tax rates in Wisconsin last year, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows.
In the 12 years leading up to Act 10, school levies across Wisconsin rose 72%, compared to 31% in the dozen years after that up to and including 2024.
A reversal by the State Historic Preservation Review Board on the significance of the 35-year-old “postmodern” 100 East building in downtown Milwaukee could mean tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks if the building is fully renovated.
In the 2023-24 school year, MPS schools called police 1,245 times for help with allegations of everything from armed robbery to sexual assault to felony theft.
MPS may regret its ongoing resistance to the state’s resource officer requirement the next time it comes to the Legislature looking for tax money.
Between 2021 and 2022 Wisconsin gained a net total of 2,083 individual new residents from Minnesota.
‘It’s tough enough to run a small business in Minnesota,’ but rates and regulations grew harsher under Walz, starting with…

