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Get the latest news and research from Badger Institute
- Failure of tax-and-schools deal offers chance to do better
- Big federal bucks so far produce a paltry 21 EV charging stations in Wisconsin
- Behind the curtain, Evers administration diverts taxpayer money to fund environmental bureaucracies
- Wisconsin socialists’ dreams outstrip Sweden in price
- Socialists’ Milwaukee golden age and the light it sheds now
- Milwaukee Public Schools, facing crises, should close 25 schools, report warns
- Easy graders make real life harder
- For glimpse of a dismal Wisconsin future, just look at our Great Lakes neighbor
Browsing: Taxes
Think of the failure of the $1.8 billion tax-and-spending deal between Gov. Tony Evers and the Legislature as a second chance at better policy.
The Wisconsin Legislature’s “Socialist Caucus” drafted a bill that would add a 17.7% top bracket for households earning $1 million.
The comparison to Milwaukee’s past Socialist mayors highlights how proposals by current Democratic Socialists are much more radical, even if they’re rhetorically similar.
Subjecting big development proposals to popular vote risks killing statewide economic growth, observers say in the wake of a successful effort by Port Washington data center opponents to give citizens the ability to nix the future use of a key financing tool.
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.

