Wisconsin State Representative Rob Swearingen

This legislative session, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature advanced several tax relief measures focused on lowering the tax burden on working families, retirees, and homeowners across the state.

Among the proposals passed by the Legislature were measures to eliminate state income taxes on overtime pay and tips. AB 38 would exempt up to $25,000 in tips from state income taxes, while AB 461 would allow workers to deduct qualified overtime pay from state income taxes. Both bills were vetoed by Governor Tony Evers.

Lawmakers also passed AB 391, which would have eliminated Governor Evers’ controversial 400-year veto related to annual per-pupil school funding increases. That bill was also vetoed.

The state budget included approximately $1.5 billion in overall tax relief. One major provision creates a retirement income exclusion beginning at age 67, allowing the first $24,000 of retirement income for single filers and $48,000 for joint filers to be exempt from state income taxes.

The budget also expanded Wisconsin’s second income tax bracket, allowing more income to be taxed at the lower 4.40 percent rate. Additional tax relief measures included tripling the adoption expense deduction from $5,000 to $15,000 and expanding the sales tax exemption on residential electricity and natural gas.

These measures focused on providing tax relief to Wisconsin workers, retirees, and families while reducing the overall tax burden across the state.

This legislative session, Assembly Republicans advanced a number of reforms focused on government accountability, public safety, parental rights, and responsible budgeting. While several measures were signed into law, others were vetoed by Governor Tony Evers after passing the Legislature.

Among the bills approved by the Legislature were measures limiting the types of flags flown on government buildings to official government flags, protecting visitation rights for long-term care residents and hospital patients during communicable disease outbreaks, and establishing a maximum judicial service age of 70 years.

Other Republican-backed proposals vetoed by the Governor included requiring most state employees to work in-office at least 80 percent of the time, prohibiting schools from changing a student’s name or pronouns without parental consent, restricting taxpayer-funded health care coverage for undocumented immigrants, protecting against forced organ harvesting in transplant procedures, and strengthening cybersecurity protections related to foreign adversary-owned applications such as TikTok.

Republicans also focused heavily on the state budget process by reducing government growth and limiting long-term borrowing. The Legislature’s budget eliminated 303 state positions compared to the current base budget, maintained the UW System employee position cap, and lowered bonding levels to less than half of what Governor Evers originally proposed.

In addition, Republicans removed several proposals from the Governor’s budget, including billions in proposed tax increases, repeal of right-to-work laws, full Medicaid expansion, new gun control measures, climate initiatives, changes to voting laws, and proposals related to undocumented individuals receiving tuition exemptions or identification cards.

These reforms focused on limiting government expansion, strengthening accountability, protecting taxpayers, and advancing conservative priorities throughout the legislative session.