Hi, this is Sen. Melissa Agard with this week’s Democratic Radio Address.
It’s that time of year when you hear a lot of vague promises about how improving education is someone’s top priority. My Republican colleagues like to talk about giving parents choices. What they don’t like to talk about is how their plan would affect you and your community. That’s because their plan would result in a $577 million property tax increase.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Earlier this session, the majority party passed AB 970, which would eliminate income and participation limits in the Parental Choice Program. As the Department of Public Instruction noted in its analysis of the bill: “The impact on property taxpayers in applicable school districts could be as high as $577.3 million for the 2022-23 school year.
As Gov. Evers pointed out when he vetoed the bill, it is remarkable that supporters of this bill, who commonly express concerns about property taxes when it comes to supporting more than 800,000 public school children in our state, are unfazed by the fiscal impact this bill could have on families due to the way these programs are funded.
It’s no wonder my Republican colleagues, who are only too happy to sit on a $5 billion dollar state surplus, are keeping quiet about their plans to shift even more of the burden onto your property tax bill.
