Madison, WI – Earlier today, legislation was signed into law to establish funding parity in Wisconsin’s K-12 education and provide a minimum 20% state aid increase to local governments while also eliminating the personal property tax. State Sen. Duey Stroebel (R – Cedarburg) issued the following statement:
“Today marks a milestone in Wisconsin’s history with the groundbreaking shared revenue deal becoming law. This package not only provides the largest increase in state aid to local governments, it delivers on a historic investment in the expansion of Wisconsin’s choice and charter schools. This is great news for the future of Wisconsin.”
“I was proud to author The Choices for Children Act, which was signed into law as 2023 Wisconsin Act 11. The measure provides independent charter schools and private schools participating in the Parental Choice Programs with additional resources to facilitate the expansion of educational options for more families across the state. This remarkable $280 million investment moves the needle in the right direction towards closing the funding gap and establishing parity in the amount of state aid provided to all K-12 students. The Choices for Children Act will increase the opportunity for every child to achieve academic success no matter where they live.”
“Under Assembly Bill 245, which was signed into law as 2023 Wisconsin Act 12, our local governments will be receiving significant increases in state to fund essential government services like police, fire and EMS. There are provisions in the bill that keep scarce taxpayers’ resources in mind by incentivizing local governments to find innovative ways to decrease government spending, such as consolidation and shared services. With mechanisms in place to incentivize fiscal prudence at the local level, this would be a golden opportunity for Milwaukee to get their act together.”
“After authoring legislation across several legislative sessions, it’s great to see the full repeal of the personal property tax has finally come to fruition as part of the shared revenue package. This tax was inefficient to collect, contained outsized compliance costs and was unfairly levied due to the litany of exemptions enacted over the years. It bears mentioning that we’re appropriating adequate funds to compensate local governments for repeal in the upcoming budget. Small businesses will no longer be burdened by the onerous personal property tax.”
Senator Stroebel represents the 20th Senate District which includes parts of Ozaukee, Washington, Fond du Lac, Calumet and Sheboygan Counties.
