NEW GLARUS — “We have a housing crisis for young adults trying to afford their first home and seniors trying to hang on to the home they earned over their lifetime. To Restore Wisconsin, we need to restore the dream and reality of home ownership and hope for all Wisconsinites,” said Assembly District 50 candidate Jon Aleckson.
Aleckson will unveil his new housing affordability plan Sunday at a campaign picnic in Village Park in New Glarus, addressing what the campaign calls a crisis hitting Wisconsin families at both ends — young people who can’t get into a home and seniors who can no longer afford to stay in one.
“Housing should be something you can afford to get into when you’re young and afford to stay in when you’re old,” Candidate for Assembly Jon Aleckson said. “Right now, it’s failing on both ends. The American Dream has to be reachable and retainable. This is part of our Restore Wisconsin approach.”
The announcement will come one week after Congress passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on a bipartisan vote of 358 to 32 in the House and 85 to 5 in the Senate. President Trump has not yet signed the bill. Jon Aleckson will call on Wisconsin to move quickly to take advantage of what’s in it.
The federal bill cuts red tape for homebuilders, creates grant programs for pre-approved housing designs so local governments spend less time on approvals, reduces the cost of manufactured homes and makes small-dollar mortgages easier to get, and caps the number of single-family homes large corporate investors (like hedge funds) can own at 350. Aleckson will commit to making sure Green and Dane County communities like Monroe and Oregon are first in line for federal grant dollars once the bill is signed.
On the senior side, Jon Aleckson who wants to represent Southwestern Dane and all of Green County will outline a two-step approach. The first step is doubling Wisconsin’s Homestead Tax Credit, which helps low-income homeowners offset their property tax bills. That could mean up to $1,000 of additional tax relief to qualifying seniors on next year’s taxes. That can be done through the state budget immediately with no constitutional changes required.
The longer-term goal is a targeted property tax freeze for income-qualified seniors. Because Wisconsin’s Uniformity Clause requires all property of the same class to be taxed the same way, getting there requires a Constitutional Amendment — a process that means passing the Legislature in two consecutive sessions and then going to Wisconsin voters in a statewide referendum. Jon Aleckson will call that fight worth starting now.
“I’ve knocked on doors across this district and I keep hearing the same story —older citizens who own their homes outright, did everything right, and now they’re afraid to open the tax bill,” Aleckson said. “Seniors on fixed incomes shouldn’t lose the home they already own because assessments keep going up because of four years of rapid inflation during the last half-decade.”
Jon Aleckson said the issue cuts across party lines. “Nobody told me about their party when they talked about their mom being afraid to open the tax bill. This is a Wisconsin value, not a partisan one.”
