It’s not often that both parties agree on much, let alone large spending proposals. But, for a few days in May, it looked like Wisconsin’s divided government had actually figured something out.
Gov. Tony Evers, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu – not known for getting along – emerged from months of closed-door negotiations with a $1.8 billion plan to spend down part of the state’s roughly $2.5 billion surplus. The package included more than $600 million for K-12 schools, $300 million in general aid aimed at lowering property taxes, rebate checks of $300 for individuals and $600 for couples, and an end to state income taxes on tips and overtime pay. With rising prices, this deal would be a boon for Wisconsin families and a smart way to spend down some of the surplus.
The headline item, for anyone who’s watched school districts limp from referendum to referendum, was special education. The deal would have pushed the state’s special education reimbursement rate to 50% of district costs -the largest increase in state history – after years stuck near 32%, a shortfall that has quietly drained general school budgets and pushed costs onto local property taxpayers.
The Assembly passed it Wednesday night, May 13, with bipartisan support. Then it walked into the Senate and died, 15-18.
Who killed it, and why
The “no” coalition was a strange one: every Senate Democrat plus three Republicans. Evers, visibly furious, pointed the finger at Tom Tiffany, the Republican congressman and likely GOP nominee to replace him as governor, who reportedly worked the phones urging Republican senators to tank the deal. Tiffany dismissed the package as a backroom arrangement that wouldn’t deliver lasting relief — a curious objection to a bill cutting taxes on tips and overtime, ideas his own party championed in the last election cycle.
Senate Democrats had their own case. They were shut out of negotiations entirely, and they argued the package traded one-time checks and permanent tax cuts for a structural problem left untouched: Wisconsin’s school funding formula is still broken, and a rebate check doesn’t fix it. Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein called the bill fiscally reckless, warning it would blow a multi-billion-dollar hole in future budgets.
There’s real substance to that critique. One-time payments are popular and forgettable; districts will still be holding referendums next year. But it’s also true that the special education money was real, immediate, and desperately needed — and now schools get none of it.
The losers are easy to identify
Whatever the political logic on either side, the practical outcome is this: school districts that were promised a reimbursement bump get nothing, property taxpayers get no relief, and $2.5 billion sits unspent in Madison while families absorb rising costs driven in part by federal tariff policy and rapidly increasing gas costs.
The timing explains a lot. Evers is retiring. LeMahieu and Vos are heading for the exits or facing turbulent races. Control of both legislative chambers — and the governor’s office — is genuinely up for grabs in November for the first time in years, thanks to fair maps that replaced the old gerrymander. Nobody wanted to hand the other side a win, and several Democrats clearly preferred to campaign on doing school funding right next year, with a possible trifecta, rather than settle for a compromise now.
That’s a defensible bet. It’s also a bet placed with other people’s money — specifically, the special education dollars Wisconsin kids won’t see this fall. Voters will decide in November whether the people who blew up the deal earned the chance to write a better one. Ultimately, time will tell if Democrats can even negotiate a better deal even if they complete legislative and executive control.
