Republicans Push Tax Cuts as New Wisconsin Legislature Convenes

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley administered the oath of office to new members in the Assembly. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin state lawmakers gathered Monday to be sworn in, marking the beginning of the 2025-27 legislative session and giving legislative leaders the opportunity to lay out their intentions for the upcoming session.

While Republicans maintain control of both chambers, the margins in both bodies will be slimmer than previously. The Assembly returns this year with 54 Republicans and 45 Democrats and the Senate returns with 18 Republicans and 15 Democrats; this includes six new state Senators and 31 new Assembly members. In the Assembly, 23 of the new lawmakers are Democrats and eight are Republicans. All of the new state Senators are Democrats.

The bodies met concurrently Monday afternoon in their respective chambers, surrounded by family and friends, to take their oaths of office. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley administered the oath of office to new members in the Assembly, while Appeals Court Judge Maria S. Lazar administered it in the Senate.

Following the oaths, lawmakers voted to set leadership for each chamber and the calendar for the session.

Assembly lawmakers voted to officially elect Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the state’s longest serving Speaker, to serve another term in the position. Democrats nominated Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) for the position, though they were outnumbered by Assembly Republicans who had previously voted as a caucus for Vos to continue in another term.

“While we will always seek to find common ground, rest assured, we will never sacrifice our principles and we don’t expect anyone else here to either,” Vos said to lawmakers.

Vos laid out his goals for the session including passing a tax cut given the state’s $4.5 billion budget surplus, not growing the size of government by creating new programs, demanding accountability and measurable results before increasing spending, and increasing government efficiency and innovation.

“The money that we set aside for that tax cut will not be spent by this Legislature on other wants, no matter how many special interests or tax-and-spend politicians apply pressure to get it out of the treasury’s hands,” Vos said.

The wants of Vos will be in contention with those of Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic lawmakers, who have said that they hope to have more influence this session given the closer margins. Vos has said it’s possible that lawmakers will accomplish less because of the close margins.

Vos said the newly created Assembly Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency (GOAT) committee, which will be chaired by Rep. Amanda Nedweski, will lead the effort to improve efficiency. The committee was inspired by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which is not an official federal agency — headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, working with the incoming Trump administration.

Republican leaders had a similar message in the Senate.

Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) was officially elected to her new leadership position Monday. Addressing her colleagues, she highlighted her status as the second woman in Wisconsin history to hold the Senate President position and recognized former Sen. Mary Lazich for her “dedication and strength to blaze the trail.” She then committed to helping facilitate bipartisan debate in the chamber in her position presiding over the Senate.

“In this time of sensationalized politics and 30-second Twitter clips, true debate on the Senate floor is needed more than ever,” Felzkowski said. “From this chair, I will ensure the right of the minority to be heard as they argue their case, while at the same time ensuring that the will of the majority still reigns true. I will expect and encourage robust debate, but require the dignity and respect for the rules that our constituents expect of us to have a government of the people by the people.”

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said his top priority will be to return the budget surplus to Wisconsin taxpayers, strengthen the economy and to pass a “responsible, balanced” budget. He also took aim at Evers, who has started to outline some of his hopes for the state budget, including additional education spending.

“Wisconsin is approaching a crossroads. In one direction we can create prosperity, and in the other direction, we can create hardship,” LeMahieu said. “More than $4 billion of taxpayer money is sitting in a bank account here in Madison, while rising prices impact the families who sent us here to serve them… [Evers] wants to use that money to grow the size of government and send Wisconsin backwards.”

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) emphasized that her goal and challenge to other lawmakers is to work with each other, constituents and experts to “achieve common sense solutions.” She highlighted affordable health care and prescription drug coverage, financial security, healthy families and safe schools as some of the goals that lawmakers likely share but disagree about how to achieve.

“Let’s make a promise today that we won’t let that partisan bickering, public squabbles, nonsense and nastiness to get into this chamber, and that is going to take work. Let’s commit to having an open door policy to listen to the ideas, no matter who has them, and talk about the real issues impacting people’s lives,” Hesselbein said. “Let’s show Wisconsinites that their legislators, that you and I, that this Senate body is a force for good and has the best interests of every single Wisconsinite at heart.”

The first half of 2025 will test lawmakers’ commitment to their promises to work together and to their policy goals as they hammer out the state’s next two-year state budget. As Evers is beginning to craft his budget proposal, Republican lawmakers are already taking issue with some of his proposals.

Evers announced Monday morning that he would urge lawmakers to create a path for citizen-led referendums to create changes to state law in his budget proposal, but Republican leaders were quick to shoot the idea down.

“The budget should be a budget, not a policy document. Instead of proposing a laundry list of policy items, [Evers] should be focusing his effort on using the state surplus to address rising costs,” LeMahieu wrote in a post on social media.

Republicans promise tax cuts as Wisconsin lawmakers are sworn in for 2025-27 session was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.