Gov. Tony Evers Says He’s Still Negotiating With GOP on Property Tax, Schools Deal
School funding has become key issue in Capitol.
Gov. Tony Evers delivers the State of the State address Tuesday Feb. 17, 2026, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Gov. Tony Evers says he’s optimistic that he and Republican legislative leaders will strike a deal to lower property taxes and increase school funding, even after the Assembly adjourned for the year without an agreement in place.
At a Madison luncheon event hosted by WisPolitics Thursday, Evers said that he will meet again with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, in the coming weeks.
“We’re still talking, we’re hopeful that we get some solutions soon,” he said. “When you do things in a bipartisan way, you give things up, get something in return, same with the other side. And so we’re continuing to do that.”
He and GOP leaders have gone back and forth for months over how to reduce Wisconsin’s high property tax rates. While Republican leaders blamed his “400-year veto” for increasing school revenue limits, Evers said investing in schools would reduce the need for communities to go to referendum.
Republicans eventually backed off their demand that Evers repeal his veto, and Evers suggested Thursday that he’s holding fast to his preferred funding mechanism for schools, which would be increased school aids.
“I believe that if we want to take make a huge effort around equalized aid for the state of Wisconsin schools, we should be putting more money into that, and that will help property taxes be relieved,” he said.
In their last public counter to the governor, Republicans proposed a different type of tax relief, calling for $1.48 billion in direct tax rebates to residents. On Thursday, Evers called the effort to mail out rebate checks “maximum politics.”
“That’s (an) election year issue,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s wise.”
When the Asssembly wrapped up last week, lawmakers did pass some major bipartisan legislation: two women’s health bills that Vos had held up for years but ultimately voted for alongside most of his party. Those bills would expand breast cancer screenings and extend Medicaid coverage for new moms.
On Thursday, Evers says he plans to sign those into law “within the next week.”
Gov. Tony Evers addresses reporters after a luncheon event hosted by WisPolitics at the Madison Club on Feb. 26, 2026, in Madison, Wis. Anya van Wagtendonk/WPR
Talking tariffs, Trump administration
The Thursday event took place two days after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and as Vice President JD Vance arrived in Plover to tout the administration’s work.
Evers said he had watched the president’s speech so that his wife “could swear at (Trump),” and said the state of the union “can’t be weirder, it can’t be more difficult.”
He blasted Trump’s tariffs — one of which was recently struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court — and said that they amount to an unfair tax on ordinary people. He also said that both tariff policy and the federal crackdown on immigrants would harm Wisconsin’s agricultural industry.
But he expressed some despair over Democrats’ ability to push back on the Trump agenda.
“We can win every damn court case. We could win every single one of them … and it’ll kind of circulate through the judicial system until he’s not in office, and poof, that’s it,” he said.
“We have to fight. We have to be bold about this issue. But at the end of the day, as long as the the Republicans and the Congress agree with him, he’s the guy. So it sucks,” Evers added.
Gov. Tony Evers optimistic about property tax deal, says talks continue was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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