Press Release

Gov. Evers Takes Action on Several Bills

By Gov. Tony Evers - Apr 3rd, 2026 02:01 pm

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today took action on several bills. The bills signed by the governor today include enhancing the safety of K-12 students across the state by ensuring educational professionals who get their licenses revoked or are under investigation can be more easily identified by the public, correcting gaps in current law related to the placement of sexually violent offenders under supervised release, and prohibiting businesses from knowingly and intentionally publishing and distributing material harmful to minors on the internet, among others.

Today, the governor signed 21 bills, including:

Assembly Bill 320, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 179:

Provides counties with additional funding to support court systems by increasing various court fees and surcharges;
Requires the Director of State Courts, beginning in 2032 and every six years, to submit a report calculating inflationary adjustments for certain court fees and surcharges; and
Requires, subject to certain exceptions, that interpreters participate in civil proceedings remotely.

Senate Bill 814, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 180:

Corrects a gap in current law related to the placement of sexually violent offenders under supervised release by:
- Requiring that when the Wisconsin Department of Health Services submits a supervised release plan to the court, it must notify the county;
- Specifying that before the court approves the plan, the county must conduct an assessment of the residence to ensure that the residence still complies with the restrictions and make a report to the court upon completing the assessment; and
- Providing that alleys also be disregarded if the living quarters on each property are not more than 1,500 feet apart.

Assembly Bill 387, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 181:

Corrects several omissions, typographical errors, and provides clarification of certain items in 2025 Wisconsin Act 15.

Senate Bill 225, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 182:

Exempts jumping pillows from regulation by the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, provided they are installed, maintained, and operated according to the manufacturer’s specifications and safety recommendations.

Senate Bill 376, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 183:

Allows income and franchise taxpayers who claim the federal employer-provided child care credit to claim a non-refundable state income and franchise tax credit of the same amount;
Prohibits taxpayers from claiming any amount of the federal employer-provided child care credit claimed for any expenditure associated with a child care facility located or services provided outside Wisconsin;
Mirrors the existing federal “recapture” provision by requiring a taxpayer to repay to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue the same percentage of the credit the taxpayer is required to repay to the federal government; and
Clarifies that any changes to the federal employer-provided child care credit would automatically apply to the state credit.

Senate Bill 485, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 184:

Allows residential care centers for children and youth, group homes, or shelter care facilities to use video surveillance in common areas of their facilities to better protect youth and staff if incidents occur; and
Specifies that video surveillance may not be used as a substitute for one-on-one monitoring of a child who is at high risk for self-harm.
The video recording data would be protected, and the exceptions to that confidentiality would follow current law exceptions for other records kept by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, county welfare agencies, and other such licensed child care centers.

Senate Bill 785, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 185:

Requires the state superintendent to maintain a free, searchable online licensing portal on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) website that includes information related to license holders whose licenses are revoked and who are investigated by DPI; and
Outlines that the portal must include the name of the license holder and the outcome of the investigation, including if the investigation was terminated because the license holder voluntarily surrendered the license during the investigation.
This bill enhances the safety of all K-12 pupils by ensuring individuals who have their license revoked or are under investigation can be more easily identified by the public and future employers.

Assembly Bill 1004, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 186:

Prohibits a school board, governing body of a charter school, or governing body of a private school participating in a parental choice program or the Special Needs Scholarship program from entering into any agreement that:
- Suppresses or destroys information related to immoral conduct by an employee;
- Impacts the ability to report immoral conduct; or
- Requires substantiated allegation or finding of immoral conduct be expunged from documents.
Provides civil liability immunity to an education employer that provides information on current or past employee conduct at the request of a prospective employer.

Assembly Bill 86, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 187:

Expands the conduct that defines the crime of trafficking of a child to include knowingly selling, purchasing, transferring, receiving, isolating, holding, confining, or depriving the livery of any child for the purpose of commercial sex acts, or knowingly attempting the same; and
Increases the penalty for the trafficking of a child, or knowingly benefiting from the crime of trafficking a child, to a Class A felony when it involves at least three victims and specifies that the term of imprisonment would be life without the possibility of extended supervision.

Assembly Bill 217, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 188:

Increases local government public notice threshold from $5,000 to $10,000 and the competitive bidding threshold from $25,000 to $50,000 for counties and municipalities;
Increases the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s competitive bidding threshold from $20,000 to $50,000;
Extends existing exemptions for donated improvements to towns and counties, consistent with the exemption that currently applies to cities and villages; and
Retains the existing public notice threshold and competitive bidding threshold for public highway projects.

Assembly Bill 530, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 189:

Prohibits the operation of a drone over a property owned by a public, private, or Tribal school or a property where a public, private, or Tribal school is located and creates a penalty; and
Creates exceptions for drone operations at the direction of a sheriff or chief of a public protection service agency that has jurisdiction over the territory or with the expressed authorization of the governing entity of the school.

Assembly Bill 670, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 190:

Expands an existing sales and use tax exemption for machinery and equipment consumed or destroyed in qualified research by allowing contract research organizations to claim the exemption when conducting qualified research on behalf of a customer; and
Expands the definition of qualified research to include research funded by customers for whom contract research services are provided.

Assembly Bill 676, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 191:

Creates a state community development entity investment credit, mirroring the federal New Markets Tax Credit; and
Requires the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to allocate $250 million in qualified equity investment authority for the credit for investment in qualified active low-income community businesses, with $125 million allocated toward counties in the Milwaukee and Madison areas and the other $125 million allocated toward all other counties in Wisconsin.

Assembly Bill 685, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 192:

Creates an individual income tax subtraction for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2023, for the amount lost from the taxpayer’s financial account due to financial exploitation; and
Specifies that a taxpayer may only claim the subtraction in the taxable year in which the withdrawal or disbursement of the lost funds occurred.

Assembly Bill 751, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 193:

Requires utility fuel cost plans to include the costs and revenues of electricity generation capacity, ensuring that costs are accurately refunded or recovered from ratepayers, which will make utility rates fairer and more accurate for both ratepayers and utilities.

Assembly Bill 768, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 194:

Prohibits, with certain exceptions, the use of a drone, at an altitude of less than 300 feet, over or within 500 feet of a parcel where certain utility facilities are located, including:
- Water reclamation facilities;
- Certain electric power plants, generating stations, substations, or storage facilities;
- Telecommunications carrier plants;
- Internet, video, or cable service provider facilities;
- Public water system facilities; and
- Petroleum refineries or other facilities designed for the management of petroleum refining.
Requires law enforcement officers to seize pictures or visual images created by or recorded by the drone and transfer those materials and copies to law enforcement and to each local municipality or county where the violation occurred.

Assembly Bill 856, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 195:

Conforms several of the operating vehicles while intoxicated statutes with holdings from the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court by making several changes to the laws regarding refusing chemical tests for operating a motor vehicle, all-terrain or utility-terrain vehicle, off-highway motorcycle, motorboat, or snowmobile while intoxicated.

Assembly Bill 866, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 196:

Revises provisions governing administration of county sheriff offices and county medical examiner systems, including changes to deputy sheriff disciplinary procedures, sheriff vacancy processes, service of process responsibilities, and medical examiner appointment authority.

Assembly Bill 905, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 197:

Defines “healthcare facility” and “healthcare provider” for the purposes of the crime of threatening to cause bodily harm to certain individuals by cross-referencing those terms as they are defined under the battery statutes to ensure that current legal protections include emergency medical technical and paramedics; and
Adds references that the crime of making threats to healthcare providers and staff (and their family members) applies to current or former healthcare providers or workers at a healthcare facility.

Assembly Bill 907, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 198:

Modernizes statutory requirements governing Wisconsin Lottery drawings by repealing outdated witness and inspection requirements and replacing them with updated drawing and independent audit procedures.

Assembly Bill 1025, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 199:

Establishes caps on certain fees charged by earned wage access (EWA) service providers; and
Clarifies the applicability of specified provisions of the Wisconsin Consumer Act and marital property law to licensed EWA providers.

In addition to signing the above bills, Gov. Evers also vetoed several bills. The governor’s veto messages are available below.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

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