After letting LeMahieu back in, WisGOPs double up tax bills. And the numbers don't add up

After a week where Senate GOP Leader Devin LeMahieu complained he was being left out of a possible tax cut and school funding deal between Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Governor Tony Evers, apparently Dev is now back in the game, with the GOP Legislature now working out their own deal.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, sent a letter to the governor Feb. 16 outlining their proposal to address soaring property taxes and rising costs with the state's proposed $2.5 billion surplus.

"This is a generous, good-faith attempt to achieve our mutual goals of limiting the property tax impact caused by your misguided 400-year veto, helping families address rising costs, and ultimately doing what is best for the people of Wisconsin," LeMahieu and Vos wrote in the letter first reported by WisPolitics.

First of all, if the WisGOPs are blaming Evers for putting resources in K-12 schools as a reason property taxes went up, then they don't get to claim "good faith". Because the only reason we have higher property taxes for schools is because THE GOP REFUSED TO PUT ANY STATE AIDS TOWARD THE SCHOOLS THAT WOULD HAVE REDUCED PROPERTY TAXES.

But let's look at the WisGOP plan is. It appears to be a mish-mash where they added in parts of the property tax cut plan Evers and Vos were trying to work out, and then also put in the income tax rebate LeMahieu and other GOP Senators were asking for.

The GOP proposal includes:

$500 million to put toward the school levy tax credit, funding that would allow the state to offset property taxes.

$1.5 billion for income tax rebates ($1,000 for married filers and $500 for single filers).

$200 million in funding for special education costs.

$30 million to fund a grant program for businesses and households that were affected by flooding in 2025.

$1.4 million for an educator tax deduction (up to $300 of educator expenses per year per educator).

So a little more than $2.2 billion in all. The total price tag is important, because all of this would get rid of the entire $2.5 billion surplus, and leave a smaller cushion for the next 16 months of the state budget than what was expected before the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected another $1.5 billion in available funds last month.

So barely 1/4 of a billion dollars of cushion to take care of unexpected expenses that may come up between now and June 30, 2027. And we already are projected to need another $213 million for Medicaid, let alone what other complications that Trump/GOP austerity is going to push down to Wisconsin state government. And if the flat job growth we have in both Wisconsin and America turns into an outright recession, we're going to need other moves to keep the budget in balance, with the next Governor facing a significant structural deficit in the budget upon taking office.

And while I approve of the idea of a tax rebate as a one-time giveback, I didn't realize the price tag of $500/$1,000 was $1.5 billion. Seems like it should be smaller, with $250/$500 allowing for a lot of other things to be put into play. And while increasing the School Levy Tax Credit by nearly 40% will nearly double the $254 million in additional revenue limit that K-12 districts can use for next year, it also gives bigger benefits to higher-value homes, and doesn't do anything to deal with inequalities in funding between schools like General School Aids do.

And other tax cuts working their way through the Legislature make these other tax cuts even less affordable. A "no tax on tips" bill has already passed the State Senate (cost $53.2 million in Fiscal Year 2026), and the Joint Finance Committee just signed off on a bill that would have no taxes for overtime pay, for a cost of nearly $326 million next year. So that would put us another $379 million in the hole if both of those bills became law.Because the numbers don't add up, so if WisGOP tries to pass all of these items in one swoop instead of splitting up these provisions into separate bills (as I bet they will), Wisconsinites are likely to get nothing, with Evers being able to blame the WisGOPs for being irresponsible.

This last-minute tax cut mismash will look especially stupid if the WisGOPs shrug and decide to go on a 10-month vacation without working with the Guv to get a deal done. And while these WisGOP dweebs think they've pulled a fast one by making it more likely Evers has to veto the entire $2.2 billion package, they're more likely to be giving yet another reason for Wisconsinites to throw them out of power, and let the Dems have a chance to put in a new and better way of funding schools and cutting property taxes.