WisDems need to tell the truth on Act 10 repeal - it doesn't raise taxes.

One of the many changes that we will see in Wisconsin with the coming Dem trifecta is the likely return of collective bargaining rights for public sector employees, which were taken away as part of the series of measures that were in 2011's Act 10. It will be ended and resolved by some combination of the Dem-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court (who agreed to take a case regarding Act 10 in the last week), and the soon-to-be Dem-controlled Wisconsin State Legislature.

And the soon-to-be out-of-power Legislative Republicans in Wisconsin are telling us what they'll try to push out to the public to try to stall WisDems' momentum.

Incoming Senate Minority Leader Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, said reversing Act 10 will lead to higher property taxes as school districts figure out how to pay for the higher share of employee costs that would again be required.

"The Democrats campaigned on change and affordability, but the only change so far is how fast they forgot about affordability. Repealing Act 10 will cost Wisconsin taxpayers up to $2 billion a year, but the radical left just can’t wait to raise your taxes," he said.

I'll remind you that the "$2 billion" that Bradley is referencing was money taken out of the pockets of teachers, social workers, scientists and other subject matter experts that were working, raising families, and spending money in Wisconsin. And I'll get back to the rest of that talking point about "higher taxes" in a bit.

Let me also give you the take of the future lobbyist for right-wing BS that bailed out of the Legislature after not being able to keep his gerrymander-assisted status.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, who is leaving the state Legislature in January and was part of the Republican majorities that passed Act 10, said he was skeptical Democrats would do a full repeal.

"We'll see if they actually can pass a repeal of Act 10," he said. "I try to be optimistic, but it seems to me like they pulled the wool over people's eyes, and they're not going to realize what happened until Democrats pass a bunch of crazy stuff that no one signed up for."

"If you thought property taxes were high with a 400-year veto, wait until you have that coupled with a bunch of spending on making sure public employees no longer have to pay for their pensions or their health care, and they get double-digit raises," Vos said.

Cute statement, Robbin'. Too bad it's a TOTAL LIE.

The only way a state worker like me is getting a "double-digit raise" is if the repeal of Act 10 somehow required 15 years of higher medical and pension contributions to be clawed back and sent to me. I ain't counting on that or anything close to it. All that would happen is that collective bargaining would be allowed for those benefits in the future as well as discussions about other work conditions. In fact, it's not out of the question that I'd have less money in my pocket if I chose to reunionize, due to union dues (I'll explain later why it'd be worth it to do so anyway).

I would strongly encourage incoming Assembly Speaker Greta Neubauer and future Senate Majority Dianne Hesselbein to remind voters early and often that taxpayer costs do not have to go up when Act 10 goes away. Who pays the benefit costs and how much they pay are open for negotiation, and wages are also subject to agreement. Even with inflation going up by 3-4% due to Trump/GOP's stupid decisions and corporate greed, I'd be pleasantly surprised if my current position's salary went up by that amount (I got a 2% increase last July 1 under the current budget).

I'll also add that even before Act 10, most public employees were paying in to their pensions and their health care, and our health care packages are negotiated as a group already. I'm facing a 6-7% increase in my health care premiums and a $150 increase in my deductible for next year, and while I understand that's probably better than a lot of other people due to the effects of Tax Scam 2.0, it's a lot more than "nothing". And that's not something I anticipate going down for 2028 even if Act 10 is dead.

And it's especially rich for Republicans to talk about higher property taxes, because Wisconsinites have been paying much higher property taxes for schools and other public services with Act 10 in place for the last 15 years. Remember this graph from the Wisconsin Policy Forum?

As the Policy Forum told us last December, the increase in property taxes isn't due to Tony Evers' 400-year veto allowing , but because of Republicans in the Legislature like Robbin' Vos, who refused to use state dollars to pay for those increased resources.

Typically, a portion of the per pupil revenue limit increase is covered by rising state general school aids. Our previous research details the interaction between per pupil revenue limits and property taxes. Nearly every two-year budget over the past two decades has included at least one annual increase in general school aids, a form of aid that is distributed to school districts based on factors including property values, spending, and enrollment. This time, state leaders instead kept the funding for these payments flat, leaving property taxes as the sole means by which school districts collectively could access the allowed $325 per student increase.

School districts can choose to increase their levy by less than the allowed limit. Rising pressure on both revenues and expenditures, however, appears to have prompted many districts to levy at or near the maximum amount. These pressures include rising teacher salaries and inflation, revenue limit increases in recent years that lagged the rate of inflation, and decreased funding associated with declining student enrollment and the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds.

Wait, so the magic bullet of Act 10 didn't solve all of the problems that result from a lack of resources going to our schools to keep up with the costly realities of 2026? And that you can only cut take-home pay once and can't go back to that well again and again because you can't find workers that you need? It's almost like Act 10 was a one-time trick intended to take away worker power and Democratic support and give it to Republicans and corporate donors!

And that Supreme Court of Wisconsin case underscores another reason the GOP's crocodile tears about Act 10 ending are complete BS, as part of the case deals with the fact that public safety and transit union were exempted from those provisions. Republicans allowed the most expensive pension costs of police and fire fighters to continue to be bargained, as part of a political trade Scott Walker made in exchange for the endorsement that cop and fire fighter unions gave to the GOP. Those rising pensions were a main reason that the City of Milwaukee was facing chronic deficits and needed to have a 2% sales tax put in - a sales tax that is specifically earmarked to pay much of those pension costs.

Lastly, I think the disasters that we see in DC have underscored why we need public employees to have union protections. Because you need to allow everyday workers to be honest and independent in their jobs, especially when their bosses are guys like this.

He's not wrong

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— Patrick Fenelon (@patrickfenelon.bsky.social) November 13, 2026 at 7:50 PM

part of the problem with a corrupt administration is that the FAA system probably does need an overhaul! our infrastructure needs reinvestment! but if you give $$$$ to these bozos, they’re just going to award contracts to themselves & their friends. things won’t get fixed, & they’ll get richer!

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— Leah Litman (@leahlitman.bsky.social) November 13, 2026 at 8:20 PM

The Departments of State and Defense both saying "Stop quoting laws to MEN WITH SWORDS" is an affront our constitution, antithetical to a free society, and absolutely horrifying.

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— Corey Rayburn Yung (@coreyryung.bsky.social) November 14, 2026 at 10:42 PM

More than ever, we need people in government who know what they're doing, and to have the protections that allow them to speak freely about problems and be whistleblowers to outside organizations if the missions are being compromised. Instead, we have crooks, donors, and contractors calling the shots in DC, and that often causes more costs and deficiencies than what we had before government workers were disempowered.

What the FAA shutdown demonstrates is that many of what we think of as government failures are really failures involving private contractors that the government has become dependent on. bsky.app/profile/kash...

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— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) November 15, 2026 at 8:32 AM

WisDems need to be out in front of the Act 10 story NOW, and tell Wisconsinites that the end of Act 10 will only raise costs to everyday taxpayers if lawmakers choose to allow it to do so. And that they aren't going to be the ones that do that, because they will raise state aids to schools and local governments, limit property taxes, and stop the giveaways to businesses and rich people that the WisGOPs have given for years.

If that happens, then property taxes won't be rising anything near what they went up in late 2025 or what they are likely to rise when you get your bills next month. And if Governor Crowley and WisDems in the Legislature do it right, they might even go down. And how would WisGOPs be able to sell voters that WisDems are "overspending liberals who give everything away to unions" when people aren't seeing their taxes go up and they're better able to pay their bills?