Legislative Update June 2026

In early May it was announced that state lawmakers had agreed to a deal with Governor Tony Evers to return a portion of the state’s budget surplus to taxpayers in the form of rebate checks. The legislation also included additional funding to K-12 public schools for costs related to special needs education.

Evers and Republican leadership hoped to get money back into taxpayers’ hands sooner rather than later, as affordability issues (inflation, gas prices, cost of goods, etc.) are set to be front and center in the 2026 midterm elections.

Ultimately, the deal fell through, when a handful of Senate Republicans joined a majority of Senate Democrats in voting against the legislation. The bill’s failure is notable for a number of reasons.

First, the three main players negotiating the bill – Governor Evers, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, and Senate Republican Leader Devin LeMahieu – had all announced their retirements earlier in the year. Their inability to get their respective caucuses and constituencies in line to support the bill was a stark demonstration of the amount of leverage they no longer hold. This dynamic is certainly not unique to politics, it happens any time a leader of an organization enters into a “lame duck” period where succession battles take shape and long-term planning is temporarily put on hold.

Second, there were legitimate policy concerns amongst lawmakers that emptying the state coffers would be irresponsible given the economic uncertainty at the federal level. Corporate and capital gains tax collections have been largely responsible for the healthy amount of revenue the state has taken in recently