David Crowley and Francesca Hong during Democratic Primary debate at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI on July 28, 2026. by LaShawnda Jones is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Governor Tony Ever’s 400 Year Tax
Known as the 400 year veto, Governor Tony Evers struck two digits and a hyphen in Wisconsin’s 2023 budget bill, turning what was supposed to be a two year school funding increase into a 402 year property tax hike. Public school funding in Wisconsin is primarily derived from property taxes but is capped via revenue limits based on a per-pupil basis. The original provision in the 2023 budget would’ve allowed an increase in the revenue limits by $325 per pupil over two years, but Governor Ever’s actions effectively extended this indefinitely. With nothing checking the revenue limits, property taxes in Wisconsin, which are already some of the highest in the nation, will increases every year without constraint.
Sales Tax Increases
As Milwaukee County Executive, David Crowley nearly doubled the sales tax and pushed for additional increases. If Crowley continues this as governor, the real losers are low-income Wisconsinites. Sales taxes are more regressive because lower-income taxpayers pay a greater share of their income to sales taxes. At a time when key goods and services are becoming more expensive, raising the sales tax will only constrain personal and business budgets. Furthermore, since the Supreme Court expanded requirements for out-of-state businesses to collect and remit sales taxes, increasing these taxes will push these companies to scale back operations in Wisconsin, hurting government revenues and threatening key government functions. Wisconsin has one of the lowest sales taxes in the Midwest, which should be applauded and supported. Crowley’s past record shows that he is interested in killing that tax advantage.
Income Tax Increases
Wisconsin is already behind states like Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, which have all reformed to flat income taxes. Simply put: Raising taxes by any percent is a pay cut for working families.
Crowley supports increasing taxes on millionaires and taking a “holistic” look at the state’s taxation system. While not offering much specificity, given Crowley tying himself to democratic socialists like Assemblywoman Francesca Hong, who proposed a 17% top marginal income tax rate, it is likely these kinds of proposals would shape his vision. The reality is that these types of taxes only drive wealth out of the state in which they are imposed. California’s proposed billionaire tax has already driven out approximately $126 billion in potential revenue, and it has not even passed into law yet. New York State’s exodus of wealth has been expedited by a tune of nearly $11 billion thanks to the rise of Zohran Mamdani and his own tax-the-rich agenda. Even though Crowley claims this tax increase would be a temporary measure, history shows that such policies often become permanent parts of the system. Wisconsinites should not fall prey to a “temporary” tax increase that will kill the state’s economy and fuel more budgetary instability.
