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Podcast: Battleground Wisconsin
Episode:

Representative Cruz fights for promised public school funding
Category: News & Politics
Duration: 00:50:01
Publish Date: 2025-12-18 21:25:38
Description: We start with an analyis of the latest health care melodrama in D.C., where four House Republicans unexpectedly broke ranks, joining Democrats in forcing a vote on the renwal of ACA subsidies. Speaker Johnson will not hold the required vote until January. But even if it passes in the House, it will face an almost certain filibuster in the Senate. Meanwhile millions of Americans will lose healthcare coverage, and those who decide to pay skyrocketing premiums will be forced to cut back on other basics. We welcome State Representative Angelina Cruz to discuss the budget bait and switch on special education funding. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) announced l that the state will fail to meet the 42% special education reimbursement promised in the recent state budget., and by elected leaders of both parties when they celebrated the budget "compromise." Rep. Cruz tells us about new legislation to ensure all schools get special education funding they were promised Following Rep. Cruz, we discuss a new three bill package that transforms how Wisconsin funds K-12 schools and other public goods in Wisconsin. If enacted, Wisconsin would become the first state to fund K-12 schools primarily through a progressive income tax, leading to a 44% reduction in the median Wisconsin property tax bill. Another bill restores Wisconsin’s estate tax for estates valued higher than $14M and creates a new local option income tax on people who make $1M a year or more. These tools provide new, fairer options to raise revenue at the state and local levels, and begin the long process of unwinding record levels of income and wealth inequality. We also talk about this week’s highly publicized trial of Judge Hannah Dugan Trial in Milwaukee, data center opponents launch a recall effort against Port Washington Mayor, and the "Monsters of the Midway" threaten to move to Indiana, the latest move in their failing (but on-going) campaign to shake down Illinois for unneeded public subsidies at the expense of schools, health care, and other public priorities. So far Illinois elected leaders are holding firm, in stark contrast to Wisconsin's bipartisan cave in to the Brewers billionaire owner last year.
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