State budget surplus use
Wisconsin has a multi-billion-dollar budget surplus. A bipartisan $1.8 billion deal to provide taxpayer rebates and increase school spending failed in the Senate in May 2026. Polls show voters split on returning the entire surplus to taxpayers versus using it for state or local services, with sharp partisan differences. Gubernatorial candidates and lawmakers are debating priorities for the surplus ahead of the 2026 election.
How should Wisconsin use its state budget surplus?
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Sources
FOX 11 / Mark Leland — https://fox11online.com/news/beyond-the-podium/know-your-candidates/david-crowley-tom-tiffany-in-depth-interviews-wisconsin-governor-race-affordability-budget-surplus-school-education-funding-taxes-data-centers
Closely tied to affordability is what to do with the state government's budget surplus. In May, a $1.8 billion deal to give taxpayers rebates and spend more on schools failed in the Senate.
Marquette Law School Poll — https://today.marquette.edu/2026/09/marquette-law-poll-finds-that-wisconsin-governors-race-remains-tight-crowley-49-tiffany-46-among-likely-voters
Question: Should the state return the entire budget surplus directly to taxpayers or use the surplus to help fund state or local services or programs?
Steven Walters / Urban Milwaukee — https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2026/08/10/the-state-of-politics-questions-for-wisconsins-next-governor
Budget surplus: How should the state’s $2.36 billion surplus be spent? Would funding K-12 schools or controlling property taxes be your top priority for that surplus?
PBS Wisconsin / Inside Wisconsin Politics — https://www.pbs.org/video/inside-wisconsin-politics-a-failed-bipartisan-spending-deal-7fhkev
Inside Wisconsin Politics on the Legislature voting down a state budget surplus plan and implications for the 2026 elections.
Positions on this issue · liberal → conservative
- Use the full surplus to expand public services, schools, child care, and health care with no direct rebates
- Prioritize major new school and service funding, with limited targeted tax relief
- Split the surplus roughly evenly between taxpayer rebates and funding schools/services
- Return most of the surplus as taxpayer rebates or tax cuts, with modest school funding
- Return the entire surplus directly to taxpayers as rebates or across-the-board tax cuts