Gov. Anthony Evers laid out his 2026 aqgenda today.
Here are his remarks
My Fellow Wisconsinite:
As we settle into a new year, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update on some issues that I know have been of concern to you in the past and to share my top legislative priorities for 2026.
I kicked off 2026 by sending a letter to the Wisconsin State Legislature, outlining my top priorities for the year and urging lawmakers to continue building upon our state’s historic, bipartisan accomplishments of 2025. We’ve proven that despite these divisive times, we still believe in being able to get good things done for the people of our state. So, I’m urging the Legislature to join me in spending the next 11 months working hard to do the right thing for Wisconsin. Together, I believe we can find common ground on several critical issues facing our state today, starting with helping families make ends meet.
You and I both know that paychecks these days aren’t going as far as they used to—working families, seniors, farmers, veterans, small business owners, and so many more across our state can barely afford to stay afloat, much less get ahead. We should be doing everything we can to give folks a little breathing room in their household budgets. I’ve spent two years working to get Republican lawmakers to get serious about addressing rising costs, and I kicked off 2026 no differently.
I began the year by laying out my plan to prevent property tax increases for the average Wisconsin homeowner, lower daily out-of-pocket costs for families, reduce prescription drug prices, and make healthcare more affordable and accessible. And just because the 2025 Year of the Kid is over, doesn’t mean our work to do what’s best for our kids is done. So, I am also urging the Legislature to fully fund our commitment to special education funding, ensure families and communities have clean, safe drinking water, protect our natural resources for future generations, and reduce crime and prevent violence to keep kids, families, and communities safe, among several other critical priorities. And the good news is, we have the resources to get this good work done, as the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates we will have about a $2.5 billion surplus.
A comprehensive but not exhaustive list of what I am calling on the Legislature to get done by the end of this year and Legislative Session is available below:
- Provide property tax relief and prevent property tax increases for Wisconsin homeowners by:
- Providing over $1.3 billion in property tax relief to prevent property tax increases for average Wisconsin homeowners and help lower property taxes for working families, veterans, and seniors across our state;
- Introducing a new incentive program for local governments to freeze property taxes, ensuring Wisconsinites would see no new property tax increases next year;
- Increasing state aid to schools to reduce local levies and bolster the School Levy Tax Credit, which would directly provide tax relief on homeowners’ property tax bills; and
- Expanding and increasing the Homestead Credit and the Veterans and Surviving Spouses Property Tax Credits to help provide targeted relief to seniors, veterans, and their families, among others.
- Deliver on our promise to do what’s best for our kids by:
- Investing the necessary funding to achieve agreed-upon percentages for special education funding of 42 percent in 2025-26 and 45 percent in 2026-27 are met or, alternatively, to make the appropriation sum sufficient as I have repeatedly proposed.
- Lower out-of-pocket costs for working families and seniors by:
- Cutting healthcare costs by cracking down on health insurance companies and price gouging, requiring more treatments and procedures to be covered by insurance, and creating a dedicated office to help Wisconsinites fight denied claims;
- Lowering prescription drug prices and capping the copay for insulin at $35;
- Eliminating the sales tax on everyday household items, including diapers, toothpaste, and over-the-counter medications; and
- Extending postpartum coverage from 60 days to a year to improve infant-maternal health.
- Support Wisconsin farmers and veterans in the midst of chaos in Washington by:
- Ensuring homeless veterans have access to the housing resources they need by restoring funding for two veteran facilities in Chippewa Falls and Green Bay; and
- Supporting farmers and processors as trade wars and tariffs wreak havoc by supporting our Wisconsin Initiative for Agricultural Exports and investing in the Meat Talent Development Program to support the workforce and supply chain.
- Ensure access to safe and clean drinking water and protect Wisconsin’s natural resources by:
- Reaching a bipartisan bill to release $125 million to address PFAS contamination and ensure clean, safe drinking water across the state; and
- Reauthorizing the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program to protect the state’s natural resources and green spaces.
- Cut red tape, save taxpayer dollars, and improve services for Wisconsinites by:
- Investing in quality, accessible, and affordable housing to continue building the 21st-century workforce Wisconsin needs to support a 21st-century economy;
- Supporting Wisconsin’s workforce by restoring resources for license and credential processing;
- Eliminating restrictions that prevent retired and experienced workers from rejoining the state workforce; and
- Saving Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in future costs by providing funding to reduce FoodShare payment errors due to Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
- Reform Wisconsin’s justice system and keep kids, families, and communities safer by:
- Resolving longstanding barriers to safety and security in Wisconsin’s correctional institutions by realigning the state’s adult correctional system to close Green Bay Correctional Institution;
- Ensuring individuals reentering communities have the skills to join the workforce by supporting mobile job training labs;
- Investing in combating domestic and intimate partner violence and supporting survivors; and
- Keeping kids, families, and communities safer by enacting commonsense gun safety reform to reduce crimes involving guns, including closing the loophole that allows domestic abusers to possess firearms.
If you would like to read my full letter to lawmakers outlining my legislative priorities for the year, you can do so here.
With more chaos and uncertainty being created by Republicans out in D.C. every day, the work we do here in Wisconsin is more important than ever, and it’s going to take all of us working together to get it done. So, I encourage you to reach out to your local state representatives to urge them to do the right thing and support my 2026 Legislative Agenda. You can find the contact information for your local State Senator and State Representative here: https://maps.legis.wisconsin.gov/.
I am hopeful that lawmakers will join me in working hard to do what’s best for our kids, our families, our communities, and our state and to get good, bipartisan work done in 2026.