Wisconsin Right Now

The referendums would increase the property tax bill of a resident with a home assessed at $350,000 an additional $241.50 in the first year, $733.99 in the second year, $895.10 in the third year and $1,053.24 in the fourth year. The Madison school district wants voters to approve a pair of referendums worth more than $600 million on the Nov. 5 ballot despite the school district’s dropping enrollment. The ask comes as the Madison Metropolitan School District had a $39 million deficit in this year’s budget after the pandemic funds and previous referendum it was using to pay teachers have run out. Last school year, the federal COVID-19 funds were used to pay 111 educators while reserves were used to pay an 8% increase in wages for teachers and school staff, according to Wisconsin Policy Forum . The referendum asks for a cumulative $100 million in operational funding over four years. The second referendum asks for $507 million over 23 years to build new schools. The district has 2...

Gableman has said he’s not looking to overturn the 2020 election. He’s said he simply wants to find out what happened, and whether anything went wrong. The "Wisconsin five" mayors of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha on Wednesday criticized the subpoenas from former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Galbeman. But all said they would testify and produce at least some of the documents he’s requesting. None of the "Wisconsin five" mayors who’ve received subpoenas as part of the investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 elections have said they will ignore them. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the investigation is “corrosive to our democracy,” but she pledged to testify for Galbeman in two weeks. “Our poll workers and clerk do an incredible job and they should be thanked, not harassed,” Rhodes-Conway said. "We’re very very proud of the work we did here in the city of Milwaukee,” Mayor Tom Barrett said. “I am happy to discuss what we di...

Dane County Fair fights wrecked the evening, but there were no arrests. The Dane County Fair is closing early at 7:30 p.m. and will require juveniles to be accompanied by an adult after a Friday night marred by a series of fights among juveniles in which a sheriff's deputy was hit in the face. But no arrests were made, and the decision to combat the violence and disorder by wrecking the fair for law-abiding people isn't sitting well with fairgoers who are venting about the decision on social media. The Alliant Energy Center wrote on Twitter that it "will enforce a new admissions policy today and Sunday for the Dane County Fair. All those under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult to gain entry, and the fair will close at 7 p.m. UPDATE: Admission to the Dane County Fair will now close at 7:30 p.m. The midway will also close at the same time." A woman posted the following video of one of the Dane County Fair fights to Facebook, writing, "Yep, I wa...