Gwyn Guenther, President, The Wheeler Report

July 14, 2025

2025-27 Budget Complete

The Wisconsin Legislature completed action on the 2025-27 State Budget on Wednesday, July 2, and Governor Evers signed the budget early Thursday morning, July 3. Below are related budget documents:

• SB-045 Executive Budget (Joint Committee on Finance) State finances and appropriations, constituting the executive budget act of the 2025 legislature. Partial Veto (Link) Act 15.
• Comparative Summary of Budget Recommendations – Entire Document
• Partial Vetoes Memo
• Summary of Partial Vetoes of 2025 Wisconsin Act 15

The federal government also passed their budget reconciliation proposal, referred to as “The Big Beautiful Bill.” The League provided a summary of budget proposals last week. Some of the items in both the state budget and federal budget may take time to see implementation, or to see how they might impact municipalities. 

Remainder of Session

Now that the budget is complete, the Legislature usually turns to working on other legislation for the remainder of session. The calendar for the rest of 2025:

• August 7 - Nonbudget bills sent to the Governor (if they haven’t been already)
• September 2–11 - Floorperiod
• October 7–16 – Floorperiod
• November 11–20 - Floorperiod
• December 4 - Bills sent to Governor

The calendar for 2026:

• January 13–22 - Floorperiod
• February 10–19 - Floorperiod
• March 17–19 - Last general-business Floorperiod
• April 14–16 - Limited-business Floorperiod
• May 12 and 13 - Veto Review Floorperiod

Usually, the legislature will start doing committee work for the 2-3 weeks prior to a Floorperiod to make bills available for floor action. So, in a normal cycle it could be assumed that towards the end of August committees would begin holding hearings and executive sessions to prepare for the September floor period. It is too early to know yet if either house plans to be in session in September.

This remainder of the 2025-26 Legislative Session could be very limited given the make-up of both houses and the increased tensions in caucuses because of the budget. Additionally, the 2026 election cycle could be a busy one, and now that the budget is over, candidates are starting to announce for various offices. Sitting candidates will likely want to end session in early 2026 so they can “hit the campaign trail.” 

Broadband Access Program

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the federal agency responsible for administering the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, recently published the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice. The policy notice “requires Wisconsin to implement significant changes to its BEAD program and eliminate certain requirements that were previously included in the BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).” The Wisconsin Broadband Office is continuing to monitor what those changes mean and how that might impact communities applying for the BEAD program. 

Recent Supreme Court Opinions

The Wisconsin Supreme Court just concluded its session on June 30, releasing several important opinions. More information will be distributed from the League’s legal team once they complete their analysis of all the recent court decisions. 

• Tony Evers v. Howard Marklein, Original Action, Administrative Rules
• Josh Kaul v. Joel Urmanski, as DA for Sheboygan County, Dane County Circuit Court, Abortion
• WI State Legislature v. WI Department of Public Instruction, Dane County Circuit Court, Partial Veto Power
• Josh Kaul v. Wisconsin State Legislature, Dane County Circuit Court, Separation of Powers

Short-Term Rentals

Two recent appeals court cases addressed different issues involved in short-term rental regulation by municipalities. More information will be distributed from the League’s legal team once they complete their analysis of all the recent court decisions. 

• WI Realtors Association, Inc. v. City of Neenah, Winnebago County Circuit Court, District II Court of Appeals
• Wildwood Estate, LLC v. Village of Summit, Waukesha County Circuit Court, District II Court of Appeals

Important Updates from the League

⭐ Webinar on Recycling Rule Revisions: On July 1st, revisions to administrative rules went into effect that impact recycling responsible units (RUs) as well as haulers and materials recovery facilities (MRFs). All cities, villages, and towns that have not consolidated their services with surrounding local governments, typically counties, are considered RUs.

To help RUs better understand how these rule changes may impact their municipalities, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hosting a webinar on the rule revisions tomorrow, July 15th, from 10am to 11am. You may register for the webinar here. RUs unable to attend the webinar may find a recording of the webinar on the DNR’s website. 

⭐ Training Sessions on PASER and WISLR: Wisconsin municipalities must utilize the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) system to assess the condition of road pavement in their cities or villages and enter ratings into the Wisconsin Information System for Local Roads (WISLR). If your duties could involve PASER or WISLR but you aren’t familiar with these systems, then some upcoming training sessions may be of interest to you.

The UW Local Technical Assistance Program is hosting three different sessions titled Using PASER and WISLR to Manage Your Roads. The first option is split in two segments and will be hosted online tomorrow, July 15th and Thursday, July 17th from 10am to 3pm on both days. In-person sessions will be hosted on Tuesday, August 12th in Eau Claire and Thursday, August 14th in DeForest. If you’re interested in attending, further details and registration links may be found on here.

Additionally, the League has a publication on our website that provides some of the basics on PASER and WISLR. This three-page overview may be found on our website. 

⭐ Remediation and Redevelopment Training Webinars: Brownfields sites exist in communities of all sizes throughout the state. When faced with these decaying eye sores, municipalities may be looking to turn the blight into an economic might but aren’t sure where to start. The DNR has created a Back to Basics training series to help.

These five two-hour webinars will cover what you need to know about brownfield remediation and where to start. The second of five training sessions will take place this Thursday, July 17th from 9:30am to 11:30am, with both online and in-person options available. To learn more, register, and find the recording of the first training session, visit the DNR’s website. 

Email questions or comments to:

Toni Herkert, Government Affairs Director, therkert@lwm-info.org

Evan Miller, Government Affairs Specialist, emiller@lwm-info.org