2025-2026 Legislative Bulletin

January 26, 2026

In this edition of the League's Legislative Bulletin, you'll find:

1. Court Fees, 10 Other Bills Pass in January Floorperiod 

2. Call to Action: Support Easing Access to Housing Loans 

3. Members Make the Case for Preserving ETJ Authority 

4. Public Hearing Wednesday to Raise Municipal Court Fees 

5. Recently Introduced Legislation of Municipal Importance

6. Agency Actions, including:

a. Two Months Remain to Apply for the First Innovation Grants

b. Talent Recruitment Grant Applications Due Friday

c. Telecommunications Tower Tax Exemption Reminder 

Call to Action: Support Easing Access to Housing Loans

In the 2023-2024 Legislative Session, $525 million was invested in low-interest workforce housing loan programs at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), including the Infrastructure Access, Restore Main Street, and Vacancy-to-Vitality Loan Programs. The League was an instrumental partner in this investment to ensure that financing gaps don’t prevent affordable housing projects in cities and villages.

While this historic investment was included in the 2023-2025 State Budget, barriers in the accompanying legislation have prevented these programs from being as widely utilized as the authors and supporters had hoped. Thankfully, legislators listened and introduced 2025 Assembly Bill 194. The many positive changes in AB 194 as passed by the Assembly include:

• allowing tax incremental financing and historic tax credits to be stacked with housing loans to ensure that all financing gaps and cost constraints may be addressed,

• increasing the maximum loan amounts that may be awarded in all three programs, measured either as a percentage of project cost or a per unit dollar figure,

• lowering the number of dwelling units that must be created in the Vacancy-to-Vitality Program for municipalities under 10,000 in population from 16 or more to 4 or more,

• allowing mixed-use developments to qualify for the Vacancy-to-Vitality Program while ensuring loan funds are only used for the residential portion of the development, and

• moving the lookback date from January 1, 2023 to January 1, 2020 for municipal ordinance or other regulatory changes necessary for the cost reduction analysis.

AB 194 passed the full Assembly on a voice vote, meaning there was no registered opposition, on Tuesday, October 7th. The companion to AB 194, Senate Bill 180, passed through committee with a bipartisan vote on Friday, May 9th. Despite being ready to bring to the Senate floor for months, the full Senate is yet to act on AB 194. Meanwhile, projects throughout the state contingent on these changes have stalled and are at risk of being cancelled.

If your city or village is seeking more affordable housing projects that could benefit from these changes, we’re asking that you contact your municipality’s Senator and ask them to support bringing AB 194 to the floor in February. With only two floorperiods remaining in the 2025-2026 Legislative Session for the Senate, time is running short to get these changes in place for future WHEDA loan application cycles.

When contacting your Senator, please be certain to include: 

• a direct and respectful request that they support bringing AB 194 to the floor of the Senate,

• a summary of the housing needs in your municipality and a desire for more affordable housing, and

• a note of the strong support for AB 194 with 53 legislative co-sponsors and 22 lobbying groups in-support. Also note there is NO OPPOSITION.

If you’d like to learn more about the League’s position on this bill, you may review our testimony on AB 194 on our website. If you’re not certain which Senator represents your municipality or how to get in touch with their office, this GIS map will help. Type in your municipality, and the Senator representing your area, along with contact information for their office, will appear on the righthand side of your screen. 

Public Hearing Wednesday to Raise Municipal Court Fees

This Wednesday, January 28th, the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety will hold a public hearing on two separate initiatives that would raise the maximum allowable municipal court fee. As mentioned in the January floorperiod recap section above, these bills which made the League’s end of session 2026 priorities list have recently passed the Assembly with bipartisan support. Now, a Senate committee will consider the first increase to municipal court fees in over a decade. More information on the two individual proposals is below.

Senate Bill 333, authored by Senator Wanggaard (R-Racine) and Representative Allen (R-Waukesha), tackles all court fees in Wisconsin, including county and municipal courts. For municipal courts, this legislation would raise the thresholds from the current range of $15 to $38 to a new range of $42 to $51. This would mean that all municipalities must adjust their fees as the previous ceiling for court fees would now be below the new floor.

Senate Bill 470 and Assembly Bill 443, authored by Senator Wanggaard (R-Racine) and Representative Kaufert (R-Neenah), address just municipal courts. The legislation would raise the maximum fee from $38 to $48. The current minimum fee of $15 would remain. Additionally, an amendment addresses a technical clarification to current statues. The amendment would allow the municipal court to collect the fee. Current law states this is the responsibility of the judge.

It's important to note that, under current law which would not be altered by either bill, $5 per action (i.e., per fee) must be provided to the state. In other words, while the maximum fees would be increased to a proposed $51 or $48 under these bills, respectively, the municipality would retain a maximum of $46 or $43 should either of these bills become law.

If your municipality is interested in supporting an increase to municipal court fees, please consider joining the League in the State Capitol this Wednesday to testify in-support of this legislation.

The hearing will begin at 10am in Room 411 South. We ask that, if you plan on joining us, you let us know by emailing Toni and Evan at the email addresses listed at the end of this Legislative Bulletin. We can provide you with information and answer questions in advance of the hearing. A copy of our testimony on AB 443 laying out the League’s arguments in-support of this initiative, which may help to direct your comments to the committee, may be found on the League’s website.

If you’re interested in registering your municipality’s support for raising municipal court fees in Wisconsin but are unable to join us at Wednesday’s hearing due to scheduling conflicts, please reach out to Toni and Evan by emailing us at the addresses listed at the end of this Bulletin. 

⭐If you would like to contact your legislators on any bills mentioned in the Legislative Bulletin, you can find contact information for all legislators here. To find out which legislators represent your community, use the "Find Your Legislator" function on the right side of the page. 

Agency Actions

Two Months Remain to Apply for the First Innovation Grants

Applications to the Innovation Grant Program are due by March 31st, meaning there is just two months remaining to make sure your municipality is part of the first round of awards. To date, five applications have been submitted, with four coming from cities and villages. The Innovation Grant Program allows municipalities to receive grant funding to support the transfer of an allowable service or duty to another entity.

To qualify, an agreement must be for a minimum of three years and will result in a total cost that does not exceed 115% of the total costs for that service or duty in the year prior to the agreement. Eligible applicants will receive up to a maximum of five annual grant payments that are equal to 25% of the total costs for the service or duty paid by the transferring municipality in the year prior to the agreement.

In October, the League hosted a webinar detailing the Innovation Grant Program with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR). A recording of that webinar may be found on the League’s YouTube page, and slides from the webinar may be found on the League’s website.

A total of $300 million is available. To take full advantage of the program, you’re encouraged to apply now! First Round applications are due by March 31, 2026. More information on the program may be found on DOR’s website. 

Talent Recruitment Grant Applications Due Friday

The Talent Recruitment Grant Program was created to help flip Wisconsin’s projected demographic trends and address our workforce shortage. Launched with the League’s support through a $5 million investment in the 2025-2027 State Budget, this program allows local governments and certain other groups to receive grant funding to implement a plan that brings out-of-state residents to their area.

Applications to the Talent Recruitment Grant Program are due this Friday, January 30th. Applicants are encouraged to be innovative and tailor the project to your community. Eligible projects may include marketing campaigns, relocation incentives, or community engagement programs and may involve employers and educators. Additional information is available on the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s website.

We know municipalities are creative, so we look forward to seeing all the exciting ideas that emerge from this program! 

Telecommunications Tower Tax Exemption Reminder

DOR is reminding municipal assessors of a new tax exemption for radio, cellular, and telecommunication towers. The exemption is effective as of January 1st. For towers that are assessed locally as real property, assessors should ask property owners to complete Form PR-230 by March 1st for the exemption request. Additional information including links to forms and other useful information may be found in DOR’s email. 

Email questions or comments to:

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

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