2025-2026 Legislative Bulletin | |
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Briefing Event Sets the Stage for New Session
Last Monday, January 27th, the League hosted a briefing event titled The Workings of Wisconsin’s Municipal Governments: Local Functions at a Glance for Legislators and staff. For a first-time event, we’re very pleased with how it turned out. The two-hour briefing covered a wide range of issues, including governance, finance and budgeting, public safety, transportation, public works, land use, housing, economic development, tax incremental financing, and parks and recreation.
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Presenters from Appleton, Ashwaubenon, Boscobel, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Fort Atkinson, Milwaukee, Rib Mountain, Sheboygan Falls, Washburn, Watertown, Westby, Ehlers, and the League shared their expertise and experience with a room of around 50 Legislators and staff. Instead of pitching our Legislative Agenda, this event simply offered education on municipal responsibilities and examples of what municipalities throughout the state do every day. This helps to create a more informed legislative body that will consider the impacts of statewide proposals on municipalities.
Thank you to all our presenters, attendees, and legislative sponsors, Representative Novak and Senator Tomczyk, for making this first briefing event a success.
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While the briefing was the first major legislative engagement for League this Legislative Session, please mark your calendars for upcoming member engagement opportunities with legislators.
Next are our six 2025 Regional Roundtables. Beaver Dam is up first on Thursday, February 13th. Legislators within 50 miles of each regional roundtable site will be invited to these events.
Also, please mark your calendar for Wednesday, May 7th, when the League will host our day at the Capitol event, with programming in the morning taking place at the Monona Terrace and visits to local legislators in the afternoon.
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We hope to see you at a Regional Roundtable event and in our state’s Capitol this year! | |
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Recently Introduced Bills of Municipal Importance
The first of many bills that will be proposed in the 2025-2026 Legislative Session have now been introduced. The following bills have been added to the list of those being monitored by the League, but no formal position on these proposals has been taken to date.
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Senate Bill (SB) 3: Local Approval of Solar and Wind Projects – Sen. Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Tranel (R-Cuba City) – This bill requires each city, village, or town to adopt a resolution in support or opposition to a proposed solar or wind energy generation projects of 15 megawatts or larger that are located within the local government’s borders. The local governments have 90 days, with certain opportunities for extensions, and if no resolution is adopted, it’s considered to be approved by the body. The PSC may not issue a certificate to construct a wind or solar project unless each impacted local government approves of the project.
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SB 4: Authorizing Direct Primary Care Agreements – Sen. Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton) and Rep. Duchow (R-Town of Delafield) – Direct primary care is a healthcare business model that offers patients, either individually or through an employer, to purchase a membership that allows access to primary care services without making an insurance claim. Advocates argue that the provider’s lack of administrative overhead for insurance claims reduces consumer costs for routine screenings, management of chronic conditions, acute-care visits, and other primary care services. Direct primary care already exists in Wisconsin, and this bill clarifies that these agreements are health care services, not health insurance services, for the purposes of state regulation and oversight. The League is looking to hear from members on whether direct primary care has been explored by your city or village. Answering this short survey (five questions or less) will help us determine whether this model could be viable to help control municipal health insurance costs.
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SB 6: Impoundment of Vehicles Used in Certain Traffic Offenses – Sen. Jacque (R-De Pere) and Rep. Penterman (R-Hustisford) – This bill authorizes local governments to impound vehicles for up to 90 days for certain traffic offenses on a highway under local jurisdiction. Those offenses include operating a vehicle without a valid license, speeding at a rate of 25 miles per hour greater than the speed limit, fleeing from an officer, or racing on a highway. According to the authors, this proposal compliments 2023 Wisconsin Act 1, which authorized local governments to adopt ordinances to impound vehicles used in reckless driving offenses.
⭐If you would like to contact your legislators on any bills mentioned in the 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 site.
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Brief Summary of the Legislative Process
Over the course of the next roughly 14 months in the 2025-2026 Legislative Session, more than 1,000 proposals are likely to be introduced in each chamber of the Legislature, with only a couple hundred proposals becoming law. While local officials are undoubtedly familiar with the general process of legislating, each body has slightly different rules governing how proposals are considered, and the Wisconsin State Legislature is no different. To better understand how a bill becomes a law in the State Capitol, check out the League's quick breakdown of the normal legislative process in Wisconsin.
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Status of Federal Funding
Members may have been following the Trump Administration’s decision to pause federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. To recap, on January 27th, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum temporarily pausing federal funding disbursements while determining the compliance of these funding disbursements with recently issued Executive Orders.
Following a federal judge issuing a temporary stay on that decision, OMB rescinded the January 27th memorandum on January 29th. Instead, the Administration clarified that any program not implicated by specific Executive Orders is not subject to the pause. A list of impacted programs is not currently available.
The League, in collaboration with our federal partners at the National League of Cities, will continue to monitor developments surrounding federal funding and how it may impact Wisconsin’s cities and villages.
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League Comments on Alcohol Regulation Rule
As mentioned in the last Legislative Bulletin, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) has promulgated emergency rules to govern the implementation of 2023 Wisconsin Act 73, last session’s major overhaul of alcohol regulation. Emergency Rule 2419 took effect on December 14th, 2024. You can read the text of the rule here.
DOR recently held a public comment period to gather feedback on the emergency rule to ensure final language considers the impact on the regulated community and municipal partners. The League appreciates DOR’s communication throughout the rulemaking process. We recently submitted our final comments on the rule for DOR’s consideration which may be read here.
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Municipal Road Needs Highlighted on Podcast
Jerry Deschane, the League’s Executive Director, recently joined the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin (TDA) Executive Director Debby Jackson to discuss the League’s goals for 2025, including municipal needs for transportation funding and the importance of thinking of the transportation system as a whole. Along with his role at the League, Jerry currently serves as President of TDA. Listen to TDA’s podcast here.
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