A budget is a statement of values, but we often forget to ask, “Which values?” and “Who gets to pick them?” What were the values expressed by Wisconsin’s 2025-27 budget? Or the City of Milwaukee’s 2026 budget? What are the values held by those in power right now?
The answers aren’t pretty. Wisconsin’s 2025-27 budget fails our K-12 public schools, lets childcare funding run out, establishes no plans for how to close Wisconsin’s most brutal jails and prisons, and leaves hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding on the table.
This budget deepens our reliance on property taxes instead of making wealthy individuals and corporations pay their fair share. This was foreseeable, and it’s why the Wisconsin Legislative Socialist Caucus voted against it, as did most of the Democratic Caucus…