Gov. Evers Takes Action on Dozens of Bills

• Makes adoption a required topic instead of a recommended topic that a school district must cover as part of human growth and development instruction, if the school district provides such instruction.

• Extends the alternative open enrollment application timeframe from 30 days to 90 days for families that have moved due to military orders from any branch or reserve component of the U.S. Armed Forces, the state defense force, or the National Guard of any state, providing flexibility to military families, helping them choose the right school district for their children.

• Creates an income tax subtraction for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2025, for any amount of basic pay income received by a member of the National Guard or a reserve component of the U.S. Armed Forces and any amount of inactive-duty training compensation.

• Increases the stipend to organizations that perform military funeral honors; and
• Extends funeral honors to qualifying Hmong and Laotian veterans.

• Allows for a qualified veteran to indicate on their operator's license or identification card that they are a veteran, providing clarity on who can obtain a veteran status designation on their driver's license or state identification card, and will allow recognition for the service of all Wisconsin veterans.

• Allows for two additional lamps to be mounted on a school bus that illuminate the rear wheels while backing up;
• Allows a school bus to have an illuminated sign placed above the front windshield and an illuminated sign mounted on the rear above the window; and
• Allows for a light-emitting diode (LED) strobe light mounted on the roof.

• Requires all approved driver education courses to include instruction relating to student crossings, school bus lights, and when cars must stop for a stopped school bus, including how requirements are affected by highway configuration.

• Increases penalties for violation of the terms of use of ignition interlock devices (IID);
• Creates an appeal process for violations;
• Eliminates waiting periods for occupation licenses if an IID is installed on a vehicle; and
• Restricts a person ordered to only operate vehicles equipped with an IID from operating motorcycles as well.

• Clarifies that the residential exemption from the electric vehicle (EV) charging tax includes all charger levels (Level 1, 2, and 3) located at a residence, correcting a drafting error in 2023 Wisconsin Act 121;
• Defines "electric vehicle" to clarify that golf carts, electric bicycles, and other micromobility devices are not considered EVs and are not subject to the EV charging tax; and
• Requires that if an EV charging station is owned or operated by a limited liability company (LLC), the LLC would be required to register and file EV charging tax returns under the LLC's name and identification number.

• Creates a local levy limit exception for amounts levied by a county or municipality for costs associated with regional emergency medical services (EMS) and excludes those expenditures from consideration when determining eligibility in the expenditure restraint incentive program, supporting regional delivery of EMS by providing targeted levy limit flexibility to encourage shared service arrangements and cost efficiencies across multiple municipalities.

• Requires that when a fine or forfeiture is reduced, the penalty surcharge must be proportionally reduced, providing clarity for local governments.

• First applied to the 2028 General Election, establishes or modifies deadlines relating to canvassing, certifying, and recounting ballots cast in a presidential election to align with the Electoral Count Reform Act;
• Requires the certified slate of presidential electors to meet on the date specified in federal law; and
• Makes the necessary changes to the timeline of certifying presidential elections and other presidential election procedures to ensure the state is in compliance with the Electoral Count Reform Act, thereby ensuring presidential election and electoral college votes are properly counted.

• Makes it easier for victims of sexual extortion and their families to get compensation from perpetrators by creating a civil cause of action for victims of sexual extortion or their representatives to recover special and general damages, including damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, and costs, including attorneys' fees and investigation costs;
• Allows for the action to be brought regardless of whether there was a criminal action for sexual extortion; and
• Provides that the plaintiff may substitute their initials, fictitious initials, their age, or name, and address from the summons and complaint, and includes certain provisions to protect the plaintiff's name and identifying information and protect them from unreasonably long, repetitive, or burdensome physical or mental examinations.

• Appropriates $400,000 in each year of the 2025-27 biennium to the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) for internet crimes against children law enforcement.

• Authorizes the creation of four internet crimes against children positions at DOJ.

• Adds the crime of sexual extortion, if the crime victim was a child at the time of the violation, to the definition of "internet crime against a child" for the purposes of the attorney general's administrative subpoena authority.

• Requires DOJ to conduct a children's online digital safety awareness campaign; and
• Requires DOJ to provide any of the materials developed for the digital safety awareness campaign to schools, free of charge upon request.

• Allows claimants of the research income and franchise tax credit to carry over unused research credits for 50 taxable years to offset their future tax liability instead of the 15 taxable years allowed under current law; and
• Specifies that its provisions apply retroactively to all research income and franchise tax credits claimed from previous taxable years that have not been used to offset tax, have not expired, or have not been refunded.

• Revises and expands Wisconsin's Technical Education Equipment Training grant program administered by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, giving school districts greater flexibility to upgrade facilities, acquire industry-relevant tools, and invest in instructor training, including:
  • Broadening the allowable uses of grant funds to include additional specified purposes such as new construction and instructional training;
  • Simplifying the matching fund requirement to a one-to-one match regardless of funding source; and
  • Authorizing in-kind contributions such as software, tools, and equipment to count toward that match.

• Prevents a public or charter school from prohibiting a student who is a Tribal member, descendant of a Tribal member, or eligible for Tribal membership from wearing traditional Tribal regalia at a graduation or school-sponsored event.

• Expands the methods through which a student may complete the 0.5 credit financial literacy graduation requirement to include completing a financial literacy program in high school grades offered by a financial institution or by completing an Advanced Placement course in business with personal finance.

• Expands the existing filing fee waiver for LLCs formed by student entrepreneurs by broadening the definition to include students who are at least 18 years old and enrolled in a public, private, or Tribal high school in Wisconsin, or who are homeschooled under a home-based private educational program.

• Modifies the amount an individual may deposit into their independence account over a 12-month period and remain eligible for the Medicaid Purchase Plan; and
• Requires the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) to submit any federal state plan amendment, waiver, or approval determined necessary to implement these changes.

• Requires operators of virtual currency, also known as cryptocurrency, kiosks in Wisconsin to be licensed as money transmitters and establishes consumer protection and fraud prevention requirements applicable to those kiosks.

• Strengthens Wisconsin's long-term care insurance market by creating an individual and franchise long-term care insurance assessment tax credit and a long-term care insurance license fee credit for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2026, to protect policyholders from company failure or insolvency;
• Makes each credit equal to 20 percent of the amount of the long-term care insurance assessment paid by the insurer;
  • The credit would be refundable for disability insurers and nonrefundable for all other claimants.
• Adds a segregated account for long-term care insurance to the Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund;
• Requires the fund's board of directors to classify life insurers and disability insurers through a certain calculation regarding the state share of their insurance premiums; and
• Requires life insurers and disability insurers to elect whether to claim the income and franchise tax credit or the insurer license fee credit created by the bill.

Assembly Bill 700, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 228:

• Creates a sum sufficient appropriation for refundable credit payments made for the long-term care insurance assessment credit created by Assembly Bill 699, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 227, if that bill or any bill containing its identical text is enacted into law.

• Establishes a legal framework for dental service provider network rentals and provides disclosure requirements for insurers and contractual flexibility for dental service providers;
• Requires contracts signed between insurers and dental service providers to include a notification if the insurer engages in the practice of network rental and a list of all current entities to which the network may be rented;
• Requires insurers to notify the dental service provider that the insurer has entered into an agreement to rent the dental service provider's contract within 45 days;
• Specifies that all terms and conditions of the original contract between the dental service provider and insurer must be abided by, including discounted rates or fees, if the network is rented out to additional insurance plans, organizations, or insurers; and
• Allows dental service providers flexibility to terminate their participation in the contract with the entity to which they have been rented without terminating the original contract with the insurer that has rented out their network.

• Protects insurance policyholders by establishing requirements for and restrictions on residential contractors involved in repairing or replacing residential real estate damage covered under property insurance policies.

• Allows out-of-state persons to donate to the drug repository program in Wisconsin and allows persons in Wisconsin to donate to drug repository programs in other states;
• Specifies that drugs that may be donated under the program include prescription and nonprescription drugs;
• Eliminates rulemaking requirements and instead imposes those provisions in statute;
• Specifies patient eligibility to receive a donated drug or supply;
• Allows a for-profit entity to charge a patient who receives a donated drug or supply a handling fee in an amount that does not exceed the for-profit entity's cost of providing the drug or supply;
  • The bill expressly provides that no other limitation may be imposed on the amount that a patient may be charged for a donated drug or supply.
• Imposes various requirements for storage, packaging, labeling, and recordkeeping for drugs and supplies donated under the drug repository program; and
• Modernizes the existing Wisconsin Drug Repository Program and may improve access to medication for Wisconsinites who utilize the program.

• Ratifies and enters Wisconsin into the Social Work Licensure Compact, providing social workers with the ability to become eligible to practice in Wisconsin and other compact states, helping to address social work workforce shortages, especially in rural and underserved areas of the state.

• By seeking to cover certain reentry services, this bill aims to improve care transitions and increase continuity of health coverage, reduce disruptions in care, improve health outcomes, and reduce recidivism rates;
• Requires DHS to submit a request to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a waiver of federal Medicaid law to conduct a demonstration project to provide pre-release healthcare coverage to incarcerated individuals for up to 90 days before release if the individual is otherwise eligible for coverage under the Medicaid program; and
• Specifies that the following services would be covered under the Medicaid program:
  • Case management services;
  • Medication-assisted treatment for all types of substance use disorders; and
  • A 30-day supply of prescription medications.

• Updates and reorganizes statutes governing county registers of deeds, including provisions related to document recording standards and formatting requirements;
• Increases the recording fee for transportation project plats; and
• Creates a Class I felony for knowingly providing a forged document for recording.

• Allows cities, villages, and certain towns to create residential tax incremental districts (TIDs), giving municipalities another tool to boost affordable housing options;
• Requires that the equalized value of taxable property in each residential TID project, plus the value of all residential TIDs in the municipality, not exceed three percent of the total equalized value of taxable property in the city, village, or town; and
• Requires any project costs associated with a residential TID to meet a variety of development requirements, such as certain limits for single-family and two-family lot sizes, setbacks, and structure sizes.

• Makes changes to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program, including a requirement that, if possible, at least 35 percent of the state tax credits be allocated to rural area housing projects;
• Removes the requirement that a qualified low-income housing project be financed with tax-exempt bonds; and
• Makes a technical change to the credit for insurers so that an insurer that is a shareholder of a tax-option corporation, a partner of a partnership, or a member of an LLC may claim the credit.

• Makes certain modifications to the Infrastructure Access Loan program, the Restore Main Street Loan program, and the Commercial-to-Housing Conversion Loan program, also known as the Vacancy-to-Vitality program, created in the 2023-25 Biennial Budget.

• Modifies the historic rehabilitation tax credit generally by allowing the Wisconsin historic rehabilitation tax credit to be claimed in certain cases where the federal credit is not being claimed; and
• Modifies the current $3.5 million per parcel limit to allow subsequent rehabilitation after 15 years.

• Creates a workforce home revolving loan program at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to provide gap financing to supplement a conventional mortgage for the purchase of a single-family residence in Wisconsin that is new construction, and that will be the eligible applicant's primary residence; and
• Under the bill, the program would be initially funded with a reallocation of up to $10 million from funds previously allocated for the Infrastructure Access Program, the Restore Main Street Program, and the Vacancy-to-Vitality Program created through the 2023-25 Biennial Budget.

In addition to signing the above bills, Gov. Evers also partially vetoed Assembly Bill 1034, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 203, relating to the rights and obligations concerning the use of name, image, and likeness for UW System student athletes and athletic programs. The governor's partial veto will ensure the legislation, as enacted, will better reflect the intent that the funding alleviate existing debt service and ensure greater flexibility for the funding to be used effectively, and allow the System to maximize the state's investment.

Veto Message for Assembly Bill 1034.

Gov. Evers also vetoed several bills. The governor's veto messages are available below.

Veto Message for Assembly Bill 241
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 502
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 595
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 793
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 880
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 881
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 882
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 955
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 956
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 998
Veto Message for Assembly Bill 1027