Sasha Ripley for Wisconsin

We need to immediately get to work to put a pause on building data centers until we have strict regulations, transparency, and input from the public. We must elect legislators who will stand up to big corporations and fight to protect our rural communities, our wilderness and waterways, and our farms. We need to ensure that companies building data centers pay their fair share of taxes from the beginning and throughout the entirety of the project and pay 100% of the costs to build, maintain, and use the facilities.

Wisconsin residents should not foot the bill for building new infrastructure, upgrading the electrical grid, or increasing gas, water, and electric rates. Workers hired to build data centers should be paid union wages and should be local whenever possible. We must demand transparency in the process. We should require quarterly reporting by energy utilities on data center energy consumption and prohibit nondisclosure agreements and the use of shell companies to hide the true identity of the companies making deals in our own communities. We must require data centers to be placed in a separate class of “very large customers” to ensure that their energy usage is kept separate from residential customers, farms, and small businesses to ensure those groups don’t get roped into paying for those costs.

Wisconsin residents have already seen dramatic increases in their electric and gas bills due to the cost of building new infrastructure and upgrading the electrical grid. Utility companies predict utility bills to continue to rise over the next two years. Under Wisconsin’s current utility model, these costs are not paid only by the companies driving up the demand, but are spread out to all customers. Since data centers also use large amounts of natural gas and diesel to generate electricity and a significant amount of water for cooling purposes, people are seeing increased heating and water bills, as well. Communities with fewer people to share these costs will be hit with even higher bills.

The Republican data center bill, AB 840, is another sell out to the wealthy corporations. This bill is meant to appear as though it is protecting Wisconsinites, while not actually putting any real restrictions on data centers. Requiring that all renewable energy facilities be built on the same property as the data centers will result in higher natural gas and diesel fuel usage for generating electricity which will result in higher bills for residents, farms, and small businesses. The Republican bill asks the PSC (WI Public Service Commission) to ensure that the data centers pay for their own energy usage without any guidance to do so and the PSC has already stated that this isn’t possible under this bill. So, essentially there will be no realistic way to require the data centers to pay for these costs.

The wealth of our state and our nation is created by our workers, not big corporations. Workers are the backbone of our society and our economy and they should be enjoying more of the profits they create. I support 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers in Wisconsin. This will prevent our hard-working Wisconsinites from being forced to choose between spending time with a new baby or caring for a sick family member and paying their rent or mortgage. This would also prevent an unexpected accident or serious illness from turning into a home foreclosure or eviction.

I support unions, fair wages, and repealing ACT 10 as soon as possible. I also support unemployment insurance reforms including higher weekly payments and eliminating the 1 week waiting period. We aren’t even close to keeping up with unemployment insurance rates of surrounding states. Wisconsin unemployment insurance rates are capped at $370 a week. With a median Wisconsin rent at around $1400, a worker can’t even cover rent and groceries at that rate. Minnesota has a maximum unemployment weekly payout of about $948, Michigan just passed a bill to raise their maximum weekly payout to $614, and Illinois has a maximum rate of over $700. I support raising Wisconsin unemployment insurance to a maximum of at least $600 a week.

We must bring good-paying jobs back to rural communities so our young people have the opportunity to stay in our small towns. I want to use tax incentives to encourage companies to bring back office jobs and remote work from home jobs from overseas to rural areas. Countless jobs in areas like customer service, call center, IT, and accounting could quickly and easily be brought back to Wisconsin. I also support Wisconsin Vision 2030 goals including creating remote work from home state jobs for rural Wisconsinites living in our small towns. This helps save the state money in building maintenance and upkeep as well as allowing rural Wisconsinites the opportunity to have careers with the state without having to move to Madison or Milwaukee.

I support adequate funding for our public schools while also reducing property taxes with a 1% tax on Wisconsin’s highest earners. I propose paying for public school funding through this new income tax and eliminating the use of property taxes to fund schools. On average, this would save Wisconsin homeowners with homes valued at $170,000 about $1,500 in property taxes a year. This plan would reduce property taxes in Wisconsin an average of 44%. I also support allowing local governments to implement their own millionaire tax and the creation of a progressive estate tax on properties valued over 5 million dollars, excluding farmland, to pay for school funding.

I support eliminating the school voucher program which has resulted in using taxpayer money to pay for students to go to private schools and has resulted in underfunding public schools and unaffordable property taxes.

Too many people in Wisconsin can’t afford their rent or to buy a home of their own. The American dream of owning your own home is quickly disappearing. Many Wisconsinites are paying over 60% of their income on housing. Young people graduating from college or getting married and starting a family can’t afford housing.

I will focus on increasing the supply of housing and bringing down prices. We must build rental housing and modest single-family homes in rural areas that are affordable for the average Wisconsin family. Rural Wisconsin residents are often forgotten when it comes to housing. Increasing supply results in more competition and less demand which will naturally bring down prices. Building new homes will also create new jobs, boost the economy, and benefit small, local businesses. Working class people and young people are often renters and we need to increase renter protections for them.

I support the bills AB 449 and SB 247 that would require local governments to allow at least one accessory dwelling unit or “granny flat” on all single or multi-family residential properties. This would be a fast and affordable way to allow people to get into a home. We must also prohibit big corporations from purchasing single-family homes.

We must end price gauging by greedy landlords and stop allowing price fixing computer algorithms that jack up rental prices. We need better eviction protections for our renters during this affordability crisis. Greed and selfishness got us into this mess and it will take caring and community to get us out of it. We must protect the future and independence of our young people by allowing them the opportunity to obtain affordable housing. We cannot allow our renters to continue to be blindsided by outrageous and unnecessary rent increases overnight.

I will propose a program to allow low-income and middle-income Wisconsinites to build modest and affordable single-family starter homes in rural areas with state sponsored low interest construction loans. I will also propose a program for building quality and attractive apartment buildings in rural areas. We must stop the band-aid approach of throwing money into subsidies and get to the root of the cause of the housing crisis. Wisconsin needs to start using tax money to build, not just subsidize. Grants, vouchers, and down-payment assistance are important tools as long as we also increase housing supply.

I’ve worked hard and I’ve remained focused on achieving a better life and being successful. However, like many of you, I’ve been unlucky enough to face significant health problems such as a pituitary tumor which required brain surgery and a meningitis infection which left me unable to work for a long period of time. I learned firsthand how quickly an illness or accident can leave you in financial distress. Most of us are just one illness or accident or a lost job away from being homeless. I am committed to supporting our local rural hospitals that are so essential to our working and middle-class Wisconsinites both for health care and for jobs. I support enforcing caps on the price of many necessary and lifesaving medications such as insulin and asthma inhalers, hospital price transparency, and prohibiting medical debt from being sent to collections or affecting credit scores. I also support regulations to prevent small hospitals and clinics from being purchased by equity firms which ultimately drive up prices and result in poor care and customer service.

All Wisconsin residents deserve the opportunity to be happy, healthy, prosperous and safe in return for their hard work. When the working-class and middle-class are prosperous and have money to spend on goods and services in the local economy, everyone benefits. Small businesses, small farms, and big corporations will be more successful when everyday Wisconsinites have money to spend on their products.

I am focused on lowering taxes for small businesses, small farms, and the middle-class to combat the hardships they’re facing due to tariffs. Right now, small business owners, farmers, and everyday Americans desperately need help dealing with rising costs in groceries, utilities, healthcare, prescription medications, housing, and education. I support capping residential electric and gas utility bills at 2% of a household’s income. We should mandate the Public Service Commission to create a program to provide relief and automatically enroll Wisconsinites . We should use data center fees to partially pay for the program. This legislation would incentivize utility companies to figure out ways to conserve energy, use renewable energy, and come up with programs to help people make older homes more energy efficient.

The government should never interfere with a woman’s right to choose when or how to start a family and should not have authority over a woman’s reproductive healthcare. I will work to ensure Wisconsin women always have the right to choose. I will also fight for the continued presence of Planned Parenthood offices throughout Wisconsin. There were many times in my life that I didn’t have access to health insurance, and I relied on the affordable and quality care provided by Planned Parenthood. Wisconsin women must continue to have access to these services in the future.

Wisconsin residents are struggling with drinking water quality due to widespread PFAS and nitrate contamination and lead leaching into the water from old pipes. We need to create legislation to clean up our drinking water and better monitor and prevent contamination so we can all stay healthy.

We must protect our beautiful Wisconsin wilderness and lakes and rivers. Many of us choose to live in Wisconsin to enjoy the variety of outdoor activities our natural resources allow us such as fishing, hunting, and hiking. We also have many small businesses that rely on outdoor activities and tourism. Our economy and quality of life depend on us prioritizing a healthy environment.