Invest in Communities
Every child and family, from Racine to Rhinelander, deserves a solid foundation in life.
But for decades, the wealthy few have rigged the rules and diverted sorely necessary investment from our neighborhoods to their pocketbooks. This, fueled by fear-based racial biases, has left communities of color deeply isolated from opportunity. But structural racism hurts everyone, including white families. We need to address the root causes of these inequities and remove the barriers, created by the wealthy few, that hold our families and neighbors back from living a peaceful, healthy, and happy life.
To invest in communities in Wisconsin, we must…
Target tax cuts for working families. Wisconsin’s tax system requires families with fewer resources to pay a larger share of their income than the wealthiest one percent. The budget should use its additional revenue wisely by targeting tax cuts to low and middle income families, increasing refundable tax cuts that help families with low incomes, and reducing tax breaks for the highest income earners. Targeted tax credits that Kids Forward supports include:
Increasing the Earned Income and Homestead Tax Credit to help working families meet basic needs
Increasing the child and dependent care credit
Creating a refundable tax credit for family caregivers
Expanding property tax credits for veterans and their surviving spouses
Invest at least $300 million per year to continue funding for Child Care Counts. Since 2020, the Child Care Counts program has been crucial for Wisconsin parents and caregivers and Wisconsin's child care infrastructure. It has supported provider compensation, allowed programs to keep tuition as reasonable as possible, and enabled more providers in both rural and urban areas to stay open and serve families. Reliable child care is essential for working families to stay employed.
Allow occupational credentials for DACA recipients. State law should be amended so that Wisconsin residents with DACA status can work in professions that require professional licensure, such as teachers, plumbers, nursing assistants, or dentists.
Tuition equity for all Wisconsin residents. Amend state residency laws so that in-state tuition rates apply for all Wisconsin students who meet state residency requirements regardless of their immigration status, including those with DACA and people without documentation.
Increase aid to school districts to support education for English language learners in schools. Increasing bilingual services would improve the academic environment for students of color, many of whom speak Spanish or Hmong as their first language. This will also allow for rural districts to have access to the resources they need for English Learner students.
Repeal or cap the manufacturing and agricultural tax credit. This credit primarily benefits millionaires and lets many manufacturers pay almost no income taxes. Reinvest those savings into public infrastructure, education, and other local community needs.
Allow communities to maintain local control by overturning rules that preempt increasing wages, organizing, renters’ rights, and creating paid family leave policies. The Wisconsin legislature preempts cities and local governments from pursuing higher wages. This disproportionately affects Black, Brown, and rural communities.
Invest in communities through increased Youth Aids allocations. The Governor’s budget should include community-based alternatives to incarceration that are youth-centered, evidence-based, and often more cost-effective. These proposals also build on reforms that have occurred over the past two decades in Wisconsin and align with recent legislation aimed at restructuring the juvenile justice system towards a “Wisconsin Model of Youth Justice.”