January 8, 2026
In December, legislators representing districts in and around Eau Claire gathered to discuss important issues relevant to the Chippewa Valley. A panel including Rep. Dave Armstrong (R-67), Rep. Rob Summerfield (R-68), Rep. Karen Hurd (R-69), Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-91), Rep. Clint Moses (R-92), Rep. Christian Phelps (R-93), Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-25), and Sen. Jesse James (R-23) provided insight on their work at the capital and plans for 2026.
Housing
When asked about the housing issues across the state including shortages, zoning codes, and budgeting, Rep. Armstrong believes the $500 million dollar affordable housing bill passed by the assembly last year should be freed from the Senate, to further address housing issues. He shares that there have been changes the Tax Incremental Districts (TID), like the extension increase from one year to two years. Rep. Emerson agrees there should be more housing supply, especially in Eau Claire, as the city holds a low vacancy rate. Although there is a lot of growth in regard to apartments and rentals, "there's not home ownership yet, and it doesn't work for people to be able to build some kind of personal wealth." Rep. Armstrong thinks there should be a focus on supply before demand, with efforts to bring down costs which come from infrastructure and zoning.
Childcare
Rep. Phelps views the topic of childcare within Wisconsin as an emergency and that there needs to be responsible legislation passed to address it. Although this is not his expertise, Rep. Phelps says, "I'm trying to listen to childcare providers as much as I can, to hear from then what is the most helpful. I think that we need to regulate the industry as a state so that there are qualified adults working with the youngest children in a safe environment, and then come up with a strategy for providing consistent and predictable state level funding for that infrastructure." Rep. Hurd views a major problem in childcare as being that the business model is broken. "We made changes to make it [business model] successful". These changes included making facilities able to operate for four year old's, as facilities make most of their money from older children. She shares that they also increased the amount of money for those on lower incomes that they do subsidize. "We have legislation right now for a 15% refundable tax credit for any expense a business would use towards childcare". Rep. Emerson joined the discussion, noting that childcare should not be viewed as a business, stressing that there needs to be high-quality childcare for people who will one day be contributing members of society.
PFOS & Water
In the 2023 budget, $125 million was allocated for deal with PFOS in drinking water, but was never spent due to a lack of agreement on things like landowner reliability. Sen. James thinks it is important to work bipartisan to get things done, as he was a co-author on a bill with Democratic Representative Billings. This bill requires the DNR to notify counties and municipalities if there is a positive test for PFOS in their community, which was not done before. Rep. Emerson stresses the importance of holding leaders accountable for PFOS water contamination. Sen. Quinn adds that action reflects whatever the Governor is willing to sign, and they are not going to hold innocent landowners accountable for something they did not do. "We are not going to give the DNR the money without any assurances". In the meantime, the Senator shares that they did reauthorize the safe drinking water loan programs so communities have access to government backed loans for infrastructure, and not just for PFOS.
Public K-12 School Consolidation
Even with population growth in the Chippewa Valley, the student population is not growing, and in many areas, it is in decline. Senator Romaine Quinn introduced a bill that promotes and incentivizes pathways for public schools to consolidate to combat this decline. Senator Quinn begins by explaining the role of the state budget in determining what is spent on schools and how we can no longer assume “we are just going to have students in our schools,” which the budget helps to fund. He shares statistics, helping to better illustrate the student population decline, saying, “We've lost 54,000 public school kids over the last decade… we could lose another 95,000 in our whole K-12 system, about half of those being in our K through 5…” The purpose of the bill, Senator Quinn explains, it to offer a way for public schools to consider consolidation with its neighbors once they have reached a point of nonviability: “It doesn’t matter how much the state is giving per pupil… eventually the math doesn’t math out,” Senator Quinn continues, “And it’s nobody’s fault, it’s not partisan, we’re just not having kids…” This bill aims to recognize population trends and give communities a chance to address those changes in “a voluntary manner.”
Representative Christian Phelps was also asked to speak on student population trends, sharing why he has been critical of this approach. Representative Phelps makes clear that school consolidation is not new, giving the examples of Osseo-Fairchild, Eleva-Strum, and Durand-Arkansaw; however, Representative Phelps rejects “the premise that what is being offered is a voluntary incentive when it is essentially the only thing this legislature has offered public schools monetarily in a very long time.” The current state budget has offered no increase in "raw dollar amount in general aid to public schools for either year of the biennium," Representative Phelps explains, "meaning that over two-thirds of public school districts are receiving less aid from the state this year than they got last year." Representative Phelps continues saying that this budget was supposed to reimburse special education cost to the tune of 42 percent in the first year and 45 percent in the second, but "it was not written in a way that guarantees that rates so school districts are now scrambling to rewrite budgets because it looks like they will only be reimbursed for about 35% of their special-ed costs.” Representative Phelps connects the financial struggles of public education directly with trends in student populations, saying it is not simply "a declining enrollment issue," and that it is the responsibility of the legislature “for the financial lows of our districts."
Lastly, Representative Karen Hurd commented on the financial situation of special education reimbursement. Representative Hurd started by saying that "the legislator gave one billion dollars more to public schools," and said that the legislator asked public districts directly (often through superintendents), "what's more important, general school aid or special ed. They all said special ed.” Regarding the 42 percent and 45 percent reimbursements for special education costs, Representative Hurd explained that those numbers were the original plan; however, the Department of Public Infrastructure, she explained, told the legislator in November that "oops, our estimate of what the… special education was going to cost was really 9%, it’s not 4% [of the state budget]." Representative Hurd claims that the legislator is not taking away any money, “it’s the same amount… that we gave, but that estimate was off in the public sector.”
EMS Legislation
Representative Clint Moses answered a question regarding a bill he cosponsored to make EMS districts eligible for an expenditure program and some exemptions from levy limits to tackle several issues, including shortages of personnel. Representative Moses says that “if there are local districts that want to work together and pool resources, it is a no-brainer…I think it should get bipartisan support as well.” Representative Emerson tied this issue to population trends, saying, “we’re seeing fewer people staying in rural areas or moving to our rural areas,” and that “part of our job as government is to make it more tenable to move to these areas.” “If we can make Wisconsin a more family-friendly state… we're going to see younger people in those rural areas, they will volunteer for their EMS, like our grandparents used to.”
Workforce Development and Dual Enrollment
One of the great successes in workforce development has been dual enrollment of the high schools, the technical colleges, and the universities, where students are earning college credits while they’re in high school, and it is not costing their families any money. This leads to students getting into the workforce more quickly; however, the growing success has stretched available funding to support these programs. Representative Emerson expressed concerns about legislation that punished universities, explaining that when students leave high school with “three years of college credits,” they potentially are not getting “the high school experience that they needed to grow and develop emotionally.” Additionally, Representative Emerson continues, “does that give them enough time in college to become that independent adult before they go into the workforce:” “I love the idea of a high school student being able to come out of high school with some credit and a leg up,” she continues, “[but] it can’t be at the expense of… experiencing sports and clubs and things like that which make you well rounded…” Representative Armstrong expressed less concern about the “social piece and experience of college” as he was concerned with the cost of getting students an education in general. “The more we can do earlier, I think the better we are,” he explained, “[and] I’ll put in a budget request next session for increased money for AP programs because I think they are very important in high schools.”
Posted by Gigi Galdamez & Brennen Bolopue Governmental Affairs Interns
galdamez@eauclairechamber.org
bolopue@eauclairechamber.org