By State Rep. Robyn Vining
State Representative Robyn Vining
I understand that in politics we will disagree, and that the call on us is to find areas of agreement, come together, and solve problems. One of these problems, which has bipartisan agreement that it is a problem, is the personal property tax. I led the way, along with State Sen. Brad Pfaff, on the repeal of the personal property tax because the conversation had stalled, and I am not willing to settle for that.
I came into the legislature saying I’d fight for women, children, families, affordable and accessible health care, safe, healthy schools, equality, fair maps and small businesses. The personal property tax hurts small businesses, so we need to repeal it. The longevity of the personal property tax and constant carve outs have created an administrative burden on small businesses and local governments alike, and so we needed to fix it. To fix the problem, we need to repeal the tax. To repeal this unnecessary tax, we need to pass a bill that doesn’t harm local governments by hurting their ability to provide services we depend on like public safety, snow removal, and garbage pickup. The legislation I introduced to repeal this tax will help small businesses grow and protect our cities and villages from unnecessary budget cuts that would hurt public safety in our communities.
The bill proposed by Republicans, and vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers, didn’t do these things. Democrats worked hard to convince Republicans to amend the bill in a way that ensured it would be signed into law. Unfortunately, those reasonable changes were ignored. This immediately led us to action to fix the bill, reintroduce it, and hopefully get it passed and signed into law this session.
While I understand in Madison there are varying opinions, and disagreements, we cannot allow our disagreements to be a reason important legislation doesn’t get signed into law.
The personal property tax is hurting small businesses, and now is the time to come together and, once and for all, eliminate it. We were sent to Madison by our constituents to work together to make their lives better. Let’s come together and get the job done.