WISCONSIN (MacIver Institute) -- Taxpayers and who pays for the next wave of industrial development are the week’s through-line. While Milwaukee’s central count problems are still on the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s agenda, MacIver’s newest work puts the surplus, school-versus-tax tradeoffs, and AI data-center subsidies under the microscope. Read on for the last MacIver Monday Newsletter of August.
Spotlight
Republican Budget-Builders Want Surplus Returned To Taxpayers
Benjamin Yount reports that the Legislative Fiscal Bureau found 2025-26 tax collections at $23.1 billion—3.4% higher than last year and 2% above what lawmakers budgeted. That extra revenue is expected to push the state’s surplus above $3 billion.
Assembly budget architect Rep. Mark Born said the numbers should revive talks to return money to families, noting the Assembly already voted in May for $850 million in $300 or $600 rebates plus property-tax buy-downs and additional school aid. That package died in the Senate. Senate budget architect Sen. Howard Marklein called the failure a missed chance for relief taxpayers could use now. Democrats who opposed tapping the surplus in May were silent on the latest collections.
Deep Dive
How To Handle “Data Centers” in Wisconsin
Michael Lucas argues that much of the public fight is not about ordinary internet servers—the facilities that host email, streaming, and GPS—but about AI hyperscale data centers (AIDCs) being sold with the benefits of ordinary data centers attached. Local officials, he writes, have chased construction jobs and tax base with rezoning, TIF districts, sales-tax exemptions, and utility plans that shift power and water costs onto ratepayers.
Michael's free-market alternative is straightforward: let AIDCs build, but make them pay their own way—on-site power, full water infrastructure costs, no TIF subsidies, no developer reimbursements, and zoning rules that apply equally instead of being rewritten for Big Tech. The point is not to ban AI. It is to stop crony capitalism from dressing industrial capture up as progress.
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Coming Soon
WEC Meets Monday on Milwaukee Central Count Error as Lawmakers Demand Answers
Wisconsin Elections Commission staff drafted a letter asking Milwaukee to release August 11 audit logs, detail training fixes before November, and demonstrate the correct export process in public testing. Commissioners Bob Spindell, Rep. Dave Maxey, and Rep. Scott Krug are pressing for more than another “human error” explanation after failures in 2020, 2024, and 2026. MacIver’s position remains: treat the letter as a floor, then ban central count and send mail ballots back to the wards.
You Should Know
Marquette’s Franklin: Voters Dislike Data Centers, But It’s Not A Top Issue
Benjamin Yount covers Marquette Poll Director Charles Franklin’s warning that opposition to data centers has surged—78% now say costs outweigh benefits, and 67% support a one-year ban—but only 5% call it their top issue. Affordability still dominates November.
Quick Click
Lawmakers Order Full Audit After Green Bay Non-Profit’s Spending, Bankruptcy
Benjamin Yount reports that the Joint Audit Committee has ordered a review of the entire WISCAP anti-poverty network after Green Bay’s Newcap paid its former CEO nearly $240,000, ran a multimillion-dollar deficit, then filed for bankruptcy owing at least $4 million to more than 200 parties. Sen. Eric Wimberger says taxpayer-funded programs require real oversight—and that Newcap’s spending never triggered red flags at the Department of Children and Families.
For Your Commute
We'll be back with a new episode of the Unregulated Podcast next week!
Last Update: Aug 31, 2026 4:15 pm CDT
