Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany met Wednesday evening in Milwaukee for the only debate in Wisconsin’s race for governor. The debate, hosted by WISN and moderated by Matt Smith and Gerron Jordan, lasted for an hour. Crowley worked to portray Tiffany as a yes-man for his billionaire donors and President Donald Trump, while Tiffany cast Crowley as an extreme liberal focused only on raising taxes and distracted by his dislike of Trump.
Polling has shown that Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race remains close, with Crowley maintaining a slight lead. If Crowley wins, he would be the first Black man elected governor of Wisconsin and would represent an extension of Gov. Tony Evers’ eight years in office, especially if Democrats are able to fulfill their ambition to win majority control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time in more than 15 years. A Tiffany victory would represent a return to the Gov. Scott Walker era of politics in the state, focused on deregulation and tax cuts, and would mean Republicans gain control of a key swing state ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
The debate opened with an extended discussion about the economy, taxes, and the state budget as affordability has become one of the main issues of concern to voters in this year’s midterm elections. Tiffany has built his campaign on the promise of massive tax cuts. He said he would cut property and income taxes while maintaining funding for government services. Since the early days of his campaign, Tiffany has argued that he can deliver massive tax cuts without significant cuts. “We are going to have sufficient money in this budget to be able to fund the things that are important to Wisconsinites: education, transportation, and infrastructure, healthcare, we’re going to have money there, and here’s why,” he said. “When you look at the last budget that was passed a year ago, it went up $15 billion, went from $99 billion to $114 billion, a 15% increase, the largest increase ever in a state budget. There is plenty of money in Madison to be able to provide more shared revenue, to give increased aid to our schools, there is enough money in Madison to be able to backfill those things that we need to.”
The most recent state budget, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Evers, cut $1.3 billion in taxes while increasing funding for the University of Wisconsin system, childcare providers, and special education. During a conversation about transportation funding, Crowley questioned how Tiffany will pay for his tax plans. “Congressman Tom Tiffany doesn’t have any plans,” Crowley said. “Congressman Tiffany literally just said that he would cut billionaire taxes to 0%. And how we’re going to fund transportation? He has no clue. How are you going to get the revenues when you continuously cut the amount of revenues coming into government? This is the reason why cities, towns, villages, and our school districts all across the state are struggling today, and that’s because he doesn’t work for the people. He’s working for the billionaires. He’s going to do anything and everything that they tell him to do because that’s who he’s been in the pockets of.”
Throughout the campaign, Tiffany has criticized Crowley for rising property taxes in Milwaukee County and the increase in the county sales tax included in a bipartisan 2023 deal to inject more money into local government budgets. The total property tax levy collected by Milwaukee County each year has increased, but the property tax rate actually paid by individual homeowners has not.
