Washington, D.C. – The Club for Growth Foundation released its 2025 Wisconsin State Economic Scorecard, detailing how each Madison lawmaker approached limited-government policy.
The Scorecard analyzes policies and votes to assign an Economic Growth Score from 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest support for pro-growth policies. In 2025, the Foundation’s study examined 269 floor votes and ultimately included 12 Wisconsin Assembly and 14 Wisconsin Senate votes.
“Wisconsin’s 2025 session showed both what reform-minded lawmakers can do and how far the state still has to go,” said Club for Growth Foundation President David McIntosh. “The Legislature passed commonsense reforms to ban taxpayer-funded guaranteed income schemes, keep public health dollars from going to illegal immigrants, and crack down on unemployment fraud, only for Gov. Evers to veto them. But the budget lawmakers sent him was no win for taxpayers: roughly $1.5 billion in tax relief was swamped by a 5.3 percent increase in general fund spending, a new hospital provider tax scheme, and more than $2.2 billion in new higher education spending. Lawmakers should stop handing out special-interest carveouts and start shrinking the spending baseline.”
Click here to read the full 2025 Wisconsin State Economic Scorecard from the Club for Growth Foundation.
Key Highlights from the 2025 Wisconsin Scorecard:
Wisconsin Assembly:
- Average Republican Score: 64%
- Average Democrat Score: 12%
- Highest-Rated Republican: Rep. Scott Allen (AD-82): 76%
- Highest-Rated Democrats: Reps. Russell Goodwin (AD-12) and Lisa Subeck (AD-79): 22%
- Lowest-Rated Republican: Rep. Kevin Petersen (AD-57): 54%
- Lowest-Rated Democrats: Reps. Steve Doyle (AD-94), Jodi Emerson (AD-91), Tara Johnson (AD-96), Maureen McCarville (AD-42), and Lori Palmeri (AD-54): 0%
Wisconsin Senate:
- Average Republican Score: 73%
- Average Democrat Score: 12%
- Highest-Rated Republican: Sen. Chris Kapenga (SD-33): 100%
- Highest-Rated Democrat: Sen. Sarah Keyeski (SD-14): 24%
- Lowest-Rated Republicans: 14 Republicans tied at 70%
- Lowest-Rated Democrat: Sen. Jeff Smith (SD-31): 0%
Notable Pro-Growth Policies:
AB 162 – MINOR WORKFORCE REFORMS
- Requires any state agency that operates a “workforce development” program to evaluate and publish the employment status of program participants at six months and one year, as well as participants’ median income and the percentage who have received new credentials, licenses, training, or degrees after program graduation.
AB 165 – BLOCKING UNEARNED GUARANTEED INCOME HANDOUTS
- Prohibits municipalities, counties, and other political subdivisions from using revenue for unearned income payments to residents under the guise of providing a guaranteed “basic income.”
AB 308 – PROHIBITING TAXPAYER-FUNDED WELFARE FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
- Prohibits state, local, and federal funds from subsidizing, reimbursing, or providing compensation for health care services to people living in the United States illegally.
SB 45 AMDT 14 – TABLING COSTLY MEDICAID EXPANSION
- Tables a budget amendment that would have expanded Medicaid to able-bodied adults under Obamacare, keeping Wisconsin one of just 10 states that have not adopted the expansion.
Notable Anti-Growth Policies:
AB 94 – INCREASED TAXPAYER FUNDING FOR UNIONS
- Ratifies the FY2024–2025 agreement between the state of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin State Building Trades Negotiating Committee for a 4.12 percent general wage adjustment for building trade craftsmen.
- Estimates suggest the increased cost to taxpayers for this new agreement, including back pay, is $622,000.
AB 185 – NORTHERN SKY THEATER TAX CARVEOUT
- Would extend an existing property tax carveout for nonprofit outdoor theaters to include nonprofits with indoor theaters that seat no fewer than 240 people and have a tax-exempt determination letter issued by the Internal Revenue Service no later than 1990.
- Would exempt the Northern Sky Theater in Gibraltar from an estimated $35,000 in annual property taxes.
SB 45 – PROFLIGATE BUDGET AGREEMENT
- Spends $46 billion in state general funds for the FY2026–2027 biennium, a 5.3 percent increase in general fund spending over the previous biennial budget.
- Including federal funds, the biennial spending increase is 12.5 percent compared to the previous budget agreement.
- Includes a 6 percent provider tax scheme for hospitals designed to generate well over $1 billion in additional Medicaid spending.
- Provides over $2.2 billion in increased higher education subsidies and capital construction projects for the University of Wisconsin system.
- Includes nearly $100 million in direct child care provider subsidies and a $66 million increase for taxpayer-subsidized pre-K programs.
- Imposes over $180 million in fee increases for the biennium.
- Provides roughly $1.5 billion in tax cuts, which are far outpaced by the budget’s spending increases.
SB 23 – POSTPARTUM MEDICAID SERVICE EXPANSION
- Expands Medicaid coverage for postpartum women to one full year after giving birth, adding an estimated $18.5 million annually to the program’s baseline.
Note: This Scorecard is based on selected votes and does not reflect a legislator’s entire voting record. The Club for Growth Foundation does not endorse or oppose any legislator for public office.