Senator Chris Larson

It turns out giving massive tax breaks to the rich and corporations while letting our state rank in per-pupil education spending go from 1st in the Midwest to 7th over the past 20+ years is not a recipe for economic success.

Republicans have controlled the WI legislature since 2011. In that time, we have ranked in the bottom half of U.S. States in 4 major economic growth indicators: Population, Labor Force, Real GDP, and Household Income.

Class warfare is not: making millionaires and billionaires pay more in taxes so that nobody in the richest country on earth has to go hungry, everyone has affordable housing and healthcare, and our public schools have the resources needed for our kids to thrive.

What "class warfare" is: billionaires convincing the middle class that they can become millionaires if they stop poor people from becoming middle class.

I’m a proud co-sponsor of legislation that would do this at the state level. We can’t build trust and keep communities safe if the people entrusted to do this work are operating under a veil of secrecy.

The Milwaukee Police Department has announced it will add language to its uniform standard operating procedure that explicitly prohibits officers from using facial coverings to conceal their identity. This should be the standard for all law enforcement - fed, state, and local.

The reason we don't have universal healthcare in the U.S. is that the people who profit off of the status quo spend billions of dollars to maintain it. We must take the profit motive out of healthcare.

Two-thirds of Americans say the federal government has a responsibility to ensure all Americans have health care coverage, Sadly, about 8.5% remain uninsured, and millions more can't afford to use the coverage they do have.

@DaveGoecks Or more accurately, business owners increasingly file their business taxes under the individual tax code, but still qualify for huge giveaways like the Wisconsin Manufacturing and Ag Credit. Wait - are you admitting customers must also be the real job creators, not CEOs? Bravo!

@SenChrisLarson Corporations don't pay taxes, Senator. Customers pay taxes. Private schooling didn't work out so well for you.

Wisconsin has seen the largest drop in taxes as a % of income of any U.S. state over the past quarter-century. So why does it feel like the opposite is true for most families?

We need to go back to the truly progressive tax code our state pioneered 114 years ago, where the rich and corporations actually pay their fair share - because this right here is bonkers:

It's pretty simple. Our income tax has gotten much flatter, putting more of the burden of funding schools and municipal governments on property and sales taxes, which are highly regressive.

The bad news: The Trump Admin seems to very much want to use AI to surveil Americans and empower autonomous weapons.

The good news: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced today that the company will NOT back down on its refusal to allow their AI tech to be used to surveil U.S. citizens or empower autonomous weapons.

The legislature could end this tomorrow by meeting to create a sustainable, adequate funding formula for our kids’ schools. What are we waiting for?

For 17 years, funding from the state has fallen behind inflation, leaving districts with few options and forcing a record-setting string of ballot referendums statewide (and rapidly increasing property taxes).

How bad is Wisconsin’s school funding formula? Well, this week, 5 school districts from across the state sued the legislature, citing failure of the body to meet its constitutional obligation to provide a “sound basic education to all kids.

This bill sets minimum nurse to patient ratios in WI hospitals, and provides several other critical workplace protections that will keep nurses safe and healthy on the job while increasing the quality of care across our state.

This must end. Today, I was proud to join Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, Wisconsin State Senator Melissa Ratcliff, and direct care nurses for the introduction of the Nurse Staffing and Patient Protection Act.

Our nurses are heroes. It was obvious during the pandemic, and it remains just as true today. Unfortunately, too many nurses are leaving the profession prematurely due to being overworked, undervalued, and forced to care for more patients than they can safely care for.