Wisconsin
What to do with Wisconsin's $3 billion surplus? One senator wants to give everyone nearly $1,000
KENOSHA, Wis. (CBS 58) — Wisconsin has a surplus of more than $3 billion, and the state’s top leaders can’t agree on what to do with it. One state senator insists he’s come up with the perfect compromise: Send every taxpayer a check.
State Sen. Robert Wirch (D-Somers) put a bill into circulation this week that would divide the surplus among each of the state’s income tax filers. Under Wirch’s proposal, individual taxpayers would get a one-time rebate of $982 while married joint filers would get $1,964.
Wirch said in an interview Thursday he came up with the idea on his own.
“I drove through the McDonald’s line, and the lady that gave me my coffee and a Egg McMuffin, I thought, ‘My God, if this woman could get $1,000, that would be great!’” Wirch said.
Wirch’s district includes Kenosha, and as one might expect, people here were on board with the idea of the state sending them a check.
“We got lucky somehow. Business was better and more tax receipts, and we got a surplus,” Bob Baruskok said. “But at the end of the day, it’s our money. I think everybody should get one-thousands bucks.”
For others, the one-time payouts would help them close in on some of their savings goals.
“Pay my bills, a couple of my bills that I need to pay off,” Gabriel Nunnery said. “Put something together to try to get me a car with some of the money that I have.”
Under the proposal, part-time and out-of-state residents would not qualify for the rebate checks, even if they pay some income taxes in Wisconsin.
Wirch’s bill is unlikely to become law. Republicans in charge of the Legislature have pursued a series of tax cuts. This week, the Assembly sent a series of proposed cuts to the desk of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Those bills include an income tax cut targeted toward people making less than $150,000 per year. The GOP bills also included exemptions on retirement income and increased tax credits for child care and married couples.
At the same time, Evers has pushed for the Legislature to put much of the surplus toward guaranteeing long-term state aid for child care providers and launching a paid family leave program.
Wirch said he believes the rebate plan is a fair compromise.
“I respect the governor’s plan, but we have a history of the two sides not working together,” he said. “And I’m hopeful that I can get the public involved in this ‘give the money back’ [proposal] to force both sides to adopt a plan.”
However, Wirch said his proposal for one-time payouts hasn’t gotten a warm reception from his colleagues on either side of the aisle.
“Candidly, they’ve kind of looked at me like I’m from another planet because they’re not used to giving money back to the taxpayers,” Wirch said. “Democrats and Republicans are kind of looking at me in a strange way on this proposal.”
Are rebates the best use of a surplus?
UW-Milwaukee Associate Economics Professor Scott Drewianka said he doubted one-time payouts would be the most effective way to use the state’s surplus.
“A $1,000 check for many people is almost no real difference,” Drewianka said. “They’re gonna put it in the bank or they’re paying off a credit card. That’s good, but it’s just kind of where it ends.”
Drewianka said the proposal would undoubtedly make a difference for people scraping by, but added the majority of taxpayers would likely save much of their rebate, limiting the impact on local economies.
“It would certainly help if it stops somebody from declaring bankruptcy,” he said. “But for most people, that’s probably not what’s happening.”
Drewianka said it might be wiser to leave at least some of the surplus in place as additional cushion should a future economic downturn put the state in a bind.
Wirch instead pointed to Wisconsin’s separate ‘rainy day’ fund, which currently has about $1.8 billion. He said that amount was a perfectly good protection plan, and Wirch also insisted his rebate proposal was the fairest way to use up the $3.2 billion surplus.
“And it’s the simplest way, too,” he said. “Where’s the cutoff point? We [would] have to argue about that. Where’s the cutoff point, and who gets it and who doesn’t get it? This is the simplest way, I think.”
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shares his biggest spring takeaway
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shared his biggest takeaway from the spring following the Badgers’ four-set win over Northern Illinois.
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield has coached All-Americans, national players of the year, national champions and future Olympians in his 13 years as Wisconsin volleyball coach.
So Sheffield’s unique praise of Decelise Champion – a star pin-hitter from Puerto Rico who committed to the Badgers last fall – carries a lot of weight.
“Her highest-end potential is certainly as high as about anybody we’ve ever brought in,” Sheffield said. “She’s got a lot of work to get to where she’s capable of, and that’s on us as coaches and on her to help reach those dreams and goals. But when you’re watching people around her age, she’s different.”
That work is beginning earlier than initially expected after Wisconsin announced that Champion will reclassify from the 2027 recruiting class and join the Badgers as a freshman for the 2026 season.
Champion – currently 16 years old and turning 17 in September – will arrive with a resume that includes experience on Puerto Rico’s senior national team and the elite Italian club Volleyro Casal de Pazzi. That’s all while being strong enough academically to earn a GED degree and the necessary NCAA waiver for a few missing core classes.
“What made it really a lot better is that all of her grades at the different schools she’s been at have been fantastic,” Sheffield said. “She’s an excellent student. Was crushing it at a really, really good academic school in Italy in her third language.”
The timing of the June 12 announcement accounted for the second-last open roster spot for the 2026 season, but Champion and UW’s efforts to make the reclassification possible go back much earlier than that.
“We’ve known she’s wanted to do this since February,” Sheffield said. “We told our team in February that was the plan. And then we didn’t let anybody know publicly until she was done with her season. She just didn’t want to be a distraction for her team.”
Badgers have even more competition at pins
Wisconsin already had plenty of competition at the pin-hitting positions before Champion’s move to the 2026 class.
Grace Egan had a major role on the 2025 Final Four team, and Eva Travis had an impressive spring after transferring from UC-Santa Barbara. Others include Grace Lopez, Madison Quest and the highly-touted freshman duo of Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan.
Even with the upcoming addition of one more pin-hitter – and one with such a high potential – UW did not lose any players in the spring transfer portal cycle. Even the idea of someone leaving seemed outlandish to Sheffield.
“If they’re just going to get up and leave because somebody came, I would say that that person is probably chicken s—,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield’s praise of Champion’s proposal obviously does not come with a guarantee of playing time either at the crowded pin-hitting positions.
“I would say, yeah, she does have a chance of being out on the court for us this year,” Sheffield said. “But we’ve also got some other really talented people that play the pins.”
The outside and right-side hitters already on UW’s spring roster will have at least one key advantage over Champion in her freshman season – time.
Egan, Lopez and Quest are returning players (although Egan and Lopez spent their spring recovering from injuries). Travis, Thompson and Flanagan all enrolled in time to spend the spring with the Badgers and impressed in UW’s spring matches.
Champion’s arrival, on the other hand, will follow her participation in an Olympic-qualifying event for Puerto Rico. Sheffield expects that to be Sept. 2, which is the day before fall classes begin and already after UW’s first four matches of the season.
“She’ll be drinking out of a fire hose early on, no doubt about it,” Sheffield said. “Even though she’s been playing with her senior national team this summer, it will be a lot of things coming at her in her secondary language at 16, so there’ll need to be some patience along the way.”
His advice to Champion when she was on campus earlier in June was to “be where your feet are.”
“When she’s with her national team – even though we will have started our preseason, playing matches – don’t worry about us here,” Sheffield said. “Be where your feet are. Be the best you can be for your team there. … Then when you get here, you’re not thinking about your national team.”
Champion’s NCAA eligibility clock starts earlier
Champion’s reclassification comes with the drawback of beginning her NCAA eligibility one year earlier in her volleyball career.
Had she stayed in the 2027 recruiting class, she theoretically would have begun her college career shortly before her 18th birthday and exhausted her eligibility at age 22. Instead, she will begin her college career shortly before her 17th birthday and likely exhaust her eligibility at age 21.
Those scenarios take into account the NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval on June 23 of a new eligibility model that will give players five seasons of eligibility in five years. (That replaces the current system with four seasons, redshirts and other waivers.) The NCAA noted that its decision is not final, however, until the meeting concludes on June 24.
“We’re certainly excited to have her this year, but if you kind of think over the course of five years, it’s probably worse for us that she comes a year early,” Sheffield said. “You expect her to be better at 20 and 21 than what she is at 16 or 17. … It really wasn’t something that we were pushing for, but she was ready.”
Of course, volleyball at age 16 or 17 looks different for someone like Champion who has been competing against much older players as a senior national team member and studying halfway across the world from her hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico.
“When you talk to her, she doesn’t come across as somebody who’s 16,” Sheffield said. “She’s very mature, very easy to talk to, very driven. She’s independent. … She’s had a lot more life experience than most people her age, and that certainly comes across when you’re around her.”
Wisconsin
Cult-classic filmed in central Wisconsin returns to big screen, with enhancements, this weekend
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – A giant spider isn’t actually invading central Wisconsin this weekend.
But an enhanced, big-screen version of the cult-classic 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion is crawling back into local theaters — and it’s bringing some central Wisconsin nostalgia with it.
The movie was famously filmed in Merrill and Stevens Point, and the updated 2026 release adds enhancements designed for a modern theatrical experience.
What’s new in the 2026 enhanced version?
Executive Producer J.B. Thompson says the team took the original 1975 film and enhanced it for the big screen in 2026, giving audiences a refreshed way to experience a movie that’s long been a Wisconsin oddity — and a point of pride.
Actor and Producer Dan Davies is featured in newly filmed scenes created specifically for this updated release.
Stevens Point’s role in the original film
While much of the film is associated with Merrill, Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza says Point also played a major role in the production — another reason the film’s return matters to local history buffs and movie fans alike.
Why does this movie still capture attention 50 years later?
Whether it’s the over-the-top creature feature story, the uniquely Wisconsin filming locations, or the nostalgia of seeing familiar places on screen, the group says the film’s staying power is real — even five decades later.
Screenings this weekend
The enhanced version of The Giant Spider Invasion is set for local screenings this weekend in Central and North Central Wisconsin. To purchase tickets for showings in Stevens Point, Marshfield or Waupaca, click here.
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Copyright 2026 WSAW. All rights reserved.
A Wisconsin man has been arrested in Colorado in connection with a fatal north suburban hit-and-run earlier this year that left a 50-year-old woman killed.
According to the Winthrop Harbor Police Department, Travis Kern, 35, of Pleasant Prairie, turned himself into police in Lakewood Colorado on an arrest warrant. Kern was charged with two felonies, police said, and remains in custody in Colorado pending extradition proceedings.
About 11:10 p.m. on February 26, a pedestrian was struck in the 1400 block of Sheridan Road in Winthrop Harbor by a driver of a vehicle heading northbound. The vehicle then fled the scene, police said.
The pedestrian, later identified as Shanna White, 50, of Waukegan, was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to court documents, Kern’s next scheduled court date is set for July 22.
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