Tiffany, Crowley Share Final Pitches to Chippewa Valley Voters

Wisconsin's gubernatorial candidates visited the Chippewa Valley over the weekend to share their final pitches with voters.

During a campaign stop in Chippewa Falls on Friday, Republican nominee and Congressman Tom Tiffany highlighted his plan to return the state's budget surplus to taxpayers. He also reiterated his intent to both lower property taxes and fully fund Wisconsin's public school system as districts across the state propose operational referendums to maintain their services yet again. Asked how he would seek to achieve that goal, Congressman Tiffany pointed to his time in the State Legislature as proof that it can be done.

"I know we can do both, reduce taxes as well as fully fund our schools, because I did it a decade ago," he said. "When I was on the finance committee in the Legislature, we passed the largest increase in public school funding in a decade. That was the 2019 budget. And yet we also gave a tax cut. We can do both. We can give people some of their money back, but we can also fully fund education."

Democratic nominee and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley also visited Eau Claire on Saturday morning to energize voters around affordability issues. Asked how he would seek to fully fund public education and lower property taxes, Crowley pointed to reevaluating the state's school funding formula and increasing revenue in other areas.

"You tax these billionaires while making sure they're paying their fair share to come towards our communities," he said. "Then you put together the Blue Ribbon Commission. It's not just about short-term fixes, we need long-term sustainability. And our shared revenue formula, as well as our school funding formula, is not working right now and many of our schools are hurting because of it. And then the last thing is bring marijuana to fruition. Legalizing that will help bring in millions of dollars that we've been losing to Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois."

Both candidates closed their campaign stops by calling on their supporters to make sure that they not only cast their own ballot on Tuesday, but that they encourage their friends and family to vote.