It’s time.

Wisconsin is entering a new era of community power.

For too long, communities have worked to advance solutions to some of our most pressing challenges against a rigged system and without meaningful action.

This pivotal moment, marked by a changing political landscape that includes fairer legislative maps, increasingly competitive elections, burgeoning voter turnout, and - most importantly - growing public engagement, means doing things differently. No longer will Wisconsin rely on the status quo systems to deliver the remedies we need for swelling problems that face every one of us from Kenosha to Milwaukee to Wausau to Ashland.

Our voice. Our policy.

This is not just a dream and this is much more than a blueprint.

This platform comes directly from community input all across Wisconsin
and contains the things we know we all need to not just get back on track,
but to surge ahead into a future that is better for everyone.

Our Wisconsin People’s Platform puts the people of Wisconsin back in focus and control, reigniting our power to choose a future where all of us have
freedom, safety, justice, and joy.

Consider the source.

We flipped the script.

Too often, policy conversations begin after elections and legislative sessions have already begun. Those rules are out the window, and we are bringing the needs, concerns, and ideas of people all over Wisconsin into the rooms where policy is crafted -
BEFORE decisions are made.

From social media to community events to a statewide survey, people from all over Wisconsin took their chance to weigh in
on the issues they face and the solutions they need.

With direct, unfiltered input from over half of Wisconsin’s counties,
the first draft of Our Wisconsin People’s Platform puts
the people of Wisconsin out front - raising our voices through policy grounded in our shared identity, common values, and collective struggles.

Our Wisconsin People’s Platform consists of

9 POLICY PACKAGES

REPRESENTING THE FIRST MAJOR STEPS

toward the Wisconsin we need and deserve.

Let’s get into it.

THE CLEAN SLATE PACKAGE

We have to fix the foundation before we build.

Policy work in this package will work to repair the harm of bad governance over the last two decades, clearing the way for the rest of Our Wisconsin People’s Platform to bring freedom, safety, justice, and joy.

  • Governance in Wisconsin is in need of an overhaul. To make meaningful change for the people of Wisconsin and to stop the necessary solutions from being compromised or diluted, we need to start on a solid foundation. That means reversing the harm of the last fifteen years filled with bad policy and bad governance. Repealing harmful legislation is not about erasing the past. It is about learning from it. It is about clearing the path for policies that expand opportunity, protect our rights, strengthen our schools, make life more affordable, safeguard our environment, and create a justice system rooted in fairness and restoration. Every law we reconsider is an opportunity to ask a fundamental question: Does this serve the people of Wisconsin, and does it move us closer to the future we want to build together?

  • Laws that have been passed in the past fifteen years have abandoned our state's vision of fairness, dignity, opportunity, and shared prosperity. Progress requires both the vision to imagine something better and the determination to remove the barriers standing in its way. The future we want requires us to confront the choices that have brought us here and be willing to change course when those choices no longer serve the people of Wisconsin.

    • Repeal Act 10 - Restore Collective Bargaining

    • Repeal Act 12 - Resore Local Input

    • Repeal Act 67 - Restore Local Zoning Control

    • Repeal Act 117 - Restore Campaign Finance Safeguards

    • Reverse 2006 Marriage Restriction Amendment

    • Reverse 2015 Supreme Court Chief Justice Selection Amendment

    • Reverse 2020 Victims’ Rights Amendment (Marsy’s Law)

    • Reverse 2023 Cash Bail Amendment

    • Reverse 2024 Private Election Funding Amendment

    • Reverse 2024 Voting Citizenship Amendment

    • Reverse 2025 Voter Identification Amendment

THE REVIVE OUR RIGHTS PACKAGE

This package contains policy proposals related to civil rights.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address racial disparities, voting rights, anti-racism, DEI bans, reproductive freedom, tribal equity in policymaking, the LGBTQ community, immigrant communities, and digital surveillance.

THE REPAIR HEALTHCARE PACKAGE

  • Healthcare is not just about what happens when we are sick - it is about protecting people, strengthening families, and building communities where everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy, fulfilling life. It is a fundamental part of a thriving society, and our policies should reflect the belief that every person deserves equitable access to quality, affordable, and compassionate care. When we invest in healthcare, we invest in our collective future.

  • We have a healthcare system built for profit, not care - and the effects are felt in every community in Wisconsin where families are faced with impossible decisions between paying medical bills and putting food on the table.

    • Pass a maternal health bill

      • Black maternal health equity

      • Black infant mortality

      • 12 months post-partum care

    • Pass a provider recruitment bill

      • expand Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ providers

    • Pass a reproductive rights protection bill

      • Abortion care

      • Cancer care

      • STI care

    • Pass a gender affirming rights bill

      • Access to comprehensive mental and physical care for all ages

      • Mandatory insurance coverage for gender affirming care (BadgerCare and private care)

      • Medical non-discrimination protections for Trans, Non-binary, and Intersex people

    • Pass a preventative healthcare bill

      • Expand and protect coverage for preventative care

      • dental care

    • Pass a Badgercare Public Option bill

    • Ban medical debt

    • Pass a Community Wellness Promise bill

      • violence prevention

      • state-funded mental healthcare

      • state-funded rehab

      • state-funded substance abuse treatment

This policy package contains proposals related to justice system transformation.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address cannabis legalization, corrections reform, juvenile justice reform, policing, cash bail reform, commutation and pardon reform, and Truth In Sentencing.

THE WI BROKE PACKAGE

  • There is no other way to say this: we have reached a point where simply living has become a financial struggle. Life should be about more than surviving the cost of living. It should be about having the opportunity to live with security, to enjoy time with the people we love, to participate in our communities, and to imagine a future that holds more promise than worry. We deserve an economy that works for the people who keep it running—a society where prosperity is measured not just by corporate profits or market performance, but by whether ordinary people can afford to live with dignity, stability, and hope. Because “affordability” isn't a luxury or a political talking point. It is the foundation of a life people can actually enjoy.

  • The promise that hard work would lead to stability feels increasingly like a lie. We are doing everything we were told to do: get jobs, raise families, contribute to our communities, and try to build a better future. Yet, for too many of us, the reward for that hard work is a constant cycle of bills, debt, anxiety, and sacrifice. There is little room for an emergency, let alone a dream. And when every dollar is stretched to its breaking point, even the simplest pleasures—a family vacation, dinner out with friends, a child's extracurricular activity, or a little money set aside for a rainy day—can feel irresponsible rather than attainable. At a time when Wisconsinites are struggling to pay our bills and looking after our neighbors, those in power have distracted us with lies while unfunding our lives to further their own agendas.

    • Pass a $25 minimum wage bill

    • Pass a monthly earned income tax credit / guaranteed income bill

    • Pass 12 weeks paid family and medical leave for all

    • Pass a state funded childcare bill

    • Pass a 2% utility rate cap bill

    • Pass a Wisconsin Tax The Rich bill

This package contains policy proposals related to economic power and viability.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address housing access and affordability, utility affordability, the minimum wage, and taxation.

THE DONE WITH DATA CENTERS PACKAGE

  • Wisconsin deserves policies that ensure data centers are held accountable for their impact on our environment, energy grid, water resources, and local infrastructure. Communities should have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their future, and taxpayers should never be left footing the bill for private development. Legislation must establish clear standards for transparency, energy efficiency, water conservation, environmental protection, and the fair distribution of costs.

  • Progress should never mean giving corporations a blank check. Data center construction is widely unpopular, and the technology is unproven. Unchecked data center development is setting up our communities to face bankrupting boondoggles in the future and those paving its way have failed to ask an important question: is data center development happening without sacrificing the well-being of the people and communities who call this state home?

    • Pass a 24 month data center moratorium

      • Immediate passage, contingent on passage of strict statewide standards

    • Pass a strict Data Center Regulation bill

      • We seek the most stringent standards in the world around data center development including:

        • construction requirements

        • systems maintenance requirements

        • operation wind down and closing requirements

          • facilities succession plan requirements

          • environmental remediation requirements

        • ban on public financing or tax incentives

        • annual financial contribution at the municipal, county, and state levels

    • Local approval by voter referendum only

      • Any data center or hyperscale development in excess of $250 million must be approved by the electorate of the local municipal unit by referendum

    • Pass a Stop Big Tech Influence bill

      • Corporations, sponsors, developers, etc are banned from spending, organizing, or influencing in any election or referenda related to development

THE ECO EQUITY PACKAGE

  • Civil rights are the fundamental rights and freedoms every person is entitled to, regardless of who we are, what we look like, where we come from, or what we believe. They mean equal treatment under the law, equal access to opportunities, and freedom from discrimination, oppression, and government overreach. Civil rights protect our ability to live freely, speak openly, participate in democracy, and be treated with dignity and fairness. They are not privileges granted to some people by those in power. They are rights that belong to everyone—and they must be protected for everyone.

    Our civil rights are not self-sustaining. They endure only when the people defend them, institutions uphold them, and communities refuse to accept the erosion of human dignity as the price of political power. We know that none of us are free unless all of us are free and that democracy is about so much more than elections. This package is our commitment to our civil rights as a civic responsibility.

  • The pattern is always the same: fabricate a crisis, blame marginalized communities, and then grab more power for themselves. We must stop, reverse, and repair the harm that has been inflicted as our rights have been infringed, restricted, and repealed with divide-and conquer tactics that have pitted us against each other.

    • Pass a Wisconsin Voting Rights Protection Act

    • Pass a Wisconsin Voting Rights Expansion bill

      • expand early voting periods

      • automatic voter registration

      • voting rights for those incarcerated or on paper

    • Implement an Independent Redistricting Commission

    • Pass a Money Out Of Politics bill

    • Pass an immediate statewide ban on 287g agreements

    • Pass an ICE Out of Wisconsin bill

    • Reverse and prohibit DEI bans statewide

    • Expand protection for queer communities statewide

      • Update 1982 Discrimination law ban to incude gender identity and expression

      • Update identity documents to include correct gender markers

      • Update birth and marriage certificates for trans people, including their information on their children’s birth certificates.

      • Ban conversion therapy

      • End LQBTQ Panic defense

      • End ban on same sex marriage

      • Decriminalize HIV(carries a penalty enhancer)

      • Expand Access to all types of PreP(medicare & medicaid coverage)

    • Pass a bill to end and ban mass surveillance statewide

    • Pass a bill to expand and protect tribal policy power

    • Create a permanent equity commission with real authority to investigate housing, employment, and policing discrimination

      • Include additional municipal funding to address second generation issues and combat modern-day exclusionary practices—such as disproportionately white police forces, biased real estate steering, and lack of affordable housing—by reforming local zoning laws and recruiting diverse municipal staff.

This package contains policy proposals related to healthcare.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address healthcare access, healthcare affordability, and healthcare equity.

THE REVOLUTIONARY RESTORATION PACKAGE

  • Transforming our justice system means moving from a culture of punishment to a culture of accountability, restoration, and opportunity. It means centering the needs of survivors, repairing the damage caused by wrongdoing, and creating meaningful pathways for people to take responsibility, rebuild their lives, and contribute positively to their communities. It means investing in mental healthcare, substance use treatment, education, violence prevention, and community-based solutions that address problems before they become crises. True justice is not just about what happens after someone causes harm. It is about building a society where fewer people are harmed, more people have the opportunity to heal, and accountability creates a path toward something better. A restorative justice system recognizes our shared humanity while taking harm seriously. It offers us the opportunity to move beyond cycles of punishment and toward a future rooted in healing, dignity, responsibility, and genuine public safety.

  • For too long, we have treated punishment as the primary measure of justice. We have invested in systems that separate people from their communities without always addressing the underlying causes of harm or preventing future harm from occurring. And we have perpetuated the systems causing the most harm.

    • Pass a Parole Overhaul bill

      • End cash bail

      • Implement a similar model to New Jersey or Arizona

    • Pass a Revamp Re-Entry bill

      • Ban the Box

      • Employment opportunity assistance

      • Housing opportunity assistance

      • Reduce recidivism

    • Fund schools not prisons

      • Shift funding and focus from mass incarceration to education, healthcare, and youth programs

    • Pass a Justice Care bill

      • End prison slave labor

      • Expand education opportunities for those incarcerated

      • Increase and enforce better facilities standards with public oversight

      • Overhaul commissary standards and seek better contracts

    • Pass a Restorative Justice bill

      • Reduce prison population by half

      • Legalize cannabis including pardons for prior cannabis convictions

      • Close Green Bay Correctional Institution

      • Include Cops Out Of Schools legislation

      • End qualified immunity for police

This package contains policy proposals related to economic power and viability.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address housing access and affordability, utility affordability, the minimum wage, and taxation.

THE EDUCATION OVER EXCUSES PACKAGE

  • Wisconsin's constitution demands a sound basic public education to every child. This promises that every child, regardless of their family’s income, neighborhood, disability, or background, deserves the opportunity to learn, grow, and build a future. Keeping that promise requires policies that fully fund our public schools, pay and support educators, maintain safe and welcoming learning environments, and ensure every student has access to the resources they need to thrive. It means investing in school buildings, special education, mental health services, school meals, libraries, arts, and career and technical education. Our schools should be places where curiosity is encouraged, differences are respected, and every child can see a future filled with possibility. When we invest in public education, we invest in our workforce, our democracy, our communities, and the generations that will shape our future. A quality public education should should never depend on where you live, the color of your skin, the language you speak, or your community's ability to raise money. It is a public responsibility, a shared investment, and a promise we must keep.

  • Treating public education as a luxury that communities must struggle to afford. This has undermined its mission, restricted honest learning, and diverted public resources away from the schools that serve all students, leading to growing classroom sizes, poor teacher retention, and educational outcomes for our students.

    • Close the special education funding gap

      • Ensure special education funding is locked in and funded by the state at a sum-sufficient 90% reimbursement rate.

    • Pass a Fully Fund Our Public Schools bill

      • Rewrite the public school funding formula to be weighted for student needs, not determined by property values

      • Lock in funding to be indexed with cost of living increases

      • Require the State to pursue other sources of funding outside of property taxes

    • Align priority spending with priority needs

      • Increasing funding in the areas where student needs are greatest:

        • student mental health, students with disabilities, students in poverty, students who are English language learners

    • Fund the teacher pipeline

      • Provide tuition defrayment and state income tax credits for those entering the teaching profession

      • Invest in statewide teacher recruitment programs

      • Pass statewide teacher pay floors

    • Pass a Universal School Meal bill

      • Eliminate existing school meal debt

      • Ensure children are ready and able to learn by providing universal breakfast, lunch, and additional supports to address student hunger

    • Voucher overhaul

      • Phase out private school vouchers with a fully funded plan to ensure local public schools are equipped and ready to meet the needs of all students

      • Place a moratorium on expansion of voucher and independent charter programs

      • Hold all publicly funded schools accountable to anti-discrimination laws and state and federal protections for studnets with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, and more.

This policy package contains proposals related to data centers and big tech.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address a statewide data center moratorium and statewide data center regulation.

This package contains policy proposals related to the environment.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address fossil fuel consumption, renewable resource energy expansion (E.G. Nuclear, Solar,

Geothermal, Hydro, Wind energy), and pipelines.

  • Wisconsin’s natural beauty is part of who we are. From the Great Lakes and the rivers that run through our communities to our forests, farmland, and the lakes that bring families together, our environment is a shared inheritance—and a responsibility we owe to future generations. But protecting these resources cannot depend on good intentions alone. It requires strong legislation, meaningful enforcement, and leaders willing to put the public good ahead of polluters and special interests.

  • Environmental protection has been treated as a partisan issue. The status quo has failed to protect the people who are most vulnerable to pollution, support farmers and businesses that are doing the right thing, and make it clear that no corporation should be allowed to put our health at risk for the sake of its bottom line.

    • Pass a Pipelines Out of Wisconsin Bill

    • Establish the Wisconsin Climate Action Fund

    • Pass a PFAs contamination control bill

      • Create a citizen-led committe to work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

      • Create stricter state and local standards around PFAS contaminants and corporate accountability for community health

    • Insitutue and enforce serious corporate penalties for environmental harm

      • Include an End, Repair, Fine clause that requires the polluting action to cease immediately, and damage be fully remediated to strict standards, and stiff fines imposed as payable immediately

      • Codify more stringent environmental protection laws

      • Resource Wisconsin DNR for more staff and equipment for frequent monitoring and inspections

      • When violations are found, direct payments of resulting fines should be made directly to affected community members, the municipality, the county, and the state as well as paying for any damages to the environment and/or structures

THE BRING IT HOME PACKAGE

This package contains policy proposals related to state preemption and local control.

This could include but is not limited to:

Policies that address Wisconsin’s revenue-sharing policy, state preemption of local zoning, state preemption of local labor and employment policy, state preemption of local municipal broadband, and state preemption of local tax and fee policy.

  • Our communities are strongest when we have the power to address our actual needs; protect our health, safety, and wellbeing; and allow individuals and families to flourish. And we know that elected officials are more likely to enact those policies when they live and work in our community and feel accountable to us. Imagine the possibilities in a future Wisconsin - a better Wisconsin - where your community identified a problem or a need. You worked together with your neighbors and officials to find a solution that works for everyone. You take the time to bring everyone together, turn it into policy through your chosen local government and can take pride in the results without the risk of a state legislature slamming the door as they say, “NO.”

  • Regardless of where we live, we should be able to make decisions about the issues affecting us and our loved ones. Unfortunately, some state lawmakers are making it impossible to do that – because they’re abusing a tactic known as preemption to undermine local decision making. Just like gerrymandering and voter suppression, it’s all part of a plan to take power away from communities. You see it on the news every night as they use our identities and zip codes to divide us. But the truth is, they’re pointing us in the wrong direction so that they can take from our communities while we’re looking 400 miles away. Over the last decade in particular, this broken system and the big money interests that fund it have successfully undermined local policies including paid sick leave, minimum wages, local budget control, natural gas bans, and even local public health authority. They underfund public schools at the state level but limit what we can do locally to support them. Every day, we’re being left behind while wealth and well-being are consolidated at the top and unearned power hides behind one-sided legislation. And all the while, they’ve ignored us and done nothing to address our real needs.

    • Implement Direct Democracy

      • Place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to allow statewide citizen-led binding petitions, referenda and ballot initiatives.

    • Pass a Revenue Sharing Correction bill

      • Restore municipal funding at rates adjusted for inflation

    • Pass a Local Tax Policy Bill

      • Allow municpalities to adjust local tax rates with approval of the local voters

    • Pass a Local Minimum Wage bill

      • Localities and municipalities should remain in control of if they want to pass a higher minimum wage than the state floor.

    • Establish a Preemption Commission

      • Work to idenitfy instances of state preemption that harm local communities and refer their revision to the state legislature

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A new era of community power demands real investment. That’s why we brought together a dedicated and mighty group of leaders, advocates, organizers, researchers, and policy experts to identify shared priorities, evaluate potential reforms, and develop a roadmap for the policy change.