Claiming “there’s already enough money in Madison,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany promised — without offering specifics — there would be funding for vital government services even after he freezes property taxes and sends away the entire $3 billion state budget surplus.
Tiffany made the boast during an hourlong Wednesday night debate with Democratic candidate David Crowley, hosted by WISN-TV.
Crowley, the Milwaukee County Executive, repeatedly emphasized that Tiffany’s record makes him untrustworthy on a host of issues including school funding, women’s reproductive rights, healthcare, and protecting the integrity of Wisconsin elections.
Crowley frequently promised to continue his collaborative approach to problem solving while Tiffany tried to tarnish Crowley with traditional conservative charges of higher taxes, unlimited abortion on demand, and undocumented immigrants committing crimes.
Tiffany also claimed his support for overturning the 2020 election results in Wisconsin was due to something he calls “Zuckerbucks,” private donations to local elections clerks hamstrung by reduced state funding.
Tiffany promises to cut revenue but not services
Moderators Matt Smith and Gerron Jordan pressed Tiffany on how he would fund education, local shared revenue, and state government services if he kept his pledges to freeze property taxes, cut income taxes 10% for families with an annual income under $150,000, and turn down an estimated $3.3 billion budget surplus.
“We are going to have sufficient money in this budget to be able to fund the things that are important to Wisconsinites: education, transportation and infrastructure, healthcare,” Tiffany said. “There is enough money in Madison to be able to backfill those things that we need to.”
Tiffany did not explain his definition of “enough money” or where it comes from. Later, he acknowledged that he would not use rebate checks to draw down the surplus.
“We should return it in long-term tax relief,” Tiffany said. “I would prefer not to do it as a one-time check because people don’t plan their futures based on one-time checks. They want to have the certainty that they’re going to be able to have this for the future. So I want to see long-term tax reductions that are going to people who are going to benefit from them.”
Tiffany supported President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that provided long-term tax reductions geared overwhelmingly toward the wealthiest households.
Crowley called out the uncertain math behind Tiffany’s promises.
”He doesn’t have any plans,” Crowley said. “He has no clue. How are you going to get the revenues when you continuously cut the amount of revenues coming into government? This is the reason why cities, towns, villages, and our school districts all across the state are struggling today. And that’s because he doesn’t work for the people. He’s working for the billionaires.”
Asked about his own tax plans, Crowley promised a “holistic” overhaul, citing the need for “a fair and simpler tax system.” When pressed for specific tax bracket figures, Crowley noted he would have to work with the Legislature to craft the next state budget.
Zuckerbucks and overturning elections
Tiffany instantly became one of Wisconsin’s leading figures calling for the overthrow of the state’s 2020 presidential election results — voting on Jan. 6, 2021 against accepting the certified results from two states and saying he would have voted against accepting the certified will of Wisconsin voters if he’d had a chance to vote on it. Tiffany was the only member of the Wisconsin delegation to sign onto a Texas lawsuit that sought to throw out Wisconsin’s results. Only years later does Tiffany publicly acknowledge that former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020.
“Why did you join attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election?” asked Jordan.
“The reason that I did that is Zuckerbucks,” Tiffany responded. “If you remember Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook billionaire, put $15 million into Wisconsin. And so he was trying to privatize our elections.”
“Zuckerbucks” is a label Republicans put on the private funding for elections administration that was sought by municipalities around the country dealing with extremely tight budgets and often-constricted state aid in the pandemic election of 2020. Local governments used the funds for poll worker training, pandemic safeguards, and new equipment such as voting machines and drop boxes.
Republicans were specifically targeting a group called the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), which receives most of its funds from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. While Tiffany claimed the money was poured into cities with Democratic majorities, CTCL actually provided hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to municipalities of all sizes and partisan leanings—including 214 local governments in 39 Wisconsin counties.
Tiffany’s answer appeared to catch the moderators off guard.
“That’s why you joined efforts to disqualify hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots in Milwaukee and Dane counties was Zuckerbucks?” asked Smith.
“Yes,” said Tiffany.
“Let’s be very clear,” said Crowley, pouncing. “The congressman just said that the only reason why he was willing to throw out hundreds of thousands of votes here in the state of Wisconsin is because he disagreed on how somebody spent money. He can say that anything happened throughout the process. He just didn’t like the fact of how money was being spent. Yes, you may be able to disagree, but you still have to have dignity and integrity to make sure that you are actually carrying out the will of the people. You can’t trust Congressman Tom Tiffany to certify the elections when it comes to the 2028 presidential election, because he has shown us that because of one disagreement, he’ll throw them out.”
The two candidates largely agreed on the subject of data center construction, calling for more safeguards and fewer tax breaks. There were traditional partisan disagreements on abortion rights, immigration enforcement, and healthcare funding. And while Crowley called for the full legalization of recreational marijuana, Tiffany said he would support only medicinal prescriptions for marijuana use in Wisconsin.
