The Wisconsin Legislature is beginning its 2025 session, and Rep. Elijah Behnke, who represents the 6th Assembly District, is ready to hit the ground running.
Behnke will be on the Assembly’s agriculture committee for the first time, an ideal spot because much of the district consists of agricultural land. He is also slated to chair the Assembly’s rural development committee, although he admitted he’s new to the area of rural development.
“I haven’t done a lot of studying about what that committee does,” Behnke said during a Dec. 31 phone interview. “These committees were handed out like a week ago. I had actually asked for other ones, but I’m taking what I can get. I haven’t yet talked to previous chairman to see what kind of bills go through, but I’m hoping they’re bills that benefit rural communities whether it’s state-backed business loans or other things to help stimulate the economies of small towns.”
Previous aid to rural communities has included Main Street business grants, according to Behnke, but he believes more can be done to help Wisconsin residents who don’t live in metropolitan areas. Behnke is in favor of programs that help to stimulate young entrepreneurs and farm setups.
“You’ve got different niche markets whether it’s wool or meat goats or vegetables — that kind of farm stand or farmers market type of stuff,” Behnke said. “Whether it’s a tax credit on the land you’re using to provide food for other people, that’s a concept I like. Maybe subsidizing some of the healthy food instead of the junk food in America. Those would be some things that would help 5-acre farms to 35-acre farms, and if the big guys wanted to get in on it, that would help, too.”
One of Behnke’s priorities is cutting taxes to return the current state surplus to residents. With surpluses being commonplace in the state for several years, the current surplus is about $4.5 billion.
“It’s just egregious that the Democrats are seeing inflation, won’t acknowledge it but they want to keep spending government money,” Behnke said. “Spending money is the reason we’re in this inflation era. It’s just crazy what the federal government is doing, but we in the state are going to try and cut some of our own fat. The irony is if we can’t come to a new budget, the budget will actually decrease because the state spent less money in 2024.”
Behnke said that if the 2025-27 biennial budget is not decided in a timely fashion, the state funding will be limited to the amount spent in 2024.
“We would actually be cutting state spending, because in 2024, we spent less money than we did in 2023,” Behnke said. “That’s always a negotiating tool that we have with the governor to say, if he wants a budget, then he needs to include some tax breaks.”
Behnke said the only tax break Gov. Tony Evers has signed in recent years was a child tax credit, but Behnke and other Republican legislators are putting forth a tax break for retirees on their investments along with a tax-free retirement proposal.
One bipartisan bill Behnke is working on is something to address road salt. It addresses wasted salt in commercial areas like Walmart when businesses try to clear their parking lots so people can get to them.
“That salt ends up in our fresh water, so we shouldn’t overapply the salt,” Behnke said. “Right now, Walmart has no incentive to apply less, because they don’t want to be sued over slip-and-falls. My legislation offers a little immunity for a commercial applicator of salt if they would follow best practices.”
The bill was pushed through in the last legislative session, with Democrats leading the charge, but Evers vetoed it, Behnke said.
Being in a new district with some new constituents, one of the things brought up to Behnke are whether elections are fair and secure.
“Obviously, (President-elect Donald) Trump won in 2024, but the numbers from 2020 look suspicious, where (Joe) Biden got 81 million, and Kamala (Harris) did not,” he said. “(Constituents) want election integrity bills.”
Behnke also wants to work on solutions that bring down the high price of food for consumers, but he acknowledged a lot of that work is going to be due to federal policy.
“We can help at the state level,” Behnke said.
Another constituent issue is property taxes, especially those whose taxes have sharply increased.
Behnke plans to hold a number of town hall meetings throughout the district to get input from more people on the issues they want him to fight for. Those meetings have not yet been scheduled.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Behnke to tackle issues in legislature’s 2025 session
