WED AM News: WPF report lays out child care funding options; New FDIC bank numbers released for Q4 2025

February 25, 2026

— A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum lays out options for putting additional funding into child care affordability, from new taxes to cost-sharing arrangements and more.

Most avenues for this support are at the state level, as local governments are relatively limited in their ability to raise additional revenue, the report shows.

Increasing the amount of the state’s general purpose revenue going to child care “may be an attractive option” due to the flexibility of this funding, authors wrote. But they add Wisconsin’s ability to sustain that funding would depend on its fiscal position and policies around child care, as well as “tradeoffs” with other state priorities.

Wisconsin’s 2025-27 biennial budget established the “Get Kids Ready” initiative with a $65 million annual appropriation from the state’s general fund, the report notes. The program will begin issuing payments to participating child care providers in July.

The report also weighs the merits of creating new state-level funding streams to pay for child care support, including dedicated tax revenue and trust funds. While a number of other states are enacting new taxes for this purpose, authors note lawmakers can “face an uphill battle” with voters to do so.

New revenue streams dedicated to child care are appealing to advocates in part because they aren’t subject to the same amount of budget negotiations as general funds, WPF says. But that “may be a con rather than a pro” for lawmakers themselves as they have less control unless they change tax rates, per the report.

Authors say new taxes may be accepted more readily if they finance new opportunities or services. The report suggests Wisconsin could dedicate new sales tax revenue from legalizing marijuana or sports betting to child care, for example.

Meanwhile, WPF points to tax incentives and cost-sharing programs as alternatives, noting they’re becoming more popular elsewhere but offer less of an impact than direct taxes or set-aside trust funds.

Possible tax incentives could include: an income tax credit for employers based on qualifying expenses such as supporting child care facilities; a tax credit for businesses or households based on donations to child care providers; and a child and dependent care income tax credit.

Authors raise the question of whether any new tax credits for employers would be available to those who pay taxes on their business profits through the corporate income tax or individual income tax, as well as if they would be refundable.

“A refundable credit would get used more widely since it is paid to taxpayers with and without any tax liability, but for that reason it also would cost the state more,” they wrote.

See the report.

— Lower interest rates led to “very strong” fourth-quarter growth in residential real estate loan volume at banks in the state, according to the Wisconsin Bankers Association.

The group yesterday rolled out new federal data showing loan volume in this category grew 14.38% quarter over quarter and a more modest 2.67% over the year.

Meanwhile, commercial lending at Wisconsin banks rose 1.36% over the quarter and 5.78% over the year. In commentary on this data point, WBA notes commercial customers “continue to navigate economic uncertainty.”

The group is also spotlighting rising deposits, with a 1.60% quarterly increase and a 4.17% increase over the year.

At the same time, farm lending rose by 2.16% over the year but dropped by a more substantial 23.03% over the quarter — though WHA says that’s typical for this time of year.

Rose Oswald Poels, WBA’s president and CEO, says the latest FDIC figures “continue to highlight the resiliency” of banks in the state.

“With our economy continuing to evolve and mid-term elections later this year, Wisconsin consumers and business owners can continue to rely on their banks as a steady source of trusted financial partnership and a safe place to deposit their money,” she said in a statement.

See more in the release.

— Environmental and consumer protection groups are again raising concerns about a data center service contract before the Public Service Commission.

Advocates say an under-review contract between Alliant Energy and an unnamed new customer in Beaver Dam is particularly lacking in transparency.

Information redacted from Alliant Energy’s proposal includes the name of the customer — though it’s widely understood to be Meta’s new 700,000-plus square-foot data center campus — the length of the service agreement between the utility and the customer, the date at which service would commence, the maximum amount of power the utility will provide to the consumer and the minimum service cost the utility will pay.

“This case underscores the disconnect between the average person who’s trying to find out what’s going on and the utilities and tech companies,” Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said yesterday in a press conference.

State regulators and intervenor parties like CUB do have access to the unredacted documents but are bound by confidentiality agreements not to share their content publicly.

However, Amy Barrilleaux, a spokesperson for Clean Wisconsin, said several areas of the proposal are deficient, including placing too much risk onto Alliant’s other customers, lacking any requirement for clean energy generation, underbilling the customer, and setting termination fees too low.

Content also cited the need for additional financial safeguards for other ratepayers in the event a theorized artificial intelligence market bubble bursts.

The coalition of environmental and consumer protection groups, which also includes Healthy Climate Wisconsin and community organizers SNOW Janesville, wants to see the Alliant service contract regulated under a new “Very Large Customer” ratepayer class.

We Energies has proposed such a ratepayer class in its own proposal before the PSC, which Wisconsin residents and ratepayers weighed in on earlier this month; a Dem bill that died in the Assembly this session would have also created such a ratepayer class.

Alliant is arguing against delaying its approval to create a new ratepayer class. The proposal says such a delay could “materially alter the terms and conditions governing the project, delay its ability to energize, and ultimately jeopardize its viability,” and make the utility less competitive and capable of attracting new business.

In an emailed statement, Alliant spokesperson Melissa McCarville wrote that the individualized contract the utility sought gave it “the opportunity to ensure there are benefits to all customers by adding a customer of this size to our utility system, while also ensuring the costs are paid by that customer specifically.”

— Elephas Biosciences Corporation has joined a new research partnership with the University of Louisville exploring methods for treating various cancers.

The Madison-based company recently announced the partnership, which is focused on a form of “combination therapy” that includes surgery and immunotherapy components. It’s being applied in treating three cancers: colorectal, liver and pancreatic, the release shows.

The university will use the Elephas live tissue platform for predicting immunotherapy response to assess live tumor specimens through multiple research trials.

Elephas points to a “critical need” for real-time response data for immunotherapies, noting just one in five cancer patients benefits from these treatments.

Dr. Robert Martin, vice chair for the university’s surgery department and the director of its Surgical Oncology Research Laboratory, says integrating the Elephas platform into the lab will “advance a more personalized approach” to treating cancer.

“Advanced stage colorectal, liver, and pancreatic cancers remain extraordinarily challenging to treat, and precision tools that help tailor therapy to each patient’s tumor biology are essential to improving outcomes and ultimately enhancing the lives of patients,” Martin said.

See more in the release.

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

— A recent study involving Medical College of Wisconsin researchers found “meaningful long-term health risks” linked to certain chemotherapy treatments for testicular cancer.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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