Madison – During a State Assembly floor session that commenced Wednesday, Representative Nancy VanderMeer (R-Tomah) voted to support the Legislature’s 2025-2026 biennial budget and released the following statement:

 

“I was happy to again support a responsible, two-year fiscal plan that funds state governmental obligations and prioritizes areas of importance for residents of the 70th Assembly District. Furthermore, I was happy to support a biennial budget that doesn’t dramatically grow state government and exorbitantly raise taxes and fees on hard-working individuals and families throughout the state as the governor and Legislative Democrats would prefer to do.

 

“I stated earlier this year that I looked forward to working with my colleagues to once again deliver a responsible budget for taxpayers throughout our state that promotes taxpayers keeping more of their own money, invests in infrastructure, prioritizes public safety, increases access to health care, and more, and this budget does that. There’s a lot to like for a number of my friends and neighbors in the West Central part of the state, namely, a middle-class tax cut, retirement income tax exclusion and prioritizing our rural economy and infrastructure with $150 million invested in the Agricultural Roads Improvement Program (ARIP) with $30 million targeted to bridge and culvert repair.”

 

As passed by the Joint Committee on Finance, the retirement income tax exclusion for filers at least 67 years of age is applicable on the first $24,000 of retirement income for individuals and $48,000 for married-joint filers.