How Can Wisconsin Better Fight Climate Change? Democratic Lawmakers Have 22 Ideas. 

Infrastructure Bill Will Make a Dent in Wisconsin's Lead Pipe Problem

The Green Bay Packers have opened their 2021 stock sale

• Shares are available for $300 apiece at www.packersstock.com!
   
• The team is offering 300,000 shares. Proceeds will go toward new renovations at Lambeau Field. This is Packers fans' first chance to become part "owners" of the team since 2011, when the team last turned to fans to fund work on the iconic stadium.

Watch Out for Student Loan Scams as Payments Resume, State Warns

• In light of the student loan repayment and interest pause expiring Jan. 31, 2022, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) and the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions is warning student loan borrowers to be on the lookout for scammers.
   
• “Student loan debt relief scammers target borrowers with false offers of loan forgiveness or savings from consolidation,” said DATCP Secretary Randy Romanski in a press release. “There are many resources consumers can access without paying a fee. I encourage borrowers to utilize the resources at DFI for information about repayment services and report any fraud to our team at DATCP.”
   
• Federal student loan payments and interest have been halted for more than a year as a way to provide borrowers with relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
   
• Wisconsinites have an estimated $24 billion in outstanding student loan debt, according to a report from the Governor’s Task Force on Student Loan Debt. Nationally, an estimated 45 million people owe approximately $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. 

Using County Sales Tax to Save Property Owners Money? No Way, Says Conservative Law Firm.

• Brown County had planned to use its sales tax revenue to pay for infrastructure projects, but conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law Liberty (WILL) took the county to court, arguing those funds could only be put toward property tax relief. The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments in the case this morning.
   
• County Executive Troy Streckenbach told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that the county’s plan for the sales tax revenue would have saved money for property tax payers and that the county couldn’t have gone forward with all the projects if it had had to borrow to pay for them. WILL argued that state law requires sales tax revenue be applied to the property tax levy. 
   
• The county planned to invest $100 million in expanding the county jail, creating a local office for the county medical examiner, and contributing $5 million to a new science, technology, engineering and math building at UW-Green Bay.
   
• Municipalities’ ability to enact their own local sales tax has become a bipartisan issue as cities red and blue struggle to maintain or expand their existing services. Counties can enact a 0.5% local sales tax to provide property tax relief, but individual communities cannot. During the eight years former Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers controlled state government, state aid to local governments declined greatly, and the Legislature has refused to allow local sales taxes, forcing local leaders to make tough decisions about what to fund and what to cut.