The candidates for Wisconsin governor met Wednesday night at Marquette University Law School for the first and only debate of this election cycle. Democrat David Crowley and Republican Tom Tiffany fielded questions about the cost of living, taxes, data centers, election security and immigration enforcement.
Out of the gate, the debate moderators asked Milwaukee County Executive Crowley if he’s a prolific spender who consistently raises taxes on his constituents. That’s a charge that Tiffany has made against Crowley.
“Well, I'm proud of my record being county executive. Every single year we've been able to bring down the property tax rate. We delivered the largest property tax cut in history, and every single year, we've balanced the budget. And I did that by working with Democrats and Republicans on a bipartisan level to make sure that we can deliver for our communities,” Crowley responded.
Moderators then asked U.S. Rep. Tiffany if he’s a MAGA extremist who’d have President Donald Trump’s interests at heart if elected — a claim Crowley has made during the campaign.
Tiffany said no, and promised that he’d focus on providing economic relief to Wisconsinites.
"There's some things that we can do as governor. One, we should return all of the $3 billion budget surplus to the people of Wisconsin. They overpaid into state government. We should return that money to them. There's a surplus at the state level. I think taxpayers out there, they don't have a surplus in their bank accounts. We're gonna end the 400-year property tax increase," Tiffany said.
Democratic governor Tony Evers' 400-year veto from the 2023-2025 budget allows schools to increase their spending for the next 400 years. That increase is generally paid for by property taxes, if not offset by the state.
Funding for education remained a theme in the debate, as moderators asked Tom Tiffany how he’d approach investing in K-12 education. Tiffany, a former state lawmaker, said he’d increase school funding while cutting taxes.
"In 2019, I helped write the [state] budget where we had the largest increase in school funding. We also had a tax cut. My opponent voted against that budget bill. Governor Evers signed it into law," Tiffany said.
David Crowley countered that "you cannot trust Congressman Tom Tiffany when it comes down to education." Crowley continued: "We were talking about somebody who actually supported the elimination of the United States Department of Education. We're talking about someone, when he served as a [state] senator, voted for one of the largest cuts to our UW systems, as well as K-12 through education."
The two also sparred over a very hot topic in this year’s elections: hyperscale data centers.
In a response to a question from moderators, Crowley said that he’s always been open to reforming the sales tax incentives that the huge data centers have been getting. Tiffany attacked Crowley, accusing him of only recently adopting that stance. "He just came around in the last week when he figured out that's where the public is. I will not put my finger to the wind when making decisions like this, in particular when it's the right decision," TIffany said.
Crowley, meanwhile, went after Tiffany on the topic of election denial. Tiffany voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.
After denying the results for years, this past spring Tiffany said he accepted the outcome. Yet he still backs an FBI probe into Wisconsin’s results.
Crowley said Tiffany’s attempt to decertify the election results shows the Republican lacks integrity.
"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," Crowley said.
The moderators also pushed the candidates to detail just how they’d provide relief to Wisconsin residents amid the tough economy. And, they were questioned about their stances on abortion policy in Wisconsin, and whether county sheriffs should collaborate with ICE.
This was the only gubernatorial debate leading up to the Nov. 3 election.
Early voting is underway. Polls are showing that Tiffany and Crowley are neck-and-neck at this time.
