CREATE WISCONSIN LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES AND ACTIONS 2025

See below for:

  • Talking points

  • 2025 Legislative Agenda

  • Advocacy Toolkit

  • What can you do as an advocate? Plenty!

  • State Budget 2025-2027 process timeline

Talking points:

  • Wisconsin’s arts and cultural assets are more important than ever to revitalize the economy, develop a 21st century workforce and incubate, attract and retain talent, provide opportunities for all, and help our communities, large and small, thrive. Investment in the creative sector will help grow and stabilize Wisconsin’s creative economy, workforce, and communities. 

  • Data and research:

    • Wisconsin’s creative sector is a $11.9 billion industry, according to the US Department of Commerce and National Endowment for the Arts, encompassing over 89,000 jobs - more jobs than the state’s beer, biotech and papermaking industries. 

    • The Wisconsin Arts Board and Americans for the Arts (AFTA) conducted a comprehensive economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry from 2022-2023: Arts and Economic Prosperity 6, revealing that Wisconsin's nonprofit arts and culture industry generated $933.3 million in economic activity in 2022. That economic activity - $437.1 million in spending by nonprofit arts and culture organizations and $496.2 million in event-related spending by their audiences - supported 15,851 jobs and generated $190.1 million in local, state, and federal government revenue. Spending by arts and culture audiences generates valuable commerce to local merchants, a value-add that few other industries can claim. ​

  • Legislative and local leaders throughout the state understand that investment in cultural and artistic assets is a 21st century strategy that will help Wisconsin, its communities, and its people, thrive. Despite this understanding, Wisconsin has lagged in investment in its creative economy, especially among its Midwest neighbors. Although the creative sector is an economic driver ripe with possibility for Wisconsin, the state’s 0.18 cents per capita spending for arts and culture puts us at 49th out of 50 states, and far below Minnesota’s $9+ per capita. Programs like Destination Iowa, established in 2022, provide a $100 million investment to bolster the quality of life in Iowa’s communities and attract visitors and new residents to the state. 

Significant strides forward have been made for Wisconsin’s creative sector and the residents of the state, and there’s still so much to be done. This Legislative Action Center is the go-to place for news, updates, resources, and ideas. Advocacy is a fluid process and things can change quickly, so check back frequently and get in touch with Create Wisconsin with your questions and comments.

2025 Legislative Agenda:

  • Invest in Wisconsin’s creative assets to benefit all Wisconsinites, by increasing funding for grants awarded on a competitive basis by the Wisconsin Arts Board. We call for a substantial increase in investment - at least $5 million annually, to bring the state’s ranking to approximately $1 per capita - in the Wisconsin Arts Board, the state agency dedicated to the arts.  This investment will support programming and operations of organizations, individuals, and companies whose programs, products and services help make arts and cultural opportunities available and accessible to the people of Wisconsin.

  • Rural Creative Economy Development Program:  we call for legislation to provide much needed state support to economic development and promotional organizations and local government agencies for the purpose of cultural planning and creative economic development programs. Eligible projects will serve the rural creative economy and creative industries through hob and business creation and capacity-building, workforce training and development, community and sector planning, development and engagement, and products or services with artistic, cultural, creative, or aesthetic qualities.  Click here for the proposal.

  • Create film and television production incentives and a state film office, to grow jobs and investment through more film and television programs and projects throughout the state. Wisconsin is one of only five states lacking a film office and one of ten without any production incentives. Without these essential resources in place, the state is missing out on significant economic opportunities. Click here for information via Action Wisconsin, a coalition of people and businesses working to create and retain jobs, enhance the economy, and promote tourism state-wide through film and television production.

Advocacy Toolkit (updated on a regular basis)

What can you do to speak up for the arts and creativity? Plenty!:

  • Ask Governor Evers, Lt. Gov. Rodriguez, and state legislators to make investment in the creative sector a priority in the state's 2025-2027 budget.   Use this template message in Create Wisconsin's Legislative Action Center to send your message.  Make sure you personalize your message with examples from your community.

  • In addition to sending a message, you can also:

    • Invite decision-makers on all levels to see your work up close. Feature these representatives at a meeting, performance, exhibit event, etc.

    • Ask representatives to write an op-ed about the importance of creative economy investment for a newsletter or social media.

    • Forward this to 5 - or 10, 20, or any number - colleagues, family, and friends, and ask them to send a message too.  Again, the more people heard from, the more the message will be heard.

    • Make sure you are registered to vote (www.myvote.wi.gov) and get to the polls when elections roll around.

  • Please note: with new faces in the Legislature after the November 2024 elections, NOW is the time to start getting your message across.

  • Create Wisconsin organizes advocacy updates and training , in-person and Zoom meetings with legislators, legislative hearings, op-ed templates, template messages, and many other ways to make the case that investment in creativity is a win for Wisconsin.  Next session:

    Creative Conversations: budget season, advocacy, and you
    Next session: Monday, January 6, 2025, 1 pm
    Join Create Wisconsin in a "Creative Conversation" to keep up to date about the state budget season and what you can do in the statewide collaborative campaign to increase investment in the arts and culture. Register here.

STATE BUDGET 2025-2027 PROCESS TIMELINE:

  • September 2024: State agencies provide their budget requests to the governor through the Department of Administration.  The governor reviews the requests.

  • Tuesday, November 5: Election Day (President and Vice President, Congress, State Senate and Assembly)

  • First week of January 2025: Legislature is sworn in and starts work.

  • Monday, January 6, 1 pm: Creative Conversation - budget season, advocacy, and you

  • February 2025: (odd-numbered year) The governor proposes the executive biennial budget. 

  • March 2025: The governor releases capital budget.  The capital budget allocates money for the creation, acquisition, or maintenance of fixed assets such as land, buildings, and equipment.

  • Create Wisconsin Day and the Local Arts and Creativity pre-conference will happen on Monday-Tuesday, March 24-25, 2025. Registration will open after 1-1-25.

  • April – May 2025: The legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) holds hearings and modifies the governor’s biennial budget and capital budget.  

  • Create Wisconsin will organize testimony at JFC hearings around the state, and in-district meetings with legislators, in March and April 2025.

  • June 2025: Assembly and Senate act/vote on the budget.

  • June 2025: Governor signs budgets; issues vetoes. The 2025-2027 state biennial budget should be in place at the beginning of the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2025.  There have been times when the budget process has gone well beyond July 1.  It is important to note that state government does not shut down like the federal government.  State agencies continue using the previous year’s budget numbers until the new budget is in place.

RESOURCES: