Wisconsin Legislature delivers a rare bipartisan victory to help fund WisconsinEye

On Tuesday, the Assembly Committee of State Affairs in Wisconsin passed a rare bipartisan bill to direct funds toward WisconsinEye, the state’s free public affairs network.

WisconsinEye allows the public to view live and archived committee hearings, press conferences, floor sessions and other events held at the Wisconsin state Capitol. Until now, the network solely relied on private donations to operate. But a reduction in those donations forced WisconsinEye to temporarily shut down from Dec. 15, 2025 – Feb. 2, 2026, leaving Wisconsin as the only state not recording the actions of its elected officials during that time.

After weeks of silence on the issue, and as WisconsinEye struggled to raise the funds necessary to go back on the air, Assembly leaders finally announced a tentative agreement on how to fund the state’s version of C-SPAN last month.

After years of trading blows on policy and ideology, it was jarring to see Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) stand together in agreement during a press conference last week. Vos has repeatedly refused to even bring many Democrat-written bills to the Assembly floor during his thirteen-year reign as speaker.

But the result of this bipartisan work was revealed in the Assembly Committee on State Affairs on Tuesday, where Neubauer introduced Assembly Bill 974.

“I also just want to highlight that there was good bipartisan work that went into this bill,” Neubauer said. “We know that restoring transparency and public access needs to happen, and I appreciate Speaker Vos and his staff for engaging with me and my team on this. It’s an important sign of how important public access is to the state of Wisconsin.”

During last year’s budget negotiations, $9.75 million of state funding was earmarked for WisconsinEye, but the network was unable to access the money until they raised an equivalent amount in private donations. Officials from WisconsinEye told the legislature that this would not be possible. A GoFundMe fundraiser that started on Jan. 2 has garnered $58,783 in small-dollar donations as of Feb. 4, just 23% of its required budget to be functional for three months.  

According to Neubauer’s testimony, AB 974 will provide an annual grant to WisconsinEye that will equal the interest accrued on the $9.75 million each year. WisconsinEye will be responsible for covering the rest of its operating expenses through private donations.

“If we assume a rate of return of about 4-7% on the endowment, WisconsinEye will still have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to be able to maintain something close to their current budget, which is 950,000 annually,” Neubauer said. “Let’s say they bring about $600,000 from the endowment each year, they would need to raise about $350,000. They have communicated that they think that that’s possible.”

In exchange for the annual grant, WisconsinEye will be responsible for keeping livestreams and archives free and accessible to the public and provide annual reports to the state legislature. Designers from each state legislative leader will also be appointed to WisconsinEye’s governing board.

“These are common-sense requirements that will make sure Wisconsinites have strong access to the Capitol for years to come,” Neubauer said.

Mark O’Connell, the chair of WisconsinEye’s board of directors, also testified before the committee, where he indicated that several large private donors recently stopped giving to the network, which led to the funding crisis.

O’Connell also said that WisconsinEye will need some kind of bridge between now and when the return on the grant investment comes in, but that several larger donors are willing to provide funding if the AB 974 becomes law.

WisconsinEye’s approval for AB 974 comes after a month of negotiations with lawmakers. Originally, Democrats introduced a bill for the state to take over the network, which WisconsinEye CEO Jon Henkes publicly opposed as he felt it went against the network’s pledge to be neutral.   

AB 974 passed through the State Affairs Committee with a unanimous vote, and it will head to the Assembly floor for approval from the full body in the coming weeks. If it makes it through the Assembly, AB 974 will head to the state Senate for approval before Gov. Tony Evers (D) gets a chance to sign it into law. 

“Today, we are back on the air. Why? Because the leadership in this body had told us ‘we need you back on the air. We want you back on the air. We want the interface between the public and the decision makers of this state to continue,’” O’Connell said.