Democratic Wisconsin lawmakers propose legislation capping utility bills

Wausau resident Jill Sexton and her husband are both in their 60s. Sexton says she’s on disability and her husband is on Social Security. 

Sexton said she had to take a part-time job to cover rising utility costs, but it’s still tough to make ends meet.

“Each month, we choose between paying the electric bill and heat bill or filling our prescriptions,” she said at a recent news conference. “Some months, I don’t buy the medication. Some months, we stretch food until the very last day.”

Democratic state lawmakers are proposing a bill that they say would address the issue.

At a Nov. 11 press conference, state Reps. Darrin Madison of Milwaukee, Francesca Hong of Madison and Ryan Spaude of Ashwaubenon announced legislation that would essentially cap residential energy bills in Wisconsin at 2 percent of household income.

The bill would require the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to create a percentage of income payment program that would provide relief to energy burdened or severely energy burdened households.

The legislation defines energy burdened households as those spending between 2 and 4 percent of their household income on electricity and gas bills, and severely energy burdened households as those spending 4 percent or more.

Spaude said the bill is “all about affordability.”

“Folks in my district and around the state are on a knife’s edge,” he said. “Many of them are just barely getting by. This bill is going to do something. It’s going to keep more money in their pockets.”

The Wisconsin Utilities Association declined to comment on the proposal.

Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, said his organization hasn’t taken a position on the bill yet but said he appreciates that it shines a light on rising energy costs.

“At this time of the session, there are a lot of bills that are introduced for messaging rather than for enactment,” he said.

Democrats nationally are trying to make affordability and cost of living issues a central campaign issue. Democratic candidates who won elections this month in New York, New Jersey and Virginia all made affordability a core component of their messaging.

The Democratic bill would need bipartisan support to reach Gov. Tony Evers’ desk.

“Given that the Republicans control the state Legislature by a good margin, and that this is a Democratic bill, I would say it strikes me as unlikely to become law unless there are some Republican co-sponsors,” said Michael Kraft, an emeritus professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Electricity prices expected to continue rising through 2026

Nationally, retail electricity prices have outpaced inflation since 2022, and are expected to continue rising through 2026, according to a May 2025 analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“Right now, we’re in a period where electricity prices are actually the ones, I think, driving inflation,” Content said. “For all the attention that egg prices got last year, the price of power is what is really taking hold this year.”

Increases in average monthly residential electric bills in Wisconsin stayed below inflation from 2014 to 2024, the most recent year with available data, according to federal data. During that period, average monthly bills rose from $94.88 to $110.87. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator shows $94.88 in December 2014 money had the same buying power as $127.53 in December 2024.

During the same period, the average price per kilowatt-hour — the cost of one kilowatt of electricity used for one hour — in Wisconsin has risen by nearly 26 percent, federal data shows. The average price per kilowatt-hour rose from 13.67 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2014 to about 17.18 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024.

Electric bills can also vary by utility. For example, We Energies’ average electric bills in 2014 and 2024 were slightly above the statewide average, while Wisconsin Public Service bills were slightly lower than average, according to data from the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin.

We Energies’ average monthly residential electric bill was $99.65 in 2014 and $127.29 in 2024, while Wisconsin Public Service’s average residential electric bill was $83.94 in 2014 and $105.13 in 2024, according to the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin.

Brendan Conway, a spokesperson for the parent company of We Energies and WPS, said in an email that the company’s typical customer bills are below the national average and in line with other utilities across the Midwest. 

“Our rates since 2020 have increased below the rate of inflation and we work every day to keep bills as low as possible,” Conway said. “Just this fall we returned nearly $70 million to customers through bills credits for fuel cost adjustments.”

Maria Beltran, a We Energies customer who lives in Milwaukee, said at the press conference that she struggled with energy bills when she was raising her children. She said her family often had to endure months without electricity and heat.

“The help that exists is slow, confusing and hard to access when you are already juggling with rent and shut off notices,” she said. “There is so much red tape (and) so many barriers that keep people in poverty oppressed. That is not right.”