Shirley M. Hinze
Retired
Democrat
ShawanoElected Experience
None
Q&A with the Candidate
Why should voters elect you?
I'm running to give people an alternative. I care about rural, working-class people.
What is the top issue in your district? How would you address it?
Affordable housing is the top issue. We need to make sure private individuals have space to purchase land and property and not just let developers own all of it.
How should Wisconsin government operate differently than in the past?
We need to follow Wisconsin's constitutional mandate to prove quality education.
What is your favorite fun Wisconsin history fact?
My great grandfather served as a Republican in the Assembly in 1912.
NEW News Lab general election questions
Relevant Experience
Hinze has served on the Great Lakes Advisory Board and on the local plan commission. She also served as a teacher’s aide, Boy Scout leader and Sunday school teacher.
Wisconsin has a large budget surplus. What should lawmakers prioritize: tax cuts, increased spending on public services, or something else?
The money is taxpayers’ money; it should go back into communities. Many are resorting to wheel fees and raising property taxes to offset the funding they've lost.
What policies are most important to address Wisconsinites’ concerns about cost of living?
Health insurance premiums have gone up to the point families are only insuring the kids. We need to get the expanded Medicaid into Wisconsin. I'm determined to get the minimum wage increased. It is a must to fund our hospitals; rural communities like mine are facing the possibility of closures.
Housing costs have risen in many Wisconsin communities. What role should state government play in creating more affordable housing?
Real estate in my rural community, according to Realtor.com, has more over-inflated home prices than most of the U.S. because we have recreational waterways. It’s very apparent here corporations are buying up homes to flip. This trend is increasing property taxes, and it is forcing out local people, especially seniors. Add to that the rising cost of maintenance. I want to look at ways to limit corporate real estate price-gouging, because that's exactly what it is. Once elected I can work on an existing mandate that communities can use to build affordable, low-income housing.
What policies would best address Wisconsinites’ concerns about property taxes?
Property taxes are necessary. Society can't function without them. If the state reduces property taxes, there will be a bigger loss of funds into municipalities, forcing them to raise local taxes to offset that loss. There is only one way to reduce the tax burden and that is to reduce spending. I must be honest, every municipality in the state, and the state government, are doing their budgets for fiscal year 2027 in an economy that is unpredictable. What's allocated today may not be enough tomorrow. We need to revamp Wisconsin’s existing tax code, which I will gladly support.
Funding of public education has been an issue and has been tied to property taxes for years. Schools often rely on local referendums for funding staffing, programs and maintenance. What specific changes would you support to the state’s school funding formula and how would you pay for them?
Referendums are not getting the public approval they once did because they raise taxes, which are just another financial burden on people who are struggling financially. The state surplus could be a solution. However, there is a better way to approach this: End the voucher program.
Should the state direct more funding toward voucher and school-choice programs and what evidence supports your position?
I will vote to end the voucher program. It is syphoning off taxpayers’ money to provide basically a private education at a private school. We need to keep schools in our neighborhoods.
What steps can the Legislature take to alleviate court backlogs and address the need for more judges, prosecutors and public defenders?
There are statutory laws that determine how many judges there are. I believe we need more judges. Those laws may be outdated and do not address the increase in population in some municipalities they serve in. So I will support looking into those laws and will vote to change them. I believe there should be some financial help for students to go to law school. Until we provide for more people to enter the legal system, backlogs will just continue.
How do you feel about the number of prisons in Wisconsin - should there be more? Less? Why?
Do we need more prisons or do we need to remodel what we have to make them more efficient? Building a new prison is expensive and is not what taxpayers want. I'd like to address the mental health, substance abuse and homelessness that drives crime and spend money on programs that reach people before they get into trouble and have to be incarcerated
How significant an issue is climate change? What would you advocate for related to climate change if elected?
I have been an environmentalist for years. Today we are facing a crisis of global warming, which brings up the subject of data centers. Sadly they have now become a necessary evil in our society because society has become too dependent on the technology they support. I will support regulating them. I will work on laws to stop excessive use of water supplies or higher electric rates. We must hold corporations accountable if they break the law.
Wisconsin’s bipartisan support for a PFAS law to hold polluters accountable and the state's lower maximum contaminant levels for drinking water put it out in front nationally on forever-chemical protections. Some say the best way to prevent PFAS contaminations is to outlaw their use, while others hope to reverse the regulations. How important is this issue? What still needs to be addressed? How should remediation costs be raised?
Return funding back to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) so they can rehire staff to get back into the field to monitor what's going on and to continue to go after polluters no matter what toxic chemicals they are dumping into our environment. The cleanup should not be on the backs of the taxpayers. Hopefully we can seat more judges to expedite cases instead of having them backlogged for years while people continue to live with the poison.
What do you think of the implementation process for the new Medicaid work requirements so far in Wisconsin? What has worked? What could be improved?
This is the result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In its quest to weed out fraud, it affects some people who are on BadgerCare Plus. It has created a huge burden and a lot of red tape for the state to deal with, and this costs taxpayers. I personally don't like this process of who decides what for whom. It will push (thousands) off the program based on those opinions. I don't know exactly how an Assembly member can regulate this because it has to meet federal requirements that the state is in charge of implementing.
What do you think about funding the 988 crisis line long-term at the state level?
This is a public safety program no different than the poison-control hotline. When it comes to providing funds to provide resources to the public to help maintain its safety and health, funding should never be an issue. This is a must.