Tyco Fire Products reached a settlement with the state of Wisconsin to clean up PFAS contamination in Marinette County — retired hydrologist Jeff Lamont said he’s disappointed by the terms. The state’s housing authority announced nearly $50 million in tax credits for developers to create rental units for working families, which its CEO Elmer Moore, Jr. said continues a successful track record for the policy. State Health Officer Paula Tran spoke to findings in a five-year report investigating the health challenges faced by Wisconsinite. UW-wide tuition hikes for undergraduate students come as families and the institutions weather rising costs, explained UW-Madison professor Taylor Odle.

Jeff Lamont
Retired hydrologist

• Firefighting foam manufactured by Tyco Fire Products in Marinette is the source of PFAS forever chemicals contamination in the community and surrounding areas. The state announced June 4 that it had settled a lawsuit with Tyco and its corporate parent Johnson Controls that requires the company to deposit $10 million into Wisconsin’s PFAS Trust Fund for future clean-up as well as provide clean water for 20 years — including deep drinking water wells — and remediate and report water quality. The settlement terms apply to a 35-square mile area that includes parts of the city of Marinette and the town of Peshtigo. Lamont said limiting the settlement agreement to that area alone fails to address the extent of the contamination.
• Lamont: “What it did essentially, it said there was the initial investigation area and then there was an expanded investigation area. For 10 years, the DNR had fought with Tyco about the responsibility beyond this essential first area that was investigated. The contamination was the same. I mean, we’re talking in places where it’s neighbors across the street — well, we were going to take care of you on this side of the street, but the other side of the street, that’s not our contamination. And this lawsuit limited their liability to just the initial investigation area, not the expanded investigation area or the 3,000 acres of contaminated biosolids that was spread in Marinette County.”

Elmer Moore, Jr.
CEO, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority

• WHEDA announced $47.8 million in Housing Tax Credits on June 3 for developers to create more than 2,000 affordable rental units across the state. Thirty-five developments have been selected for these low-income housing tax credits as costs remain high for builders to proceed with new construction. Moore said the program has a long and successful track record.
• Moore: “The low-income housing tax credit program was a bipartisan effort from 1986. This was Ronald Reagan’s administration’s work. It is well understood as the most successful private-public partnership in our country’s history. It has generated hundreds of thousands of rental housing units and home ownership units across the country. For WHEDA alone, we’re talking 61,000 units have been created using the housing tax credit program. You know, we have deployed — are you ready for this number — $644 million in just tax credits. That has really moved the needle, and it has incentivized the investment of communities and developers in the form of housing across the state.”

Paula Tran
State Health Officer, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

• As part of the Wisconsin State Health Plan, the Wisconsin State Health Assessment comes out every five years with an aim to address known problem areas related to diseases, causes of death and the provision of care for residents. According to the 2025 edition of report, 20% of Wisconsinites say their physical health is poor or fair, and one in seven say the same about their mental health. Tran described the most significant health concerns that are facing Wisconsinites.
• Tran: “We know that Wisconsinites are dying younger than before the pandemic. And we know there’s a lot of challenges for Wisconsinites in accessing both the daily resources that they need to be healthy and well — so healthy food, having safe, secure housing, having transportation to get them to where they need, as well as having good access to affordable care where they meet it, when they need it.”

Taylor Odle
Professor, UW-Madison School of Education

• The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents has approved a 2% tuition increase for in-state undergraduate students starting in the fall 2026 semester. It marks the fourth tuition hike in a row after a decade-long freeze on increases to the price of enrollment. The increase comes at a time when inflation is cutting into family budgets, but Odle said costs are going up for UW campuses as well.
• Odle: “I think it’s very important to acknowledge that a 2% increase is very real money for students and families. I think at the same time we also have to acknowledge costs are going up for all of us, including organizations and businesses like the Universities of Wisconsin. Two percent is relatively modest and predictable, and below the rate of inflation right now. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t have important conversations about dollars and cents at the end of the day, but what students and family should really care about is the net price of college. So when you quote that $12,000 or that $8,000, that’s what we call the sticker price, what you see on the website. But from that, we know people get grants and scholarships, and that pulls it down to what we called the net price, the check that you have to write at the end of the day to be able to enroll. And that number has actually been relatively flat over the last several years, because UW is taking money from these tuition increases and putting it back into financial aid.”

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