David Crowley promised Act 10 repeal, a BadgerCare option and universal pre-K in his first 30 days. A shrinking budget balance, a lost federal Medicaid bonus and a one-vote Senate cushion stand in the way.
David Crowley will be Wisconsin's first Black governor, with 18-15 and 53-46 majorities behind him. Bargaining rights, BadgerCare and school money top a long Democratic list, while two new constitutional amendments narrow the field.
Crowley carried Brown County, reportedly the first Democrat to do so since 1982, while Brandy Tollefson flipped the 88th and Green Bay's $158 million referendum passed. Gillett, Pulaski and Seymour voters said no.
Nicolet and OWLS Library Systems Draft Plans for a 10-County Merger From Green Bay to Waupaca
The back-office systems behind 32 public libraries in Northeast Wisconsin could combine as soon as 2028. A committee votes in December, and all 10 county boards would have to sign off.
The two library systems that support public libraries from Green Bay to Waupaca are drafting plans to merge, which would put 32 libraries in 10 Northeast Wisconsin counties under one administrative system no earlier than January 2028. Leaders of the Nicolet Federated Library System and the Outagamie Waupaca Library System told WBAY the combination would trim duplicate administrative work and stretch tax dollars further. A joint committee appointed by the two system boards is expected to vote in December on whether to recommend it.
Most patrons wouldn't see a difference at the circulation desk. Library systems are the back office of Wisconsin's public libraries, running shared catalogs, delivery routes, staff training and technology support, and passing state money through to member libraries. Local library boards, which hire directors and set hours, would stay in place, and those boards don't get a vote on the merger.
Two Systems, 32 Libraries
Nicolet, which now operates as Nicolet Library System, serves 15 member libraries with 43 outlets from an office on Allouez Avenue in Green Bay. Its territory covers Brown, Door, Florence, Kewaunee, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto and Shawano counties, and its member list runs from Brown County Library and Door County Library to small-town libraries in Algoma, Gillett, Lena and Suring. OWLS, based on West Brewster Street in Appleton, covers 17 libraries in Outagamie and Waupaca counties, with Appleton Public Library as its resource library.
The pair already share infrastructure. Nicolet joined OWLSnet, the shared catalog network behind InfoSoup, in 1995, and 13 of its 15 libraries use it, according to the technology plan Nicolet filed with the Department of Public Instruction. Brown County Library and the Menominee library are the two that don't.
The systems launched a joint strategic plan in 2023, finished the first phase of DPI's merger guide in late 2025, and both boards voted in January to keep going. A value proposition the committee approved June 9 lists deeper staffing, succession planning and less administrative overhead as the goals. The directors' public FAQ points to a possible leadership transition and says the merger isn't a foregone conclusion.
The tax-savings pitch has limits. The same FAQ says a merger wouldn't touch county budgets, since county library money goes to local libraries and "is not used for library system operations." Any savings would come out of state aid now spent on administration, and neither system has published a dollar estimate.
Jobs appear safe on paper. A draft staffing scenario in the committee's Sept. 8 minutes calls for "No reduction in force," with one of the two system directors moving into a consultant role and job titles and benefits standardized across both staffs. Nicolet Director Tracy Vreeke told FOX 11 in September that the systems "would definitely probably merge to one location." The draft governance plan sketches a 15-member board with seats apportioned by county population, and committee members recorded worries about meeting load and one county dominating the officer posts.
Smaller libraries want to know what happens to the money they lean on. Shawano County Library Director Staci Rubenzer told TCH Daily News that her library gets "a lot of monies from Nicolet in grants and opportunities," and that she wants details on how a merger would affect its branches.
Ten County Boards Get the Final Say
Under Wisconsin Statutes section 43.15, two library systems may merge only with the approval of each system board and the county boards of every participating county. If the committee recommends the merger in December, the Nicolet and OWLS boards would vote at their January meetings, and the proposal would then go to all 10 county boards, including Brown and Outagamie.
The directors' process outline calls for county public hearings by July 2027, implementation planning by August 2027 if every county approves, and a plan for the new system filed with DPI that October. FOX 11 reported the new system could start Jan. 1, 2028, or Jan. 1, 2029.
There's a recent template. Arrowhead Library System in Rock County and Lakeshores Library System in Racine and Walworth counties combined into the 22-library Prairie Lakes Library System on Jan. 1, 2023, after the Rock County Board approved it 26-0. A Rock County supervisor said then that the deal meant "fewer dollars being spent on administrative purposes," though no savings figure was published. DPI later built its system merger guide on that merger.
How to Weigh In
The committee meets next on Nov. 10 and Dec. 15. Its meetings are virtual and open to the public, and agendas and materials are posted on the OWLS merger exploration page. A survey for library users is planned for later this fall, and questions can go to mergerexploration@owlsweb.org.
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