Today’s last day for Wisconsin’s child tax rebate

Midnight tonight is the deadline for Wisconsin families to apply for a $100-per-child tax rebate.

Any legal guardian with a child under 18 in 2017 that was living at home is eligible. There are no other restrictions, such as income. Sign up here.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was in La Crosse multiple times promoting the rebate. He says it is a way that families may be able to afford back-to-school supplies and as a form of tax relief from Madison.

Back in January, Walker stopped at the La Crosse Airport, holding a Spider-Man backpack saying of the $100, “What parents tell me overwhelmingly, is they’re already making plans for how they would spend that — on school supplies, backpacks, on paper and crayons, and pens and pencils, on new shoes and clothing, and other things along the way.” 

Walker says more than 500,000 families already applied for the rebate, with many of them already getting the money.

The rebate, along with a sales tax holiday for the first week of August, haven’t come without controversy with questions like ‘Who gets it?, ‘Could it have been used for other things?’ or ‘Is it the governor simply buying votes?’

Lawmakers question whether the $122 million state budget surplus could have been better utilized, like fixing roads.

Walker will be at stores in Eau Claire and Wausau today to remind families that time is running out.