Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said during a press conference ahead of a Senate floor session Thursday that Evers’ office has had lawmakers’ plan for a tax cut since March and that they have asked Evers for a list of specific items that he would want in the budget to agree to cutting taxes. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

State budget negotiations were top of mind for lawmakers Thursday, even as the Senate took action on a variety of bills, with Senate Republicans calling for a meeting with Gov. Tony Evers and Democrats calling on Republicans to support Evers’ budget requests. 

The Wisconsin Legislature is in the process of writing the next biennial budget, and Republicans are intent on passing a tax cut this session after failing to get Evers’ approval for a proposed cut last session.

Republican leaders have said they want an agreement on the tax cut before allocating spending to other priorities, and are waiting for Evers to schedule an in-person meeting with them to work it out.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said during a press conference ahead of a Senate floor session Thursday that Evers’ office has had lawmakers’ plan for a tax cut since March and that they have asked Evers for a list of specific items that he would want in the budget to agree to cutting taxes. However, LeMahieu said they haven’t been given any details in the last several weeks.

“Speaker Vos and I provided the governor with a series of times [to meet] into next week as a last-ditch effort to preserve these good faith negotiations,” LeMahieu said. “I hope sincerely that he accepts… one of those dates next week. It’s imperative that we meet by the end of next week at the latest to stay on schedule to pass a budget by the end of the fiscal year. It’s as simple as that. Time’s ticking… and if we’re going to work to get a budget passed, we need to meet with the governor next week.”

LeMahieu said GOP tax goals include exempting income for retirees in Wisconsin to encourage them to stay in the state and increasing the second-tier tax bracket, similar to a bill the governor vetoed last session. LeMahieu said the new tax bracket won’t reach as high up the income ladder as the vetoed one.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said on Tuesday that work on the budget is “on pause” until legislators get an in-person meeting with Evers and that their preferred option is “to be able to get an agreed upon tax cut so that we know we have X dollars to invest in schools and health care and all the other things that are important.” 

LeMahieu said that the latest Legislative Fiscal Bureau report would also be pivotal in negotiations because it will help lawmakers understand “what kind of tax cut we can afford” and “what kind of other investments we can afford.”

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected in the fiscal estimate released Thursday afternoon that the state will finish the 2023-25 fiscal year, which ends June 30, with a $4.3 billion budget surplus, which is slightly higher than the estimate from January. However, the estimate also found that tax collection will likely be lower over the next two years.

“While we are not surprised by these new estimates, we remain cautious as we work to craft a budget that invests in our priorities, funds our obligations, and puts the State of Wisconsin in a strong fiscal position for the future,” Joint Finance Committee Co-chairs Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) and Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said in a statement. 

The lawmakers said that the estimates are a sign that they need to continue to approach the budget in the same way they have in the past. They also called on Evers to “take these revenue re-estimates seriously” and to “come to the table with legislative leaders and work with us to craft a reasonable budget that works for Wisconsin.” 

Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee said in a statement that the estimate is a sign of the decline the economy could face due to Trump administration tariffs. 

“Now, more than ever, Wisconsinites are struggling to put food on the table and maintain a roof over their heads. This projection shows it’s going to get even worse, especially when our communities start to feel the direct impact of the Trump regime’s trade war around the globe,” the lawmakers said. “Together, we need to ensure Wisconsinites have the resources to get through the chaos and uncertainty that lies ahead.” 

Ahead of the floor session, Democratic lawmakers called attention to Evers’ budget requests, saying that the various non-budget bills the Senate took up Thursday don’t address the issues that Wisconsinites are most concerned about. 

“It’s been 87 days since [Evers] has introduced his budget. It invests in essential priorities — K-12 funding, child care education, mental health, helping the environment and putting much needed funding in the university system. What have Republicans done in those 87 days? Well, they stripped essential items in that budget….” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said at a press conference. “What the Legislature should do is debate the budget.”

Wisconsin Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee cut over 600 items from Evers’ proposal last week , saying they were taking the budget “back to base.” 

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) noted that lawmakers recently traveled across the state to hear from Wisconsinites about their priorities for the state budget and then failed to act on any of those priorities. She then listed several bills on Thursday’s calendar. 

“We’ve got a bill on changing the name on the name-change process for people convicted of violent crimes; a bill that gives big businesses their own private courts; a bill tweaking surcharges for electric vehicles,” Johnson said. “I’m not saying that these bills aren’t important to someone, but we sure didn’t hear about these issues when we traveled across the state at our listening sessions.” 

Johnson said that lawmakers need to ask if the bills “meet the moment” the state is facing. 

“Do they lower the cost for hard-working families? Do they help us hire nurses, teachers, child care providers? Do they clean our water and keep our streets safe [or remediate] lead contaminated classrooms?” Johnson asked. “If the answer is no, then why the hell are we here?” 

Democrats, including Hesselbein, have said they think Democratic votes will be necessary to pass a budget, but they don’t necessarily expect to be in the room for budget negotiations between legislative Republicans and Evers.

Asked if Democrats are requesting to participate in a sit-down between Evers and Republicans, Hesselbein said she is “in consistent contact with Gov. Evers and his administration, and those conversations have been both before and moving forward.” 

Pressed on whether she wants to be in the room when the governor and Republicans meet, Hesselbein said “I’ll be honest, sometimes it’s hard to get all of us in the same room because of timing and schedules and things like that.”

Some of the bills that the Senate took action on Thursday include: 

• SB 33, which would make it a crime to share nonconsensual “deep fake” nude images and was introduced in reaction to the growing use of artificial intelligence to make fake images. It passed unanimously. 
• SB 125, which would require the Public Service Commission to conduct a study for a place to locate a nuclear power plant. It passed with bipartisan support from 28 Senators. Four Democrats and Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) voted against the bill. 
• SB 96, which would exempt electric vehicle charging stations at a person’s home from the electric vehicle charging tax. It passed unanimously. 
• SB 146, which would bar someone convicted of a violent crime including homicide, battery, kidnapping, stalking, human trafficking and sexual assault from changing their name, passed 18-15 in a party line vote.
• The Senate also passed AB 73 in an 18-15 vote. The bill would create a specialized commercial court meant to handle business cases. It comes after the state Supreme Court discontinued a pilot program last year.

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The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee used its first working meeting on the state’s next two-year budget to scrap Gov. Tony Evers’ recommended spending plan — but it offered clues to which of the public’s priorities remain in the mix and which are DOA.

Using committee rules, Republicans put a prohibition on committee members discussing certain ideas put forth by the governor — including proposals relating to some of the public’s top priorities: education funding, health care and child care — but left the door open to discussing some of his ideas even as they struck them from the budget document.

The Joint Finance Committee’s action marks the fourth time in four budget cycles that it has scrapped hundreds of the Democratic governor’s proposals — though some of them can return to the budget, in some form or another. GOP lawmakers on the committee have gotten used to “the way we have to manage Gov. Evers’ budgets,” committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, told reporters, adding that the governor’s plan called for too much state spending.

The committee’s first working meeting comes after it held four public listening sessions across Wisconsin in West Allis, Kaukauna, Hayward and Wausau. Lawmakers on the committee heard from the public about a range of issues, with education funding, health care and child care among those raised most frequently.

Democrats on the committee denounced their GOP colleagues for tossing Evers’ budget.

“People are struggling, and it’s a challenging world,” said Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha. “The one thing we should not be doing, the one thing that nobody votes for their legislator to do, is to make their life harder.”

Committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, panned the idea that Evers’ proposals were the only way to address certain issues in the state.

“This idea that the door is closed on all these things is pretty ridiculous,” he said during the committee’s meeting.

There is more than “one way to address issues and those will all be debated and built over the next couple of months,” Born added.

Here are issues legislators will and won’t be able to discuss as the committee crafts a spending plan over the next two months.

Education funding

The committee closed the book on a number of education issues. That includes a $148 million proposal from Evers to make school meals free to all K-12 students in Wisconsin regardless of income. The program would have taken effect for the 2026-27 school year.

The committee also shut down a $500,000 proposal to fund a grant program for peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs, $5 million in funding to help school districts encourage people to pursue a career in teaching and $1 million to pay for feminine hygiene products that can be distributed to Wisconsin students at school.

Though the committee voted to scrap scores of other Evers proposals, it did not vote to end the discussion on certain issues that were priorities for the governor and raised by the public at committee hearings.

One thing scrapped by the committee but left open for discussion was Evers’ $1.13 billion request to have the state pay for 60% of Wisconsin school districts’ special education costs. The state currently covers a third of such costs for public schools and upwards of 90% of costs for some private voucher schools. Multiple public hearing attendees said their public school districts have transferred thousands of dollars from their general funds to their special education funds to cover costs that have not been reimbursed.

The committee also tossed out a $212 million proposal to increase general per pupil aid and a $168 million request to fund school-based mental health services, but left the door open for future discussion on both topics. 

The committee’s decision to definitively shut down some proposals but leave open others suggests lawmakers could increase spending for certain programs funded by Evers, just in different ways or amounts.

Health care

As it has throughout Evers’ time in office, the committee rejected a proposal to accept federal Medicaid expansion and used committee rules to block further discussion of the topic. Medicaid expansion has been a top priority for the governor during his six-plus years in office, but Republicans have repeatedly blocked efforts to expand the program.

Wisconsin is one of 10 states that have not yet expanded Medicaid. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has defended that decision as insulating the state from the federal government scaling back Medicaid reimbursements.

Republicans on the committee also closed the door on a $100 million proposal from Evers to fund a program focused on lead hazard remediation. The funds would have been used to help low-income families remediate lead in homes built before 1950.

The committee also clipped a $1.4 million request from Evers to pay for a study to assess so-called “forever chemicals” and identify potential methods for limiting further human exposure. PFAS, as the chemicals are commonly known, have contaminated water sources across Wisconsin. Two years ago, the Legislature approved $125 million to help address PFAS contamination in the state. The funds have so far not been released, with Evers and Republicans at odds with how the money should be spent.

One key item lawmakers threw out but did not block future consideration of is postpartum Medicaid expansion. Wisconsin is one of two states that have turned down a federal expansion of Medicaid coverage for up to 12 months for new moms. Wisconsin’s coverage currently lasts 60 days after birth, far shorter than what health experts recommend. Evers’ proposal would have expanded coverage to one year.

A stand-alone bill that would provide Medicaid coverage to new moms for 12 months is currently working its way through the Legislature. It is co-sponsored by a majority of the Legislature’s 132 members. All six Senate Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee voted in favor of the stand-alone bill last month. Including it in the state budget could provide lawmakers a way to circumvent opposition from Vos, who has criticized the bill as welfare expansion.

Child care

Among the Evers provisions discarded by the committee without a possibility of future consideration were programs that would provide financial assistance to child care providers, assist workers with licensing and certification and pay down debt associated with child care accrued by certain qualifying families.

Child Care Counts was established in 2020 using federal funds to provide monthly stipends to child care providers to cover costs of their services and support the recruitment and retention efforts of child care workers in Wisconsin. But funding for the program is set to expire at the end of June.

Evers’ budget proposal would have allocated $442 million over the next two years to make the program permanent, funding annual payments to child care providers. The recommendation would also fund four new positions at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to oversee the program. 

Without continued state support for the program, around 25% of child care centers in Wisconsin face the threat of closing once current funding runs out. 

Another program removed from the budget would have provided a $4.5 million grant to Wonderschool — an organization aimed at meeting the demands of child care — to continue expanding child care in Wisconsin. The program also would provide $5.5 million to the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association to support child care workers in the state, including assistance with the licensing and certification process.

Another cut program would have used federal funds to reduce child care debt for qualifying parents.

Child care access and affordability have been a persistent problem in Wisconsin, with some families expressing concern over how they will cover the costs of child care without state support. 

The Joint Finance Committee will continue its work on the budget throughout May and June. The state’s current fiscal year expires on June 30, but if a new budget isn’t yet in place, funding will continue at existing levels.

Republicans offer clues to which Tony Evers budget priorities could make final cut is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Lawmakers listen to testimony at the West Allis public hearing in early April. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Education priorities, including funding for K-12 public schools, higher education and early childhood education and child care, proved to be the issues that arose most often in public hearings held by the Wisconsin Legislature’s powerful budget committee in April. 

Wisconsin lawmakers wrapped up their public hearings this week with a hearing Monday in Hayward and one Tuesday in Wausau. Two hearings were held in early April in West Allis and Kaukauna.

With the hearings complete, the Joint Finance Committee will turn its attention to the work of writing the budget with the goal of completing it by the June 30 deadline. If lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers don’t complete the budget by that deadline, Wisconsin continues to operate under the current budget into the next fiscal year. 

Tessa Maglio, digital and communications organizer for the Wisconsin Public Education Network, a nonprofit advocacy organization for public schools, worked with legislative policy Lead Bryn Horton and organizing and engagement coordinator Camden Hargrove to track testimony at each of the public hearings.

“Tracking the testimony is really important because we have seen in budget cycle after budget cycle people ask for the resources Wisconsin kids in their public schools need and then have watched the subsequent budget not meet the requests,” Maglio said. “We wanted to keep it in the forefront of the advocates’ minds as well as the governor’s mind and legislators’ minds.” 

According to the WPEN tracker, more than 900 people spoke across the four hearings, which lasted about 29 total hours. WPEN reported that more than 170 people discussed funding for K-12 schools, more than 50 people spoke about higher education and more than  50  spoke about child care. Maglio said education across the spectrum made up at least a third of the total testimony.

“It is really powerful to hear you know people share their stories and experiences and priorities and so even though some of the topics might not have tallied very high on our tracker, they’re nonetheless still very important,” Maglio said.

On the issue of  K-12 public education, Maglio said, public testimony included calls to raise the special education reimbursement to at least 60%, provide districts with more spendable aid, fix the revenue limit structure, which restricts how much school districts can raise without permission from lawmakers or the public, and help school districts keep their schools operating and serve their students.

There were “many different stories and many different perspectives and people brought their own experiences whether they were coming from large urban districts or small rural districts,” Maglio said. School districts in Wisconsin have not had predictable increases in funding through state aid or property taxes in over 15 years, and an increasing number of school districts have had to rely on getting permission from voters in referendums to meet costs.

Maglio highlighted testimony by Laura McCoy, president of the Green Bay Area Public School District Board of Education, at the Kaukauna hearing. 

McCoy told lawmakers that her community supports their local schools.

“We know this because we just passed yet another referendum: the third referendum in eight years. We’re going to have to pass another one next year,” McCoy said. “Honestly, funding public education by referendum is no way to educate our future generations. Districts around this state are begging for change. Please listen to them.” 

“We are doing our job in Green Bay. We are holding up our piece of the sky. We are preparing our students for the future and we are hitting it out of the ballpark with workforce development,” McCoy added. “But it gets harder every year and we need to feel like the state Legislature is our partner, and not our adversary.” 

JFC Democrats call for education funding

Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee also called on Republican members to fund education in the upcoming state budget during a Wednesday press conference.

“From West Allis to Wausau, the message was consistent and it was clear,” said Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee).  “Wisconsinites want a budget that invests in public education, affordable health care options, workforce development and child care.” 

“It is our job as state legislators,” Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said, “and it is time for my Republican colleagues to join Democrats in actually providing the resources that our kids deserve.” 

Republican leaders have said that the state Supreme Court decision on Evers’ partial veto, which extends the annual $325 revenue limit increase for school districts for 400 years, would affect the state budget. In April, the Court upheld the veto, saying it was within the governor’s  power and suggesting that lawmakers could take different routes, including writing the budget differently or passing a constitutional amendment, if they want to prevent such vetoes in the future. 

Roys said it would be “an excuse” and “pathetic” if Republicans decide not to increase education funding due to the decision. 

“If they want to try to pass a constitutional amendment, we’ve seen them do it again and again. They can certainly give that a try, but I don’t think that’s an acceptable excuse to fail to pass a budget on time, fail to pass a budget that makes the investments that our kids and our constituents — all of our constituents — need and and deserve,” Roys said. 

Johnson added that the state could also cover the cost of the $325 revenue increase Evers’ veto allowed school districts to raise from local taxpayers. 

“I’m hoping that they do the right thing,” Johnson said of her colleagues in the Legislature. “We heard a consensus across the board of taxpayers coming in and testifying, saying that the referendums are not sustainable. It’s not the way for them to fund public education, and let’s be real, it’s not fair, either.” 

Health care concerns

According to the WPEN’s tracking, health care was the second most discussed issue at the hearings. 

“Coming in just behind the focus on public education was Medicaid expansion, Medicaid funding, health care,” said Maglio. “Many, many, many people came out to testify in favor of those things and shared really powerful and sometimes heart-breaking personal stories about the impact that Medicaid funding has on their lives or the lives of their loved ones and what that would mean if that funding were not to be supported in the budget.” 

Evers, as he has done in each of his budget proposals, asked  that Wisconsin take the federal Medicaid expansion that would allow almost all adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level to qualify. Wisconsin is one of only 10 states that has not done so.

This session, though, the request comes at a moment when the Medicaid program is facing the threat of deep cuts from  the Trump administration and Republican members of Congress. Concerns about proposed federal cuts came up at the state budget hearings. 

“Also with farming and food access and previously supported funding for Wisconsin farmers to provide food to schools and to food pantries… Across the board there was kind of an undercurrent [of] people focusing on the needs of Wisconsinites, but urging their lawmakers to think about the budget within the context of decisions being made at the federal level,” Maglio said.

In addition to broader Medicaid expansion, a postpartum Medicaid expansion, which would extend health care coverage for mothers who recently gave birth from 60 days to a year, has been a major point of bipartisan agreement this session. A bill that would make Wisconsin the 49th state to take the extension recently passed the Senate but it faces challenges in the Assembly, where the top Republican has opposed the measure deeming it an expansion of “welfare.” 

Roys called on her Republican colleagues to get it done by placing it in the budget. She noted that the four Democrats and the six Senate Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee, who voted in favor of the bill, could place the proposal in the budget without Assembly Republicans on the committee having to vote in favor. 

“I understand that there are some problems over in the Assembly, and we’ve heard that Vos  is to blame year after year, session after session when this doesn’t get done — despite having overwhelming support for members of his caucus, and, of course, every single Democrat in the Legislature,” Roys said. “The good news is that if Republicans in the Assembly are afraid of political retribution from Speaker Vos or they don’t want to cross him, we can still put postpartum Medicaid expansion in the budget right now.” 

Another major issue that lawmakers will debate this budget is tax cuts, though Roys noted that cuts for “millionaires and billionaires” were not popular topics at the public hearings. 

“That’s one thing that nobody asked for, [but] seems to be the focus of my Republican colleagues,” Roys said. “In fact, they are focused on trying to shove through an irresponsible tax cut before we even engage in meeting the needs of Wisconsinites.”

Republican lawmakers have said they want to pass a tax cut bill prior to the budget. 

“The goal, again, is to try to find something that can actually get across the finish line,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said in April. During the last legislative session, Evers vetoed several Republican  tax cut proposals, including proposed reductions for the top income tax brackets in the last budget. “I think the governor realizes that we’re not going to spend any more money unless we have the ability to reduce taxes and help folks get by with inflation.”

Evers, meanwhile, has said that he won’t support tax cuts done outside of the budget.

“It has to be part of the budget. We just can’t do things one way, and then, you know, just do taxes and then do spending,” Evers said. “We have to look at it together.”

So far lawmakers have declined to discuss specifics. Committee Co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said at a press conference ahead of the Wausau hearing that details haven’t been negotiated and they aren’t going to “negotiate anything in the media.” 

Democratic legislative leaders have said they haven’t been part of those discussions. 

Roys said that if Democrats were going to support a tax cut, it needs to be part of the budget process and it needs to be “responsible and not create a massive structural deficit that then Republicans will use it as an excuse to undermine the services that we rely on in our public schools.” Any cut, she added, needs to be targeted towards “everyday Wisconsinites.” 

Johnson said that investing in other priorities could also present a better opportunity for savings for taxpayers. 

“Everybody could use a couple of extra dollars in their pocket. Let’s be real, I could use a couple of extra dollars a month, but if those same communities are going to have to go to referendum to support their schools, it’s not a tax break for them,” Johnson said.

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At an April 1 hearing, in a sign of what the most contentious issues will be in this year’s state budget, the Republican-controlled budget committee only heard from two state agencies: Corrections and the Universities of Wisconsin system.

UW system President Jay Rothman told lawmakers he agreed with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ assessment that the 2025-27 biennial state budget is a “make it or break it” budget year for the public university system.

Evers’ budget request for the Universities of Wisconsin matched the agency’s ask of $856 million in additional funding over two years, which would be one of the largest increases in the university system’s history. Evers told reporters this funding, in addition to $1.6 billion proposed for capital projects, is essential even without the Trump administration’s threats to cut university funding.

Republican lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee asked Rothman to justify “administrative bloat” across the system’s 13 universities, as well as the sizable budget ask. Rothman said while the request is large, Wisconsin currently ranks 43rd out of 50 in state spending on public universities. Evers’ budget would add 214 state-funded positions to UW campuses. Rothman said that excluding UW-Madison, the universities have lost over 1,000 positions since 2019.

The share of the UW system budget that comes from state funds has decreased by about 15 percentage points in the last two decades, from 33% to 18%.

“If we get the budget funded, we will not have to raise tuition,” Rothman told the JFC. “If we don’t get funded at an adequate level, that’s one of the levers we have. We keep our branch campuses open, that’s another lever we have that I don’t want to have to use.”

But amid declining birth rates and enrollment in public schools across the state, Republican lawmakers questioned whether the $856 million ask is reasonable considering university enrollments may soon drop significantly. Five of the 13 campuses had enrollments shrink last year.

“You cannot cut your way to success,” Rothman told the committee. “You need to invest.”

State funding for UW-Madison — the state’s flagship university — in inflation-adjusted dollars was $644 million in 1974. Since then, it has declined by $93 million in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the university’s 2023-24 budget report. Figures aren’t available system-wide.

Republican Rep. Mark Born, co-chair of the committee, asked Rothman why the request called for 13 new staff positions — one on each campus — to support students who have aged out of the foster care system. He cited a UW system report that found there were 420 students in that program across nine of the campuses. He questioned why a position would need to be created at a school like UW-Platteville, which served nine of those students last year. The report also shows that the program didn’t serve all 570 students who qualify, including 23 on that campus.

“I think this is a shining example of the governor’s desire to grow government and your desire to grow your system, and it’s not focused on the reality of how you invest in this stuff,” Born told Rothman.

Rothman said the intent behind the positions is to expand the number of foster care students who could be served.

GOP lawmakers critique admissions process

Republican lawmakers have criticized enrollment and admissions at the state’s flagship university in recent years, citing constituents who say their high-achieving children have been rejected from attending UW-Madison. They have also raised concerns that the university is denying admission to in-state students in favor of out-of-state or international students.

Unlike some of the smaller Wisconsin campuses, UW-Madison has maintained high enrollment numbers likely due to its ability to attract out-of-state and international students.

If the university significantly increased its enrollment of in-state students from an already declining pool of applicants, enrollment at other UW system schools could be negatively affected, UW-Madison Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Derek Kindle told WPR.

During the April 1 hearing, Sen. Rob Stafsholt, R-New Richmond, said he adamantly believes in retaining Wisconsin-based students in the university system. He asked Rothman why one of his young constituents — who has a 4.3 GPA, 32 ACT score and a father who is a military veteran — was rejected from UW-Madison.

“How are we not serving our own kids, as they graduate, by admitting them to our universities before we spend taxpayer dollars and increase taxpayer dollars to attract people from other parts of the world?” Stafsholt asked.

Rothman said he didn’t have the specifics of that student’s case, but pointed to a bill signed into law last year that allows graduating high school students who rank in the top 10% of their high school’s graduating class to gain admission to any UW system school and guarantees admission to UW-Madison for those in the top 5% of their class. The bill takes effect for college admissions starting next fall.

In fall 2024, UW-Madison admitted around 59.3% of in-state applicants, down from an average of 66.8% over the previous nine years. The out-of-state U.S. student admission rate was 46.5%, and the international student admission rate was 33.3%, compared to a previous nine-year average of 52.7% and 38.6% respectively.

The questioning was similar to a national talking point about high-achieving students being rejected from universities, which some Republicans have attributed to diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Right-wing activists like Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, have questioned whether the government should be funding higher education.

On the same day as the hearing, Kirk took to social media to share an example of a high-achieving student similar to the one Stafsholt spoke of.

“Why are we giving hundreds of billions of dollars to universities so stupid they won’t offer this kid an admission because of his skin color (and let’s be honest, that’s why he was rejected everywhere)?” Kirk wrote on X. “Defund the college scam.”

Slashes to federal funding loom over UW-Madison

Last month, the federal Department of Education notified UW-Madison that it was one of 60 universities across the country under investigation by the Office for Civil Rights. The letter warned that the university could lose federal funding if it failed to protect its Jewish students.

The move was part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses, which has involved detaining, deporting and terminating the visas of students with ties to the national pro-Palestinian protests last spring.

UW-Madison is also one of 45 universities being investigated for alleged racial discrimination related to its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. The Trump administration has made sweeping threats to pull federal funding from colleges that continue to consider race and diversity in their policies and programs.

But how much funding is at stake here?

According to the Associated Press, out of 50 public universities under OCR investigation, UW-Madison is among the top five that received the most federal revenue in 2022-23. The university collected more than $827 million in federal funds that year, which was just over 20% of its total revenue.

Republicans take skeptical view of UW system’s ‘make-or-break’ funding request is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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For months, Republican lawmakers on the powerful Joint Finance Committee have cast doubt on the reauthorization of Wisconsin’s land stewardship program following a July state Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the legislative committee from blocking projects after the funds have been budgeted. 

A 2023 Wisconsin Watch investigation found that the GOP-controlled committee had increasingly used a secretive “pocket veto” power since Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was elected to block conservation projects under the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Lawmakers refused to take action on some projects, preventing them from moving forward.

The program has been funded at roughly $33 million annually since 2015 and is currently funded through 2026. But only $20.1 million of those funds were spent in fiscal year 2023-24, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

That $33 million allotment hardly stacks up to the amount the program used to be funded. In 2007, the program was reauthorized for another decade and allocated $86 million annually for land purchases, though that was reduced to $60 million a year in the 2011 budget, then $50 million in the 2013 budget before bottoming out at $33 million in the 2015 budget.

Since the 6-1 ruling — with two conservative justices joining the liberal majority — GOP lawmakers have seemed poised to let a popular, bipartisan program die because they don’t have final say over spending on the projects. 

“It’s unfortunate that Gov. Evers’ lawsuit (which resulted in the Supreme Court ruling) removed all accountability of the stewardship program, which helped ensure local voices were heard and that taxpayer resources were spent wisely,” Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, co-chair of the JFC, said in a statement. “The entire program is now in jeopardy.”

In an interview with the Cap Times, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the odds that Republicans would renew the program were less than 50%. 

But JFC vice chair Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc, told Wisconsin Watch that he is hopeful the program can continue and that nobody in his caucus wants the program to end. 

“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure the program is sustainable for the future,” Kurtz said in an interview.

Since 1989, when the program began, the state has spent more than $23 million in stewardship funds in Kurtz’s 41st Assembly District. The program has funded nearly 330 projects in the district ranging from trail developments and campground upgrades to habitat protection and boat launch construction. 

In his executive budget proposal last month, Evers proposed a 10-year renewal of the program with a $1 billion price tag. Kurtz said the budget committee isn’t going to adopt that proposal, but he’s committed to seeing the program reauthorized for “the next couple of years.” He said every lawmaker has a Knowles-Nelson project “in their backyard” that they might not even know about.

“It is a large price tag,” Kurtz said. “But we do need to make the investments. The investments are valuable for the long-term conservation of Wisconsin.” 

Following a series of listening sessions held in his district, state Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said attendees spoke in support of the program. 

“I am supportive of the program and hope to see it continue, but many of my colleagues in the legislature have reservations,” Marklein, co-chair of the JFC, said in a statement. 

Kurtz said it’s unfortunate the program has become a partisan fight in the Capitol and that some lawmakers are “negative” toward the program, adding that Knowles-Nelson is “more than just one project.” 

Conservation advocacy groups like Gathering Waters have pushed back against the JFC’s threats to kill the program, which provides millions of dollars in grants to local governments and nonprofits.

“I think legislative leaders were certainly unhappy about losing that Supreme Court case in such an unambiguous way,” Charles Carlin, director of strategic initiatives for Gathering Waters, told Wisconsin Watch. “There is constantly a temptation for lawmakers to get pulled into partisan battles where politics becomes more about winning than it does about good policy.”

When asked if he would veto a state budget that eliminates funding for Knowles-Nelson, Evers said he would use his partial veto power to reject “that part of it.”

Republican lawmakers diverge on future of conservation stewardship program is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Democratic Gov. Tony Evers unveiled his 2025-27 biennial state budget proposal. The nearly year-long process is now picking up speed, but the next two-year budget is still far from being finalized. 

Over the next few months, the Legislature’s powerful Joint Finance Committee, controlled by Republicans, will make significant changes to Evers’ proposals before approving a final budget bill. During this time, the politically divided executive and legislative branches will wrestle over funding for public schools, child care, higher education, Medicaid expansion and much more. 

Another budget surplus expected

Wisconsin ended its 2024 fiscal year with a more-than-expected $4.6 billion budget surplus and is on pace to end the current fiscal year with a $4.2 billion surplus. Republicans want to reduce the surplus by passing income tax cuts before the budget debate begins, while Democrats are urging more funding for things like K-12 education.

The Legislature must pass a budget signed by the governor every two years in order to use up state revenues for government operations. A budget period begins on July 1 of each odd-numbered year and concludes on June 30 of the next odd-numbered year. The last two-year budget totaled nearly $100 billion. 

Here’s what this hectic process will look like: 

The process involves three main entities that work to both create and pass the budget: the governor, the Legislature and state agencies. 

State agencies like the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Natural Resources calculate their financial needs for the upcoming cycle and submit formal funding requests, which were due to the State Budget Office back in September. The Department of Administration then analyzes and compiles the requests for the governor. 

The governor then spends months crafting an executive budget proposal based on these requests, and community listening sessions are held across the state in December. On Tuesday he will give his budget address, which he is legally required to deliver to the new Legislature. Proposed funding for state agencies will be made available. 

Soon after that — likely in March — Evers will reveal his capital budget proposal, which includes spending plans for long-term projects like new UW System buildings. 

Then, the Joint Finance Committee will review and revise Evers’ budget. Under a divided government since 2019, the committee has scrapped the governor’s proposals and written its own. In 2023, GOP lawmakers began this process by stripping nearly 550 of his proposals.

Lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee typically hold their own community listening sessions in April.  The committee typically completes its revisions by the end of May.

Then, lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature — the Republican-controlled Senate and Assembly — have until the end of the fiscal year on June 30 to pass the budget before it heads to Evers’ desk for signing. Here, he can use his controversial partial veto power to remove specific appropriations from the budget bill, also allowing him to delete large sections of language and manipulate words or numbers.

In 2023, Evers made national headlines after he manipulated punctuation in the Legislature’s budget to extend school funding for 402 years. A case challenging the partial veto is pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In the meantime, Republican lawmakers have introduced a constitutional amendment that would strip away the governor’s partial veto power.

If the budget is not signed into law by July 1, the state will continue to operate under the previous budget passed in 2023 until the new one is signed.

Here’s how Wisconsin’s state budget process works is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.