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Finance committee delays action due to budget disagreements, child care providers disappointed

The playground at Learning Ladder Preschool and Childcare center, which closed in August 2024 after over 30 years in business. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

The budget process hit another roadblock as Assembly and Senate Republicans appeared to split over budget negotiations with Gov. Tony Evers — leading to the cancellation of the budget committee’s meeting Thursday and disappointment from child care advocates who had traveled to the Capitol that day.

The June 30 deadline for the 2025-27 state budget is quickly approaching and lawmakers still have major portions of the bill to put together. The GOP-led Joint Finance Committee was scheduled to continue its work by voting on sections related to child care, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Department of Justice as well as the capital budget. As the start time of 1 p.m. approached, a cancellation notice was released. 

Legislative leaders then put out statements saying negotiations with Evers had resumed this week, but were going south again. Negotiations had previously broken down with Evers saying he had agreed to GOP tax cuts but Republicans wouldn’t make concessions on spending for education, child care and other parts of the budget. Republicans said Evers wanted to spend too much. 

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said in a statement about the cancellation Thursday that negotiations between legislative leaders and Evers had been “good faith” with each party seeking “to do what’s best for the state of Wisconsin” since they restarted this week.

“However, these discussions are heading in a direction that taxpayers cannot afford,” LeMahieu said. “Senate Republicans are ready to work with the State Assembly to pass a balanced budget that cuts taxes and responsibly invests in core priorities.” 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) also put out a statement describing conversations over the last couple of weeks as being in good faith, saying work on a budget that “cuts taxes, puts more money into K-12 schools to stave off higher property taxes, and funds childcare and the university system in exchange for meaningful reforms” has been productive. But said Senate Republicans were the party that left the negotiations. 

“We have chosen to work together so our tax reductions actually become law, schools continue to be funded, Medicaid patients continue to receive care, and road construction projects do not stop,” the Assembly lawmakers said. “This is the most conservative and the most responsible option… We hope Senate Republicans will come back to the table to finish fighting for these reforms and complete the budget on time.”

Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback wrote in a post on social media about the meeting cancellation that “ultimately, the Senate needs to decide whether they were elected to govern and get things done or not.” 

Republicans have a narrow 18-15 majority in the Senate, meaning the caucus can only lose one vote if they want to pass a budget without Democratic support. Two Republicans — Sens. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) and Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) — have publicly expressed their concerns about the budget as it stands. Kapenga has said he would prefer for the state to not pass one at this point.

Nass said in a statement that Senate Republicans have been advocating for “tough but fair spending decisions” and the outline of the deal from the negotiations includes “too much spending, special interest pork and the creation of a structural deficit.” He said some legislators want to cut a “bad deal” for taxpayers.

Nass said there is “nothing preventing the Republican majority in the Legislature from passing a conservative state budget except for the lack of willingness at the highest levels in the Assembly.”

Democratic members on the Joint Finance Committee and Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) spoke at the Learning Ladder Preschool and Childcare center in Cottage Grove Thursday morning. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Democrats said that the breakdown in communication is the result of “extremists” in the Republican caucuses controlling how they have approached the budget talks. 

“Weeks ago, legislative Republicans walked away from negotiating with the governor in order to attempt to pass this budget through by again giving in to the desires of the most extreme members of their legislative caucuses, and instead they find themselves here again — unable or struggling to pass a budget and needing to talk with the governor about ways that they can finally do what Wisconsinites have been asking them to do all along,” Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said. 

When it comes to the potential for Democrats to vote for the budget, Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said Republicans need to talk to them. 

“Ultimately, what we really need is for Republicans to pick up the phone for the Senate Majority Leader [LeMahieu] to decide that he is not willing to risk his majority and his more vulnerable members to kowtow to the most extreme voices… so it’s really just his willingness to pick up the phone and accept the reality of the caucus that he’s built,” Roys said. 

If a new budget isn’t passed by the deadline, Wisconsin continues to operate under the current budget. 

Child care advocates frustrated 

Child care advocates had traveled to the state Capitol Thursday in anticipation of the meeting, including Brynne Schieffer and Erin LaBlanc of the Faith Lutheran Child Care Center located in Cameron, Wisconsin. They traveled three-and-a-half hours to Madison and said they jumped through “a lot of hoops” to make it there, including asking some of their families to keep their children home so the ratio of children to staff remained adequate. 

Schieffer said they wanted to be able to advocate for the inclusion of child care investments in the budget. They support Evers’ $480 million request to continue funding the Child Care Counts program, which used federal dollars from pandemic relief to support staff wages without increasing tuition costs to parents.

“The meeting not happening — it’s definitely disappointing,” Schieffer said. “Our elected representatives [are] not doing their job. Can’t they get along? We can come in and mediate. That’s what we do.”

Schieffer said the families were supportive because they understand the stakes.

“We came down not only for us, but for them, for the child care industry,” Schieffer said. 

One in four Wisconsin child care providers could close their doors if the state support for centers ends in June, according to a survey of child care providers commissioned by the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) and produced by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Child care advocates took pictures outside of the meeting room of the Joint Finance Committee after its meeting was canceled. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Schieffer said that the center would need to raise its costs by $28 per child per week to make up for a lack of Child Care Counts funding. She said that if there is funding they plan to put that in the contracts that families have.

“We need direct funding. We need to be considered on the same level as our public schools,” Schieffer said. “The direct funding comes in and goes directly towards the operation of the center, operational budget including staff wages.”

Corrine Hendrickson, owner of Corrine’s Little Explorers and co-founder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) said she wanted to be available if lawmakers had any questions ahead of the meeting and because she thinks it’s important that they look at the people who are affected when they take action on the budget. She closed her center for the day to be at the Capitol and isn’t sure she’ll be able to do so again when the committee eventually takes up child care. 

“It’s incomprehensible to me that they, as elected officials, can just walk away and not do their job when all kinds of… people were here to witness this, and they just can decide 30 minutes before that they don’t actually have to do their jobs,” Hendrickson said. “It’s also frustrating because these conversations should have taken place already and should be a basic agreement before they decide to schedule the hearing.”

Child care providers said Republicans’ plans so far for child care aren’t sufficient for addressing the crisis. 

Assembly Republicans announced their plans on Wednesday for child care including allowing 16-and 17-year-olds to staff child care facilities as assistants and to count towards staff to child ratios, increasing the number of children that a family provider can have from 8 to 12 and creating a zero-interest loan for child care providers and a 15% tax credit for the business expenses at a child care facility. Vos had said they didn’t agree with the approach of providing money directly to centers.

Hendrickson said they are the same ideas that Republicans introduced last session.

“We came out vehemently against [those] and told them exactly why this wasn’t going to work,” Hendrickson said, adding that since then they have spoken with the lawmakers championing those proposals including Reps. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) and Joy Goeben (R-Hobart)

“It didn’t feel like they were listening. It felt like they were trying to convince us that they were correct,” Hendrickson said. 

“A grant is something that you don’t have to pay back, and so you can use it to get yourself started. Because our profit is so low, there’s no way that we can take on that loan when our home is our collateral. If I take on a loan and my home is collateral and I can’t pay it back then, that means I lose my house.”

Schieffer said there are problems with the changes Republicans want to make to ratios. She said increasing the number of children per staff member could impact the quality of care and that minors don’t have the work and education experience that other staff members have.

“I work in a center where every teacher holds a degree in early childhood,” Schieffer said. “To be able to put 16-year-olds and say they can do that job without the education piece, the experience piece, life experience, I feel like that it devalues what we do.” 

Democrats highlighted the strain on child care facilities — and potential closures — that could result from the end of funding for Child Care Counts and argued that the state should have some type of grant program for them at a press conference Thursday morning. 

Democratic members of the Joint Finance Committee and Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove) met at the Learning Ladder Preschool and Childcare center in Cottage Grove. The facility closed in August 2024 after over 30 years in business. 

“There are no tricycles in the playground. There’s no uncontrollable laughter among children, and the sweet sound of toddler feet running across the classroom is not here,” Ratcliff said while standing in a room full of bins of children’s books left over after donations and sales. 

The owners wrote in a letter about the closure in August that the solution would have been “Child Care Counts” funding, fair access to 4k funding and care and consistent regulations across child care providers. 

The Learning Ladder Preschool and Childcare center in Cottage Grove, which closed in August 2024 after over 30 years in business. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

“Unfortunately, our foundation has been slowly chipped away and we can no longer afford to remain open. After COVID, governmental grants and assistance programs helped prop us up for a while, but those programs have, or are about to end,” the Kudrna family wrote on Facebook at the time.

Democrats slammed Republicans for their rejections of funding for Child Care Counts.

“It is totally unacceptable that my Republican colleagues on the Joint Finance committee have, again and again, said to child care providers ‘your work doesn’t matter, it isn’t worth it,’” Roys said. “That’s what Republicans did when they stripped out the Child Care Counts funding that was keeping so many child care centers afloat and is helping bridge the gap between what parents can afford to pay and what providers need to keep the doors open in this time of high inflation and rising costs.”

Roys said lawmakers should be working on solutions that keep child care centers stable, not coming up with new proposals. Democrats on the committee said they had intended to introduce a proposal to provide grants to centers. 

“New theoretical ideas that Republicans want to propose are essentially wish-casting,” she said.  “We need to keep the centers that we have and the slots that we have open. We need to get more classrooms open, more early childhood educators to come back into the field.” 

“To try to start something from scratch is going to take way longer, it’s going to cost way more when we could just keep what we have stable,” Roys added.

Evers had also urged investment in child care on Thursday. In coordination with the Department of Children and Families, he released a survey that found that 90% of Wisconsin residents, including those without kids, said that finding affordable, high-quality child care in the state is a problem. Over 75% of respondents said they support an increase in state funding to help.

“This is an issue that impacts everyone in Wisconsin. It’s pretty simple, and as leaders, we have an obligation to the nearly 80% of Wisconsinites who want us to do something about it and expect their elected officials to show up, act in good faith and work together across the aisle to solve problems,” Evers said. “I’m urging Republican lawmakers to join me in supporting real, meaningful investments to bolster providers, cut waitlists and lower costs for working families.”

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Budget causes friction as Senate passes bills without funding attached

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said his caucus has “no trust” in Evers and his office and said that is the result of vetoes in the past on bills. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Friction between Democrats and Republicans was on display Wednesday as the Senate passed several bills along party lines that create programs, grants and facilities without state funding attached. 

Republicans argued the bills need to be signed before funding is included in the budget to assure them there won’t be any changes made by Gov. Tony Evers using his partial veto, and Democrats said the funding needed to be included to assure them the bills don’t become unfunded mandates.

The first bill — SB 41 — would instruct the Office of School Safety in the Department of Justice to establish a program that allows public and private schools to apply for grants to improve safety in school buildings and provide security training to school staff. The program would sunset in July 2027 under the GOP bill.

The bill initially had $30 million in funding attached, but Republican lawmakers passed an amendment that removed the funding.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said, while the Senate debated the bill, that his caucus has “no trust” in Evers and his office and said that is the result of vetoes in the past on bills. 

LeMahieu noted three vetoes from last session as example: the veto in the state budget that extended revenue limit increases for schools for 400 years, one on a bill funding a new literacy program and another on a bill meant to help combat PFAS

“It is our commitment to you that we are hoping these bills get bipartisan support — they’re bills that are important for Wisconsin,” LeMahieu said. “And if they get through both the houses and the governor signs them. We intend to fund this through the budget process.”  

LeMahieu said that otherwise lawmakers would be funding a program without knowing what it will look like.

“Frankly, there is a trust issue between our caucus and Evers,” LeMahieu said. 

Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a statement to the Examiner after the floor session that the GOP-led Legislature has “spent years undermining our constitutional checks and balances by giving themselves outsized influence and control over the policymaking process.” 

“It’s ‘my way or the highway’ for Republicans, who’d rather go as far as passing a Frankenstein budget in pieces than try to work together to get good things done for the people of our state,” Cudaback said. “If Republican lawmakers spent more time working across the aisle in good faith than they do trying to exhaust every avenue to preserve their political power while they still have it, Wisconsinites would be better off.”

Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) said during floor debate that Democrats cannot trust the funding will actually come if the bills are done in that way.

“We’re supposed to trust that bills are going to get passed with no funding because they are going to get funded later,” Smith said, adding that “when there is no funding behind the bill it’s hollow. It means nothing.”

Smith authored an amendment that would have put the funding back. Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) — the author of the bill — voted in favor of every amendment to the bill, including the ones authored by Democrats to provide the funding and in favor of the amendment that he authored that removed the funding from the bill. He made similar votes on other bills that he authored. 

Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said he has asked Republican lawmakers, including those on the budget committee, about funding for several proposals, but has never gotten a clear answer on funding. 

“Come back and talk to us when you’ve decided. Is it $ 5 [million]? Is it 10 [million]? Is it nothing? Are we actually doing this? If you were bringing this up later with the budget, if we actually had a budget, if we weren’t just waiting for you all to decide whether you’re going to cut the UW budget, if we had a budget in front of us… maybe we could talk,” Spreitzer said. “We have absolutely no idea what you’re doing on the budget. We have no idea if you actually have 17 votes on a budget.” 

With the budget still in process, Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) and Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) have expressed reluctance to support  the budget proposal as approved so far by the Joint Finance Committee. This could leave Senate Republicans — who hold an 18-15 majority — without much wiggle room to pass a budget.

That could give Democrats more leverage. Hesselbein said she is hopeful she can work with Republicans to pass a budget that invests in priorities including public education, higher ed and child care.

“It certainly seems that Sen. Kapenga has been very clear,” Hesselbein said. As for whether Democrats will vote for it, she said, they will “have to see what that budget looks like” but her “door remains open to have those conversations.”

The Senate floor session came after Evers had been urging lawmakers to make sure their bills include funding. 

Evers’ legislative affairs director Zach Madden sent letters to Republican authors of bills last week, which Democrats read during the floor session, expressing Evers’ concern about the lack of funding attached. His office identified 16 bills needing funding.

“While the Governor is supportive of the policy concept the bill aims to accomplish, the bill does not include the necessary funding to implement the bill. Without providing the necessary funding, the legislation is effectively nothing more than an empty promise,” Madden wrote. 

Madden wrote that Evers is requesting the bill be amended to include the funding, the bill be incorporated into the budget bill or that language be added to the bills to “make clear the requirement of the bill is only mandated after adequate funding is appropriated in subsequent legislation specifically for the purpose of the bill.” 

“The Legislature has increasingly tried to pass legislation to create new and unfunded mandates, add additional requirements or policies that require resources to implement, and tie up hundreds of millions of dollars in critical investments in a trust fund or the JFC supplemental fund that never leave Madison to serve the purposes for which they were intended,” Madden wrote. “Due to the Legislature’s inaction, districts still haven’t seen one cent of that funding even as the various policy requirements went into effect.” 

Madden said that lawmakers splitting the bills in the budget from their funding is  “unsustainable and untenable,” and is interfering with the Evers’ ability to exercise his partial veto power. He said the change needs to be made if the bills are going to be signed into law. 

“It is clear the overarching goal of these practices is designed to prevent the Governor from exercising his constitutional veto authority, and it is further apparent the Legislature is now attempting to use this practice to effectively try to pass a biennial budget in pieces.” 

Wanggaard called the letters “intimidating” and “threatening” at one point. 

“That was the intimidating letter that was sent,” Spreitzer said, after reading one of them. “If that was intimidating, then you must not have worked in politics long.” 

The debate became heated with Spreitzer at one point standing up and asking for his name to be removed as an author from one of the bills he had co-sponsored, saying it was an “unfunded mandate.” 

Youth corrections bills

Several of the bills the Senate voted on came out of a study committee held over the summer of 2024 charged with considering legislative solutions to issues with the emergency detention of minors.

One bill — SB 106 — would establish psychiatric residential treatment facilities (PRTF) in Wisconsin. The facilities are meant to offer long-term treatment for children diagnosed with psychiatric conditions, including bipolar disorder, disruptive behavior disorders, substance use disorders, severe emotional disturbance or post-traumatic stress disorder. Lawmakers want to establish the facilities to help prevent minors from being sent out of state when they’re in crisis. 

“We’re willing to vote for this if it’s real, if it has funding,” Smith said. One of the Democrats’ proposed amendments to the bill would have provided DHS with nearly $1.8 million in 2025-26 and 2026-27 for the administration and funding of PRTFs. 

Sen. Eric Wimberger called Democrats’ amendments a “stunt” and said the Wisconsin Supreme Court had changed the rules for how Wisconsin does the budget. 

“If we were to put an appropriation in the bill, he could line-item the whole thing and just take the money,” Wimberger said. “We’re going to maintain the authority of our branch.”  

Wanggaard said that if Evers vetoes the bill it is on him and not on the Legislature. 

Other bills passed by the Senate that Democrats said needed money attached included:

  • SB 108, which requires the Department of Health Services (DHS) to develop an online portal that would facilitate sharing of safety plans for a minor in crisis with specific people. Democrats had requested $1 million in funding to be attached.
  • SB 111, which establishes that counties are responsible for the transportation of a minor to emergency detention if they approve detention for a minor. Democrats wanted to include open-ended funding, while an amendment was made to provide a specific amount of funding. 
  • SB 182, co-authored by Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) instructs the Technical College Board to provide grants to technical colleges that provide emergency medical services courses that train and prepare people for their initial certification or licensure as an emergency medical responder or services practitioner. The bill also instructs the Higher Educational Aids Board to reimburse students or their employers for tuition and materials necessary for someone to qualify for the initial certification or licensure as an emergency medical responder or an emergency medical services practitioner.
  • SB 283, which requires the Department of Transportation to establish and administer a public protective services hearing protection program. 

Assembly talk about education, child care plans

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said on Wednesday morning ahead of the Assembly floor session that the proposals from Republican lawmakers aren’t adequate.

“Our public schools are in crisis. Our communities are being forced to go to referendum year after year, our child care industry needs direct investment to keep it afloat, and our universities need essential dollars to provide the best services for our students,” Neubauer said. She added that Republican lawmakers declined to raise special education funding in schools to 60% and are preparing cuts to the University of Wisconsin system.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said his caucus supports cutting $87 million from  the UW system, but wouldn’t say if that’s the final proposal the budget committee will take up. The system has said it needs additional funding and Evers had requested $855 million in his proposal for it. Vos says Republicans want “reform” of the UW for the “broken process that we currently have.” 

Assembly Republicans announced their plans to address the child care crisis in Wisconsin — again rejecting Democrats’ calls for funding Child Care Counts, which faces a quickly approaching deadline for when funding runs out. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

“That would have serious consequences for economies across Wisconsin and the future of our state. A cut like that could mean closed campuses — the Platteville, River Falls or Stevens Point Marathon County — at risk,” Neubauer said. “Cuts like that would have consequences for thousands of students, staff, and faculty, and is just unacceptable.” 

Neubauer said that lawmakers need to work with Evers and Democrats to pass a budget that will “ensure the continuity of essential services” in Wisconsin.

“There is still too much political correctness on campus,” Vos said. “We don’t have enough respect for political diversity — heaven forbid, if you’re a student who’s Jewish or has a different viewpoint on campus, where you feel like you’re either targeted or the victim of potential hate.” 

During the last legislative session, Republican leaders leveraged pay raises and funding for building projects to get the UW system to concede on diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Assembly Republicans also announced their plans to address the child care crisis in Wisconsin — again rejecting Democrats’ calls for funding Child Care Counts, which faces a quickly approaching deadline for when funding runs out. Evers had requested a $480 million child care measure and some providers have argued it’s necessary to help keep child care businesses open. 

The outline announced Wednesday includes allowing 16-and 17-year-olds to staff child care facilities as assistants and to count towards staff to child ratios, increasing the number of children that a family provider can have from 8 to 12 and creating a zero-interest loan for child care providers and a 15% tax credit for the business expenses at a child care facility.

Vos said Democrats’ approach to the child care issue wouldn’t be effective. He said Republicans’ plan was “comprehensive” and a “good idea.”

“The plan that they have basically put out is saying that the way we drive down the price of groceries is to pay the owner of the grocery store more, hoping that it will trickle down to cost carrots and eggs less,” Vos said. “What we prefer to do is to give the money to the consumer to the parents to actually make those decisions.” 

Shawn Phetteplace, national campaign director for Main Street Alliance, told the Examiner that the proposal is a sign that Republicans are “deeply unserious” about working to improve the child care crisis. 

“If you look at what the actual crisis is in child care, it is the fact that parents can’t afford it, and that providers do not make enough to be able to make a living and stay and enter the industry. We believe at Main Street Alliance that the solution to this is to invest in the Child Care Counts program and not to do budget gimmicks that have been proven to be failures over the years.” 

Phetteplace said that Vos’ grocery comparison was “oddly” appropriate given that the U.S. already subsidizes farmers. 

“We provide generous subsidies to allow them to have consistent, predictable markets for their goods,” Phetteplace said. “What we’re asking for is to make sure that the child care providers are making enough, and the parents can afford it to ensure that we have a market and child care that works for Wisconsin families. The proposal today by the Speaker and Assembly Republicans is simply an effort to deflect this issue and to make it less politically salient. We believe that is not the right approach, and we urge them to get serious and to negotiate with [Evers].” 

The Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to meet to continue its work on the budget Thursday.

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