Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) during a press conference in March 2023. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) both serve on one of the most powerful committees in the Wisconsin State Legislature, yet as members of the minority they’ve often been frustrated by the way Republicans on the committee have excluded them from conversations. The lawmakers say they hope some of this changes next year.

The 16-person Joint Finance Committee is responsible for writing the state’s two-year budget — deciding which policy priorities get funding and which don’t — and reviewing all state appropriations and revenues. Republican lawmakers will continue to hold 12 seats next session with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) serving as co-chairs.

In previous sessions, when Democrats held a smaller minority in the Senate and Assembly, the lawmakers said Republicans often excluded them from the budget negotiation process.

“The Republican party didn’t just treat us badly because we were in the minority, they treated us as though we did not exist on Joint Finance,” Johnson said. “Some of their motions we didn’t find out about until they were actually passing them out on paper. That means we had very little input.” 

Roys said it’s been “very easy for the Republicans to just go in a little room, figure out what they’re going to do, and then they come out and they all vote in lockstep.” 

“There’s no discussion, there’s no transparency, and there’s certainly no opportunity for Democrats to have our priorities reflected in the budget,” Roys said. 

Beyond budget writing discussions, Republican lawmakers on the committee have also often rejected calls from Democrats on the committee to release money that was already dedicated to certain issues.

Johnson called the practice of withholding of money a “tremendous problem.” She noted that $50 million that was meant to help support the implementation of new literacy curricula in schools across the state haven’t been released despite being included in the 2023-25 budget.

“Not only are they holding those funds up, but the cost is continuing to rise, so that $50 million that was promised in 2024 isn’t going to go as far in 2025,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen that.” 

Johnson also pointed out that funding to help expand the number of beds at Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center, a facility in Madison that provides specialized treatment services for juveniles transferred from the Department of Corrections, was withheld for about six months. It was only released after the death of a youth counselor for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections at Lincoln Hills School for Boys at the hands of a 16-year-old boy. 

Other funds that have been withheld by the committee in the recent session include $10 million to support hospitals in the Chippewa Valley and $125 million to combat PFAS contamination.

“What is the purpose of us allocating these funds if the agencies can’t access them the way that they need to to make these programs work, to get what they need to get?” Johnson said. 

Johnson said she thinks that new legislative maps could help change the dynamic. Roys also said it could have an impact that the state Supreme Court found it unconstitutional for the committee to block state spending on land conservation projects after the money has been budgeted. 

“That dynamic is at play, and I wonder if it will chasten the Republicans. It doesn’t seem to have done so yet,” Roys said. 

Elections under new legislative maps increased Democrats’ presence in the state Legislature by 14 seats. In the upcoming session about 45% of the Legislature will be Democrats, but they will only make up one-quarter of the finance committee with four seats. Despite this, Democrats hope that Republicans will allow for more communication. 

Whether there is more bipartisan collaboration in JFC next session given the closer margins in the Senate and Assembly is an open question, Roys said. 

“There’s always an opportunity,” Roys said. “Our doors are open, and we are very willing to collaborate. I think we’ve shown that in previous sessions by supporting legislation that would not have passed without Democratic votes, even though Republicans had these crazy outsized majorities.”

Johnson said that she hopes that Republicans learned a lesson from the recent elections, and warned that if Republicans don’t change their ways it could hurt their election chances in two years, when Democrats will aim to flip the Senate.

Republicans in the Senate lost four members in recent elections, including two who were members of the committee — Sens. Joan Ballweg and Duey Stroebel. Three new Republican Senators are joining the committee next session —  Sen. Romaine Quinn, Julian Bradley and Rob Stafsholt — to replace the outgoing lawmakers and newly elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk).

Johnson said that, while she’s glad to have Sen.-elect. Sarah Keyeski of Lodi, who ousted Ballweg, joining the Senate Democrats, she thought Ballweg was a good lawmaker, who faced the consequences of gerrymandering.

“That’s the hard part of when maps are gerrymandered … when it’s corrected, sometimes the people that you lose are the moderates who are willing to do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing,” Johnson said. “That doesn’t mean that she never voted with her side. Of course she did. But she stepped away from that sometimes when she needed things for her community, too. She wasn’t opposed to doing the right thing.” 

Johnson said she hopes the writing is on the wall for lawmakers that want to ostracize the minority. 

“If they don’t take this as a wake-up call, then that’s better for us,” Johnson said. “Continue to operate the way that you have been operating for these last 11 years or so that I’ve been in the building, continue to do that, and it should most definitely be best for us next election cycle.” 

Priorities for the lawmakers

Johnson, who has served on the committee since 2017, says she continues to because of the opportunity it presents.

“The quickest way to help some of the people that I know that need help the most — like the working poor in Milwaukee, Milwaukee County — is through JFC,” Johnson says. “That’s where all of the important decisions are made because if you’re going to get anything passed in that building that requires one dollar amount, then that money has to be set aside through JFC to make sure that the appropriate appropriations are there.”

Johnson said lawmakers have been preparing for the next budget cycle by reading agency requests.

The Democratic senators said they want to see next year’s budget invest in a variety of priorities, including K-12 and higher education, local government funding, child care, health care and public safety. 

Johnson said that investing in some of these priorities could help bring down costs down the road. 

Johnson noted the high costs of housing youth at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools. Currently, the state budgets $463,000 annually to house each juvenile in those facilities, and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has requested that be increased to about $862,000 per year by 2026. 

investing in human needs and public education instead could help prevent children from ending up at the facility, Johnson said.

“It drives me crazy,” Johnson said. “I would much rather see my tax dollars being spent on higher educational tuition reimbursements, more housing assistance, more Foodshare, more whatever, to keep these families stable, to keep these kids in the home, than to pay [over] $860,000 for one child that may or may not correct that behavior.”

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has requested an additional $4 billion in funding, the UW System has requested an additional $855 million and the state’s technical colleges have requested an additional $45 million.

Roys mentioned increasing funding for education and local governments as some of her top priorities. 

“We’ve been asking our schools and local governments to continually do more with less under these harsh levy limits and inadequate funding from the state. That compounds over time,” Roys said. “We have got to make sure that our schools and our local governments have the money they need to continue providing the service that every single Wisconsinite deserves.” 

When it comes to K-12 education, Roys said securing a 90% special education reimbursement for public schools would be her top priority. Private schools that participate in the school choice program already receive that rate of reimbursement, while public schools currently receive about a 33% reimbursement. 

“We have a moral and a legal obligation to educate all kids, and that means meeting the needs of students with disabilities, but when the state only pays for a third of the cost of educating what that means is that school districts have to take away things for all students,” Roys said. “All kids are being harmed by the state failing to meet this unfunded mandate, failing to fund this obligation.”

Roys said investing in child care is another big priority for her. 

Wisconsin’s Child Care Counts program was launched in March 2020 using federal money and has provided funding assistance to eligible child care providers to help support operating expenses, investments in program quality, tuition relief for families, staff compensation and professional development. The program is set to end in June 2025, however, as federal funds will run out. 

“We cannot have a vibrant economy and have the workforce participation that we need for a strong economy if we don’t have affordable, accessible child care in every corner of the state,” Roys said. “The Legislature’s decision to go from, you know, $300 million Child Care Counts program that kept the doors open to $0 for child care in the last budget has had devastating consequences in every community across the state.” 

Lawmakers on what people should know

When asked about what people should know going into next year, Johnson said people need to stay aware of what the committee is doing. She pointed out that people who closely watch Wisconsin politics probably already know about the importance of JFC. 

“For those people who are not politically savvy and who don’t pay attention to those types of things, they really need to pay attention to JFC,” Johnson said. 

“JFC is where those priorities are manifested, or they go to die,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter how good a piece of legislation is, if the funding isn’t there for it and it requests dollar amounts, it’s gonna die.” 

Roys said people should make their voices and priorities known, saying that people could send emails to every member of the committee. 

“Public input tells us what’s important,” Roys said. “We can’t guarantee, obviously, what the Republicans are going to choose and be funded, but it does send a strong message. That is how we know without a shadow of a doubt that public education and affordable child care were key priorities, but Republicans chose to ignore that.”

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Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Mark Born, who will continue to serve as co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee in 2025, during a press conference in May 2023. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Assembly leaders have announced their appointments to the influential Joint Finance Committee for next session. The 16-member committee is responsible for writing the state’s two-year budget and reviewing state appropriations and revenues. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) announced last week that Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) will continue to serve as co-chair of the committee alongside Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green). Born has served as a co-chair since 2019.

Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) is replacing outgoing Rep. Terry Katsma (R-Oostburg), who decided to retire this year, as vice-chair of the committee. 

“I am confident that together, Reps. Born and Kurtz will work with their colleagues on the Joint Finance Committee to always put taxpayers first,” Vos said in a statement. 

Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) will join the committee next session.

“I look forward to the task of balancing the state budget and ensuring our state’s finances remain strong,” Hurd said in a statement. “We will work to strengthen Wisconsin’s economy.”

Reps. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake), Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek) and Shannon Zimmerman (R-River Falls) will all return to the committee next session. 

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) announced Thursday that Reps. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) and Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) will continue to serve on the committee next session. 

“Both legislators have proven themselves as powerful communicators and effective leaders, and I am sure they will both serve their communities and our state well on the legislature’s most powerful committee,” Neubauer said in a statement. “Next year, Assembly Democrats will fight for a visionary budget that moves our state forward, and I am confident that Rep. McGuire and Rep. Andraca are ready to advocate for what’s best for our state on the Joint Finance Committee.” 

McGuire has served on the committee since January 2023, and Andraca was first appointed to the committee in August 2023 to fill a vacancy left by Rep. Evan Goyke.

McGuire said in a statement that his top priority on the committee will be ensuring “working families in Wisconsin can thrive.” 

“That means fighting for affordability in housing and healthcare, quality public education, and a strong economy that grows the middle class and ensures hard-working people can get ahead,” McGuire said. 

Other members of the committee include: 

• Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), who will serve as the Senate co-chair
• Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto)
• Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin)
• Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Cameron)
• Sen. Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond)
• Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee)
• Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison)

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“Make no mistake, we still hold the majority,” Felzkowski said. “I hope we have better conversations. I hope we have better negotiations," Senate President Mary Felzkowsi said. (Screenshot via Zoom)

New-elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) said Tuesday that she hopes for more bipartisan conversations next year, but that her caucus plans to operate in the same way it has previously, since Republicans still hold the majority in the Wisconsin Legislature, even after losing a handful of seats this election year. 

The Legislature will return with closer margins next year following elections under new legislative maps. Republicans will have an 18-15 majority in the Senate, down from their previous 22-seat supermajority.  In the Assembly Republicans will hold  a 55-45 majority. Felzkowski made her comments during a WisPolitics panel Tuesday alongside Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) and two strategists — Keith Gilkes, a consultant and former chief political advisor for Republican former Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic strategist Tanya Bjork.

“Make no mistake, we still hold the majority,” Felzkowski said. “I hope we have better conversations. I hope we have better negotiations.” 

Felzkowski said she would “love” to have more meetings with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, noting that former Gov. Scott Walker used to conduct weekly meetings with lawmakers during his time in office. (During the Walker administration, Republicans controlled both chambers of the Legislature and Democrats accused them of breaking the law by meeting in secret with Walker.)

Democratic leaders have said that they believe there will be more opportunities for work across the aisle next year, and that more competitive legislative districts will encourage that. 

“We’ve got some Republicans. We’ve got some Democrats who are in close, 50-50 seats,” Neubauer said during the panel discussion. “I expect that some in Republican leadership want things to continue as they have in the past, but I expect that a lot of those members who are in those difficult seats are going to be pushing to invest in K-12, to lower costs for working families, to take up popular policy.” 

The state budget — and potential use of the $4 billion budget surplus — will be a major focus for lawmakers when they return in 2025. Writing the budget is a time when lawmakers discuss potential policy changes on a wide array of issues, and the potential funding that should be placed behind them. 

Potential budget proposals and policy changes in wake of school shooting

Neubauer and Felzkowski discussed ways to address school safety, through policy changes and the budget, after a 15-year-old girl shot and killed a teacher and another student before turning the gun on herself at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison Monday. Six other people were injured in the school shooting.

“This is the deadliest school shooting on record in Wisconsin and it’s just an incredible tragedy. I know that people across the state are sending their good thoughts, of course, to those who were impacted but also really are looking for leadership in this time,” Neubauer said. She said proposals from President Joe Biden, who called for Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as new proposals from Wisconsin legislators in the state budget could be paths for improving school safety. 

“In Wisconsin, for many years, we’ve been talking about red flag laws. We’ve been talking about universal background checks. These are policies that are widely supported by the people of this state, and I think in particular when it hits home for kids,” Neubauer said. 

“For my school district here in the Racine area, they would really like to invest in school safety, there are important programs that they run, there are physical improvements that they would like to make, and I know that we’re going to be having a budget conversation very soon,” Neubauer continued. “I do hope that we’re able to keep in mind that investments in K-12 are also investments in school safety, and that’s a responsibility of the Legislature for the coming session.” 

Felzkowski stopped short of endorsing the policy changes that Neubauer mentioned. She instead said that people need to look at what has changed in American society, adding that people also took guns to school 30 and 40 years ago.

“We went hunting after school and nobody was afraid. Nobody was afraid that they were going to get shot at school, so society has changed,” Felzkowski said. “I think we need to recognize those factors that have changed in our society.” 

“We can pass a lot of different legislation, but we need to start looking at underlying causes…Is it social media? Is it cyberbullying? Is it too much screen time in our children? Is it violence that we’ve allowed them to watch at a young age?” Felzkowski asked. “I hope we can come together with a lot of tough conversations and look at that.” 

Felzkowski said increasing weapons screening in schools could also be a point of discussion. 

“Those are conversations that we should have in this budget to help fund ideas, so that people can’t walk through the door with no screening,” Felzkowski said. 

Spending the surplus, funding priorities

The state’s $4 billion budget surplus will likely be a key point of discussion during the budget writing process. Felzkowski said that when it comes to the surplus Republicans will “do exactly what we did last time,” and don’t plan on using the money for recurring projects. 

“If the majority of this is one-time money we’re going to spend it on one-time projects,” Felzkowski said. “One-time money should be spent on infrastructure. Instead of borrowing, we’ll spend it on our roads. We’ll spend it on maintaining our buildings.”

Felzkowski said during the budget process, lawmakers will survey current spending costs and what funding could be needed for other priorities. She said returning money to taxpayers would also be a priority.

“If we have a $4 billion surplus, then we have too much of our taxpayers’ money; we can return it to them,” Felzkowski said. 

Felzkowski added that the government didn’t choose for property taxes to rise in certain communities. Her comments follow a Wisconsin Policy Forum report that found gross K-12 property taxes in the state are expected to rise by the largest amount since 2009. She said she voted in favor of raising property taxes in her own community.

“When people vote at the local level to increase their taxes, their property taxes, that’s a decision they make, and that’s a decision they choose to make,” Felzkowski said. “I don’t think that’s government making that decision for them and I think that’s something they can do.” 

Neubauer said Assembly Democrats would be open to conversations about tax cuts, if they’re targeted. 

“We’re just simply not gonna give a tax cut to the wealthiest Wisconsinites and people who do not need it. We are very open to considering a tax cut that is targeted, that is focused on middle class and working families,” Neubauer said. She said also that people in their communities are being “forced to raise their own property taxes in order to fund their schools.” 

Felzkowski didn’t specify what potential tax cut proposals would look like, but noted that Evers “moved the needle” for what he considered a middle class tax cut when he vetoed some tax cut bills lawmakers sent him earlier this year. Those proposals included raising the top income in the state’s second-lowest tax bracket to just over $112,000, exempting up to $150,000 in retirement income from the state income tax and increasing the current maximum marriage tax credit. Evers did sign a law increasing Wisconsin’s child care tax credit. 

“If Gov. Evers continues to move the needle on what ‘middle class’ is, then we’re kind of at a loss,” Felzkowski said, adding that some families struggling financially could use a tax cut. “We gave [Evers] the tax cut and he still vetoed it. I’m hoping that that needle doesn’t move again.”

Several policy proposals are likely to be discussed next year in relation to the budget, including for Medicaid expansion and higher education. States that accept the federal Medicaid expansion agree to cover people with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty guideline, and the federal government pays 90% of the cost for the additional Medicaid recipients, more than the 60% Wisconsin currently receives. 

Evers has proposed that Wisconsin join 40 other states across the country in adopting the Medicaid expansion every budget cycle, and Republicans have rejected the proposal each time. Felzkowski said that it remains off the table for Republicans. 

“We don’t have a gap in Wisconsin, so why would we take people off of private insurance to put them on government insurance and put our hospitals, who are already suffering, into a worse position with a lower reimbursement rate?” Felzkowski said. “We don’t need to create more gaps in health care when we have people covered.”  

Neubauer said that Medicaid expansion would continue to be a priority for Assembly Democrats. She said that some insurance remains a “huge strain” on families with private insurance.

“They frankly are not able to afford it. They are cutting in other areas to afford that insurance,” Neubauer said. 

Higher education will also be a focus of budget discussions as the UW System has requested an additional $855 million to bring the system up to the national median in state spending. Felzkowski said that she hasn’t heard much support for the proposal. 

Other issue areas

Lawmakers may also turn their attention back to medical marijuana legalization this year. Felzkowski said that there was one person standing in the way of getting it done last session: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. 

“That person has some pretty strict ideas on how that bill should be drafted,” Felzkowski said. Vos’ proposal last session included opening a handful of state run dispensaries, an unpopular idea among many in the Legislature. “We’re hoping to have a conversation in early January to see if there isn’t a way that we can come to a consensus between Assembly Republicans and Senate Republicans to negotiate a compromise.” 

Felzkowski said that a bill to allow “Monday processing” of absentee ballots could also come forward next session. A proposal to allow election clerks to begin processing absentee ballots  on the Monday before the election passed the Assembly last session but never advanced in the Senate.

“There are many senators that were very much in support of that. The chair of the Senate elections committee was not and chose not to hear that. He is no longer a member of the Senate,” Felzkowski said. Sen. Dan Knodl, who served as chair of that committee, chose not to run for reelection under the new legislative maps, but will serve in the Assembly next year. “I’m hoping this year that we will have a committee hearing on that bill if it’s brought back and that we have a robust conversation on that. I personally think that is something that we should be doing in the state of Wisconsin.”

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Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein on floor of Senate. (Courtesy Hesselbein's office)

Wisconsin Senate Democrats knew going into this year’s elections that their opportunity to flip the Senate wouldn’t come until 2026, but they had a goal of flipping four seats and keeping every seat already held by a Democrat. They succeeded, and now the caucus is preparing for a legislative session with high hopes for bipartisan work.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told the Wisconsin Examiner in a year-end interview that her 15-member caucus is bringing “a lot of energy, enthusiasm and honesty” to the Senate and is looking forward to working next session. She said the bolstered caucus is returning for the next two-year session with “a lot of good ideas.”

Hesselbein said lawmakers have already started to talk about what happened on the campaign trail, and the caucus will begin having more robust conversations next week about their priorities for the session. She said the importance of public schools including K-12, universities and technical colleges has been a recurring theme already.

Hesselbein sees new influence for Democrats in a few ways. For one, Senate Democrats now have the numbers to stop Senate Republicans from overturning Gov. Tony Evers’ vetoes. Hesselbein said this is “huge.” Senate Republicans held a 22-seat supermajority in the 2023-24 session, which allowed them to vote to overturn some of Evers’ vetoes, though these efforts weren’t successful since Assembly Republicans didn’t hold a supermajority. Senate Republicans’ majority  was trimmed back to 18 out of 33 seats in the recent election. 

With a more evenly split Legislature, Hesselbein said there will be the potential to get more things done in a bipartisan way. She noted that last session several big pieces of legislation, including funding renovations at the stadium where the Milwaukee Brewers play, investing in the state’s local government funding and overhauling the state’s alcohol licensing, had bipartisan support. 

“They have a lot of Republicans on their side that don’t vote for much of anything, so we will see going forward,” Hesselbein said. She said that she has spoken with Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and newly-elected Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) about the upcoming session, and the conversation was good. She said Senate Republicans plan to caucus on Monday and Senate Democrats will caucus on Tuesday, and the leaders will hopefully meet again in January. 

“I’m going to have conversations with Sen. LeMahieu and Sen. Felzkowski, and figure out if there’s a way we can move forward in a bipartisan manner,” Hesselbein said. 

One area ripe for work next year is the state’s two-year budget. With a $4 billion budget surplus, lawmakers will return in January with the task of deciding how to spend the money. 

Hesselbein said she believes that Democratic votes could be necessary to successfully pass a budget. The Senate Democratic leader hasn’t voted in favor of a state budget in her 12 years in the Legislature, and hopes that can change. 

“I don’t know how they would pass a budget without Democratic votes. They have a lot of Republicans on their side that don’t vote for much of anything,” Hesselbein. She pointed to Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), who voted against the last state budget, as an example. Nass’ Chief of Staff Mike Mikalsen noted in an email to the Examiner that Nass has voted against “many fiscally flawed and big spending state budgets,” but that “since his first election in 1990, he has voted in favor of a few fiscally-sane state budgets.” 

Agencies recently submitted their budget requests, and when it comes to education funding, DPI Superintendent Jill Underly submitted a request for an additional $4 billion and the UW System has asked for an additional $855 million. Hesselbein said she was surprised that the requests were so high. 

“They’re big numbers but you know what? They have been underfunded for decades,” Hesselbein said. 

Underly’s job, Hesselbein said, is “to run the Department of Public Instruction and let us know what she thinks she needs for that budget, and she did that.” She said that UW System President Jay Rothman had the same responsibility. 

“I know we couldn’t meet both their expectations, right, without blowing a huge hole in the budget,” Hesselbein said.

Shoring up education

Hesselbein said that investing in the state’s special education reimbursement for public schools could be particularly important as there is uncertainty about what could happen under the new Trump administration.

“If Donald Trump gets rid of the Department of Education on a federal level, what does that do for special education in the state of Wisconsin? We have students that have IEPs, and they have federal protection so that they can get help but they might be learning different ways,” Hesselbein said. “There’s a lot of unsure things going on right now.”

Hesselbein said investing in mental health resources in K-12 schools and higher education will be important as well. 

Republicans have said tax cuts will be one of their highest priorities next year. Hesselbein said that any tax cuts would need to be “micro-targeted” to gain Democratic support, and she doesn’t know if Republicans will “get there based on what they did last session.” Republican lawmakers had proposed several tax cuts that Evers vetoed, including an income tax cut.  

Hesselbein added that property tax relief could be an interesting proposition, given that many communities have decided to raise their property taxes to help with education costs. A recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report found that gross K-12 property taxes in the state are expected to rise by the largest amount since 2009 due in part to referendum requests. 

“Really the reason why we have billions of dollars in our surplus is because we haven’t been funding K-12 education the way we should for years,” Hesselbein said. “People over and over again will raise their property tax if they want to support their neighborhood schools, so those people are agreeing to tax themselves higher because they care so much about K-12 education, but they’re making those decisions because the state of Wisconsin isn’t keeping up their promise to pay for those services and that school.” 

Other Democratic prioirites

When it comes to health care issues, Hesselbein said that she hopes lawmakers will be able to expand Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers to 12 months. She noted that Wisconsin is one of two states in the U.S. that haven’t accepted the expansion. The Senate passed a bill to do so  in the most recent legislative session, but it never received a vote in the Assembly. 

“We have it on the books where you get 60 days and if you’re postpartum 61 days, too bad, you don’t get any services,” Hesselbein said. “That’s not how your body works after you have a baby.” She said women who have just given birth need support and resources.  

As Democrats are still in the minority, Hesselbein admitted there will likely be limits to what Democrats can accomplish on certain issues next session as much will depend on Republicans.

Hesselbein said Democrats will continue working to eliminate the 1849 statute that went into effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned, causing the cessation of abortion services in Wisconsin. That law is currently being challenged in the Supreme Court. She said that she also wants to pass a bill for a fairer process for drawing voting maps. Wisconsin implemented new maps this year after the state Supreme Court ruled that the last set of maps, drawn to heavily favor Republicans, were unconstitutional. However, the laws guiding how Wisconsin draws voting maps haven’t changed.

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen until we’re in the majority, but we’re going to continue to push for that,” Hesselbein said. 

Hesselbein said it would be a “missed opportunity” if Republicans choose not to work with Democrats to get things done, and said voters will remember “if we don’t get the budget done on time…if we’re not meeting as much” and what bills get completed.

“I can’t force Republicans to work with me if they won’t do that,” Hesselbein said. “I can offer an olive branch. I can say, ‘My door is open. Let’s have these conversations.’ But at the end of the day if they refuse to work with me, that’s on them.”

Hesselbein recalled that on the last day of session Senate Republicans ended debate even as Democrats wanted to speak, which led to Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) throwing papers up in the air in frustration.

“We answer to the voters in our district and it’s awful when the Republican Party silences Democrats, just because they don’t want to hear what we need to say to represent the communities that we represent. That’s unfair,” Hesselbein said. “And we won’t do that, by the way, when we’re in the majority. We’re going to let people be able to talk and be able to say what they want and have robust conversations.”

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Wisconsin Examiner photo

The Wisconsin Policy Forum recently reported that property tax bills mailed out to Wisconsin taxpayers this month will show the biggest tax increase from a previous year since 2009.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wasted no time in assigning blame. On X, Vos wrote: “When you receive your property tax bill this month, please remember it was Governor Evers who used his line item veto to create a 400 year guaranteed property tax increase.”

It’s true that Evers’ headline-grabbing partial veto of the last state budget extended the two-year tax increase the Legislature approved for school districts. The Legislature allowed schools to raise another $325 per pupil per year from local taxpayers for each year of the 2023-25 budget. By deleting some digits, Evers stretched that out until the year 2425. 

But Vos’ accusation is fundamentally misleading in a couple of ways. First, the Legislature approved the increase for the duration of the current budget cycle. The fact that Evers extended it for centuries into the future made a big splash, but it didn’t add a penny to anyone’s property taxes this year. 

Second, and more important to understand, as we begin another budget cycle and another slugfest over spending on schools, is that the Legislature’s stinginess when it comes to the state’s share of school funding is a major driver of property tax increases. 

As the Wisconsin Policy Forum points out in its report, one key reason for the recent spike in property taxes is the historic number of school district referenda passed by local communities. Local property taxpayers voted to raise their own taxes. And why is that? Because the Legislature refused to give school districts enough money in the state budget to cover their costs.

But, you might object, Vos and other Republicans made a big point of touting their last budget’s “historic” $1.2 billion increase in funding for schools. Unfortunately, that claim is as misleading as Vos’ effort to blame Evers for your property tax bill.

To understand why school districts are begging local taxpayers for money at the same time Republicans claim they gave schools a “historic increase,” take a look at how little of that $1.2 billion in “education spending” actually went to schools. 

For each budget cycle, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau produces a detailed summary of budget items by category. In the “Public Instruction” category, the Fiscal Bureau reports that “total school aid” in the 2023-25 budget came to $625 million. 

Where did the rest go? To find out, you have to look down the list of Fiscal Bureau categories to “shared revenue and tax relief.” There, under the heading “school levy tax credit” you will find the missing $590 million in so-called school funding, in the form of a rebate to property taxpayers. Schools never get to touch that money. It is an oddity of Wisconsin law that the school levy tax credit is labeled as school funding.

The school levy tax credit puts school districts in an awkward position every year. At the end of October, every district sets its levy. People believe, based on that number, that they know what their tax bill will be. But later, on Nov. 20, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue tells each municipality the amount of the school levy tax credit that will be applied to local property tax bills and the number is readjusted. The state calls this tax credit money for schools, but it’s actually just a straight-up discount for property tax payers. 

Now, had the Legislature actually put $590 million into school funding, schools would have been in a much better financial position, and we probably would not have seen a record-breaking number of districts asking property taxpayers to hike their own taxes to keep their local schools afloat. 

The backdrop to all this was a huge, historic cut to school funding in Wisconsin back in 2012, followed by a decade and a half in which schools never recovered. Wisconsin has not given schools enough funding to keep pace with inflation for the last 15 years, state schools superintendent Jill Underly pointed out when she released her $4 billion 2025-27 budget proposal.

Vos dismissed Underly’s budget proposal as completely unrealistic. But in truth, it would pretty much restore Wisconsin schools to the level of funding they enjoyed right before the brutal cuts of former Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.

One of Underly’s top budget priorities is asking the state to meet its neglected commitment to cover 90% of special education costs, instead of the current 32%, which forces schools to raid general funds and cut programs to cover this unavoidable, federally mandated expense.

Another sensible idea, endorsed by the Legislature’s bipartisan Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding in 2017, is to end the deceptive practice of putting money into the school levy tax credit and pretending that it funds schools.

Instead of playing a shell game with school funding and pointing fingers as local taxpayers continue to shoulder more and more of the cost, Wisconsin should use a portion of the state’s massive budget surplus to adequately fund schools.

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The Assembly Democratic Caucus will enter the next year with 45 members — ten more than last session. Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) speaking at a press conference before an April 25, 2023 floor session. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said in a year-end interview that the new makeup of the state Legislature is going to have a real impact next legislative session. 

The Assembly Democratic Caucus will enter the next year with 45 members — ten more than last session — after the recent elections under new legislative maps, and the work to prepare for next session has started. 

“The fair maps already started to change the culture of the state Legislature. We saw more bipartisan work last session. I expect that that will only increase as we go forward,” Neubauer told the Wisconsin Examiner. “We’ve got legislators who are going to be looking over their left and their right shoulder — a lot of people in competitive districts who are going to need to listen to their constituents and get things done.” 

Assembly Democrats are looking to get things done, Neubauer said. To prepare, leaders are having one-on-one conversations with members. New lawmakers are participating in a freshman orientation this week and a caucus retreat is scheduled for later this week.

“We are working as a group to identify our top priorities — what it would take for us to vote for the budget, for example — and working to collectively leverage our power.” Neubauer said. She said many of the caucus’ new members have a local government background or have worked in advocacy roles or as a union leader, which is helpful.

Neubauer said she thinks the majority party will need some Democratic support to pass important bills, which could give Assembly Democrats the chance to shape forthcoming legislation. 

“We want to make sure that we are taking advantage of those opportunities to get real wins for our constituents and pass important policy,” Neubauer said. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said during a press conference last month that he would still be seeking “consensus” among Republicans before moving forward on issues, even with the new slimmer margins. However, Neubauer said she thinks there will be more opportunities to work together on certain issues as there may be more members of the Republican caucus pushing their leadership to take up certain issues including investment in education, lowering costs, expanding access to health care including by extending postpartum Medicaid coverage, protecting the environment and providing clean drinking water.

“The reality is that he now has a lot of members who are in very close seats, who are going to need to go home and answer for their votes,” Neubauer said. “There’s a lot of really popular issues that Republicans have refused to take significant action on that I anticipate will be getting more air time in the coming session.” 

Neubauer said she hasn’t spoken with Vos about the upcoming session, but hopes to soon.

Budget writing and other legislative priorities

When the Legislature returns to session next year, Gov. Tony Evers and the Legislature will work on writing the next two-year budget. State agencies have delivered their requests to Evers, who will write his own budget proposals. The Legislature will then write and vote on its own version before sending it to Evers, who will have the opportunity to sign or veto the budget. 

“I am hopeful that in this budget, we will be able to lower costs for families in Wisconsin in housing and child care and prescription drugs. I hope that we’re able to make real investments in education and giving every kid the opportunity to succeed in our state,” Neubauer said.

School funding a top priority

Neubauer said education funding will likely be a top priority for the caucus, and that the proposals from the UW System and the Department of Public Instruction are strong. The UW System is requesting an additional $855 million from the state for many priorities, including wage increases, general operations costs, mental health services and extending the Wisconsin Tuition Promise. The Department of Public Instruction has requested an additional $4.3 billion to support schools struggling to meet costs; the request follows a record year for school referendum requests. 

“I really appreciate the ambition and the effort to make the necessary investments to give every student in Wisconsin the ability to succeed,” Neubauer said. “We know that the state Legislature has not been keeping up its end of the bargain in terms of funding for our public schools and the Assembly Republicans have seemingly decided that their role is to attack and undermine the UW system rather than support and uplift it.” 

Neubauer said she hopes they’re able to get a significant increase for education spending given the state’s significant $4 billion surplus, but noted that those priorities need to be balanced with other important priorities. When it comes to specific policies for investment for K-12 education, Neubauer said Democrats will be focused on increasing the reimbursement rate for special education, securing a “significant” increase to per pupil aid and mental health resources. 

“It should not be falling to local communities to raise their property taxes in order to fund their schools, and I think for many of us, you know, we walk into our local schools and we see what’s been cut, and we see where additional resources could really make a difference for kids, and we think this is just wrong.” Neubauer said. She noted that Racine County, where she is from, is one community dealing with financial difficulties, including deficits and budget cuts. “We’re not doing right by them, and so I do think that’ll be a big focus for us in this budget, and then we will see where else we can support families to make ends meet and to have great opportunities in Wisconsin in the years ahead.” 

Republican lawmakers, including leaders and those on the budget committee, have said that “returning the surplus back to taxpayers” will be one of their top priorities. Neubauer said that Democrats would be open to talking about targeted tax cuts that benefit middle class families.

“What we’ve seen from Republicans in the last several years is proposals that primarily benefit the richest Wisconsinites and corporations, and we’re not interested in that,” Neubauer said. “We know that many people are struggling to make ends meet in Wisconsin, but it can’t break the bank, and it needs to be targeted.”

Funding local government

Neubauer said local government funding will likely be another key priority for Democrats this coming session. Even with the shared revenue overhaul last session, she said many Wisconsin communities are still struggling to fund essential services. 

“We did make progress, but we had fallen so far behind,” Neubauer said. “We’ve got red and blue communities that are coming to us and saying with the federal dollars going away here at the end of the year, they’re going to have a very difficult time funding their public health departments, their parks and community centers, their public safety and those are all essential to our community’s well being.”

Prying loose JFC’s grip on the public purse

Neubauer said she hopes with the maps that there will be more accountability for lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee if they decide to withhold funds next session. Lawmakers dedicated money to several issues last session — including $125 million to combat PFAS, $50 million to support new literacy initiatives and $15 million for hospitals in the Chippewa Valley — however, the funds have been withheld by the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee due to policy differences after the funds were allocated. 

Neubauer said she hopes this will happen less in the coming session. She pointed out that Sen. Duey Stroebel, a prominent Republican member of the committee, was ousted from his seat this election cycle by Democrat Sen.-elect. Jodi Habush Sinykin. Sen. Joan Ballweg, another member of the committee, also lost her reelection bid. 

“People of Wisconsin don’t really like that. Those are important priorities to people across the state,” Neubauer said. “I think that having more legislators and competitive seats will mean that the people, I hope, on the Joint Finance Committee are hesitant to do that.” 

Neubauer said that the multiple court cases challenging  JFC’s enhanced authority could also help with the issue. 

“We’ve already seen one decision from the Supreme Court that said that they had overstepped, and there are other cases moving through,” Neubauer said. “I think that’s a good thing, and it makes me hopeful that Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee will no longer be able to act as sort of another Legislature in preventing the implementation of these programs that have already been passed and already been signed.”

Beyond budget priorities, Neubauer said that the caucus is continuing to think about other longer term issues — including legalizing marijuana, addressing gun safety, protecting abortion rights, addressing climate change, ensuring everyone has access to clean drinking water and public safety reforms — but she expects some of those will require a Democratic majority. 

Neubauer said that Democrats are always working towards the majority in the Assembly, and she thinks the last election laid the groundwork for a Democratic takeover in two years. She noted there could be the opportunity for a Democratic trifecta in that election cycle.

“We’ve got strong candidates that ran this cycle, many of whom want to run again. We really built our grassroots infrastructure in communities where we haven’t had competitive districts for quite some time, and I think we learned some things about how to run such a big program with so many candidates under these fair maps,” Neubauer said.

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Student transportation is entering a new era, when access to real-time data, enhanced visibility for stakeholders, and higher safety standards will become essential pillars of operations.

School districts need to balance these new priorities with unprecedented pressure to meet equity goals and maintain tighter budgets. All these factors are challenging school leaders to reimagine how they transport students in the coming years.

Here are five key predictions shaping the future of student transportation in 2025:

1. Parents and Districts Will Demand More Visibility

The rise of smartphones requires instant access to information in school and beyond. Parents, teachers, and administrators all want real-time tracking updates and videos to ensure accountability and safety on school transportation. This year, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported that at least 50 percent of states have enacted school bus stop-arm camera laws, which ensure cameras are present to document incidents, monitor behavior, and uphold safety standards for everyone.

This demand for visibility extends beyond school buses to alternative transportation. New technology, including in-car cameras, ensures that school districts receive recorded and stored footage that verifies safe rides, monitors drivers, and clarifies any issues. Plus, school districts can close service gaps, dispatch providers, and keep families updated. In today’s environment, an extra level of visibility for all stakeholders is expected and essential.

2. Data and Machine Learning Will Become a Cornerstone of Future Operations

In 2025, route planning, driver assignments, and real-time adjustments will all rely on advanced analytics. Districts that harness data and machine learning through smart tools will see improvements in operational efficiency, increasing attendance rates.

The larger efforts to professionalize school district administrative offices are leading to data-driven decision-making. Many school districts are even hiring transportation directors with backgrounds in logistics and engineering. As school transportation evolves, districts will rely on experts who can understand and interpret complex analytics to streamline operations and improve outcomes.

3. Districts Will Advance Safety Standards

Safety remains a top priority for school districts, and new state legislation continues to raise the bar. California’s SB88, for example, goes into effect in 2025 and strengthens requirements for student transportation providers. At the local level, many districts are also increasing training protocols for drivers and requiring the use of safe technology to protect students and mitigate liability risks.

Next year, school districts will seek out partners that proactively adopt new safety technology and comply with district, state, and federal regulations. When alternative school transportation providers uphold the highest safety standards, they put students first while building necessary trust with administrators and parents.

4. Rising Demand for Equity-Focused Transportation Solutions

In 2025, the number of students experiencing homelessness and eligible for transportation support under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act will continue to rise. A 2023 report on Student Homelessness in America by the National Center for Homeless Education identified more than 1.2 million students experiencing homelessness in the U.S. in the 2021-2022 school year — a 10 percent increase from the previous year.

Without reliable transportation, students experiencing homelessness are at higher risk of chronic absenteeism. In fact, the same study found that more than half of homeless students in the 2021-2022 school year were chronically absent, and the absenteeism rate for students experiencing homelessness is 22 percent higher than the rest of the student population. School district leaders will need to find more ways to drive students experiencing homelessness to school, turning to alternative transportation providers to scale up support.

5. Budget Constraints Will Drive the Need for Operational Efficiency

Superintendents are under enormous pressure to meet new challenges with smaller budgets, given the expiration of pandemic relief funding, including the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program. These stark changes mean that leaders must prioritize cost-efficiency while maintaining access for students who have special needs, are eligible for McKinney-Vento support, or live out of district or in remote areas without making large investments in new vehicles or new hires.

Moving forward, leaders will leverage tech-forward alternative transportation providers to understand and meet their transportation needs with a click. For example, if a district has a rising percentage of students eligible for McKinney-Vento support, they could choose to used small-capacity vehicles that can make last-minute adjustments based on the students’ locations. Flexing your capacity meets new demands while optimizing transportation costs for the short and long term.

Every school year, new challenges and higher expectations require that school district leaders innovate, evolving their approach for better outcomes. 2025 is no different. By integrating smart technology into their operations, they can drive up safety standards, increase capacity in real-time, and prioritize cost-effectiveness while meeting equity goals. Leaders will ensure they’re setting up their schools and students for success in the classroom, one ride at a time.

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Mitch Bowling is the CEO of alternative transportation company EverDriven, which transported about 30,000 unique students last school year in 33 states.

The post Driving Change: 5 Predictions Shaping the Future of Student Transportation in 2025 appeared first on School Transportation News.

Joint Finance Committee hearing room. (Photo: Legislature website)

Wisconsin Senate leaders announced their members of the Joint Finance Committee for next session Wednesday, including three Republicans new to the committee. 

The powerful 16-person committee, which includes eight Assembly and eight Senate lawmakers, is responsible for crafting the state’s biennial budget. The state’s next budget will cover the period from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu announced that Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin), Romaine Quinn (R-Cameron) and Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond) will serve on the committee for the first time next session. The lawmakers will replace Sens. Joan Ballweg and Duey Stroebel, who will no longer serve on the committee because they lost their reelection bids, and Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk), who won’t serve on the committee as she was recently elected by the Senate Republican caucus to serve as Senate president. 

Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) will continue as the Senate co-chair of the committee. He has served in the position for the last two budget cycles. Sens. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), who will serve as vice-chair, and Eric Wimberger (R-Green Bay) will also continue to serve on the committee.

Marklein celebrated the appointments in a statement, saying that the new members will “bring unique new perspectives and experiences to our Senate finance team.” 

The state’s $4 billion budget surplus — and deciding what to do with it — will be a key discussion next session, and lawmakers, including those new to the committee, indicated that cutting taxes will likely be a top priority. 

LeMahieu said in a statement that he is “confident the new Senate finance team will responsibly utilize our state’s $4 billion surplus to shrink the size of government and reduce the tax burden on hardworking Wisconsin families.”

“A top priority of mine will be releasing the $4 billion surplus that Governor Evers currently holds hostage and returning it to the taxpayers,” Bradley said in a statement. 

“With a projected $4 billion surplus, the state is again in position to return more money back to the taxpayers and make further investments in our local roads, workforce development, and schools,” Stafholt said. “I look forward to getting to work.”

Democratic Senate members will remain unchanged next session as Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein announced that Sens. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and Kelda Roys (D-Madison) will continue on the committee. 

Hesselbein called the lawmakers “effective and passionate advocates for the priorities of Wisconsinites” and said that they “will continue to serve our caucus and state well during the budget process and beyond.”

Assembly members of the committee haven’t been announced yet.

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Gov. Tony Evers kicks off a budget listening session in Appleton, Wis. on Monday, Dec. 2 | Photo by Andrew Kennard

Members of the public traveled to Einstein Middle School in Appleton Monday to tell Gov. Tony Evers about their priorities for Wisconsin’s 2025-2027 budget. 

During the first of Evers’ five planned listening sessions around the state ahead of his next budget proposal, Wisconsin residents expressed concern about the cost of housing, Wisconsin prisons and other issues in a breakout group attended by the Examiner. 

In opening remarks, Evers expressed support for addressing “long neglected” priorities and cited Wisconsin’s budget surplus of over $4 billion for the 2024 fiscal year. 

Evers said his priorities include expanding BadgerCare, legalizing marijuana, protecting access to reproductive health care, gun and justice reform, protecting the environment and investing in kids and schools. 

Local Republican state Rep. Ron Tusler (R-Harrison) has a different view on the surplus, Fox 11 reported. He wants to use it to  return money to taxpayers and provide relief from inflation.  

Members of the public split into six breakout groups. Each group focused on different topics relevant to the budget. The Examiner attended the “Strong & Safe Communities” group, which addressed issues ranging from affordable housing to Wisconsin’s prison system. 

A De Pere resident brought up the high cost of housing, saying that she and her husband are from Door County but couldn’t afford to live there even though they both work. Even in De Pere, “all the houses in my neighborhood are getting bought up and flipped,” she said. 

Tom Denk, who was formerly incarcerated, said he wants to see change in Wisconsin prisons. He said he wasn’t allowed access to enrichment  programs in prison. 

“The DOC needs more funding because their staff need to be educated. They need to have that trauma-informed care,” Denk said. “Because most people are going to get out of prison. I’m one of them.”

Substance abuse and anger management programs in the Wisconsin prison system have waitlists in the thousands. The Department of Corrections’ website says the agency tries to enroll people in programming as they get close to their release date. 

Karen Winkel, a homeless prevention specialist, said many of her clients have been recently released from the Department of Corrections or the Green Lake County Jail, with “no place to go. There’s no place to live.” 

Lisa Cruz, executive director of Multicultural Coalition, Inc., said her nonprofit is overwhelmed with serving immigrants and refugees. 

“It’s [a] humanitarian crisis,” Cruz said. “And I think we often think about that happening somewhere else, in another country, maybe in another state. It’s right here and it’s right now.”

Members of the group expressed concerns about American Rescue Plan funding running out, including funding for services for crime victims. Wisconsin passed $10 million in funding for victim services earlier this year, but providers are still facing budget cuts. 

“My agency received a 72% reduction, really impacting nearly half of our budget,” said Isabel Williston, executive director of ASTOP Sexual Abuse Center. 

Jared Hoy, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, attended the group discussion, but mostly listened since the focus was on the public’s input. 

An informational packet distributed at the event described positions the governor has taken on criminal justice. These include increasing funding for Wisconsin’s TAD (treatment alternatives and diversion) program and addressing staffing shortages that have worsened conditions in state prisons. 

Evers will introduce his budget proposal early next year, Communications Director Britt Cudaback told the Examiner in late October. In his remarks, Evers praised Wisconsin’s new legislative maps as more reflective of the “will of the people.” In last month’s election, the maps helped Democrats flip 14 previously Republican-held seats in the Legislature, narrowing Republican majorities. 

Evers’ next listening session is Wednesday evening in La Crosse, followed by Milwaukee, Ashland and a virtual session.  

Members of the public can submit comments on budget priorities through the governor’s constituent services page. 

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Jay O. Rothman, president of the University of Wisconsin System, speaks during the UW Board of Regents meeting hosted at Union South at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on Feb. 9, 2023. (Photo by Althea Dotzour / UW–Madison)

The Universities of Wisconsin Administration released a third-party report on its finances Monday, announcing plans for how it can better and more efficiently support the state’s public universities as the system faces declining enrollment and increased scrutiny from Republican lawmakers. 

The report’s release comes after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that the system’s $855 million budget request was a nonstarter — even though system President Jay Rothman agreed to Republican demands for changes to the system’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies. 

“Right now, the Universities of Wisconsin are 43rd out of 50 states in the nation in terms of public support for our universities,” Rothman said on WISN’s UpFront on Sunday. “The $855 million gets us up to average, gets us up to the median. That, to me, in the context of a long period of time where the universities have not been invested in, is a reasonable ask.”

The release of the report, from the consulting firm Deloitte, on the system administration’s finances comes after similar reviews of the finances of the 12 University of Wisconsin schools outside of UW-Madison. Ten of those schools have been operating at a deficit as budget support from the state government has decreased and enrollment numbers have declined. Only the Madison, La Crosse and Stout campuses have been projected to create enough revenues to cover their expenses. 

A strategic plan implemented by the UW Board of Regents in 2022 calls for structural deficits to be resolved by 2028. A decade-long tuition freeze implemented by Republican lawmakers was ended in 2022 and earlier this year, the Regents approved the second tuition increase in two years. 

​​“The independent third-party review that has now concluded complements our strategic plan, adopted by the Board of Regents two years ago,” Rothman said in a statement. “It provides us insight on how better to provide unparalleled educational opportunities for Wisconsin students, improve Wisconsin communities, and help Wisconsin win the War for Talent.” 

The report notes that each campus is run independently and that system administration needs to do a better job clearly stating what its goals are so campus leaders can plan effectively. 

There is a need to improve systemwide accountability, while leaving space for the unique identity and culture of each campus, as the Universities of Wisconsin is the sum of its parts, ultimately rolling up to singular financial statements.

“Without a clear tactical vision and roadmap for the future of UW operations, it is difficult for university leaders to make informed decisions about investing in operations and/or strategic priorities,” the report states. “UW universities would benefit from a strategic roadmap across administrative, operations, technology, programmatic, and enrollment initiatives.”

Efforts to solve the system’s financial woes have already been underway, with a number of branch campuses across the state being shuttered and faculty and staff at several universities facing layoffs. 

The release of the individual campus financial reports in April drew concerns from faculty and students that the system would lean on austerity measures to balance the budget, harming their jobs and educational opportunities when the true cause of the struggles is the lack of financial support the system has gotten in the state budget. 

Monday’s report recommends that the system administration do more oversight of academic program creation and management, noting that the number of programs at the 12 non-Madison campuses has grown by nearly 7% while the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred has declined by more than 9%. The report states that system administration should set clear markers for what it means for a program to be successful and better determine if a program should be tweaked, invested in, combined between campuses or closed. 

“While creating and curating academic programs should fall within the purview of faculty governance at each university, UW Admin should be accountable for creating transparent policies and processes to provide the data necessary for the Board of Regents to fulfill its role in approving and monitoring programs,” the report states. 

With the release of the report, Rothman announced a number of plans to follow its recommendations, including being more active in enrollment management, creating a work group for evaluating low-enrollment programs, increased standards for financial accountability and providing “more effective, customer-focused shared services.” 

“These reviews have helped us refine steps to eliminate structural deficits at a number of our universities and embark on a path of long-term financial stability,” Rothman said. “We will continue to make necessary changes across our universities to ensure faithful stewardship of resources and to better serve students and parents, employers, and communities across Wisconsin.” 

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Donald Trump, at the time president of the United States, listens to then-Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russ Vought deliver remarks prior to Trump signing executive orders on Oct. 9, 2019, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

WASHINGTON — Incoming White House budget director Russ Vought has spent much of his career learning the detailed, often convoluted mechanisms that make up the Office of Management and Budget.

The agency, little known outside Washington, D.C., is relatively small compared to the rest of the federal government, but it acts like a nucleus for the executive branch and holds significant power.

OMB is responsible for releasing the president’s budget request every year, but also manages much of the executive branch by overseeing departments’ performance, reviewing the vast majority of federal regulations and coordinating how the various agencies communicate with Congress. 

Vought was deputy director, acting director and then director at OMB during Trump’s first term.

Before that Vought worked as vice president of Heritage Action for America, policy director for the U.S. House Republican Conference, executive director of the Republican Study Committee and a legislative assistant for former Texas Republican Sen. Phil Gramm. He has an undergraduate degree from Wheaton College and a law degree from George Washington University Law School.

Following Trump’s first term in office, Vought founded the right-leaning Center for Renewing America. The group’s mission is “to renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending that flow from its people, institutions, and history, where individuals’ enjoyment of freedom is predicated on just laws and healthy communities.”

Cutting government spending

Vought outlined his agenda for the next four years in Project 2025, a 922-page document from the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation that led to speculation during the presidential campaign about what Trump would seek to do without Congress, including in areas that constitutionally fall within the legislative branch, like government spending.

The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, repeatedly tried to tie Project 2025 to Trump and his campaign, and they sought to distance themselves from its proposals. But Trump has since nominated some of its authors or contributors to run federal departments and agencies.

Vought, in a 26-page chapter on the executive office of the president, wrote the OMB director “must ensure the appointment of a General Counsel who is respected yet creative and fearless in his or her ability to challenge legal precedents that serve to protect the status quo.”

Trump, Vought and many others are bullish about cutting government spending, but will likely run into legal challenges if they try to spend more or considerably less than lawmakers approve in the dozen annual government funding bills. 

Budget request

One of Vought’s most visible responsibilities will be releasing the president’s annual budget request, a sweeping document that lays out the commander-in-chief’s proposal for the federal government’s tax and spending policy.

The president’s budget, however, is just a request since Congress has the constitutional authority to establish tax and spending policy.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill write the dozen annual government funding bills that account for about one-third of annual federal spending. The rest of the federal government’s spending comes from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which are classified as mandatory programs and mostly run on autopilot unless Congress approves changes and the president signs off on a new law.

That separation of powers led to frustration during Trump’s first term in office and will likely do so again, since he spoke during the 2024 campaign about using “impoundment” to prevent the federal government from spending money Congress has approved.

Trump withheld security assistance funding from Ukraine during his first term in office, leading to one of his two impeachments and a ruling from the Government Accountability Office —a nonpartisan government watchdog — that he had violated the law.

“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” GAO wrote. “OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). The withholding was not a programmatic delay. Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA.”

Trump spoke on the campaign trail about using “impoundment” to drastically cut government spending, but that would likely lead to lawsuits and a Supreme Court ruling. 

Vought’s think tank, Center for Renewing America, published analysis of presidents using impoundment throughout the country’s history, with the authors concluding the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional.

‘Every possible tool’

Vought sought to defend the president’s budget request in his chapter in Project 2025, writing that though “some mistakenly regard it as a mere paper-pushing exercise, the President’s budget is in fact a powerful mechanism for setting and enforcing public policy at federal agencies.”

He signaled the second Trump administration would be more nuanced in its interpretation of presidential authority.

“The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government.” Vought wrote. “Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.”

Vought also wrote about the management aspect of OMB’s portfolio, pressing for political appointees to have more authority and influence than career staff.

“It is vital that the Director and his political staff, not the careerists, drive these offices in pursuit of the President’s actual priorities and not let them set their own agenda based on the wishes of the sprawling ‘good government’ management community in and outside of government,” Vought wrote. “Many Directors do not properly prioritize the management portfolio, leaving it to the Deputy for Management, but such neglect creates purposeless bureaucracy that impedes a President’s agenda—an ‘M Train to Nowhere.’”

Russell Vought, then-acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, takes a question during a news briefing at the White House on March 11, 2019. President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he would nominate Vought to lead the office in his second administration. . (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday invited Russell Vought to once again run the White House budget office, though it wasn’t entirely clear how the role will mesh with the government staffing and funding cuts envisioned by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People,” Trump wrote in his announcement. “We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation, and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity.”

Vought is one of the authors of the wide-ranging conservative policy blueprint Project 2025. During the presidential campaign, Trump sought to distance himself from the document, even as Vought and other veterans of his first administration worked on it.

Vought, who worked as director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, will be responsible for preparing the president’s annual budget request as well as any emergency spending proposals.

OMB is tasked with helping the president implement policy and oversees various aspects of the executive branch.

The office has influence over virtually all areas of policy and the director is typically the president’s top negotiator on Capitol Hill when it comes to the annual budget and appropriations process.

The president historically submits their budget request to Congress every February, but lawmakers are not bound to implement any aspect of it and often deviate, even during unified control of Washington.

The White House has limited authority to spend federal taxpayer dollars since the Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse.

Trump sought to get around Congress’ spending authority during his first administration, but was largely unsuccessful following legal challenges.

For example, withholding $250 million in aid to Ukraine led to Trump’s first impeachment and an opinion from the Government Accountability Office that the decision was a violation of federal law.

“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” GAO wrote. “OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). The withholding was not a programmatic delay. Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA.”

Separation of powers questions

Trump stirred up questions and some concerns about the separation of powers after he said that Musk and Ramaswamy would lead an effort to cut government spending and federal employees.

Trump said he was putting the two in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, though Congress hasn’t established that as a federal department nor provided any funding for it.

There are several laws, including the Antideficiency Act and the Impoundment Control Act, that essentially tell the president they must follow the spending laws that Congress approves, though Trump hopes to get around those during his second term.

Vought at OMB will give the new Trump administration considerable expertise in the different authorities the executive and legislative branches hold under the Constitution.

He worked as deputy director before becoming the acting director and eventually OMB director during the first Trump administration.

Vought since established the Center for Renewing America, which has a mission of renewing “a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending that flow from its people, institutions, and history, where individuals’ enjoyment of freedom is predicated on just laws and healthy communities.”

A shrinking share of income from Wisconsin residents and business goes to education and other public services, while corrections and police costs increase. (Getty Images)

Wisconsin residents and businesses pay less than 10% of their income on state and local taxes, according to a new report published Friday, continuing a trend that has been underway for more than two decades.

The report, produced by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, credited rising incomes, a 2021 state income tax cut and state limits on local property tax increases for helping to reduce Wisconsin’s state and local tax burden.

Wisconsin residents and businesses paid 9.9% of their income to cover state and local taxes in 2022, the report finds. That’s a drop from 10.3% in 2021 and from 12.5% in the year 2000.

The trend might not last, however. Initial information on collections suggest little change in the state and local tax burden for 2023, which could continue in 2024 and 2025, the report states. While income growth has been strong, “taxes have also grown in at least some areas.”

On average nationwide, state and local taxes amounted to 11.1% of individual and business income in 2022, according to the report — 1.2 percentage points more than Wisconsin. The share of Wisconsin income going to those taxes “has never been so far below that of the nation,” the report states.

The report reflects only state and local taxes, not federal taxes, which the Wisconsin Policy Forum analyzes separately.

While Wisconsin taxpayers are paying a little less, the state is also spending a smaller share of its income, particularly for education, the report finds.

Direct state and local spending grew by 7% in 2022, reaching $65.06 billion. But spending fell as a share of state income, to 18.3% in 2022 from 18.6% in 2021.

“Overall K-12 spending in Wisconsin rose 4.4% in 2022, but that was less than half of the 9.8% increase nationally,” the report states. Spending on K-12 education was 5.1% of state income in 2000 — the eighth highest among states. By 2021 it had dropped to 3.9%, and by 2022, to 3.8% — ranking 31st from the top.

“This represents a major shift in the single largest area of state and local spending,” the report states.

The report sets the stage for the top priority for lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers in the coming year — drawing up Wisconsin’s 2025-27 state budget, with likely debates over school funding and the state’s projected surplus of about $4 billion.

A trend for two decades

In the year 2000, Wisconsin ranked third among the 50 states in the share of personal income going to state and local taxes, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. By 2022, the state’s rank had dropped to 35, an all-time low.

Wisconsin’s ranking in taxes per capita has also fallen. In 2021, when the total annual state and local tax bill averaged $5,689 per capita, the state was in 24th place. In 2022, Wisconsin’s fell to 29th place, with an average bill of $5,966 per capita.

The single largest contributor to Wisconsin’s lower tax burden was a change in the state income tax brackets included in the 2021-23 state budget, reducing the third bracket from the bottom to 5.3% from 6.27% — reducing state tax revenue by $1 billion in 2022.

The report points out that its calculation “shows only a drop in Wisconsin’s average tax burden — some taxpayers here benefited less and others more.”

Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates compiled when the change in the third bracket took effect “showed 98.9% of the total decrease was expected to go to tax filers with state Adjusted Gross Income of more than $40,000 and 74% of the total to filers with income of more than $100,000,” the report states.

In 2020, before the change took effect, Wisconsin ranked 13th among states for the share of personal income going to the state income tax. By 2022, with the tax cut in effect, the state’s rank fell to 30th.

Two other changes may have contributed to that shift, according to the report. One affected business owners who received Paycheck Protection Act pandemic relief loans, but then were allowed to keep the money instead of repaying it to the federal government. In 2021 Wisconsin enacted legislation waiving state income taxes on those funds.

In addition, Wisconsin revised its income tax tables for 2022, reducing the amount of tax money the state collected that would subsequently be refunded to taxpayers.

Corporate income and general sales tax revenues also grew more slowly in Wisconsin compared to nationally, the report said, also likely contributing to the state’s lower relative tax burden.

The report found that property taxes, which fund public schools and local and county government, grew 2.9% in 2022, keeping pace with the national average.

Wisconsin’s 2021-23 state budget included a freeze on per-pupil revenue caps to local school districts. That limited how much local districts could raise property taxes without getting  voters’ permission through a referendum, as well as how much state aid they could collect. As a result, the share of Wisconsin income paid to property taxes dropped to 3% in 2022 from 3.2% in 2021, “contributing a significant share of the overall decrease in the state’s tax burden,” the report states.

“The state’s higher than average property taxes — particularly on homes — remain the most salient tax for most state residents,” the report states. “That may keep some taxpayers from grasping the overall decrease in taxes that has taken place over the past two decades.”

Where costs are rising

Higher education spending has risen slightly in recent years, from 1.8% in 2021 to 1.9% in 2022, and Wisconsin’s rank has risen, too, to the 20th highest state on that measure.

Spending by state and local government on the prison system, jails and other corrections costs rose 11.3% in 2022, with Wisconsin ranking 9th among states in its corrections spending as a share of state income, according to the report.

Police spending in Wisconsin rose 5.8% in 2022 — ahead of the national average of 3.8%, and putting the state at 27th highest for police spending. Fire protection spending has fallen, however, both in the amount of money allocated and the state’s ranking for firefighter spending as a share of income.

Public social services spending, such as for Medicaid, increased 6.5% in 2022. Wisconsin ranks 21st nationally for that spending as a share of state income.

Looking ahead, the report suggests that the 2024 wave of successful referendum measures, primarily for public schools, will lead to property tax increases by the end of this year.

“These increases should also help to counteract at least somewhat the drop in K-12 spending levels as local school leaders try to rebuild their budgets after the two recent years of frozen revenue limits,” the report states.

But it also forecasts conflicts ahead between lawmakers who have continued to press for reducing Wisconsin taxes and the Evers administration as well as local taxpayers who approved school referendum questions and want to see increased financial support for public schools in the 2025-27 budget.

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State Superintendent Jill Underly proposed a grant program to help support clean water in schools. Underly with Madison La Follette High School Principal Mathew Thompson and Madison Public School District Superintendent Joe Gothard in September. (Ruth Conniff | Wisconsin Examiner)

Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly is proposing the creation of a grant program to support Wisconsin schools in upgrading water fountains to control for lead and other contaminants. 

Underly made the announcement Thursday at Cooper Elementary in Superior, and it’s the latest in her growing budget proposal, which will be released in full later this month. She proposed other budget measures Monday that would dedicate over $3 billion to public education for an array of priorities, including increasing the state reimbursement to school districts for special education costs to 90%. 

“It is critical that Wisconsin kids have access to clean drinking water, and schools are a big part of that,” Underly said in a statement. “Funding provided through my budget meets that need and allows schools to have the latest drinking water equipment available to their students.”

Lead exposure can lead to lifelong damage to the brain and other bodily systems for anyone, but is particularly damaging for children under age 6. Wisconsin schools aren’t required to test for lead in their drinking water, but in recent years, some schools have found elevated levels of lead in water coming from fixtures in buildings during voluntary testing.

Under the proposal, the department would dedicate $2.5 million towards the grant program to help schools in modernize water fountains and ensure students have access to clean drinking water. Underly said her budget proposals, including the grant program, put “Wisconsin kids first.”

“By investing in things like expanding access to healthy meals at no cost to families, increasing school mental health services, supporting districts in retaining high-quality teachers, and improving early literacy outcomes, we are moving Wisconsin forward,” Underly said. 

State agencies’ proposals are just the first step in Wisconsin’s budget process. The agencies will deliver their budget requests to the Department of Administration’s State Budget Office. The requests will then be delivered to Gov. Tony Evers, who will create his own budget proposal. Evers’ proposal will then be sent to the Wisconsin State Legislature, which will write the budget bill over the course of several months before voting on it and sending it to Evers to sign or veto.

With the state’s $4.6 budget surplus, Democrats are seeking to invest more money in an array of priorities, including public education. 

Republican lawmakers, who hold majorities in the Senate and Assembly, appear to be opposed to the size of Underly’s proposals. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said this week that it is not a “serious” proposal. 

“We have plenty of money to still invest in our priorities, but it’s going to be nowhere near what she proposed,” Vos said.

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An empty high school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)

Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly is proposing Wisconsin increase state public school funding by at least $3 billion, including by increasing the special education reimbursement for public schools. 

Underly outlined the proposal Monday, and it comes as Wisconsin schools have been increasingly turning to voters to help fund rising costs. Last week, Wisconsin voters passed over 78% of school referendum requests. 

“Wisconsin’s public schools have been asked to do more with less for too many years — and the upcoming biennial budget presents a critical opportunity to make meaningful change and support the future of our kids,” Underly said in a statement announcing the proposals on Monday. “My budget proposal reinvests in public education and upholds the responsibility of our state: To ensure our schools have the resources they need to ensure the success of our kids. By providing sustainable funding to our public schools and creating new, innovative ways to meet families’ needs, our educators can continue providing high-quality education to all kids.

The proposal includes raising the state’s reimbursement for special education costs to 75% in 2026 and to 90% in 2027 — providing about $2 billion to schools over the biennium. Private voucher schools in Wisconsin already receive a 90% reimbursement rate. 

The budget request  also includes indexing school revenue limits to inflation — restoring a principle that was last used in  2009-10 — and  increasing public schools’ revenue limits by $425 in fiscal year 2026 and by $437.75 in fiscal year 2027 — providing an additional $1 billion over the biennium. 

At the same time, Underly said her proposal would limit school districts’ property tax increases to an average of 1.5%.

DPI Communications Director Chris Bucher explained in an email to the Examiner that the agency is “proposing both increasing the revenue limit, and then funding that with state dollars.”

“Funding the revenue limit increase has the practical effect of preventing schools from increasing property taxes, due to the revenue limit increase, unless they go to referendum,” Bucher said. “It’s not just a hope and a wish. Schools are effectively prevented from increasing property taxes due to the revenue limit by more than about 1.5% average over the biennium.”

Other proposals include expanding per-pupil categorical aid program payments from $750 to $800 in 2026 and to $850 in 2027, as well as providing an additional 20% for students in poverty; providing $20 million for the out-of-school-time grant program; and reimbursing local education agencies for unaided costs of providing mandated special education services to children with disabilities in early childhood education. 

Over the last month, Underly has also announced other proposals, including investing nearly $60 million to help school districts resolve staffing challenges and retain teachers, $42 million proposal to support early literacy initiatives, $311 million for school nutrition and $304 million to support Wisconsin youth mental health.

Democratic lawmakers responded positively to the proposals, saying they will benefit students. 

“For the love of Wisconsin kids, teachers, and schools, let’s get it done,” Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) said. 

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), who is a member of the Joint Finance Committee, encouraged her colleagues to support and help pass the proposal in a statement. 

“Public schools are struggling under harsh state levy limits, forcing districts to repeatedly go to referenda to recruit and retain great teachers and to give every student a good education,” Roys said. “This is a budget proposal that finally puts our kids and our schools first, while helping take the burden off of local taxpayers.”

Whether the proposals will actually become law is unclear. The Legislature will have a larger share of Democrats in the upcoming legislative session after the first elections under maps drawn to be more competitive for both parties. Democrats have said that the change will lead to more negotiations with Republican lawmakers over the shape of the budget. 

However, Republicans still hold a majority of seats in both chambers, with a 54-45 GOP majority in the Assembly and an 18-15 majority in the Senate.

Leaders of Senate and Assembly Republicans have said given the state’s budget surplus that tax cuts will be a top priority for them.

Update: This story was updated Tuesday with additional comment from DPI.

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Tents around King Park in Milwaukee. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Milwaukee County Supv. Shawn Rolland is calling on board supervisors to support allocating more funds to help people living unhoused. The additional $500,000 in Housing Division funding would come from an amendment to the 2025 county budget, and help unhoused residents to find stable shelter and resources. 

The call comes during  Homeless Awareness Week, which ends Nov. 2. Rolland noted that the county has relied on pandemic-era funds to help underserved residents find stable housing. “If there are insufficient Flexible Housing Pool funds, the Housing Division will not have the tools they need to help,” Rolland said in a statement. “With rent and mortgage costs up by 31% and 43% respectively, many people are facing severe housing insecurity, including some who are homeless for the first time in their lives.” Currently, unlike some other cities nationwide, Milwaukee has no “safe camping” initiatives, which designate areas where unhoused people can camp for the time being. 

Both county and nonprofit outreach teams have encountered growing numbers of people living outside who’ve never been unhoused before. Recently, that trend reached a fever pitch after local and state authorities closed Park & Ride lots due to safety concerns, stemming from the growing communities of people living in the lots. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation reported  that between July 1 and September 30 of this year, there were 275 calls for service to the lots, including for assaults, thefts and overdoses. 

The outreach group Street Angels reports that over a two year period, the number of unhoused people they serve has increased by 120%. In July, during the Republican National Convention, out-of-state police killed a man living unhoused in Milwaukee’s King Park neighborhood. The proposed amendment would carry no tax levy impact, according to county records. The amendment would specifically focus on people living unhoused who have “exigent housing needs.”

“For those recently forced to leave local park-and-ride lots, this means contemplating living in the woods, under bridges, or other precarious places,” Rolland  stated. “This situation is a tragedy, and we must act to prevent it.” The county supervisor fears that although Milwaukee has made “significant investments ‘up the funnel’ to prevent homelessness in the future,” the current framework of the 2025 budget lacks “support for those in immediate crisis.” 

Supvs. Jack Eckblad, Juan Miguel Martinez, Sky Z. Capriolo, Felesia Martin, Caronline Gomez-Tom and Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones signed on as amendment cosponsors. Recently, the county board approved $250,000 to fund a right to counsel program for tenants facing eviction, in an effort to help curb some of the housing crisis.

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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, shown walking to his office in this January 2024 photo, didn't rule out the possibility Wednesday of a funding lapse Oct. 1 as Congress debates a short-term government funding bill. (Anna Rose Layden | Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Congress has 12 days left to approve a short-term government funding bill before the shutdown deadline, though leaders in the Republican House and Democratic Senate haven’t felt the need to start negotiations just yet.

House GOP leaders, instead, attempted to pass a six-month continuing resolution Wednesday that carried with it a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, but were unsuccessful.

The 202-220 vote in the House, with two members voting present and 14 Republicans in opposition, came shortly after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called on lawmakers to force a government shutdown as leverage to enact the voter ID law.

“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump wrote on social media, doubling down on a shutdown statement he made last week.

The unsuccessful House vote could provide space for Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, to negotiate with the Senate.

But, with just one week left in the session before Congress departs for a six-week election break, there’s not much time for leaders to find consensus, draft a bill, hold votes in both chambers and secure President Joe Biden’s signature.

Johnson, asked repeatedly by reporters Wednesday about the possibility of a shutdown, didn’t entirely rule out a funding lapse beginning on Oct. 1.

“We’ll see what happens with the bill,” Johnson said before the vote. “We’re on the field in the middle of the game, the quarterback is calling the play, we’re going to run the play.”

Blaming the Senate

Johnson criticized the Senate for not being further along in the annual appropriations process, seeking to place the blame for a stopgap spending bill and a possible shutdown on that chamber.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 11 full-year government funding bills with broadly bipartisan votes this summer, but experienced challenges with the Homeland Security funding measure.

The House Appropriations Committee approved all dozen of its bills along party-line votes and was able to move five of those across the floor with GOP support, but not broad backing from Democrats.

House and Senate leaders haven’t allowed the two chambers to begin conferencing the bills that have either passed out of committee or off the floor, despite that being a regular occurrence in past years.

It’s highly unlikely leaders will bring any more of the full-year spending bills to the floor this fall, making the election results the biggest piece of the puzzle that will change between now and the end of the calendar year.

McConnell: Shutdown would be ‘politically, beyond stupid’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has repeatedly called on his colleagues to avoid a shutdown, though he hasn’t jumped in to negotiate a stopgap bill and doesn’t seem inclined to do so.

“I think we first have to wait and see what the House sends us,” McConnell said during a Tuesday press conference. “My only observation about this whole discussion is the one thing you cannot have is a government shutdown. It would be, politically, beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election because, certainly, we’d get the blame.”

McConnell then referenced the saying that there’s no “education in the second kick of a mule” and noted funding the government for a few more months will “ultimately end up being a discussion between” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Johnson.

“I’m for whatever avoids a government shutdown,” McConnell added.

Election year drama

Leaning on a stopgap spending bill has been a regular part of Congress’ annual appropriations process for nearly three decades. During that time, lawmakers have consistently failed to approve all the full-year government funding bills before the Oct. 1 deadline.

The September struggle to approve a continuing resolution, which is intended to give lawmakers a bit more time to reach bicameral agreement on the full-year spending bills, has become increasingly dramatic with election-year politics ratcheting up the posturing this year.

In divided government, any legislation to fund the government must be bipartisan, or it all but guarantees a shutdown.

The House’s failed six-month continuing resolution also wasn’t supported by most Senate Republicans.

GOP senators argued it was too lengthy and could have hindered that chamber’s ability to confirm the next president’s Cabinet during the first few months of 2025.

Senate Republicans and defense hawks in the House also said that leaving the Department of Defense on autopilot for half of the next fiscal year was an abdication of Congress’ responsibility and a threat to national security.

December end date eyed

The final stopgap spending bill that Congress approves in the days ahead will likely last through Dec. 20, the final day this year that Congress is scheduled to be in session. It is also unlikely to include the voter registration ID component.

That final, bipartisan continuing resolution could also include a plus-up in spending for the Secret Service or a provision that allows the agency to spend its stopgap allocation at a faster rate to bolster Trump’s security following two apparent assassination attempts.

Florida Republican Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, chairman of the State-Foreign Operations spending panel, said Wednesday that if he was a betting man, he’d expect Congress to pass a stopgap spending bill through mid-December.

“The first thing is, we can’t have a shutdown,” Díaz-Balart said. “I think most people here understand that that would be catastrophic, particularly when half the world is in flames.”

During a government shutdown, some federal workers continue reporting to the office without pay while the rest are furloughed until Congress approves a new funding bill. All federal employees impacted by a shutdown receive back pay.

A shutdown this October would affect all the departments and agencies funded within the annual process, including the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and State.

Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson, chairman of the Interior-Environment appropriations subcommittee, said he was sure there would be no shutdown but didn’t detail how exactly Congress would broker a bipartisan agreement in the days ahead.

“I don’t think anybody wants to shut the government down,” Simpson said. “That’s not a viable option.”

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Madison is facing a $22 million budget deficit that city officials say is made more challenging to fix because of police and fire spending requirements imposed by the state. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Finding a solution to the City of Madison’s $22 million budget hole has been made more difficult by a provision in the local government revenue law passed last year that requires the 41 municipalities with more than 20,000 residents to certify annually that funding amounts for police and fire departments have been maintained. 

Those maintenance of effort requirements, according to Sam Munger, the chief of staff to Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, have put a frustrating constraint on the city’s budget process by preventing any cuts to the two largest departments in the city government. 

The shared revenue law, Act 12, passed through both chambers of the Legislature with bipartisan support, was signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers last June. Prior to the law’s enactment, the budget situation for local and county governments across the state had gotten bleak. Milwaukee was staring down a fiscal cliff while much smaller local governments with less ability to rely on property taxes faced problems of their own. 

Shared revenue funding is uncategorized, meaning local governments can use it for anything. The money largely comes from sales and income taxes collected by the state. For decades, the amount of shared revenue provided to local governments had stagnated even while inflation increased the cost of government services. 

The problem had gotten so dire that the shared revenue negotiations dominated the legislative session. Despite Democratic attempts to pass a “clean bill” Republicans in control of both chambers succeeded in including a number of maintenance of effort requirements. Three years after protests against police violence had spurred activist calls to “defund the police,” Republicans included the provision to discourage any local government from cutting police budgets. 

“We have a maintenance of effort requirement, so that you can’t defund the police,” Vos said during the floor debate on the bill. “We have requirements to say that going forward we want everybody who works in local government to be focused on merits. We wanted to ensure that every single person who is involved in local government focuses on those core programs. That was done in negotiation.”

If a municipality fails to prove it has maintained its police and fire spending, it will receive a 15% reduction in shared revenue payments the following year. In July, local governments were required to prove their maintenance of effort to the state Department of Revenue. According to records obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner, every municipality in the state subject to the requirements maintained public safety spending. 

But while the Act 12 negotiations helped provide a sunnier financial outlook to the city of Milwaukee and smaller communities saw massive increases in the per capita amount of funding received from the state, Madison saw less benefit. The city’s shared revenue payment increased by $11 per resident, among the lowest in the state. After the law’s passage, Madison receives the second-lowest amount of state aid per capita, only the Village of Merton in Waukesha County receives less. 

As Madison city officials work through the budget writing process this year, they’re facing a $22 million deficit.

Munger says that Madison faces distinct challenges from Milwaukee. Madison doesn’t operate its own pension system and can rely on the taxes generated by the relatively higher property values in the area. But the state capital is still facing a dramatic budget shortfall because of the lack of support received from the state even as the city experiences rapid population growth. 

“Fundamentally, we are in the same situation as Milwaukee, which is the state is extracting money and not returning it, and [the Legislature] has gone out of its way to rig the state formulas on shared revenue, so that we get a really tiny amount. Madison, by most measures, gets the smallest per capita amount of shared revenue in the state by a pretty wide margin. So we’re a few years behind Milwaukee, but we’re getting there,” says Munger.  “We’re hitting a fiscal cliff, and it’s only going to get worse, because our costs continue to go up and our revenue continues to stay flat. So we’re going to have to go to the state and ask them for some version of what Milwaukee got, which means we are going to face the same devil’s bargain that they did.”

To fill the hole, the city has asked voters to approve a referendum that would increase property taxes. The average homeowner would see property taxes increase by $5 annually for every $100,000 of property value. State law institutes a levy limit that caps the amount of property taxes a municipality can institute unless residents agree to tax themselves more. The referendum would raise that limit. 

But if the referendum fails, cuts to city services will be necessary, city officials say. Rhodes-Conway has asked departments to submit proposals for 5% budget cuts, which could mean up to 250 city workers are  laid off. 

Proposed cuts have included closing the city’s Goodman pool and reducing transit services. 

Munger says that facing these cuts with the paltry amount of increased aid the city received through Act 12 and the additional constraint imposed by the maintenance of effort requirements have made budget decisions more challenging. Collectively, the police and fire departments accounted for about 41% of the city’s $405,368,750 2024 budget, but because of Act 12 the city can’t turn to those line items as it looks for services to cut. 

“Police is our single biggest department, and fire is our second biggest,” Munger says. “So broadly speaking, there’s no question that police and fire would be a more significant part of the calculus if not for the maintenance of effort requirements. So it really significantly ties our hands.”

Additionally, the penalties for not complying with the maintenance of effort requirements are just high enough to discourage the city from making cuts anyway because any additional room in the budget created by the cuts would be wiped out by the lost funding. 

The summer of 2020 in Madison did see protests against police violence and some activist calls for cuts to police spending, however those calls were never seriously considered as part of the city budgeting process and four years later, the calls have subsided. Munger says that Republicans in the Legislature included the maintenance of effort provisions without considering how they would influence future budget decisions. 

“I think it’s fair to say the political rationale [for MOE requirements] has been long forgotten,” he says. “It’s pretty divorced from the current budget debate. And I think the Legislature used it to score political points in that moment without real thought about what the consequences would be for cities and municipalities and towns, and for local governments now dealing with the consequences in a way that has nothing to do with that debate.”

Ari Brown, a researcher at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, says that in a hypothetical case in which a municipality were actually cutting police and fire budgets, that’s more likely to be evidence of genuine financial struggles than a sign that the city council is controlled by anti-police advocates. 

“So to the extent that we actually do see communities where there’s less police funding from year to year, especially in these larger municipalities that are subject to these reporting requirements … It is probably genuine budget pressures that are forcing, you know, forcing the issue in some way,” Brown says. “In a lot of these bigger communities, law enforcement is the No. 1, if not one of the top spending categories.”

In Wisconsin, where municipal governments have a lot of responsibilities, Brown adds, “all of these cross-cutting pressures are going to impact when you do see something like a police department that is genuinely spending less from one year to the next, there are other things going on than just ideological shifts.”

Aside from the property tax levy limits and the maintenance of effort requirements, municipal governments are also subject to expenditure restraint requirements — meaning they can have state aid cut if expenses increase by too much — and limits on revenue that can be raised through fees. Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, says that all of these cross pressures can make for a convoluted budgeting process for city officials. 

“These laws were not always sort of completely written in such a way that they always mesh well with one another,” Stein says. Complying with the  maintenance of effort requirement for police and fire under Act 12 can mean cities must increase  spending. But to finance a spending increase they might need to go to referendum, which in turn can run afoul of state-mandated expenditure restraints, threatening state aid. 

“As there are more and more requirements on local government, then it is just more for the local leaders to think about,” Stein says of this Catch-22, “not just in terms of, do they have the willingness, do they have the will and the funding to comply, but also, are they able to keep up to date and remember all the requirements?”