“This budget has involved an awful lot of compromise, both between the houses as well as with the governor's office,” Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting. “A budget is a compromise and this budget is certainly one of those.” (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee advanced the budget deal announced by lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers Tuesday, with the full Senate and Assembly scheduled to take up the budget Wednesday. The committee also passed a  $2.5 billion plan for capital projects, which included a measure to start work on a project that will allow for the  closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institution by 2029. 

The agreement announced Tuesday morning was negotiated by Evers, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein over the last several months and will invest over $1 billion in education and child care and cut taxes by about $1.3 billion. The deal also includes funding plans for the Department of Transportation, including funding for roads, and changes to the state’s hospital assessment to help cover Medicaid costs.

The committee’s action comes a day after the end of Wisconsin’s fiscal year. Wisconsin’s government continues to run under the current budget until a new one is signed into law. 

Legislators on both sides of the aisle had similar reactions saying the deal did not contain everything they wanted with some signaling support for the bill and others saying they will vote against it.

“This budget has involved an awful lot of compromise, both between the houses as well as with the governor’s office,” Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting. “A budget is a compromise and this budget is certainly one of those.”

The committee voted 13-3 with Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) joining Republicans in favor of approving the deal. It also voted 12-4 along party lines to approve the entire budget bill to advance it to the Senate and Assembly floor.

Capital budget includes plan to close Green Bay prison 

The over $2.5 billion capital budget plan grants funding for projects at the UW system, within the Department of Corrections, Department of Health Services, Department of Military Affairs and the Department of Natural Resources.

Over $480 million — or about 18% — of the capital projects plan is for projects at campuses across the UW system and was negotiated as part of the budget deal. 

The plan also includes $225 million for the Department of Corrections, including $15 million for construction project planning for realignment of facilities and the closure of Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI) by 2029. 

Marklein said lawmakers were investing across Wisconsin and the DOC plans would help to start to “right-size” the state’s corrections system. 

As the state has faced a growing prison population and aging facilities, Evers had proposed a DOC capital budget of over $630 million that included renovating Waupun Correctional Institution and making it a “vocational village” as well as several other prisons. The plan culminates in the closure of the Green Bay facility. GBCI, which was originally opened in 1898, is one of the state’s oldest facilities and houses 381 more people than its intended capacity. 

Lawmakers have been interested in closing GBCI for years, but were skeptical of Evers’ plan to make that happen.

Co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) signaled that the action in the budget is just the beginning of a years-long process.

“I think that this stuff will all be figured out over several budgets,” Born said in response to questions about the capacity of the state’s prison and Waupun. “These fiscal capital projects don’t happen in two years, and they won’t in this case, either.” 

Lawmakers who represent parts of the Green Bay area said the inclusion of the GBCI closure date in the budget is a major step forward.

“Formalizing a decommissioning date into state law will ensure decisive action is taken to solve this long-standing issue and prevent the bureaucratic delays which have plagued this situation for far too long,” Rep. Benjamin Franklin (R-De Pere) said. 

Rep. David Steffen (R-Howard) called GBCI “unsafe, unstable and unsustainable” and said he is thankful for the step forward.

Alluding to Evers’ plan, Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha), meanwhile, said there is a plan that lawmakers could have moved forward. He said the item in the budget seemed like a plan that was “kicking the can down the road.” 

The budget deal also includes $130 million for a Type 1 juvenile facility in Dane County. The planned 32-bed facility is the second one meant to replace youth prisons Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake — old facilities initially scheduled to close by 2021. The Department of Administration has estimated that with full funding ($124 million in bonding authority) the project could be completed by 2029. 

Lawmakers, advocates have mixed reaction to deal on K-12, higher education and child care 

Evers repeatedly said investing in Wisconsin’s K-12 and higher education systems as well as child care were his top priorities. Republican lawmakers said they were opposed to continuing state payments to child care facilities, supported cutting the UW budget and only supported incremental increases for the state’s public schools. The deal includes investment in each area.

Several Democratic lawmakers, nonetheless, had mixed feelings about the concessions Evers  and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) got from the majority party. During committee, Democrats proposed investing over $500 million in the UW system, $200 million in child care grants and expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage, though Republicans rejected those ideas. 

Under the deal, the University of Wisconsin system will get a $250 million increase, according to Evers’ office. The motion approved by the committee includes investments for general program operations, mental health, staff recruitment and retention and $94 million for staff wage adjustments.

The increase comes despite threats from Republican legislators to cut the UW system by tens of millions and as federal uncertainty, which has led some campuses to tell departments to prepare cuts

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said lawmakers were short-changing the UW system, despite it contributing heavily to the state’s economic successes.

“What they are getting is about 5% of what they said that they needed,” Roys said. Evers and the system proposed an $855 million budget increase over the biennium. “We’re going to continue to see tuition hikes, we’re going to continue to see campus closures. We’re going to continue to see the doors of opportunity closing for our kids here in Wisconsin, and they’re going to have to go out of state or go without access to higher education and I think that’s wrong.” 

Roys voted against the budget in committee, saying it would have needed to do more for the state’s kids to get her vote. “Ultimately, I want a Wisconsin, where every child, no matter who you are or where you’re from, have the opportunity to thrive,” Roys told reporters.

Stakeholders in the UW system also reacted to the budget deal on Tuesday. 

UW President Jay Rothman said on social media he is grateful for the support of Evers and the Legislature. 

“Today’s budget agreement marks the largest overall increase in investment in the UWs over two decades. For generations, Wisconsinites have invested in the UWs to provide affordable and accessible higher education. They should take great pride in what Wisconsin has built,” Rothman said. “With these new investments, the UWs can do more to provide the educational opportunities students deserve and parents expect.”

Public Representation Organization of the Faculty Senate (PROFS), the nonprofit organization of UW-Madison faculty, said it was “heartened” by the funding increase but worried about some of the concessions that Republican lawmakers got.

“We are concerned, however, that the agreement between Republican legislative leaders and the governor includes teaching-load requirements for faculty and instructional staff, which has always been the purview of the universities themselves, not the Legislature,” the organization stated. 

Under the agreement, faculty will be required to teach no fewer than 24 credits per academic year. The UW Board of Regents will have to develop a buyout policy for positions not meeting the minimum credit requirements. The budget will also include a similar policy for the Wisconsin Technical College System. 

The UW portions of the agreement will also include a cap on the number of positions that the system can have funded through general purpose revenue and program revenue and no institution will be allowed to designate more than 10% of its faculty and 10% of its academic staff to administrative duties.

Born said it was part of the compromise that Assembly Republicans made.

“It is a positive number, and most of our caucus on the Assembly side… is not happy about that because they know that there are major problems in that system that need work,” Born said. “We worked through that compromise and gave them $50 million as opposed to $800 million… to get some of those reforms.”

Child care providers will get a $330 million investment under the deal, including direct payments to continue once the Child Care Counts program lapses. A “Bridge” program will provide $110 million to help child care facilities stay open, though it will only last for a year. It also includes funding to kickstart a state-funded child care program targeted at supporting facilities serving 4-year-olds. 

“The reality is this is a small amount of money in terms of the need, and it is only for year one, so all that’s happening here is we’re kicking the can down the road on massive child care closures a year from now… I don’t count that as a huge victory,” Roys said. “To get that money there have been agreements to functionally deregulate child care, to increase ratios, to make it less safe to take away the important protections.”

Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), who said he plans to vote for the budget on the floor, said the investment would help make child care in the state more affordable and increase access. 

“While it’s not perfect, this is where we’re at with divided government,” Testin said “Maybe it’s not as far as some would like but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Funding for K-12 education will increase the special education reimbursement rate to  42% in the first year of the budget and 45% in the second year. Republican lawmakers initially approved a maximum increase of 37.5%, while Evers had proposed a 60% increase. 

There will be no general aid increase for public schools. School districts will only be able  to increase their school revenue annually by $325 per pupil by going to local property taxpayers through the referendum process.

Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said it was a “little sad” Evers “had to drag the Legislature kicking and screaming to a place that is frankly insufficient for our needs.” He said the increase to special education funding likely wouldn’t end school districts’ reliance on raising revenue through  property taxes increases.

Some Democratic lawmakers and advocates said Evers needed to negotiate higher increases for schools and said the lack of general aid increase in the deal is a reason to reject it. 

Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said no general aid increases for Wisconsin’s public schools is “unacceptable,” calling the budget “Republican-led” and urging people to call their Democratic legislators and Evers’ office to tell them to vote against it. 

“This budget fails to meet the needs of our children and working-class communities,” Hong wrote in all caps on social media. “This budget is guaranteed to raise property taxes and pit students and communities against one another.” 

Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said he would vote “no” on the budget for similar reasons. 

“The final product falls far short of what our neighbors need and frankly what they have demanded since the beginning of this process,” Larson said, noting the lack of general aid, the school revenue increase that doesn’t keep up with  inflation and the special education rate. “For these reasons and many more, I will be voting ‘no,’ unless massive changes are adopted,” Larson said. “Democrats will be offering several amendments in pursuit of a budget that meets this moment.” 

The Wisconsin Public Education Network sent out a similar message, and called for people to call Senate lawmakers and urge them to vote against the budget.

“The compromise on the table provides $0 (none, not one pencil’s worth) in new state aid for public schools in both years of the biennium — in exchange for a welcome but inadequate increase to the special education reimbursement rate,” the organization said. “A vote for this budget is a vote for widening our gaps. Public schools will close. We will see another two years of record rates of referenda.”

Asked about advocates’ desire to try to negotiate for a general aid increase for schools, Evers said on Tuesday that there were some policies that just weren’t going to happen. He spoke to the Wisconsin Examiner Tuesday afternoon after attending a Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. event in Middleton to announce a business expansion at Catalent, a bio-health company.

“We have the largest amount of money that we’ve ever sent to our public schools coming to them, and so I know there are people that wanted everything, and when you’re in a situation where you have Republicans and Democrats [who make up] about same size of part of the government, you’re going to you’re going to have to compromise,” Evers said. “I do wish we could have put another $5 billion into it of course, but that wasn’t going to happen.”

Democrats say new maps led to budget deal, pledge to do more in majority

The budget needs 17 votes to pass in the Senate and will likely find it from a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Marklein said he was “confident” that there would be enough votes.

Slim margins in the Senate and  several Senate Republicans who said they were inclined to vote against the spending package, even ahead of the announcement of a deal, led to Democratic Minority Leader Hesselbein becoming involved in negotiations, which previously have only involved Republican legislators. Republicans have passed the budget before with only votes from their caucus, but in the Senate this year, the caucus can only afford to lose one vote.

Several Senate Democrats, including several who are serving their first term, said the budget deal was the result of new legislative maps that took effect for the first time in 2024. Under those maps, Democrats in the Senate flipped four seats, trimming the Republican majority from two-thirds to a margin of 18-15.

Freshman Sen. Sarah Keyeski (D-Lodi) said the state would be moving in the right direction with the budget agreement and Senate Democrats helped make it “palatable.” 

“To be clear, this budget is not ideal, but in the spirit of bipartisanship and forward progress, I am pleased to be a part of what Senate Democrats were able to do on behalf of all Wisconsinites,” Keyeski said. 

Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay) said the deal reflects “bipartisanship and progress.” 

“I am proud to see it move forward,” said Habush Sinykin, who is also in her first term. “What we are seeing playing out in this budget is the consequence of Wisconsin’s new fairer maps — legislators working together to find compromise and make meaningful progress for the people of Wisconsin.”

Two other Democrats in their first term highlighted local allocations in the budget. Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) celebrated $30 million that was included in the budget for a new railroad bridge at Red Maple Road between American Boulevard and Lost Dauphin Road in West De Pere and Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton) highlighted some of the items in the budget that will help her district, including the $137 million investment for UW-Oshkosh’s Polk Learning Commons.

“The new, fair maps created a balanced government, and this is the result: a government that can work together to reach an agreement where everyone walks away wishing they’d gotten more but no one leaves feeling kicked in the teeth,” Dassler-Alfheim said. “I’m hopeful that we can work together to get this over the finish line and move Wisconsin forward, together.”

Senate Democrats also said they would do more should they win a majority in future elections. 

“Because of the negotiations that we had for this budget, the outcomes were a lot better than they would have been had those individuals not been at the table, had our voices not been at the table,” said Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee). “And I just want to say that going forward for every budget. It should be like that, and don’t worry, when we’re in the majority, it will be like that, which will be in 2026.”

She told reporters she is leaning towards voting for the budget, but added, “we’ll have to see.” 

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) also said electing more Democratic legislators made a difference.

“I am thankful that Governor Evers and my Senate Democratic colleagues were at the negotiating table on our state budget and have gotten some real wins for the people of Wisconsin,” Neubauer said. “There are critical investments in education, child care and the priorities of Wisconsinites in this budget, but we also know that due to years of underfunding by the GOP majorities, there is a lot that remains to be done.”

Andraca praised the new maps in the committee meeting, saying that a nearly 50-50 split in the Senate and Assembly has spurred conversations in a new way.

“Congratulations on the bipartisanship. I think this budget does a lot of good,” Andraca said, but added,  “I’m not sure it does enough to earn my vote at this time.”

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The deal comes after months of negotiations (and multiple breakdowns in communication) among Gov. Tony Evers and Senate and Assembly leaders. Gov. Tony Evers delivers his 2025 state budget address. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Gov. Tony Evers and Republican and Democratic legislative leaders have reached a tentative agreement on the 2025-27 state budget, agreeing to invest hundreds of millions in the University of Wisconsin system, to create new grant and payment programs for child care facilities, further boost investment in special education and cut $1.3 billion in taxes.

The deal comes after months of negotiations (and multiple breakdowns in communication) among Evers and Senate and Assembly leaders. Each leader highlighted pieces of the deal in statements.

Evers focused on the investments in education and child care, saying it is “a pro-kid budget that’s a win for Wisconsin’s kids, families, and our future.” 

“What was at stake is no secret — Republican lawmakers had long indicated this budget would not invest in child care providers, would provide no new increases for our K-12 schools, and would cut nearly $90 million from our UW System. But I never stopped believing we could work together to reach consensus and pass a bipartisan budget, and I’m proud of the months of work that went into getting to where we are today,” he said. 

Evers thanked Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg), Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) for coming to the table to get a deal done. 

“The people of Wisconsin expect their leaders to show up, work hard, and operate in good faith to get good things done,” Evers said. “We’ve shown we’ve been able to get good things done for Wisconsin when people put politics aside and decide to work together to do the right thing. I look forward to signing a bipartisan budget that makes these critical investments in our kids, families, and communities across our state,” Evers said. 

Evers has also agreed not to utilize his partial veto power — previous uses of which have been both limited and sustained by the state Supreme Court in recent weeks — on parts of the budget included in the deal.

Vos said in a statement that he appreciated Evers’ willingness to work with lawmakers to find a bipartisan agreement.

“This budget delivers on our two biggest priorities: tax relief for Wisconsin and reforms to make government more accountable,” Vos said. “This deal brings those investments and reforms together and creates a Wisconsin that works for everyone.” 

JFC co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said legislators worked hard to find compromise while staying “committed to our core principals.” 

“We are proud to have worked diligently to craft this budget, listened to the priorities of our constituents and look forward to sending the bill to [Evers] later this week,” Born said. 

LeMahieu and budget committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said in a statement that tax relief for middle-income Wisconsinites has been their top priority during the entire process.

“This compromise will provide meaningful tax relief for retirees and the middle class, stabilize the child care system without making pandemic-era subsidies permanent and strengthen our schools by reimbursing special education at a higher rate,” the Senate leaders said. 

Hesselbein  said she has “been at the table fighting hard on behalf of Senate Democrats to help hammer out a bipartisan budget agreement.” Her involvement in negotiations comes amid slim margins in the Senate.

“Remember where we were a week ago: Republicans proposing $87 million in cuts to the UW, a mere 5% increase for special education and no direct payments to child care providers. Elections matter: the fact that Democrats gained four Senate seats and are close to taking the majority means that Senate Democrats were able to make this budget agreement better for the people of Wisconsin,” Hesselbein said.

Last session, the state Senate passed the budget bill with only Republican votes even after a couple of Republicans voted against the proposal. This session the Republican Senate caucus would only be able to lose one vote if it were going to pass the bill with only GOP support, yet, even prior to a deal announcement, a handful of Republican members had publicly expressed concerns about the spending in the bill. Among them was Sen. Steve Nass who, in a statement last week, laid out requirements for a budget that he could support, Sen. Rob Hutton who, in a Friday opinion piece, and Sen. Chris Kapenga who, in a post on Monday, drew their own lines in the sand.  

It is unclear how many Senate Democrats will vote for the budget when it comes to the floor this week. Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) earlier told WISN UpFront that the caucus was sticking together and members were “not willing to be picked off one by one.”

The Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday to vote on the rest of the budget before sending it to the full Assembly and Senate. 

Child care funding 

Child care providers, who have dealt with staffing shortages, high costs and declining state support, will receive a $300 million investment under the deal.

Evers had proposed spending an additional $480 million to continue funding Child Care Counts, a program that was funded using federal pandemic relief. With that funding running out, Evers had said the state should pick up the costs to continue supporting child care providers, while Republican lawmakers said they were opposed to providing checks to facilities.

Under the deal, the Child Care Counts program will be phased out, but the state will invest $110 million to support direct monthly payments and monthly per-child investments to child care facilities for a bridge program. That will continue helping providers to remain in business, cut child care wait lists and lower costs for families. The money will come out of the state’s federal interest earnings. 

The state will also invest $66 million in general purpose revenue for a “Get Kids Ready” initiative, which will be targeted at supporting child care providers serving 4-year-olds. This will be the first child care program in state history to be funded solely by general purpose revenue. 

Another agreed-upon budget item creates a $28.6 million pilot program to help support child care capacity for infants and toddlers. 

Under the program, providers are to receive $200 per month for every infant under 18 months and $100 per month for every toddler between 18 and 30 months.

Other child care investments include a $123 million increase in the Wisconsin Shares program, $2 million over the biennium for the creation of a competitive grant program aimed at supporting child care facilities seeking to expand their capacity and $2 million in Wisconsin’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies to help parents find child care and provide training to providers.

The deal also makes changes inspired by solutions that Republican lawmakers have advocated for including creating “large family care centers” that will be allowed to serve up to 12 children and standardizing the minimum age for an assistant teacher in a child care facility at 16. 

No cuts for University of Wisconsin system 

The University of Wisconsin system will get an investment of more than $256 million in the state budget under the deal — a significant compromise as Evers and the system had requested an $855 million investment, while Republican leaders in recent weeks were considering an $87 million cut to the system. Evers had threatened to veto the budget if it came to his desk with a cut. 

The funding includes $100 million to support UW system campuses statewide. Some of the funding would be distributed to campuses according to a formula. Of this, $15.25 million each year would be distributed to campuses with declining enrollment over the last two years and $11.25 million each year through a formula dependent on the number of credit hours undergraduates complete.

There will also be $7 million across the biennium to provide 24/7 virtual telehealth mental health services across UW system campuses, $54 million to support retainment and recruitment of faculty and staff, $94 million to increase wages by 3% in the first year and 2% in the second year for UW system employees and $1 million for UW-Green Bay’s Rising Phoenix Early College High School Program. 

The UW system will also be required to maintain the number of positions funded with general purpose revenue and program revenue at January 2024 levels. 

The system will also get over $840 million for capital projects. Other parts of the capital budget, including the Green Bay Correctional Institution, were not addressed in the deal. 

• $194 million for UW-La Crosse to complete the construction of the Prairie Springs Science Center and to demolish Crowley Hall 
• $189 million for UW-Milwaukee to renovate the Health Sciences and Northwest Quadrant complex
• $137 million for UW-Oshkosh to demolish a library facility, renovate and add a brand-new replacement addition 
• $10 million for UW-Madison to renovate and build a new addition to Dejope Residence Hall 
• $98 million for UW-Stevens Point to renovate and build a new addition to Sentry Hall
• $800,000 for UW-Milwaukee to plan for renovations at Sandburg Hall East Tower 
• Nearly $32 million for UW-Stout to renovate and build a new addition at its recreation complex
• Nearly $19 million for UW-Madison to renovate the Chadbourne Residence Dining Hall, $5 million to plan for relocation and demolition of the UW-Madison Humanities Building and $160 million for renovation of UW-Madison’s Science Hall

K-12 special education funding up to 45% 

The deal also makes changes to the budget that Republican lawmakers on the budget committee passed in mid-June, boosting the special education reimbursement rate to 45% by the second year of the budget. 

The state’s special education rate was one of the crucial issues discussed by education advocates with many saying a significant investment would help alleviate some of the financial stress schools have faced and ease districts’ reliance on property taxes. 

Some advocates had called for a 90% investment, while Evers proposed a 60% rate. Republican lawmakers had initially approved raising the rate to 35% in the first year of the budget and 37.5% in the second year. 

Under the deal, the total investment in the special education reimbursement will be over $500 million. The rate will rise to 42% in the first half of the biennium and 45% in the second. It will remain at a sum certain rate, meaning the amount of money allocated is finite and will not increase based on expanding demand. 

The budget deal will also invest $30 million for comprehensive school-based mental health services.

Department of Health Services changes

The deal would also increase the hospital assessment rate to help maintain the state’s Medicaid costs. The Wisconsin Hospital Assessment is a levy from certain hospitals that the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) uses to fund hospital access payments, hospital supplemental payments and reinvestment in the Wisconsin Medicaid program. 

Wisconsin hospitals currently pay an assessment rate of about 1.8% of their net patient revenue to the DHS. That would rise to 6% under the deal with 30% of the funds being retained in the Medical Assistance Trust Fund, which supports Wisconsin’s Medicaid program. The rest of the funds will be used to invest in hospital provider payments and is estimated to provide over $1.1 billion in additional investments in Wisconsin hospitals. 

The changes use federal funding to increase hospital reimbursement while decreasing the amount of general program revenue for the Medicaid program.

Evers’ office noted that federal reconciliation legislation proposals have included provisions that would prohibit or limit the policy change in the future, meaning that this budget could be the last for Wisconsin to make these types of changes.

The state will also fund the current Medicaid program under the deal. 

The budget will also increase investments in free and charitable clinics by $1.5 million.

The deal does not include Medicaid expansion, which Evers continued to advocate for in the budget but Republican leaders have fervently opposed. It also doesn’t include the smaller postpartum Medicaid extension, which would allow postpartum mothers to receive Medicaid coverage for up to a year after giving birth. 

Wisconsin is one of 10 states not to take the Medicaid expansion and one of two not to take the postpartum expansion. 

Roads improvement program gets additional investment 

A couple of projects created in the last budget to help with road improvement will get additional funding under the deal

The state will allocate $150 million in the Agricultural Roads Improvement Program, which was created in 2023 to support local agricultural road improvement projects statewide. Of the additional funding, $30 million will go towards improving and repairing deteriorating bridges across the state.

According to Evers’ office, the program has so far funded 92 projects across the state. 

The deal would also generate nearly $200 million in additional revenue to improve the sustainability of the transportation fund, allocate $14 million for municipal service payments, invest $50 million to continue the Local Projects Program (also created in the 2023 budget), which supports local communities with construction projects that serve statewide public purpose, allocate $15 million for repairs and modifications to the Echo Lake Dam, invest $5 million for the Browns Lake dredging project and invest $30 million for the De Pere railroad bridge.

$1.3 billion in tax cuts

Evers has also agreed to support the tax cuts that lawmakers approved in committee in mid-June. 

Under those changes, more people will qualify for the state’s second tax bracket with a rate of 4.4%. For single filers, the qualifying maximum income will increase from $29,370 to $50,480. For joint filers, the maximum will increase from $39,150 to $67,300 and for married separate filers, the maximum will increase from $19,580 to $33,650.

It’s estimated that this will reduce the state’s revenues by $323 million in 2025-26 and $320 million in 2026-27.

The cut will affect 1.6 million Wisconsin taxpayers and provide an average cut of $180. Under Wisconsin’s tax system, people pay the first-bracket tax rate on the portion of their income that falls into that bracket, the second-bracket rate on their income up to the maximum of the second bracket and so on. Thus even high-income earners will get a tax break through adjustments to the lower bracket rates.

The proposal also included an income tax exclusion for retirees. It is estimated to reduce Wisconsin’s revenues by $395 million in 2025-26 and $300 million in 2026-27. This will allow Wisconsinites 67 and older to exclude up to $24,000 for single-filers and $48,000 for married-joint filers of retirement income payments. Those filers will see an average cut of about $1,000 per filer.

The deal will also include the elimination of the sales tax on household utility bills, which is estimated to cost the state about $178 million over the biennium and create a film tax credit similar to one that Republican lawmakers have been advocating for.

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The Joint Finance Committee convened at 10:17 p.m. Friday — over 12 hours after it was originally scheduled. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Joint Finance Committee convened at 10:17 p.m. Friday — over 12 hours after it was originally scheduled — to vote on a fraction of the budget areas it had originally planned and to release part of the literacy funding that is set to expire next week.  

Legislative leaders have been working behind closed doors over the last week to negotiate with Gov. Tony Evers and work out the details of the state budget as the end of the fiscal year approaches next week. 

Areas of the budget still left to take up are at the center of negotiations including the University of Wisconsin system, where Republicans have considered cuts, and the Department of Children and Families, which is responsible for the state’s Child Care Counts program. Evers has said he would veto a budget without funding for the program, which will run out of federal money soon. The committee also still needs to take up the Department of Health Services, the Department of Transportation, the capital budget and more. 

The committee co-chairs did not take questions from reporters ahead of the meeting, but as the meeting started Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said the other agencies “will be taken up at a later date.” He didn’t specify when that would be.

The budget committee did approve the budget for several state agencies including the Department of Natural Resources, part of the Department of Justice, the Higher Education Aids Board, the Department of Administration and the Tourism Department. Each action the committee did take passed along partisan lines.

Portion of $50 million for literacy released

The committee voted unanimously to release $9 million of the nearly $50 million left in funding for literacy initiatives that was first allocated in the 2023-25 state budget. The majority of the money has been withheld by lawmakers since 2023 and is slated to lapse back into the state’s general fund if not released by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Lawmakers said action on the other $40 million will be taken soon. 

“This has taken a long time to get here. One of the things that this bill was originally about was to make it so that kids could read. We want to help kids read. We want to give schools the tools to be able to do that,” Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said. “Unfortunately, it’s taken this Legislature a tremendous amount of time to allocate the funds for that, and ultimately, that’s simply not acceptable.” 

Born said he is glad lawmakers were releasing part of the money Friday and would have further motions on it in the future. He also said the delay on the funding was Evers’ fault. Lawmakers were holding the funding back due to a partial veto Evers exercised on a bill related to the literacy funding. The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday that partial veto was  unconstitutional and restored the original language of the law.

“We’re glad that justice has been done, and we’re here now with the proper accounts and able to do these two separate motions here in the next couple of days in the committee to get this program that was a bipartisan program moving along,” Born said. 

Certain projects funded in DNR budget, Knowles-Nelson not 

Noticeably missing from the Republicans’ Department of Natural Resource motion was funding for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program, which allows the agency to fund the purchase of public land and upkeep of recreational areas.

Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) said lawmakers were missing an opportunity by not funding the program in the budget. 

“There’s a lot of individual pet projects in here that seem to be of interest to individual legislators, but there aren’t a lot of park projects that are of interest to Wisconsinites, particularly Knowles-Nelson,” Andraca said.

The committee approved funding in the budget for an array of projects including $42 million to help with modernization of the Rothschild Dam, $500,000 to go towards the repair of a retaining wall for the Wisconsin Rapids Riverbank project, $2.2 million environmental remediation and redevelopment of Lake Vista Park in Oak Creek, $70,000 for a dredging project in Manitowoc River in the Town of Brillion, $1.75 million for dredging the Deerskin River and $100,000 for assistance with highway flooding in the Town of Norway in Racine County. 

Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc), who is the author of a bill to keep the program going, said lawmakers are working to ensure it handles the program in the best way, which is part of why the funding is not in the budget as of now. 

“We actually have until 30th of June of 2026 to work on this. It’s something that Sen. [Patrick] Testin and I have been working on along with our staff over the last six months. It’s something that is a bipartisan effort. We’ve met with so many different stakeholders, so many different groups, so many fellow legislators on getting this done,” Kurtz said. “We are committed to get it done.” 

Kurtz said that the hearing on the bill was “good” and there will be “a lot more coming up in the future” when it comes to Knowles-Nelson. 

The committee also approved raising nonresident vehicle admission sticker fees, nonresident campsite fees and campsite electricity fees. 

Office of School Safety, VOCA grants get state funding

The Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety will get 13 permanent staff positions and $1.57 million to continue its work. That’s about $700,000 less than what the agency had requested, but is about what Evers had proposed for the office. 

The office serves as a resource for K-12 schools — helping them improve security measures by providing training on crisis prevention and response, grants for safety enhancements, threat assessment training and mental health training. It also operates the Speak Up, Speak Out tipline where students can anonymously report safety concerns.

The Wisconsin DOJ will also get help filling funding gaps for Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants left by federal funding cuts. 

Wisconsin’s federal allocation for VOCA grants has been cut from $40 million to $13 million. Domestic violence shelters and victim services organizations along with the state DOJ have been navigating the limited funding for over a year. The organizations that receive VOCA grants help people who are the victims of a crime by assisting them with finding housing, providing transportation to and from court appearances and navigating the criminal justice system.

The Republican-approved motion will provide $20 million to cover the federal funding loss. It will also provide $163,500 for two staff positions, which will expire in July 2027. The Wisconsin DOJ had requested an additional $66 million in the budget to make up for the funding gap. 

McGuire noted the funding would be significantly less than what the state agency had requested and would essentially create a two-year program rather than an ongoing one.

“[This] maintains the Legislature’s level of input, but it doesn’t actually maintain the same level of service because of the declining revenues as a result of the federal government,” McGuire said. “While we can’t fix all the things that are the result of what the federal government is doing wrong … this is something that will have an impact on communities across the state. It’s going to have an impact on people who’ve had the worst day and the worst week in the worst month of their life. It’s gonna have an impact on people who have been harmed by violence who have been in toxic, abusive relationships. It’s going to have an impact on people who desperately need services through no fault of their own. These are really vulnerable people and they should receive our support.  

Wisconsin Grants to get slight infusion, UW budget postponed 

The committee did not take up the budget for the University of Wisconsin system. It’s been one of the key issues for debate as Republican lawmakers have considered cuts, while Evers and UW leaders have said the university system needs $855 million in additional funding. Evers has said that in negotiations he and lawmakers were discussing a “positive number.”

The committee did take up the Higher Educational Aids Board, which is the agency responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s student financial aid system, investing in the Wisconsin Grant Program. The program provides grants to undergraduate Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in degree or certificate programs.

The Wisconsin Grants program would receive an additional $5.6 million in 2025-26 and $11.9 million in 2026-27 under the proposal approved Friday. The UW system, private nonprofit colleges and Wisconsin Technical College System would receive equal dollar increases. It also includes a $75,000 increase for tribal college students.

Evers had proposed 20% increases for the Wisconsin Grants for the state’s public universities, private nonprofit colleges and technical colleges — a total $57.7 million investment.

The Wisconsin Technical Colleges System had requested $10.8 million in each year of the biennium, saying there has been a waitlist for the grants for the first time in 10 years and that list is projected to grow.

The committee also approved $3.5 million in 2026-27 in a supplemental appropriation for emergency medical services training costs to reimburse training and materials costs. 

“Recruiting volunteer EMS personnel is a challenge all over the state of Wisconsin — certainly is in my Senate district,” Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said. “We believe that this will remove one barrier to recruitment of volunteers in our EMS units all across the state.” 

Other portions of the budget approved Friday evening include: 

• $30 million to the Tourism Department for general marketing, and an additional $1 million in the second year of the budget, as well as about $113,000 for state arts organizations and two staff positions and funding for the Office of Outdoor Recreation. The motion includes $5 million for Taliesin Preservation Inc. for restoration projects at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin home located in Spring Green supporting private fundraising for an education center, the restoration of visitor amenities and the stabilization of some buildings.
• $193,700 to the Wisconsin Elections Commission with over $150,000 of that going toward information technology costs and the remaining going towards costs for the Electronic Registration Information Center.
• $20.9 million and 147 positions for 12 months of personnel related costs for a Milwaukee Type 1 facility, which is meant to serve as a portion of the replacement of youth prisons Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, which the state had been working to close for years. The 32-bed facility in Milwaukee has a planned completion date in October 2026.
• The WisconsinEye endowment received $10 million to continue video coverage of the Legislature.
• The committee also approved $11 million for grants to nine of Wisconsin’s 11 federally-recognized tribes. The committee has been excluding two tribes — the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa — from the grant funding for several years due to disputes over roads. The exclusion “strikes me as inappropriate,” McGuire said. He added that it’s “an insult to those people.” 

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During the 2022–23 school year, book bans occurred in 153 districts across 33 states, according to a PEN America report. (Getty Images)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that Gov. Tony Evers overstepped his partial veto power by exercising it on a bill to implement new literacy programs in the state. Evers scolded the decision, while lawmakers said it upheld the balance of power and that they plan to release the funds now. 

The decision reverses a lower court, which ruled Evers hadn’t overstepped his power but held that the court did not have the power to compel the Legislature to release the funds. 

The case, Wisconsin State Legislature v. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, involves 2023 Wisconsin Act 100 — one part of a series of measures meant to support the creation of new literacy programs in Wisconsin. 

In the 2023-25 budget, lawmakers and Evers approved $50 million for new literacy programs but the funding went into a supplemental fund, meaning it required the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee to approve its release to the Department of Public Instruction before it could be used.

2023 Wisconsin Act 20  created an Office of Literacy within the Department of Public Instruction, which would be responsible for establishing an early literacy coaching program and awarding grants to schools. Act 100  was a separate law to create a way for the agency to expend the money transferred by the Joint Committee on Finance.

Evers exercised a partial veto when signing Act 100 into law to expand it from covering a “literacy coaching program” to covering a “literacy program.” The action led to lawmakers withholding the funding, saying he didn’t have the authority to change the law’s purpose, the argument at the center of their subsequent lawsuit. Evers’ administration had argued the bill was an appropriation, and therefore it was within the governor’s powers to partially veto it, and that the Legislature was not within its right to withhold the money.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the Legislature had not been improperly withholding the funding from DPI and that Act 100 was not an appropriation, so Evers overstepped the boundaries of the veto power given to him in the Wisconsin State Constitution. The decision overturns part of the ruling of a Dane County judge.

The state constitution gives the governor the power to sign or veto bills in full, and a 1930 amendment gave the governor the power to partially veto “appropriation bills.” Wisconsin’s executive partial veto power is one of the strongest in the country, though it has been limited over the last several decades by constitutional amendments and through Court rulings.

The state Supreme Court’s 7-0 ruling Wednesday reigns in Evers’ partial veto power.

Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in the majority opinion that the bills “did not set aside public funds for a public purpose” but rather “created accounts into which money could be transferred to fund the programs established under Act 19 [the state budget] and Act 20, and it changed other aspects of the ‘literacy coaching program.’”

“The bill, however, does not set aside any public funds; in fact, it expressly states that “$0” was appropriated,” Bradley wrote.  

Bradley said it was within the Legislature’s authority to pass the bills in the way that it did, and the Constitution only gives the governor power to “veto in part only appropriation bills — not bills that are closely related to appropriation bills.”

“Although the executive branch may be frustrated by constitutional limits on the governor’s power to veto non-appropriation bills, the judiciary must respect the People’s choice to impose them,” Bradley wrote. “This court has no authority to interfere with the Legislature’s choices to structure legislation in a manner designed to insulate non-appropriation bills from the governor’s exercise of the partial veto power.” 

Under the ruling, the law will revert to what it was when the Legislature passed it.

Another recent state Supreme Court ruling upheld another of Evers’ partial vetoes that extended school revenue increases for 400 years, though that decision was split. In that ruling, the Supreme Court said lawmakers could avoid the partial veto power by drafting bills separate from appropriation bills. Republican lawmakers have been considering for years ways to limit Evers’ veto power, and it remains an issue of controversy in the current budget process as lawmakers pass bills without funding attached. 

Evers called the Supreme Court decision “unconscionable” and urged lawmakers to release the nearly $50 million.

“Twelve lawmakers should not be able to obstruct resources that were already approved by the full Legislature and the governor to help get our kids up to speed and ensure they have the skills they need to be successful,” Evers said in a statement. “It is unconscionable that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is allowing the Legislature’s indefinite obstruction to go unchecked.” 

Evers said he would accept the Court’s decision.

“A basic but fundamental responsibility of governors and executives is to dutifully comply with decisions of a court and the judiciary, even if — and, perhaps most importantly, when — we disagree,” Evers said. 

Evers said lawmakers failing to release the funds would be “reckless” and “irresponsible.” 

“Stop messing around with our kids and their futures and get it done,” Evers said. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said in a joint statement that the ruling is a “rebuke of the Governor’s attempt to break apart a bipartisan literacy-funding bill and JFC’s constitutional authority to give supplemental funding to agencies.”

“While the Governor wanted to play politics with money earmarked for kids’ reading programs, it is encouraging to see the Court put an end to this game,” Vos and LeMahieu said. “Wisconsin families are the real winners here.”

The end of the state’s fiscal year and deadline for getting the next state budget done is June 30, and if the money isn’t released, it will lapse back into the general fund going back to the state’s $4 billion budget surplus.

Co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) and Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said in a joint statement they plan to release the funds now that the Supreme Court has ruled on the issue

“The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision confirmed what we already knew: the Governor’s partial veto of Act 100 was unconstitutional. We are happy to see that the court ruled in favor of the Legislature as a co-equal branch of government and provided us much needed guidance,” the lawmakers said. “Now that there is clarity, we look forward to releasing the $50 million set aside to support kids struggling to read and help implement these important, bipartisan reforms. It is unfortunate that the Governor’s unconstitutional veto has delayed this funding needed by kids and families across the state.”

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee called for lawmakers to meet before Monday to release the funds. 

“Unless the Joint Finance Committee acts before Monday, those kids and those school districts will not see another dime. Wisconsinites are tired of Republicans playing politics with our public schools,” Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) said. She noted that Evers had requested an additional $80 million for literacy in his budget proposal, but lawmakers have so far not included that. 

Republican lawmakers have approved the K-12 portion of the state budget, which includes an increase for the state’s special education reimbursement rate from about 32% to 37.5% and a 90% rate for high cost special education in the second year of the budget, along with funding for other priorities. Democrats and education advocates have been critical, saying that the budgeted amounts are not enough to ease the financial burdens public schools are facing.

Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said Democrats haven’t heard from Republican lawmakers about working on the budget.

“We are ready to work,” Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said. “We would like to see immediately some action on the funding that is going to disappear if it’s not spent by June 30th, particularly the literacy funding. The Joint Finance Committee has also refused to release other funds, including $125 million to combat PFAS and $15 million to support Chippewa Valley hospitals.

Roys said it was “great to hear” that the co-chairs said they would release the funds and that she hopes he “stands by his word.” 

State Superintendent Jill Underly also urged the release of the funds, saying part of the compromise struck by Evers and lawmakers was “to provide districts with funding to implement new strategies and change practices” and districts have been working to implement the literacy changes but have yet to see funding.

“It is devastating that despite bipartisan agreement on how to proceed, we have been stuck in neutral,” Underly said. 

Peggy Wirtz-Olsen, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s largest teachers’ union, said in a statement that Republican lawmakers are “bent on using schools as pawns for political payback” and are giving “lip service to literacy, while leaving educators without funding to do our job.” 

“On the cusp of another state budget, these same politicians again threaten to underfund public schools instead of working across the aisle for the good of students,” Wirtz-Olsen said, adding that WEAC will continue to advocate for funding from the state.

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Assembly Republicans gathered ahead of the floor session to stress the need for bipartisan negotiations and progress on writing the state budget. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

With the state’s budget deadline less than a week away, the Wisconsin State Assembly approved a slate of bills that would create new programs but withheld funding, which Republicans said would come later. Democrats criticized Republicans, saying they couldn’t trust that the funding would actually be passed. The body also approved a pair of bills related to nuclear power and bills that will increase penalties for criminal offenses.

Assembly Republicans gathered ahead of the floor session to stress the need for bipartisan negotiations and progress on writing the state budget.

Budget negotiations fell apart last week for the second time as Senate Republicans walked away from talks with Gov. Tony Evers. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) said in a statement at the time that discussions were “heading in a direction that taxpayers cannot afford.” 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said during a press conference that he has been in communication with Evers, including on Tuesday morning. 

Vos said the discussions about child care funding are “preliminary” with “a lot of details to be worked out.” He said Assembly Republicans remain “steadfast” in its opposition to “writing checks out to providers” but are open to working with Evers on child care. 

Evers told reporters Monday he wouldn’t sign a budget if it doesn’t include money for child care.

“Republicans need to get their act together and come back and let’s finish it up,” Evers said.

Asked if he would sign a budget that doesn’t include funding for the state’s Child Care Counts program, Evers said “no.” 

Evers has not vetoed a budget in full during his time in office, though he has exercised his partial veto power extensively, rejecting major tax cuts and making changes to extend increases for school revenue – to the great irritation of Republicans.

“I think in the end we’ll be able to find a consensus around that topic,” Vos said about child care funding. 

Vos also said Republicans are already taking some action related to child care. Assembly Republicans have announced measures including a 15% tax credit for the business expenses at child care facilities, no-interest loans and allowing 16-year-olds to be counted as full staff as ways of addressing the crisis.

Evers said discussions about the funding for the University of Wisconsin had included “a positive number” though he wouldn’t go into details. Last week, Vos said his caucus intended to cut $87 million from the UW system. 

“I know we’re going to make investments in trying to make sure that parents have access to child care, I know we’re going to make a historic investment in special ed funding and I know we’re going to do some reforms at the university. Those are all things that we would love to do as part of a bigger deal,” Vos said, adding that legislators have to make sure any plan can get through both the Assembly and the Senate and then to Evers. 

Vos said the most thing thing for Assembly Republicans is getting tax cuts passed and signed by Evers, saying they have learned from previous budgets where tax cuts have been vetoed and other parts of the budget is approved. The budget committee has approved a $1.3 billion tax cut package for the budget bill already.

“It’s better for us to find a compromise,” Vos said. “We’d like to have a guarantee from Gov. Evers that we’re going to get tax cuts signed into law. In exchange, he would like a guarantee that we’re going to have some increases in investments that he cares about.”

Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said he is in communication with Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) working on figuring out when the budget committee will meet next.

“We’re hopeful our Senate colleagues will join us in the next couple of days,” Born said.

The deadline for the budget — and end of the fiscal year — is June 30.

“I think if we are actively talking about a budget in the next couple of days, we can hammer out details in a hurry. That’s the way budgets are built. If people are ready to work, we’ll get things done,” Born said. 

Republicans have a slim 18-15 majority in the state Senate, which is leading to some difficulties passing a budget, as their caucus can only lose one vote and still get a budget passed without Democratic votes. Two members — Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) and Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) — have expressed concerns about the budget.

Nass laid out several “benchmarks” that would get him to vote for a budget in a press release Tuesday, including a $3.5 billion one-time tax rebate that would provide $1,600 to joint filers and $800 to individual tax filers, ensuring the new budget doesn’t create a structural deficit and making cuts of $700 million to $1 billion and no more than $1.5 billion in new bonding for buildings.

“I will not support the Vos-Evers budget proposal because it contains too much spending, special interest pork and the creation of a significant structural deficit,” Nass said. “The Vos-Evers budget plan is neither conservative nor taxpayer friendly. However, if passed it would be a big win for the politicians and lobbyists.”

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), who is a member of the Joint Finance Committee, called Nass’ proposal “reckless” in a social media post and said Republicans are in “disarray.” 

“It shows that Republicans do not care about maintaining the essential services that Wisconsinites need and want — public schools, UW, roads, healthcare,” Roys wrote. “We need a budget by June 30 or all of it is at serious risk.” 

Bills passed that will rely on funding in budget

The state budget overshadowed debate about several other bills Tuesday as Democrats complained about the lack of funding included in the bills and the lack of trust they have that Republicans will release the funding. 

Republicans, however, said the funding would come later in the budget. A similar argument took place in the state Senate last week. 

Republicans are splitting the bills from the funding as a way of working around Evers’ veto power. Evers has objected to this. Evers’ legislative affairs director sent letters to Republican lawmakers telling them that if they want their bills to become law, the policy needs to be included in the budget, the funding needs to be attached to the bill or the bill needs to include language that states the policy only goes into effect if there is funding. 

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said at the start of session Tuesday that lawmakers have yet to take meaningful action on the budget and that is unacceptable.

“I want to be very clear about what happens in Wisconsin, if we fail to pass a budget before July 1. There will be no new special education, mental health, or nutrition spending for our schools. Project positions will end overnight. There will be cuts to programs like county conservation and tourism, and much more,” Neubauer said. “There are real consequences to not passing a budget on time. It will hurt Wisconsinites, and it really is unacceptable. It does not need to be this way.”

Neubauer said that Republicans are allowing the “extremists” in their party to hold up the budget process when lawmakers should be listening to their constituents. She said the floor session is an example of Republicans ineffectiveness.

“Even as the budget process is in complete chaos, the majority is writing a series of unfunded bills to the floor that they allege would receive funding in the budget,” Neubauer said. “My biggest question right now is, what budget? Republicans do not have a plan to fund these bills. They do not have a plan for our state budget, and they don’t have a plan to move our state forward. Wisconsin deserves better.”

Unfunded bills create ‘bizarre budget’ process

One bill — AB 279 — would instruct the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to create a talent recruitment grant program meant to lure out-of-state families to relocate to Wisconsin. It passed by voice vote.

Rep. Alex Joers (D-Middleton) said he supports the idea but is concerned about the lack of funding.

“It creates a grant program and there’s no grants, there’s no funding in this bill,” Joers said. “You all need to fund your bills.” 

Bill author Rep. David Armstrong (R-Rice Lake) said his bill would help communities market themselves to people looking to relocate. He said he delivered five motions to the committee, but none were included. The committee took action on the WEDC budget earlier this month. 

“They told me to get these passed through the House and through the Senate and they’ll come back and find the funding,” Armstrong said, adding that he agrees the program shouldn’t be mandated without the money.

SB 106, which the Assembly concurred in, would provide the framework for the Department of Health Services to certify psychiatric residential treatment facilities. The facilities would provide in-patient care for people under 21 and are aimed at helping keep young people in crisis stay in-state for care.

Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) said it is “outrageous” that the bill doesn’t include funding. 

“It’s not a workable bill if it’s not funded,” Vining said. “This is irresponsible governing. It is fiscally irresponsible. You guys have got to stop playing games.” 

Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston) said the bill is critical so that young people in crisis have support from the state and their families. When it comes to funding, he said that would come later.

“It will be coming up in separate legislation as we negotiate, as this budget moves forward. We are not going to put a bill out without funding, and I don’t appreciate scare tactics like that because this won’t happen, I have a lot of budget motions, and I am working with JFC to get that accomplished,” Snyder said. “Let’s work on getting the foundation built and then finding out the cost and fund it.” 

SB 108 would require DHS to develop a portal to facilitate sharing of safety plans for a minor in crisis with specific people. It passed in a voice vote.

SB 283 requires the Department of Transportation to create a public protective services hearing protection program to provide specialized hearing protection devices to law enforcement and fire departments. 

Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) said the bill is really good, but won’t work without funding.

“We’ve heard that Joint Finance is going to fund something, and it doesn’t happen,” Emerson said. “$15 million for hospitals in the Chippewa Valley still sitting in Joint Finance. Money for the reading program, still sitting in Joint Finance. Money for PFAS, still sitting in Joint Finance. There’s a lot of broken trust between the people of Wisconsin and that committee, so we need to see that the funding is here. We need to see it right now. Otherwise, I don’t see how we can get a bill like this passed.”

Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha), who is a member of the Joint Finance Committee, said during debate that Republicans have “set the stage for a bizarre budget” by approaching new policy in this way. He said Republicans have previously asked Democrats to trust funding will be released as they’ve allocated funding in a roundabout way, noting that in previous budget cycles lawmakers put money in supplemental funds as a way of requiring additional approval from the budget committee before the money was released.

“I voted for a literacy bill last year — $50 million to help kids read — and that money is still sitting there… We have the ability to appropriate funds, so we could have added funding to all these bills today,” McGuire said. 

McGuire said Republicans could be aiming to effectively reduce agencies’ budgets by mandating new projects without including the funding. 

“There’s the possibility that this is just a secret way of cutting agencies and of robbing every other program that those agencies administer because that’s what happens if we don’t administer the funds,” McGuire said. “Those agencies have to make the choice between the program that we require them to allocate funds for and other programs… and it makes it harder for people to receive services that they already need.” 

Nuclear power bills

The Assembly approved a pair of bills meant to move progress on nuclear energy in Wisconsin, which will now head to Evers’ desk for consideration.

One bill — SB 125 — would require the Public Service Commission to conduct a study to determine potential sites for a nuclear power plant. 

The other — SB 124 — would create a Nuclear Power Summit Board in Wisconsin meant to host a summit in Madison to advance nuclear power and fusion energy technology and development and to showcase Wisconsin’s leadership and innovation in the nuclear industry. The summit would need to be held within the month after instruction starts at the new engineering building at UW-Madison, which is supposed to be finished in 2028. The funding for the building was approved by the Legislature and Evers in 2024. 

Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde (D-Milwaukee) said he is concerned about Wisconsin’s energy, but the bills as they are are missing some steps.

“Where’s our integrated resource plan? Have we developed one? In other states, they have an integrated resource plan, which lets us know just how much carbon emitting fuel we need to be producing and let’s not produce any more than that,” Moore Omokunde said. “We need to be determining the speed of nuclear energy, the cost, the safety.” 

Moore Omokunde said the state should take an “all of the above” approach and consider different types of energy including nuclear, wind and solar to allow Wisconsin to better decide its “energy future.”.

Snyder said that with technological advances, including artificial intelligence, other types of energy such as windmills and solar won’t be able to provide enough energy. 

“This is something for the future. If you want the cleanest energy, you have to include nuclear,” Snyder said. “We can’t be living in the past of Chernobyl. Fear does not move us forward.” 

Sortwell compared technological advances in energy production to the difference between the Flintstones and the Jetsons. He said lawmakers worked with Evers’ office and the PSC and other stakeholders on the bill. Evers had proposed including $1 million in the state budget to support a nuclear power plant feasibility study.

“The nuclear renaissance is upon us here in Wisconsin and in the United States, and it’s time for everybody else to get on board,” Sortwell said. 

New and increased penalties

The Assembly also passed bills that increase — or create — criminal penalties. 

Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) spoke in opposition to the slate of bills, saying they will contribute to mass incarceration in Wisconsin. 

“Locking people up does not need to be the solution to every single piece of legislation,” Clancy said. “Incarceration has become this Legislature’s default response to every single claim you think is wrong in this state. It’s incredibly harmful and it doesn’t work.”

AB 26 would make it a Class H felony to threaten or commit battery against a juror or a member of a juror’s family. 

While talking about this bill, Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) said he was thankful Clancy was in the “minority of the minority of the minority” on the issue. He said it would help protect family members of jurors.

“While you may as an individual juror not feel particularly at risk yourself, maybe you’re concerned about your family being threatened, and so this is making sure once again that we have a justice system that is deciding on the merits of the case,” Sortwell said.

AB 35 would change current law that says candidates can’t remove their names from ballots unless they are dead. The bill comes in reaction to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. trying unsuccessfully to remove himself from the Wisconsin presidential ballot in 2024 after he dropped out and endorsed President Donald Trump.

Under the bill, candidates withdrawing from national or statewide races would have to pay the Wisconsin Elections Commission a $1,000 fee — or $250 for a non-statewide office. 

The bill would also make it a Class G felony with a maximum penalty of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to 10 years if someone intentionally makes or files a false statement withdrawing a person’s candidacy.

AB 53 would also make it a Class H felony to cause or threaten to cause bodily harm to a community service officer in response to an action the CSO took in an official capacity. It is currently a class A misdemeanor to cause bodily harm to another person.

AB 65 would make it a Class F felony with a maximum penalty of $25,000 and 12 years and 6 months in prison if someone intentionally enters another person’s home without consent with intent to commit battery.

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Children watch popcorn pop at their child care program operated by the Dodge County YMCA. (Photo courtesy of the Dodge County YMCA)

For months child care providers and their allies campaigning for direct financial support from Wisconsin lawmakers have highlighted employers and the economy as central to their pitch.

Child care providers are “the workforce behind the workforce” in one of the rallying slogans of the provider-parent coalition Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN).

Employers and business owners themselves, however, have largely stayed in the background — from time to time offering testimonials about their employees’ need for child care, but rarely weighing in on policy alternatives.

Last week more than 75 business leaders broke that pattern, sending a letter to members of the Wisconsin Legislature.

“Wisconsin’s lingering child care crisis … cannot go unaddressed any longer by state legislators, because Wisconsin remains at a workforce crossroads that presents significant, pressing challenges for businesses and the economic vitality of the state,” the group wrote.

“We therefore ask you to advance a significant long-term state investment in child care in the 2025-27 state budget because inaction will further shutter child care programs and continue to hamper efforts to stabilize and grow Wisconsin’s workforce.”

The letter was distributed with the help of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA), which provides advocacy and professional services for child care providers and also conducts policy research.

Campaign continues for direct subsidy

The letter embraces what Gov. Tony Evers, child care providers and their allies have been seeking in the 2025-27 Wisconsin budget this year: A direct state subsidy for child care providers. Evers and providers have warned that without that kind of support there’s likely to be a drastic shutdown of child care centers across the state in the coming months.

“Child care programs operate on razor-thin margins with budgets balanced on parent fees, which, despite being costly for families, do not cover the full cost of programs providing high-quality care,” the letter states.

“As employers, we have explored and implemented different local initiatives to help grow access to care,” it adds. Nevertheless, “those solutions are limited and must be complemented with a long-term, significant investment of state revenue.”

Tracy Propst, the executive director of the Beaver Dam Chamber of Commerce, helped organize support for and signed the business letter.

“I really do believe child care is part of an economic strategy,” Propst told the Wisconsin Examiner. “If you don’t have access to abundant and economical child care, you are going to lose workforce.”

Mary Vogl-Rauscher, a human resources consultant in Beaver Dam, joined the letter along with businesses she works with.

Prospective fee hikes are “enough of an increase, if we don’t get the subsidies, to take people out of the workforce,” Vogl-Rauscher said. “From an employer perspective and a business perspective, if [the cost of care] goes up and we don’t continue with the state subsidies, it’s going to make an even bigger economic impact.”

Vogl-Rauscher is active in the local and state chapters of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and organized a community discussion of the issue this spring. 

Propst and Vogl-Rauscher both say they’ve sought to persuade their local Assembly member, state Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), the Joint Finance Committee’s co-chair, that the lawmakers should add the subsidy program into the budget. 

“I’ve had conversations with Mark,” Propst said, adding that he told her that the committee was “doing something,” although not what she had asked for. “He will listen to his constituents,” she said. 

Middle-class squeeze

Both Propst and Vogl-Rauscher said their conversations with Dirk Langfoss, CEO of the Dodge County YMCA and a board member at the Beaver Dam chamber, were instrumental in clarifying the problem.

The Dodge County Y has the largest child care program in the county. Langfoss told the Wisconsin Examiner that competition for employees with other businesses has produced “upward pressures” on wages. The average weekly rate for infant and 1-year-old care is $253 — which adds up to $13,000 for all 52 weeks in the year. Rates are lower for older age groups.

“The middle-income families are the ones that are getting squeezed,” he said, with some telling him now that “they are strapped.”

If subsidies end entirely and the Y has to raise its rates, “those families are going to have to make some very hard decisions,” Langfoss added.

Propst views a direct investment now as a step toward something more comprehensive. “It’s really about child care stabilization,” she said, allowing providers to get their footing.

She also considers the immediate situation to be urgent, and fears the urgency hasn’t gotten through to many people.

“I just think this has snuck up on the businesses,” Propst said. “Like they weren’t aware this is happening, and here we are. And they don’t realize the ramifications of what’s going to happen — and that’s child care closures, child care price increases, and we’re not going to have enough providers.”

Direct investment divisions persist

While child care advocates have been arguing for a direct investment for years, the argument hasn’t fully caught on with the broader public or in the business community.

Among business leaders and the public, “there is a general recognition that child care is essential for workers, especially those that are taking care of young children,” said David Celata, vice president of policy and research for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. But the true cost of care and why most working families can’t afford it is “an incredibly complex issue,” Celata told the Wisconsin Examiner.

“The numbers really don’t add up until we recognize that there is a social and economic good related to child care that we are failing collectively to truly maximize,” he said. “That then requires some sort of a public investment to strengthen the infrastructure of our child care sector.”

In Wisconsin the campaign for a state child care subsidy has been underway since the 2023-25 budget after monthly grants from federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds helped child care providers raise wages without having to increase the fees families paid.

The Legislature’s Republican majority turned aside attempts to continue the subsidy program, Child Care Counts, with state money in the 2023-25 budget. Evers subsequently redirected other federal funds to extend the program at reduced rates through the middle of 2025.

The last of those funds will run out by early July. A survey that the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty released in April found that as many as one in four child care providers said they might shut down without the continued support. Anywhere from half to two-thirds of programs forecast fee increases.

Evers put a $480 million proposal for a state-funded Child Care Counts program in his 2025-27 budget. Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee removed it from the budget along with more than 600 other proposals Evers included before beginning work on their own version of the document.

After visiting a child care center in Waukesha County on Monday to highlight his subsidy proposal, Evers told reporters that he would not sign a budget this year without direct child care support. Evers said the provision was part of his ongoing budget negotiations with the Legislature’s GOP leaders.

Direct funding is still a sticking point, however.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) told reporters Tuesday that Republicans are open to working with Evers on child care but remain firmly opposed to “writing checks out to providers.”

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“Republicans would rather have a talking point and try to portray themselves as tough on crime, when really what they are is very stupid and wasteful on crime," Sen. Kelda Roys said. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

GOP lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee approved a proposal for the Department of Corrections that includes an additional $62.9 million in state spending in 2025-26 and $73.8 million in 2026-27 as well as 18 new staff positions. The proposal was less than a third of the $500 million corrections proposal released by Gov. Tony Evers earlier this year, which he argued was necessary to pass in full in order to accomplish  the closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institution.

Evers’ plan, when released, included plans to overhaul the state’s correctional facilities, including closing GBCI, closing Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls and renovating other facilities as well as expanding earned release and taking steps to address recidivism rates.

Committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said GBCI, which was built in 1898, won’t be discussed until the committee takes up the capital budget later this week. He said the last budget helped reduce staffing shortages and that legislators want that work to continue with the portions of the budget taken up on Tuesday.

“As I’ve talked to the prisons in my district, they’re happy to see that their recruit classes are much larger, and the vacancies are about half of what they were prior to the last budget, so we think that’s working well,” Born said. “The next phase of this is to talk about the capital budget investments, which will happen on Thursday.” 

The proposal passed by committee Republicans also includes additional investments in the state’s adult institutions, including $65 million across the biennium for inmate costs, $4 million for contract beds, $5 million for fuel and utilities costs and $292,600 for body cameras. Fox Lake Correctional Institution would get 2.1 million in funding and 16 health care related positions. 

Democrats on the committee said the money allocated wouldn’t be enough to lay the groundwork for major reforms to Wisconsin’s correctional system, including shutting down the GBCI. They had introduced a motion that would have added $268.9 million in spending to corrections and 59 staff positions.

Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) noted that previous budgets have spent more on incarceration than on the state’s public universities, and that Republicans’ proposal is half of what Democrats wanted to spend on community reentry. 

“Wisconsin is woefully behind the times when it comes to public safety reform and on criminal justice reform,” Roys said. “What’s disappointing about this is to see that we are going to continue to fall far behind. We spend so much money incarcerating people, and that means less money for all the other important things that we want to do in the state.”

Centers dedicated to community reentry will get an additional $1 million under Republican’s proposal.

The centers, Roys said, are a “proven way to reduce recidivism” meaning “reducing the crime as people move back into society.” She also added that the proposal included “no money for supported housing, which we know is one of the biggest barriers for people who are coming out of incarceration and re-entering the community.” 

Roys told reporters after the meeting that the state is incarcerating too many people, and said Evers’ plan would have helped address policy changes that need to be made to progress towards closing GBCI. 

“We don’t have the capacity and the programming and the staffing and the facilities to allow people to successfully reenter and we’re also taking [people] back out of the community after they’ve already re-entered for really minor technical violations. There are a lot of different things that we can safely do to help reduce and right size the prison population… The governor has proposed these things,” Roys said. “Republicans would rather have a talking point and try to portray themselves as tough on crime, when really what they are is very stupid and wasteful on crime.” 

Born said the budget proposal voted on Tuesday was focused on the services already provided by the state and not inserting policy into the budget. He said the committee was doing what it needed to to invest in public safety.

“It’s super expensive, and it is what it is because it is a super important part of public safety,” Born said. “Nothing to be sad or upset about and as I would hope most folks know the discussion on the future is in the [capital budget].” 

The committee also took up the budgets for district attorneys and public defenders. 

The Republican proposal approved on Tuesday adds 42 new assistant district attorney positions, costing $3.5 million in 2025-26 and $2.7 million in 2026-27. The counties with the most new positions include Brown with seven new positions, Waukesha with six positions and Fond du Lac with four. Milwaukee County would get no new positions and Dane County would get one additional position. 

Republican lawmakers on the committee said the proposal was based on a workload analysis of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association and should bring the state up to 80% of the staffing in the study. Roys disputed this, noting that Evers based his proposal on the same study, finding that 47 positions would be needed to bring the staffing to 70%.

Roys said the motion was a “nod in the right direction” but said it was missing commensurate increases for public defenders.

“You can have prosecutors charging and charging and charging all day, but if you don’t have defense attorneys, then people are going to languish in jail,” Roys said. “These cases are going to continue to sit there and not get resolved, and we’re going to see that backlog increase.” 

Roys also criticized the motion for including no new positions for Milwaukee County, the state’s most populous county, and only one new position in Dane County, the second most populous county. She also expressed concern that Republicans were not considering that federal funds that are currently supporting 30 assistant district attorneys across 28 counties are set to be expended in July. 

“The loss of federal funding, I think in some counties, this is going to be very problematic,” Roys said. 

“It’s like a 10% increase. What other agencies here are we giving a 10% increase?” Born said. “This is a priority. This is a key investment. I think it’s a positive thing that we were able to do there, but I’m not gonna cry over all our buddies that got ARPA money, [but] didn’t get it now.”

The positions would be anticipated to start in October.

The Republican motion also included investments of nearly $2 million in 2025-26 and nearly $4 million in 2026-27 for pay progression increase for assistant district attorney and deputy district attorneys. The State Public Defender’s office would get $1.9 million in 2025-26 and $3.8 million in 2026-27 for pay progression.

Other investments for district attorneys and public defenders included $3.5 million to upgrade the case tracking system for prosecutors and $858,400 and $922,4000 and 12.5 positions to address workload issues.

The committee also took up the portions of the budget for the Department of Military Affairs, the Public Service Commission and the budget management. 

UW budget delayed as deadline approaches

The committee did not take up the budget for the University of Wisconsin system, even though it had been scheduled. 

Marklein said leaders “decided not to take it up today” and the co-chairs declined to comment on rumors that lawmakers were preparing a significant cut to the system’s budget.

Roys said she had also heard that Republicans were preparing an $87 million cut to the system and said it would be a “non-starter” for Democrats on the committee.

“The university over the last generation has seen their budget shrink and shrink. They have not gotten inflationary increases, and they’ve had cuts,” said Roys, whose district includes the UW-Madison campus. “What they had asked for in this budget session would help make them whole from the cuts that they have endured over the last 15 years.” 

Roys also said that she thought Republicans were having “difficulty deciding whether they want to walk the plank on making cuts to education.” 

“When we do not fund public education, which is again the No. 1 thing that Wisconsinites have asked for consistently over the years, we are going to end up with a state where nobody wants to live,” Roys said. “We can fund prisons all we want, but ultimately, funding early childhood, funding education, funding higher [education] is how we make Wisconsin a great place to live.”

Marklein said he and his colleagues are trying to get the budget passed before the June 30 deadline. 

Republicans will be facing a small vote margin if they try to pass the bill with only Republican support. Two members of the Senate have already expressed concerns about the budget crafted so far by the Joint Finance Committee. 

Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) said that he sees three options: accepting Evers’ budget, approving the one being drafted by the Joint Finance Committee or leaving the current budget in place. 

“Unless something improves, I am going with option #3,” Kapenga wrote. 

Kapenga said the JFC budget so far includes “unnecessary spending without any reforms that would improve the budget process or dig into wasteful spending currently in place” and said that it would be a major risk to send the budget to Evers because the state Supreme Court hasn’t curbed his veto power.

Kapenga said letting the current budget stand would mean “the lowest spending increase in a decade” and would “have no veto pen risk.” 

Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) had already encouraged the state Legislature last month to either pass no new budget or “a very small mini-budget.” He has a history of voting against the state budget.

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Joint Finance Co-Chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that he would tell advocates who wanted the 60% rate that the state budget has to be “right-sized” and “affordable.” (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

After many delays, the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee met Thursday evening to approve its plan for K-12 education spending that included a 5% increase to special education funding for schools and its $1.3 billion tax plan that targets retirees and middle-income earners. 

Lawmakers on the powerful budget-writing committee went back and forth for nearly three hours about the plans with Republicans saying they made significant investments in education and would help Wisconsinites while Democrats argued the state should do more for schools. 

Over $220 million for special education, no additional general aid for schools

The committee approved a total of about $336 million total in new general purpose revenue for Wisconsin’s K-12 schools — only about 10% of Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed $3.1 billion in new spending.

Special education costs will receive the majority of the allocation with an additional $220 million that will be split between the general special education reimbursement and a subset of high-cost special education services. 

The special education reimbursement funding includes $77.2 million in the first year of the budget, which will bring the rate at which the state reimburses school districts to an estimated 35%, and $151 million in the second year bringing the rate to an estimated 37.5%. It’s well below the $1.13 billion or 60% reimbursement for special education that Evers had proposed and that advocates had said was essential to place school districts back on a sustainable funding path. 

Education advocates spent the last week lobbying for the additional funding — and warning lawmakers about the financial strain on districts and the resources the students could lose. Ahead of the meeting Thursday, Democrats and a coalition of Wisconsin parents of students with disabilities spoke to the urgent need for additional investment in the state’s general special education reimbursement rate. 

“Everywhere we’ve gone in the state of Wisconsin, whether it’s rural school districts, urban school districts, whether it’s school districts that have passed referendums and those that haven’t, they all say the same thing — 60% primary special education funding is absolutely necessary for our schools to succeed,” Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said at the press conference.  “You can see that we have had a cycle of referendum throughout Wisconsin, and that cycle has to end.”

The special education reimbursement peaked at 70% in 1973, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. After falling to a low of 24.9% in 2015-16, the state’s share of special education costs has been incrementally increasing with some fluctuations. 

The Republican proposal represents, at maximum, about a 5% increase to the current rate by the second year. According to budget papers prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the investment lawmakers made last session was meant to bring the rate to 33.3%, but because it is a sum certain rate — meaning there was only a set amount of money set aside, regardless of expanding costs  — the actual rates have been 32.4% in 2023-24 and an estimated 32.1% for 2024-25.

Joint Finance Co-Chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that he would tell advocates who wanted the 60% rate that the state budget has to be “right-sized” and “affordable.”

“The governor’s budget has always [had] reckless spending that the state can’t afford, and so we’re choosing to make key investments and priorities, and these investments today will be some of … the largest investments you’ll see in the budget,” Born said. 

The committee also added $54.5 million to bring the additional reimbursement rate for a small number of high-cost special education services to 50% in the first year of the budget and 90% in the second year. The high-cost special education program provides additional aid when costs exceed $30,000 for a single student in one year. According to DPI, in 2025 only 3% of students with disabilities fell in the high-cost special education category.

In 2024-25, the program only received $14.5 million from the state. Evers had proposed the state invest an additional $18.5 million. 

Republicans on the committee insisted that they were trying to compromise and making a significant investment in schools — noting that education likely will continue being the state’s top expenditure in the budget. Meanwhile, Democrats spoke extensively about the need for higher rates of investment, read messages from superintendents and students in their districts and said Republicans were not doing what people asked for. 

“High needs special education funding only reaches about 3% of Wisconsin’s special education students,” Rep. Deb Andraca said. “You’re getting a couple good talking points, but you’re not going to get the kinds of public schools that Wisconsin kids deserve.” 

During the committee meeting, Sen. Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin) criticized Democrats for saying they would vote against the proposals. He said Democrats would vote against any proposal if it isn’t what they want. 

“If we all voted no, we would return to base funding, which was good enough by the way for the governor last budget because he signed it,” Bradley said. “There would be no increases, but instead we’ve introduced a motion which will increase funding.”

McGuire responded by saying he wouldn’t vote for a proposal that is “condemning the state to continuing the cycle of referendum,” which he said Republicans are doing by minimally increasing the special education reimbursement rate and not investing any additional money in general aid. 

“Wisconsinites across the state are having to choose between raising their own property taxes” and the schools, McGuire said. 

The Kenosha School District, which is in McGuire’s legislative district, recently failed to pass referendum to help reduce a budget deficit. School leaders had said a significant increase in the special education reimbursement would prevent the district from having to seek a referendum again.

“They had a $19 million budget gap, and if this state went to 60% special education funding, you know roughly where we promised we would be, that would’ve gone down to $6 million,” McGuire said, “…$13 million of those dollars are our responsibility. That’s been our failing, and we should live up to that.”

“What are we arguing about? We’re putting more money in,” Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) said.“I would think that when this gets to his desk, Evers would sign this because it is a bigger increase than any of what he proposed while he was state superintendent.”

McGuire said the investment in the high-cost special education is also good, but only applies to a small number of schools and students. 

“You know, what would benefit all school districts in the state and will benefit all students who need special education? The primary special education reimbursement rate, which you put at 37.5[%], but everyone says should be at 60[%].” McGuire said. “I don’t think this is your intention, but I don’t believe that we should be exchanging children who need our assistance for other children who need our assistance. Why can’t we just help all of the kids who need our help?”

Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) said that the increase for high-cost special education will have a significant impact on some schools, especially smaller ones, and students, even if it’s not many of them.

“To get 90% for them is huge for any of our rural districts. One child, which deserves an education, can break the bank for our small districts,” Kurtz said. “Is it perfect? No, it’s not perfect, but we have to stay within our means.” 

Committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) echoed Kurtz’s comments saying that there will be “a lot of districts that are going to be awful happy about that.” 

“They’ve been worried about sometimes, a student moves into the district, and it’s of incredibly high, high needs,” Marklein said.

The committee also declined to include additional general aid for school districts. Republicans on the committee said  there was already a $325 per pupil increase to districts’ revenue limits built into the budget from last session due to Evers’ partial veto. The increase gives districts the option to raise property taxes, though it doesn’t require them to, and does not include state funding for the increase.

Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Birchwood) told lawmakers not to forget about the increase, saying the “insulting part about that is that everyone gets it.

There are schools that don’t need that,” Quinn said. “72% of my districts spend less than [the schools of] my Democratic colleagues on this panel.” 

School Administrators Alliance Executive Director Dee Pettack, Wisconsin Association of School Boards Executive Director Dan Rossmiller, Southeast Wisconsin School Alliance Executive Director Cathy Olig and Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance Executive Director Jeff Eide said in a joint letter reacting to the proposal that lawmakers failed to hear the voices school leaders, parents and community and business leaders.

“While the $325 revenue limit authority exists, it is not funded by the state. Instead, it is entirely borne by local property taxpayers. In addition, school districts will not see the requested support in special education,” the leaders stated. “Because of the lack of state support in these two critical areas, school districts will be left with no choice but to ask their local taxpayers to step up and shoulder the costs locally, regardless of their ability to pay.” 

The leaders said the state was investing minimally and school districts will continue to struggle to fund mandated primary special education programs.

State Superintendent Jill Underly called the Republicans’ proposal “irresponsible” in a statement Friday and said it “puts politics ahead of kids and disregards educators and public schools when they need support the most.”

“Our public schools desperately need and deserve funding that is flexible, spendable and predictable,” Underly said. “This budget fails to deliver on all three. Once again, those in power had an opportunity to do right by Wisconsin’s children — and once again, they turned their backs on them.” 

The committee also approved $30 million for the state’s choice school programs, $20 million for mental health services in school, $250,000 for robotics league grants, $750,000 for a single school, the Lakeland STAR Academy (a provision that Evers vetoed last session), $100,000 for Special Olympics Wisconsin, $3 million for public library system aid, $500,000 for recovery high schools and $500,000 for Wisconsin Reading Corps. 

Over $1 billion in tax cuts 

Republican lawmakers also approved tax cuts of about $1.3 billion for the budget Thursday evening after 8 p.m., including changes to the income tax brackets and a cut for retirees in Wisconsin.

Born and Marklein said the cuts would help retirees and other Wisconsinites afford to stay in the state.

“These are average, hard-working people in our state that will benefit from our tax cut,” Marklein said. 

The income tax change will allow more people to qualify for the second tax bracket with a rate of 4.4% by raising the qualifying maximum income to $50,480 for single filers, $67,300 for joint filers and $33,650 for married-separate filers. This will reduce the state’s revenues by $323 million in 2025-26 and $320 million in 2026-27. 

People currently eligible for the second tax bracket include: single filers making between $14,680 and $29,370, joint filers making between $19,580 and $39,150 and married separate filers making between $9,790 and $19,580.

Wisconsin Republicans have been seeking another significant tax cut since the last budget cycle when Evers vetoed their proposals. After the rejection, Republicans started to narrow their tax cuts proposals to focus on retirees and a couple of other groups with the hope of getting Evers’ approval. When negotiations on this year’s budget reached an impasse, Evers had said he was willing to support Republicans’ tax goals, but he wanted agreements from them, too. 

The proposal also includes an exclusion from income taxes for retirees that would reduce the state’s revenues by $395 million in 2025-26 and $300 million in 2026-27.

“This isn’t a high-income oriented kind of thing,” Marklein said during the meeting. “It just helps a lot of average people in the state of Wisconsin, so it’s very good tax policy.” 

Democrats appeared unimpressed with the tax proposal. 

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau told lawmakers that the income tax change would lead to about a maximum impact of $253 annually for married joint filers, $190 annually for single filers and $127 for married separate filers. 

“So roughly $5 a week for a married couple,” McGuire said. 

McGuire said that Democrats just have the perspective that Wisconsin could invest more in the priorities that residents have been expressing. 

“We heard from a lot of people about what they need,” McGuire said in reference to school districts. “We also know that as they’ve been attempting to get those funds they’ve had to go to referendums across the state, and… we think that’s harming communities and making it more difficult for people. As a perspective, we believe that that’s a good place to invest in dollars.” 

Tech colleges

The committee also voted to provide additional funding for the Wisconsin technical colleges, though it is, again, significantly less than what was requested by Evers and by the system.

The proposal will provide an additional $13 million to the system. This includes $7 million in general aid for the system of 16 technical colleges, $2 million in aid meant for grants for artificial intelligence, $3 million for grants for textbooks and nearly $30,000 to support the operations of the system. 

Evers had proposed the state provide the system with $45 million in general aid

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) said the differences between Evers’ proposals and what Republicans offered were stark. 

“We hear my GOP colleagues talk about worker training all the time and this is their opportunity to make sure that our technical colleges have the resources that they need to make sure that we are training an adequate workforce,” Johnson said, noting that the state could be short by 1,000 nurses (many of whom start their education in technical colleges) by 2030. “I’ve never had an employer complain about having an educated workforce, not once, but I have heard employers say that Wisconsin lacks the skill sets and educational skills they need. It seems my Republican colleagues are more concerned with starving our institutions of higher education, rather than making sure they have the resources they need.” 

Testin said the proposal was not a cut and that Republicans were investing in technical colleges. 

“We see there’s value in our technical colleges because they are working with the business community … getting students through the door quicker with less debt,” Testin said. “Any conversations that this is a cut is just unrealistic. These are critical investments in the technical system.” 

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Committee Co-Chairs Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) and Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that they were looking forward to getting to work on the budget despite negotiations stalling and were optimistic that they could still get the budget done on time. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Thursday took its first actions on the budget since the breakdown in negotiations between Republican lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers by approving over $700 million in bonding authority for clean water and safe drinking water projects and taking action on several other agencies.

Committee Co-Chairs Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) and Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that they were looking forward to getting to work on the budget despite negotiations stalling and were optimistic that they could still get the budget done on time. 

“We’ve had some good conversations in the last few weeks between the governor and the legislative leaders, and unfortunately, those, you know, conversations have stopped,” Born said.

Lawmakers and Evers announced Wednesday evening that their months-long negotiations had reached an impasse for the time being. 

Republicans said they would move forward writing the budget on their own, saying the state couldn’t afford what Evers wanted, and Evers said Republicans were walking away because they refused to compromise. Evers had said he was willing to support Republican tax cut proposals that even as they were similar to proposals he previously vetoed.

“The spending really that the governor needs is just more than they can afford,” Born said Thursday, “and it’s getting to the point where it’s about 3 to 1 compared to the tax cuts that we were looking at.”

He declined to share specifics about the amounts that were being discussed.

“I don’t think we’re going to relive the conversations of the last few weeks in any details, but certainly, you know, we’ve been focused on tax cuts for retirees and the middle class,” Born said. 

Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in an email that Republicans’ “math is not remotely accurate.”

Despite the breakdown in discussions, the GOP lawmakers said they were optimistic about the potential for Evers to sign the budget they write, noting that he has signed budget bills passed by Republicans three times in his tenure as governor.

“I’m very hopeful that we will do a responsible budget that we can afford that addresses the major priorities and a lot of the priorities that I think the governor’s office has,” Marklein said. “I’m very hopeful that the governor will sign the budget.” 

Democrats on the Joint Finance Committee were less optimistic about the prospect for the budget to receive support from across the aisle, saying that it likely wouldn’t adequately address the issues at the top of mind for Wisconsinites, including public K-12 education, public universities and child care.

“We’re going to see a budget that prioritizes more tax breaks for the wealthiest among us at the expense of all of the rest of us and a budget from finance that will get no Democratic votes and that will likely be vetoed by the governor,” Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said. 

Roys said they didn’t know about the specifics of what Evers had agreed to. 

“We can’t really speculate on that, but I can say that we absolutely support the process and the idea of collaborative, shared government,” Roys said. “We are committed to that. We have been ready from Day One to sit down with our Republic colleagues to negotiate.” 

She said for now JFC Democrats will focus on providing alternatives to Republicans’ plans.

“We’re going to do our best to advocate for what Wisconsinites have said they want to need,” Roys said. “We want a lower cost for families. We want to make sure that our kids are the first priority in the budget, and we’re going to be offering the Republicans the opportunity to vote in favor of those things.” 

There is less than a month until the June 30 deadline for the Legislature to pass and Evers to sign the state budget. If the budget isn’t passed on time, then state agencies continue to operate under the current funding levels. 

Committee approves bonding authority for clean water fund

While negotiations have hit a wall, some committee’s actions on Thursday received bipartisan support. 

The committee unanimously approved an additional $732 million in bonding authority for the Environmental Improvement Fund (EIF). The program uses a combination of federal grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s clean water and drinking water state revolving funds and matching state funds to provide subsidized loans to municipalities for drinking water, wastewater and storm water infrastructure projects. 

“This is going to be very good for a lot of our local communities when it comes to clean water,” Marklein said ahead of the meeting. He noted that many communities were on a waiting list for their projects.

The Department of Administration and the Department of Natural Resources told lawmakers in late 2024 that that year was the first time the fund had not had enough resources to meet demand.

Demand for aid from the program increased dramatically starting in 2023, with a 154% increase in the clean water fund loan demand in 2023-24 and a 325% increase in demand for the safe drinking water loan program that year. Insufficient funding for the clean water program led to constraints in 2024-25 and left needs unmet for at least 24 projects costing around $73.9 million.

Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) said she was thrilled that lawmakers were approving money for infrastructure in the state.

“The state has over $4 billion here,” Andraca said. “A lot of that is one-time money and one-time money should be used for infrastructure — making sure that our communities are in a great position moving forward should the economy turn down.”

The action is meant to cover the next four years of state contributions to the fund.

Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) said in a statement the loans will help Wisconsin communities address aging infrastructure and water contaminants.

“With these additional funds, municipalities will be able to access low-interest loans to modernize their water systems, saving local taxpayers millions of dollars and keeping their water clean for years to come at the same time,” Wimberger said. 

Peter Burress, government affairs manager for environmental nonprofit Wisconsin Conservation Voters, said including the additional revenue bonding authority in the budget is a “smart, substantive way” to make progress towards ensuring Wisconsinites have “equitable access to safe, affordable drinking water.” 

“We urge every legislator to support this same investment and send it to Gov. Evers for his signature,” Burress said. 

Actions on other agencies get mixed or party-line support

Republicans on the committee approved an additional $500,000 for the Medical College of Wisconsin’s North Side Milwaukee Health Centers Family Medicine Residency Program, which focuses on training family physicians with expertise and skills to provide individualized, evidence-based, culturally competent care to patients and families. 

The measure also included  $250,000 annually starting in 2026-27 for the Northwest Wisconsin Residency Rotation for family medicine residents. According to budget papers, starting the funding in the second year of the budget would allow time to find a hospital partner to support residents. 

Democrats voted against the measure after their proposal for higher funding was shot down by Republicans. The Democrats proposal also called for funding a  Comprehensive Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment Fellowship Program focusing on treating substance use disorders and anAdvancing Innovation in Residency Education project to improve the behavioral health expertise of family medicine residents.

“I hope that my colleagues are reading national news because we’re seeing lots and lots of research funding being cut,” Andraca said. “The Medical College has lost about $5 million in research grants recently, and in addition to other research programs being canceled, I don’t know who has tried to make an appointment with the primary care physician, but there’s really long wait times right now, and this program is literally designed to bring doctors into the state.” 

Democrats proposed transitioning the Educational Communications Board’s Emergency Weather Warning System from relying on fees for funding to being covered by state general purpose revenue. 

Andraca, in explaining the proposal, said state funding for a system like that is more important now than ever.

“We’re talking weather alerts. We’re talking about making sure that people know when there’s something heading their way. We are in a time where we need these alerts more than ever. In fact, yesterday was an unhealthy air day, and… we’re looking at drastic federal cuts,” Andraca said. 

Republicans rejected the measure and instead approved a 5% increase that will be used on general program operations, transmitter operations and emergency weather warning system operations. Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) joined Republicans in favor of the motion. 

The committee also took action on several other agencies with support splitting along party lines

Republicans approved a modification to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s budget, lowering it by $3.8 million, due to projections that surcharge collections appropriated to WEDC will be lower than estimated. They also rejected Democrats’ proposal to provide an additional $5 million in the opportunity attraction and promotion fund, which makes grants to  attract events that will draw national exposure and drive economic development.

WEC budget on pause after DOJ letter

The committee was scheduled to take action on the Wisconsin Elections Commission budget, but delayed that after the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the state agency accusing it of violating the Help America Vote Act. The letter threatened to withhold funding and criticized the absence of  an administrative complaint process or hearings to address complaints against the Commission itself. Ann Jacobs, the commission chair, has disputed the accusations and said there is no funding for the federal government to cut. 

Marklein said the state lawmakers want more information before acting on the agency’s budget.

“Out of caution, we think we’re just going to wait and see,” Marklein said. “We need to analyze this and see what implications there may be for the entire Elections Commission and what impact that may have on the budget.”

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Negotiations on the state budget between Gov. Tony Evers and Republican lawmakers broke down on Wednesday. Evers delivers his 2025 state budget address. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Republican lawmakers are planning to move forward on writing the two-year state budget without input from across the aisle after negotiations with Gov. Tony Evers broke down on Wednesday. 

Senate and Assembly leaders and Evers each released statements on Wednesday in the early evening saying that while negotiations have been in good faith, they are ending for now after meetings late on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning. Evers said Republicans were walking away from the talks after being unwilling to compromise, while Republicans said Evers’ requests weren’t reasonable.

“Both sides of these negotiations worked to find compromise and do what is best for the state of Wisconsin,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and Joint Finance Committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said in a statement. “However, we have reached a point where Governor Evers’ spending priorities have extended beyond what taxpayers can afford.” 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) left the possibility of future negotiations open in a separate statement.

“Assembly Republicans remain open to discussions with Governor Evers in hopes of finding areas of agreement, however after meeting until late last night and again this morning, it appears the two sides remain far apart,” the lawmakers said. 

Vos and Born said JFC will continue “using our long-established practices to craft a state budget that contains meaningful tax relief and responsible spending levels with the goal of finishing on time.” 

In previous sessions this has meant that the Republican committee throws out all of Evers’ proposals, writes the budget itself, passes it with minimal Democratic support and sends the bill to Evers — who has often signed it with many (sometimes controversial) partial vetoes. 

LeMahieu and Marklein noted that the Republican-led committee has created budgets in the last three legislative sessions that Evers has signed and they are “confident” lawmakers will pass a “responsible budget” this session that Evers will sign.

Lawmakers have less than a month before the state’s June 30 budget deadline. If a new budget isn’t approved and signed into law by then, the state will continue to operate under the current budget. 

Evers said in a statement that he is disappointed Republicans are deciding to write the budget without Democratic support.

“The concept of compromise is simple — everyone gets something they want, and no one gets everything they want,” Evers said. He added that he told lawmakers that he would support their half of priorities, including their top tax cut proposals, even though they were similar to ones he previously vetoed, but he wanted agreements from them as well.

“Unfortunately, Republicans couldn’t agree to support the top priorities in my half of the deal, which included meaningful investments for K-12 schools, to continue Child Care Counts to help lower the cost of child care for working families and to prevent further campus closures and layoffs at our UW System,” Evers said.  

“We’ve spent months trying to have real, productive conversations with Republican lawmakers in hopes of finding compromise and passing a state budget that everyone could support — and that, most importantly, delivers for the people of Wisconsin. I am admittedly disappointed that Republican lawmakers aren’t willing to reach consensus and common ground and have decided to move forward without bipartisan support instead.”

Democratic leaders said that Republicans are refusing to make investments in the areas that Wisconsinites want. 

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) and Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said in a joint statement that it’s disappointing Republicans are walking away from negotiations. 

“The people of Wisconsin have a reasonable expectation that their elected leaders will work together to produce a state budget that prioritizes what matters most: lowering costs for families and investing in public education,” the lawmakers said. “This decision creates yet more uncertainty in a difficult time. Democrats will continue to stand up for all Wisconsinites and work to move Wisconsin forward through the budget process.”

Democrats on the budget committee accused Republicans of giving in to the “extremist wing of their party” by walking away from the negotiations and not committing to “fully funding our public schools, preventing the closure of child care centers, or meeting the healthcare needs of Wisconsinites.”

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Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming called on Wisconsin Republicans to focus and move forward to elections next year, saying they "won the country last November and saved America. Next year, we can save Wisconsin." Schimming and state Treasurer John Leiber speak to reporters at the RNC in 2024. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin’s Republicans urged party members to put aside their differences over the weekend, saying that unity will be necessary if they want to win the 2026 elections for governor, Congress and the state Legislature.

The state party reflected on recent elections as they met in Rothschild, Wisconsin. Many of the state’s top Republicans delivered glowing reviews of Trump’s first few months in office and celebrated Wisconsin’s role in helping reelect him. 

“We are seeing President Trump honor the promises he made,” U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said. “That was made possible because of people like you that delivered the 10 electoral votes to President Trump of Wisconsin.”

Despite Trump carrying the state in November, the state party is reeling from recent losses.

Johnson called the April Wisconsin Supreme Court election “stinging” and a “crushing defeat.” 

Republicans’ preferred candidate Brad Schimel lost his bid for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court  by nearly 10 percentage points, solidifying a liberal majority on the Court at least until 2027. It was the third Supreme Court  election in a row that conservatives lost after  Dan Kelly was defeated by double digits in both 2020 and 2023. The Republican-endorsed candidate for the spring state Superintendent race, Brittany Kinser, also lost in April. Kinser, a school choice advocate, thanked the party for its help at the convention. 

“There’s no way you can sugarcoat that,” Johnson said. 

Johnson said the results were because of “voters who came out to try and save America by electing Donald Trump” but didn’t come out to vote in April to “ensure that [Trump] would have four years where he could implement his agenda without possibly the majority shifting in the House.” He said the party needs to work to get voters out in non-presidential elections. , especially as Trump is in his second term and is barred from running again by the U.S. Constitution.

“As much as many would want Donald Trump to be on the ballot again, he won’t be. He won’t be, and we’re going to figure out how we win, but without Donald Trump on the ballot here in Wisconsin, so that’s just a hard truth,” Johnson said.

Following the April losses, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming came under scrutiny by some party members who blamed him for the results. Some at the convention circulated a paper seeking a vote of no confidence in Schimming though the effort never came to fruition. 

Fights within county parties have also broken out since the April elections. Those divisions were on display at the convention as some from a local county party sought to keep Kelly Ruh, the party treasurer and one of the people to serve as a fake elector for Trump in 2020, from being seated as a delegate. Her supporters said it was “absurd” that members of the party would seek to block their own treasurer from voting, while others said she shouldn’t be seated because to do so would subvert the vote taken by the county party. The full convention voted to seat her anyway. 

“There’s always power struggles,” Johnson, who declined to take sides in any fights, said. “But I have to admit in the 15 years since I entered the political process, I’ve never seen as many squabbles.” 

Johnson warned that the party won’t be able to win if Republicans are  “disunified.” 

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden echoed Johnson’s calls for unity, saying that people didn’t vote because Republicans were fighting. 

“If I hear one more person, say, RINO [an acronym for Republican in Name Only], you’re gonna get the horn,” Van Orden said. “Knock it off. We are Republicans who are Americans who are patriots. We love our country. We love our families. We love our communities.” 

Wisconsin RNC Chairman Terry Dittrich said Republicans need to up their game and don’t have time to waste ahead of 2026. 

“We stop the infighting. We start working together. We welcome the youth in. We pay attention to our goal… to make sure President Trump can finish his job in four years and go on with JD Vance for another four years and another four years and another four years,” Dittrich said. “Let’s all unify.”

State Treasurer John Leiber is leading an effort to examine the recent losses — a job he was assigned by Schimming. At the convention, Leiber cautioned party members against “pointing fingers” at others. 

“That doesn’t help anyone… What I’m focused on is how we can use that experience, learn from it and figure out how to win in 2026,” Leiber said. 

Lieber said his committee is working to gather information and data to understand ways of making progress, and he asked attendees to fill out a handout to provide feedback. He noted that he is up for reelection in 2026. 

“I want to win, so I don’t have any reason to try to smooth things over or sugarcoat. If anything I want to identify what exactly we need to do, what we can do better, how we do it better, and identify the ways that we can all work together to accomplish our goal, which is of course winning,” Leiber said. 

Schimming said that the party has to be honest about the April elections and the frustration about them. But he said Republicans need to focus and move forward to win the next election. 

“Doesn’t mean we agree on everything. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t change tactics or strategies, but it means we gotta look forward… We’re gonna work together. We’re gonna listen. We’re going to lead. We’re going to lead, and we’re going to do what it takes to win. We won the country last November and saved America. Next year, we can save Wisconsin,” Schimming said. 

2026 gubernatorial, legislative and Supreme Court elections 

The calls for unity come during an off year for Wisconsin elections but also as crucial gubernatorial and state legislative races lie ahead in November 2026. A race for the state Supreme Court will also take place in April with Justice Rebecca Bradley up for reelection,  though that race, which won’t tip the ideological balance of the Court, wasn’t a  prominent focus at the convention. 

Gov. Tony Evers has yet to decide whether he will run for a third term, but Republicans are intent on putting a Republican in office, whether that means ousting Evers or defeating another Democratic candidate. So far, only one Republican, Washington Co. Executive Josh Schoemann, has launched his campaign for the office. 

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is also considering a run for governor and spent the majority of his time on stage at the convention taking jabs at Evers.

“The question — as we have this great reset led by President Trump — is will Wisconsin be one of the winners?” Tiffany said. “Will Wisconsin be one of the winners like Texas and South Dakota, Tennessee, Florida? States like that are winning, people are moving to those states, businesses are growing, people want to be there. Are we going to be one of those states or are we going to be like the losers in Illinois and Minnesota?” 

“We all know what the problems are. The question is how are we going to fix it?” Tiffany said. “We can fix it easily by replacing Tony Evers in 2026.”

U.S. Rep. Tony Wied from Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District said Republicans  need to keep up  their momentum into the next year, and in the race for governor the “fight starts right now” and can’t wait.

“We have a governor who refuses to even say the word mother,” Wied said, referring to Evers’ proposal to update language in state laws related to infertility treatments, “who fights the Trump administration at every single turn, who would rather protect illegal aliens than hard-working Wisconsinites.  

State Rep. Mark Born (R-Spring Green) and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) were also critical of Evers during a panel discussion. Born said he introduced a “ridiculous budget again” that included “reckless spending,” and “massive policy trying to rewrite everything that’s happened in the state in the last more than a decade now.” LeMahieu said that Evers is trying to “turn us into Minnesota, turn us into Illinois — states that have out of control spending.”

“If you could think of a dumb idea for government, the governor probably had it in his budget,” Born said. 

Lawmakers said it would be essential they keep control of the Senate and Assembly to continue to stop Democrats’ agenda.

Running under new legislative maps in 2024, Republican lawmakers lost 14 state legislative seats in the last elections — leaving them with slimmer majorities in the Senate and Assembly. In 2026, Democrats are seeking to flip the Assembly, which currently has a 54-45 Republican majority, and the Senate, which currently has an 18-15 Republican majority. 

“We’re going to be up against it this next year, but we’re out there fighting, knocking on doors. We are the firewall against really horrible liberal policies coming into Wisconsin,” LeMahieu said. 

The Senate will be particularly crucial as it will be the first time the new district lines are in place for the half of the seats up for election. While addressing the convention, former Gov. Tommy Thompson said some have been telling him that they are afraid they will lose the state Senate.

“Don’t even think that way,” Thompson said. “We are winners, not losers. We’re going to campaign. We are going to unite… and we’re going to win.” 

Trump’s agenda 

Republicans were complimentary of Trump’s first few months in office, including his efforts to detain and deport noncitizens, bar transgender people from certain spaces, eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and cut investments in social programs. 

Wied said the border is “more secure than at any other point in history.” 

“Trump is doing what he said he would do. Under President Trump and Republican leadership, illegal immigrants will no longer be given a free pass in this country,” Wied said. “If you break the law, you are going to face consequences.”

“Isn’t it great that border crossings are going down and deportations are going up?” Tiffany asked. “Isn’t it great to live in America like that?

Johnson was not completely on board with everything Trump is doing, expressing concern about the cost of the so-called “big beautiful bill” Trump is working to get through Congress, which using the budget reconciliation process to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, increase funding for immigration enforcement, expand work requirements for food assistance and cut Medicaid costs by implementing work requirements.

“The big, beautiful bill isn’t what it’s advertised to be,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to be bending the debt curve down. We would be exacerbating the problem by a total of about $4 trillion over the next 10 years.” 

Splitting from Johnson, Van Orden said that Republicans should also be united on Trump’s bill.

“We don’t need grandstanders in the Republican party — stop talking and get it done,” Van Orden said, echoing Trump.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina delivered a keynote address to the convention, praising Trump for his immigration policies and his efforts to stop transgender women from participating on women’s sports teams. Mace is known for seeking to bar transgender people from certain spaces, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and targeting her Democratic transgender colleague in the House of Representatives and other transgender individuals. 

“I like an immigration policy kind of how I like my sweet tea — with a lot of ICE,” Mace said, playing on the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“There has never been a president stronger than Donald Trump. They impeached him. They raided his home. They indicted him. They even shot him, and the man still survived. He stood tall. We prayed for him every single time, because no weapon formed against him shall ever prosper,” Mace said. “Trump is back. He’s securing the border. He’s deporting illegals. He’s protecting women’s sports, and he’s declaring there are only two genders, and DEI under Donald J Trump is DOA.” 

Mace, who noted she’s considering running for governor of South Carolina in the future, took her comments further telling convention goers that the U.S. is in a battle. 

“It’s not necessarily a battle between the parties or left and right or ideology. It is a battle between good and between evil, and we cannot allow this evil to win,” Mace said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Corrine Hendrickson, child care provider and advocate, waits to speak at a rally in front of the state Capitol Tuesday, May 13. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

Republican lawmakers have filed a proposed bill expanding an existing state business development tax credit related to child care. Child care providers who want to see a permanent state investment in their work said the bill was an inadequate gesture.

The state’s current business tax credit for child care applies only to capital expenditures for an employee child care program. The proposed bill would expand that to include other costs, including operating a child care program for employees, reimbursing employees for child care costs and other costs related to child care benefits.

“These changes will increase the number of available child care slots and provide more options for families,” wrote Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) in a memo seeking cosponsors. “While not a silver bullet, these changes are another step in the right direction to address the child care issue in Wisconsin.”

Critics dismissed the measure as inadequate.

In a press release Rep. Randy Udell (D-Fitchburg) sent out after the Assembly’s floor session Tuesday, he noted that last week the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee “shot down 612 budget items including $480 million in childcare funding, and they proposed a childcare tax credit in its place that would benefit corporations instead of childcare providers under threat of closure.”

Shawn Phetteplace, national campaigns director for Main Street Alliance, sent a memo to lawmakers Tuesday also dismissing the proposal.

“Providing a 15% refundable business tax credit for businesses providing child care benefits will not appreciably increase access to child care for Wisconsin workers,” Phetteplace wrote. “It will simply be another tax break for large corporations. A similar credit exists at the federal level, the 45F credit, which is widely regarded as not achieving the goal of increasing affordability and accessibility to childcare for employees.”

Corrine Hendrickson, co-founder of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN), said at a Capitol rally Tuesday she would like to meet with Marklein, who cochairs the finance committee, as well as Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) the other cochair.

The business tax credit is refundable: The credit recipient receives the full value of the credit back from the state, even if it is more than what the recipient owes in taxes. Hendrickson criticized the lawmakers for “refusing to do the same for our hard-working families with the child and dependent tax credit.”

The state’s child and dependent care tax credit for families, which was expanded in legislation enacted in March 2024, is not refundable. That effectively makes the tax credit worth much more to people with higher incomes than to those with lower incomes, as the Wisconsin Examiner has previously reported.

“We are not going to accept anything more that will entrench the wealthy and well connected into our system of having success in life,” Hendrickson said.

Born issued a statement this week that declared Republicans were focusing on other alternatives to the proposal for $480 million in subsidies for child care providers.

“Legislative Republicans have consistently supported a targeted approach to helping families afford child care, build provider capacity, and support recruitment of child care professionals,” Born said. “Parents are best equipped to make decisions about the needs of their children and Legislative Republicans are committed to providing parents with options, helping families directly make child care more affordable.”

Born said the Legislature spends “almost $1 billion” for child care. 

Hendrickson said that virtually all that money is from the federal government and simply passes through the state budget. Only about $24.4 million comes from the state as a required match.

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Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) told reporters that they would be starting from “base” with the budget. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Joint Finance Committee kicked off its work on the next Wisconsin State Budget Thursday by eliminating over 600 items from Gov. Tony Evers’ sweeping budget proposal, saying they would start from “base” and his budget had too much “irresponsible” spending. Democrats criticized Republicans for blocking all of Evers’ proposals without presenting a plan of their own to address the concerns of everyday Wisconsinites.

The committee spent last month hearing from members of the public, many of whom called for investments in public education and health care, and from some agency heads, who have defended Gov. Tony Evers’ budget requests. The state has a $4 billion budget surplus it’s considering, and Evers proposed the state tap those funds and raise income taxes on the wealthiest Wisconsinites to fund his proposals. 

The list that lawmakers eliminated from the budget bill spanned about 20 pages and includes a new 9.8% income tax bracket for high-income earners, Medicaid expansion, nearly $500 million for the Child Care Counts program, marijuana legalization and taxation, $125 million to create a grant program to address PFAS, $200 million to address the replacement of lead pipes and other provisions to help address lead poisoning and many provisions related to public schools including free school meals, a “grow your own” teaching program and ensuring access to menstrual supplies in schools, funding for the Office of School Safety and a provision to cap participation in the state’s voucher programs.

Ahead of the budget meeting, committee co-chairs Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) told reporters that they would be starting from “base” with the budget, meaning removing all of the items and taking the budget back to the one in place for 2023-2025. 

Born said legislators are accustomed to “the way we have to manage the governor’s executive budgets.” Since Evers took office in 2019, Republicans have kicked off every  budget cycle by removing all of his proposals.

“Unfortunately, [Evers] sends us an executive budget that’s just piles full of stuff that doesn’t make sense and spends recklessly and raises taxes and has way too much policy,” Born said. “So, we’ll work from base and the first step of that today is to remove all that policy… and then begin the work of rebuilding the budget.”

Responding to Democrats’ criticism  that Republicans are removing items that are popular with the public, Marklein said they should draft separate bills and use the regular legislative process to advance those ideas. 

“I can point to things in the budget bill that we’re going to pull up that I like… and we’re pulling that out as well. It’s a policy,” Marklein said. “It’s got nothing to do with the budget.” 

Born noted that there are also other ways that lawmakers could address issues of concern apart from Evers’ suggestions, saying the removal of items “doesn’t mean that when we build this budget over the next couple of months, we won’t impact those areas in positive and significant ways.”

“The governor has one idea on how to fund child care or one idea on how to impact mental health,” Born said. “There are other ways that we can do that in current law and current budget operations by inserting more money in things that I can most likely see us do.”

Marklein also noted that there could be some changes to how they go about drafting the budget this year following the state Supreme Court upholding Evers’ partial veto in the last budget.

“I anticipate that you’re not going to see too many references to digits, years anymore,” Marklein said. “My guess is that our drafting attorneys are going to recommend that you spell out those years, and those dates in the budget.” Born said the decision could also affect the education budget because there are increases already “baked into the cake.” 

Evers slammed Republicans for gutting his proposal, saying that they are refusing to help Wisconsinites.

“The most frustrating part for me as governor is that Republicans consistently reject basic, commonsense proposals that can help kids, families, farmers, seniors and Wisconsinites across our state, all while Republicans offer no real or meaningful alternative of their own,” Evers said. “Republicans talk a lot about what they’re against, but not what they’re for.”

During the meeting, Democrats proposed keeping 19 items in the budget across a handful of motions that touched on certain issue areas, saying they hoped they could carve out some spots for agreement. 

One would have placed $420 million back in the budget to fund the Child Care Counts program, as well as several other child care related measures. 

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) said Republicans are “willing to pull out really, really important items” and said the child care proposals are essential, warning that money for the Child Care Counts program is expected to expire in June. 

“We are at risk of losing 87,000 [child care] slots… The fact that these things are being pulled out of the budget today and as of today, there is no mention or discussion of a replacement plan for something as important as this,” she said, is creating uncertainty among Wisconsinites and exacerbating a crisis. 

“Our children deserve quality services. Our families deserve affordable rates,” Johnson said. 

Another motion would have placed Medicaid expansion back in the budget. Wisconsin is one of only 10 states that haven’t accepted the federal expansion, which would allow coverage for those up to 138% of the federal poverty line. 

“Families are struggling to afford the care they need, and we have an opportunity — and I would argue an obligation — to do something,” Andraca said.

Andraca noted that Congressional Republicans, including Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, are considering cuts to the Medicaid program as they aim to extend the 2017 tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s first term.

“We heard how people are fearful of cuts to the programs that they rely on, and they are forced to make increasingly hard choices between groceries and prescriptions,” Andraca said. “Are you still willing to turn your backs on the people who entrusted us to vote for their best interests? Honestly, our constituents deserve better than this.”

The final proposal from Democrats would have kept items in the budget related to veterans including tax credits for veterans, funding for a veterans’ mental health program and for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum as well as an item to designate Juneteenth and Veterans Day as holidays. 

Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) said he hoped they could agree on not making veterans’ lives harder.

“I recognize that it’s sort of the whole brand of the Republican party right now is to make everyone’s life a little bit more difficult,” McGuire said. “Certainly, it’s harder to travel in this country, It’s harder for people to access health insurance, it’s harder for people to afford college or go to college or manage their student loans. It’s harder for people to afford groceries and there may even be a question of what you can have full shelves soon… I know it’s your whole brand to make people’s lives harder, but I think we can all agree… [veterans] should still deserve some support.” 

Republicans rejected each motion.

McGuire doubled down on his point, saying that Republicans’ opposition to supporting even smaller parts of Evers’ proposal is a sign that they don’t want to help the average person.

“People are struggling and it is a challenging world and the one thing we should not be doing the one thing that nobody votes for their legislator to do is to make their life harder,” McGuire said. “Yet, that is all we are seeing out of the Republican party right now. That’s all we see out of the federal Republican party and frankly the Republican party here,” McGuire said, noting that Republican lawmakers recently passed legislation that would place additional restrictions on unemployment benefits.

“You’re making things less affordable and more difficult for regular [people] and that’s bad and we shouldn’t do it,” McGuire said.

Marklein said he was “glad we’re going back to base” because Evers’ budget proposal included a 20% increase in spending, an additional 1,300 positions funded by general purpose revenue and an increase in taxes. 

“When I talk to my constituents about the process, they are truly supportive of us not starting from this inflated budget that [Evers] put before us,” Marklein said, noting that Evers signed the last budget after they went through a similar process. “The idea that the door is closed on all these things is pretty ridiculous.” 

McGuire pushed back on Marklein’s comments, saying that lawmakers are pretending it is a “nice and friendly” process. 

“Part of the process that occurs here today is that not only do you remove the governor’s budget items, which make life easier for Wisconsinites, but then, you also prohibit anyone from ever discussing them ever again,” McGuire said. “And that’s really bizarre… This is a top-down totalitarian committee where we’re not permitted to discuss things past a certain point.”

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