“The focus here is going to be on basically keeping our food safe and preventing disease from spreading,” Sen. Howard Marklein said at a press conference. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Republicans and Democrats on the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee were divided Tuesday about the amount of money the state should invest in several state agencies including the Department of Workforce Development, the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection.

Republicans on the committee said they were making strategic and realistic investments in priority areas, while Democrats said Republicans’ investments wouldn’t make enough of an impact.

GOP rejects new protection for state Supreme Court 

The first divisive issue came up when the committee considered the budgets for Wisconsin’s courts. 

Democrats proposed that the state provide an additional $2 million and 8 new positions for the creation of an Office of the Marshals of the Supreme Court that would provide security for the Court. 

Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) and Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) said the need for the office has increased recently due to the number of threats the judges and justices are facing. 

“Given the role that they play in our judiciary in order to be impartial, we shouldn’t want them to be in danger or to fear for their safety or to have any outward pressures on them that would influence the case,” McGuire said. “I believe it’s important for the cause of justice. I believe it’s important for the cause of safety.”

Roys noted the inflammatory language that members of the Trump administration have used when talking about judges and justices, noting that Republicans have passed legislation before to help protect judges. She also noted that former Juneau County Circuit Court Judge John Roemer was targeted and murdered at his home in 2022. 

“It is really frightening… and the Supreme Court has made this request over numerous years because they understand better than any of us do what it’s like to try to serve the public in this critically important but increasingly dangerous role,” Roys said. “I am much less interested in putting people in prison after they have murdered a judge than I am in preventing our judges from being attacked or killed, so, this seems to me a tiny amount of money to do a really important task to protect the third branch of government and particularly our Supreme Court.” 

Republicans rejected Democrats’ motion. Committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said at a press conference ahead of the meeting that the Wisconsin Capitol Police are tasked with protecting visitors, employees, legislators, the Court and anyone else in the building.

“They do a good job and continue to provide top-notch work here at the Capitol as part of security for everyone who works here,” Born said. 

The committee also voted 13-3 with Andraca joining Republicans to allocate an additional $10 million each year to counties for circuit court costs.

Meat inspection gets additional funding

The committee took action on portions of the budget for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), giving a boost to he agency’s Meat Inspection Program and Division of Animal Health. 

“The focus here is going to be on basically keeping our food safe and preventing the disease from spreading,” committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said. 

The Meat Inspection Program got an additional $2.7 million and two additional positions under the proposal approved by the committee. The program works to ensure the safety and purity of meat products sold in Wisconsin, including by inspecting the livestock and poultry slaughtering and processing facilities that are not already inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

The Division of Animal Health would get three additional employees that would be funded with about $500,000. 

According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Wisconsin has 233 official meat establishments and 70 custom meat establishments that require state inspection. 

Roys said the proposal “falls far short of what is needed,” noting that agriculture is a major economic driver in Wisconsin and the industry is under pressure due to actions being taken by the Trump administration. The USDA recently terminated its National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, which had been in place since 1971, and the administration has considered ending most of its routine food safety inspections work. 

“That kind of uncertainty is exactly why we need to step up our work at the state level,” Roys said, adding that she hopes that Republicans “consider funding at the appropriate level what our farmers…deserve.”  

Marklein noted that the committee’s work on DATCP’s part of the budget is not completed yet. 

“This is a program that’s had a shortfall year over year,” Andraca said, adding that she hopes “members of this committee are vegetarians.” 

“If there’s one place that I wouldn’t cut, it would probably be in meat inspection. If we’re looking at places to take a little off the edge, food safety is not one of them, particularly in a time where we have avian flu and other diseases breaking out,” Andraca said.

Youth apprenticeship program gets boost

The committee also voted along party lines to invest additional funds in programs administered by the Department of Workforce Development, including $6 million in youth apprenticeship grants, $570,000 in early college credit program grants, $250,000 for the agency’s commercial driver training grant program and $250,000 for the workforce training grants. 

Democrats had suggested that the committee dedicate $11 million for the youth apprenticeship program, which provides an opportunity for juniors and seniors in high school to get hands-on experience in a field alongside classroom instruction, but Republicans rejected it opting to put a little more than half of that towards the program. 

Andraca said the program is important for allowing youth to “try out new skills and new jobs” and train to fill positions in  Wisconsin  and that the $6 million investment makes it seem like the program is “pretty much getting gutted.” The program has steadily grown annually over the last several years at an estimated rate of 16%, although, according to the LFB, the number of additional students each year has declined going from a high of 1,923 additional students in 2022-23, to 1,703 more in 2023-24, and 1,430 in 2024-25. 

Andraca noted that the program currently operates on a sum certain model, meaning that there is a specific amount of money available and the size of a grant could vary depending on participation and available funds. If there is continued growth of 16% then the grant sizes could shrink. A sum sufficient model (which Democrats wanted) would mean that the agency’s spending on the program isn’t capped by a specific dollar amount.

Sen. Romaine Quinn (R-Birchwood) noted that the grants for students would likely grow from an average of about $900 currently to about $1,000 under the Republican proposal. 

“This motion [is] at $6 million and $100 per award over the last budget, but we’re supposed to believe it’s gutting the program,” Quinn said. 

“Welcome to the People’s Republic of Madison where stuff like that happens a lot; $6 million in new money is a lot of money to most people but obviously the other side, it’s gutting the program,” Born said, responding to Quinn. “At some point when you’re building a budget, you have to figure out a way to afford it, be reasonable in your investments, so maybe that’s why we don’t view a $6 million investment as gutting because we’re trying to live within our means.” 

Funding to support new Wisconsin History Center

The committee approved $2.3 million to support the new Wisconsin History Center in downtown Madison for 2025-26 and $540,800 and six positions annually starting in 2026-27.

Construction on the museum, which will be operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society, started in April and  its opening is set for 2027. 

The  Historical Society had requested the one-time funding of $2.3 million in 2025-26 as well as ongoing funding of $1.7 million annually — more than double the amount the committee approved — starting in 2026-27 to help with operational costs, including security, janitorial and maintenance services. It said without ongoing funding from the state it wouldn’t be able to open and maintain the museum. It also said that it was not anticipating needing to request additional funding for the museum operations in future budget cycles if the request is funded. 

The committee also approved an additional $562,000 in one-time funding across the biennium for security and facilities improvements for the Historical Society’s facilities and collections and $157,000 to cover estimated future increases in services costs. But the committee decreased funding for the Historical Society by $214,000 for estimated fuel and utilities costs.

DOR budget moves resources to Alcohol Beverages Division 

A law, 2023 Wisconsin Act 73, overhauled alcohol regulation in Wisconsin and created a new Division of Alcohol Beverages under the Department of Regulation tasked with preventing violations of the new laws. Republicans on the committee approved a motion to recategorize nine general DOR positions and over $900,000 to the Division of Alcohol Beverages to help with enforcement. It also transferred an attorney to the division and added $456,000 in funding for two more positions in the Division of Alcohol Beverages.

Democrats said that Republicans on the committee were “nickel and diming” the Department of Revenue with its proposal given that it recategorizes already existing positions rather than creating new ones. 

“I do appreciate some of the efforts involved in this motion,” McGuire said, adding that he noticed there were 10 positions that were moved around.

“That seemed odd to me,” McGuire said. “Were their feet up on their desk? They weren’t collecting taxes… or what were they doing? We want to be able to give the Department of Revenue tools they need to succeed, and frankly, the tools they need to provide resources to the state to make sure that everyone’s on an even playing field so we can fund the priorities” of the state. 

The GOP proposal passed on a party-line vote.

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