Heading into the final budget session on Thursday, Republicans on the legislative joint finance committee say they’ve delivered over 4 billion dollars in tax cuts.
Co-chair Republican Representative Mark Born says the cuts should come as no surprise.
“That’s some great news with the continued tax relief properly returning the money that we over-collected from the taxpayers of Wisconsin.”
Committee co-chair Senator Howard Marklein says it’s important to return money to residents. “We invested historic amounts of money in our core priorities, while also providing for a historic tax cut, the largest tax cut in history.”
But Democrats say that the budget does more harm than good. Assemblyman Evan Goyke from Milwaukee says that the budget as it stands is a disservice to Wisconsin’s youth as the population continues to age.
“I don’t see in the budget any initiatives that will catch the attention of young people to either come here or to stay here.”
Senator La Tonya Johnson of Milwaukee says cuts to childcare programs will harm the state.
“If we do not have reliable quality childcare, our parents cannot go to work.”
Once Joint Finance is done with the budget, it will head to the Legislature for approval, and then to Governor Tony Evers, who can sign it, veto it, or use the line-item veto to modify it.