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Evers signs state budget, increases education funding through line item vetoes

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Governor Tony Evers has issued a partial veto of the state budget. At Wednesday’s signing, Evers said he’s excited to be able to return some of the things he promised to bring to Wisconsin residents when he was elected, including more school funding.

“And through the veto promise, I am adding nearly 100 million dollars more in per pupil aid for our schools compared to the budget that was passed by the legislature.”

Evers’ version of the budget restores funding for state youth prisons, allows the state prosecutor’s office to decide where new staff positions will be filled across the state, and cuts back on work requirements for food and health assistance programs.

Evers said his veto power couldn’t bring one of his biggest promises to fruition: the expansion of federal Medicaid funding for the state. “That’s why I’ll continue to fight for Medicaid expansion through separate legislation, future budget bills, and otherwise through every executive power I am afforded.

“Vetoing this budget in its entirety would have been more of the same divisiveness and petty political theatrics that the people of Wisconsin have had to put up with for far too long.”

Legislative Republicans say the relatively low number of vetoes shows that this was a good budget with lots of potential.

Assembly approves bill to end 5 county Miller Park sales tax

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Miller Park WRN image

The Miller Park Stadium tax is a step closer to ending. You could say the roof is nearly closed, on the five-county, one-half percent sales tax that funded construction and operation of the Brewers stadium.

It’s been in place since 1996 in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha, and Racine counties and has been generally unpopular the father one gets from Milwaukee.

An Assembly passed bill specifies the tax must end no later than August 31 of next year, with any excess collections going back to the counties. The bill now goes to the state Senate. The Miller Park Stadium Board decided earlier this year to end the tax by March 2020.

Republicans cut 600 million from building budgets, face Democrat criticism at Joint Finance Committee

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Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee approved a package of budget items last night, but not without some controversy.

They voted to require the UW System to appear before Joint Finance in order to get 8 million dollars for dairy research. Democrat Representative Evan Goyke says that just adds government where it’s not needed. “Senator Marklein’s comment was ‘What they is certainty.’ ‘What they need is certainty.’ That is what you just said, Senator Marklein, and this motion doesn’t give them certainty.” That brings the total that JFC is reserving to $109 million. Democrats are calling it a slush fund.

Republican Representative Mike Rohrkaste says it’s a minuscule amount of the state’s budget. “Point one percent. I just listened to about 10 minutes of blasting us for putting $109 million into an appropriation that’s at most point one percent of the total budget?”

Republican Representative Amy Loudenbeck chided Democrats and Governor Evers for not funding the project in their budget. “This is the Dairy Task Force Plan and we’re going to have them come back to us with a plan. Because you don’t have one. This is our plan. And we’re going to fund it.”

Republicans also cut 600 million dollars in building projects from the Evers budget, including the funding for new youth prisons.  The Joint Finance Committee will be back on Thursday to hopefully finish out the budget process.

Republicans reject plan to put more oversight into WEDC

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Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee have rejected a plan by Governor Evers and Democrats to put some more accountability and oversight in place at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

The measure would have required the agency to account for companies record at creating jobs after getting state funding. Representative Evan Goyke says it should be easy.

“You’d think this would be the entity where Conservative tax stewards would have the sharpest magnifying glass, the clearest mirror to government.”

Representative Chris Taylor says that’s much less than what Republicans have required other agencies to provide.

“Audit after audit has shown us that WEDC can’t be trusted to be good stewards of taxpayer money and hold corporations accountable.”

Republicans attached two riders to WEDC’s budget that provide funding for educational fab labs and a grant to help the National Guard secure new aircraft.

GOP Senators propose roads funding package

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WRM image

A group of Republican state Senators propose a roads funding plan. The $133 million proposal comes as the Joint Finance Committee is set to consider transportation funding on Thursday. It includes giving each county $1 million, and towns $1,000 per mile for their roads. “They’ve been falling behind for a long time, and I believe this is a way for them to catch up, and level the playing field a bit,” said Senator Howard Marklein.

Jerry Deschane with the League of Wisconsin of Municipalities noted that there’s nothing for cities and villages. “We’re glad they’re talking about specific solutions, we look forward to working with them on a solution that’s more fair. he said. “Right now towns get roughly 40 percent of their road costs covered by the state. In cities and villages they get roughly sixteen percent.”

The plan uses one time money from an anticipated state budget surplus. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald called it “a laudable idea” but one that should be considered outside the state transportation budget.

Joint Finance slashes Evers UW-System funding request

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Members of the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee have approved an additional $58 million in funding for the UW-System.

Of that amount, $45 million would be available only if lawmakers approve what it’s being spent on.  The amount is less than half the $127 million requested by the governor.

After the vote, UW-System president Ray Cross spoke to reporters and called the vote “a kick in the shins.” He says Republicans didn’t indicate to him last week that they’d be making these sorts of cuts and caveats to the funding. “We didn’t even get inflation in this request.”

Lawmakers also voted to continue the University of Wisconsin tuition freeze for the next two years.

State legislator says Powerball taxes should go towards roads

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A state legislator is pushing to put the state’s share of the Powerball winnings to road funding.

That tax windfall is 36 and a half million dollars, and state senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) says cities and counties have projects that are ready to go, if they only had the funding.

“The state should go ahead and send it back to local units of government, because I know there’s a backlog of projects that need to be done.”)

Carpenter says sending lottery funds to the municipalities would mean some relief, even if it can’t fix all the problems.

“I would leave it at their discretion to go ahead and take care of their top projects, the biggest headaches out there.”)

He says that’s money that politicians can use, rather than arguing about where it came from.

Marquette Poll shows lack of support for gas tax increase

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An increase in the state gasoline tax just can’t gain any traction, according to Marquette Law School Poll director Charles Franklin. “People still don’t want to raise the gas tax,” Franklin said Wednesday. The percentage of poll respondents who favor keeping the state tax on gas where it is has actually increased since the last poll in January, to 57 percent. Governor Tony Evers has proposed an increase of nearly 9 cents a gallon to fund state roads and highways.

The majority of those polled support Evers’ plans to legalize marijuana, increase state aid for special education, accept federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage and increase the state minimum wage.

Evers’ spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff issued a statement in response to the poll results. “The latest Marquette Law poll confirms what we already know — the governor has been listening to Wisconsinites and has proposed a budget that reflects the will of the people. We’re ready to work together to pass The People’s Budget so we can expand Medicaid, legalize medical marijuana, invest in K-12 education, improve water quality and public safety, and address our infrastructure needs. These aren’t Democratic values or Republican values, they are Wisconsin values, and a majority of Wisconsinites agree.”

Tax filing deadline quickly approaching

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You’ve now got less than a week to file your state and federal income taxes.

State revenue secretary Peter Barca says e-filing your taxes is the way to go, if you haven’t started yet. 

“We have an e-file service that people can use to help you prepare your taxes, and of course there’s all sorts of products like TurboTax and dozens of others that we’ve approved. We have those links on our website as well.”

Barca says anyone who needs help to file can get it from a number of places, including his department.

“You know, last week we had 13-thousand phone calls alone, and so far, just this year, we’ve have over 150-thousand calls.” \

You can find links to e-filing services and state tax assistance online at http://revenue.wi.gov.

Evers’ budget includes eight cent gas tax increase

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Governor Tony Evers WRN image

Governor Tony Evers answered the gas tax question on Thursday night. In his state budget address, the governor touched on a number of issues he’d already previewed, including K-12 schools funding and Medicaid expansion. But he wrapped up with transportation.

Ever said there will be fee increases. “And we do have to raise the gas tax. But as I promised all along, we’re sure as heck not going to raise the gas tax by a dollar.”
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Evers said the increase – eight cents a gallon – will be offset by eliminating the state’s “minimum markup” on gasoline. He said that means motorists would actually pay less at the pump than they do now.

Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz notes roads funding has been kicked down the road for too long. “What are the Republicans going to do? Because I’m hearing a lot of criticism but I’m not hearing any answers, and we didn’t hear any for eight years.”

Evers said his proposals will raise over $600 million in new revenues, and increase funding for local governments to repair their streets and roads.

Much of the Democratic governor’s budget agenda will be strongly opposed by Republicans who control both chambers of the legislature. “We have some of the best new revenue numbers ever in Wisconsin,” tweeted Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steinke. “Governor Evers wants to increase spending by more than $1000 for every man, woman and child in the state. That’s unacceptable & unaffordable.”