Legislators have continued to improve upon Governor Scott Walker's 2017-19 state budget proposal in recent weeks.  Although these provisions are not yet law, here are a few highlights:

• The Governor recommended $11.5 million for the Fast Forward grants that support employers' workforce training efforts such as apprenticeships and internship programs.  The legislature approved this recommendation and added another $1 million for Career and Technical Education grants that incentivize school districts to promote technical education and up to $1 million more in grants for school districts to purchase tech ed equipment.

• The Joint Finance Committee voted to delete 222 vacant positions across the University of Wisconsin System that were taxpayer-funded.  (The system's overall biennial budget is about $12.4 billion, $2.2 billion of which comes from the general-purpose revenues generated by Wisconsinites' income and sales taxes.)  We're keeping college affordable by continuing the tuition freeze for at least two more years.  Funding is to be increased for the UW Carbone Cancer Center that will increase the number of patients statewide that the Center will be able to reach and increase access to precision medicine for patients.  And more than $26 million worth of state support will begin to be distributed across the UW System based on the performance of individual campuses.

• New funding will be made available to increase the Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement rate for personal care workers; to increase the availability of dementia care specialists through counties' Aging and Disability Resource Centers; to help alleviate the worker shortages that plague the Family Care program for disabled adults; to permanently increase the availability of graduate-level medical training programs; and to support the Wisconsin hospitals that serve disproportionately high numbers of Medicaid patients.  These increases will help improve the quality of our state's long-term care programs and increase access to high-quality care.

Pastor Brian Jacobson and his wife Courtney traveled to Madison this week to testify in support of Assembly Bill 208, an idea that both Senator Devin LeMahieu (pictured at left) and I cosponsored to help make the adoption of a child more affordable in our state.

Under current law, adoptive parents may claim an income tax deduction for certain adoption-related expenses, but the final adoption order must be made in a Wisconsin court for the parents to be eligible for the tax deduction.  But some states and foreign countries require their own courts to issue the adoption orders, which means that Wisconsin parents miss out on the opportunity to offset some of their expenses.

Adoption can be extremely expensive, and this tax deduction tool is one relatively easy way to help match children up with their "forever homes" and help prevent adoption-minded parents from being priced out of the idea.  I was happy to see such strong support for the measure at the public hearing this week and am eager to vote for it soon!