Budget Votes Begin

The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee completed its public hearings on the 2021-2023 state budget proposal on April 28, and on May 6 it held the first of what will be a series of executive sessions on the budget bill.

Governor Evers' proposal would have increased spending by over $8 billion and raised taxes by over $1 billion.  Needless to say, this is unacceptable to legislative Republicans, as are the hundreds of non-fiscal policy items the Governor attempted to foist on the people of Wisconsin under cover of the budget, things like legalizing marijuana and repealing commonsense labor and election reforms.  Regardless of your position on the merits of these proposals, I think we can agree that they have no place in a budget and should instead be introduced as standalone legislation so that the relevant standing committees can vet them properly.

Fortunately, the Finance Committee approved Motion 19, which removes these non-fiscal provisions and other nonstarters from further budget consideration and gives the committee a "cleaner" document to work from as it creates a budget that better reflects Wisconsin priorities and values.

Besides Motion 19, the Finance Committee also completed its work on a number of small agency budgets.  As the executive sessions continue through May and into June, the committee will turn to larger agencies.  Throughout the process, you may view approved budget motions here.  In addition, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau prepares "budget papers" for the committee, which provide more detail about budget issues and provide alternatives for the committee to consider.  LFB typically posts budget papers for upcoming agency votes a few days in advance.  (The budget papers use references to page and item numbers from LFB's summary of the Governor's recommendations.)