FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

February 15th, 2023 

Contact: Senator Robert Cowles: (608) 266-0484 

Response to the Budget Address 

MADISON– Senator Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) released the following statement in response to the Governor’s Budget Address delivered this evening: 

“The Governor unveiled a long list of ideas tonight, and it’s going to take weeks for legislators and the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysists to sort through what’s hidden inside these hundreds of pages. What we do know at this point is that the Governor’s proposal includes many nonfiscal policy items which belong as standalone bills in a committee process and drives serious concerns that the Governor will dedicate large portions of a mostly one-time budget surplus to ongoing expenses. We need to properly dissect this document and ensure any actions the Legislature takes will not hurt the taxpayers of Wisconsin. 

“While I have some concerns with what I’ve seen thus far in the Governor’s proposal, I also know the Governor has brought up a number of his administration’s priorities which the Legislature shares, even if we may have disagreements on certain specific details. I look forward to spending the next few months working with my colleagues to protect Wisconsinites from policy matters being slipped into the budget in a non-transparent manner, structural deficits which may create the need for massive government service cuts or tax increases in the future, and improper expenditures which Northeast Wisconsinites can’t support.” 

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