MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The state Senate's top Republicans took the unusual step Tuesday of introducing their own state budget, challenging their Assembly counterparts to end a monthlong standoff over road funding and get on board with the new spending plan.
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The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee has been working for months to revise Gov. Scott Walker's budget ahead of full votes in the Assembly and Senate. The committee stopped work in mid-June because Republican leaders in both chambers couldn't agree on how to fill a $1 billion hole in the transportation fund. Senate Republicans have proposed more borrowing. Assembly Republicans want to raise more revenue, perhaps through increasing the gas tax and vehicle registration fees. Negotiations between the two sides have gone nowhere.
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Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald held a news conference Tuesday to announce Senate Republicans have decided to craft a new budget. It contains all the provisions the finance committee has already approved, plus new language setting up $712 million in additional borrowing for road work. It sticks with Walker's plan to give public schools an additional $650 million, repeals the personal property tax that businesses pay on assets and opens the door for more people to obtain state vouchers to attend private school by raising income limits.
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It's unclear where things go from here. Fitzgerald told reporters he doesn't have enough votes to pass the new budget. He said he hoped crafting the new spending plan would send a clear message to the Assembly about where the Senate stands.
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The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee has been working for months to revise Gov. Scott Walker's budget ahead of full votes in the Assembly and Senate. The committee stopped work in mid-June because Republican leaders in both chambers couldn't agree on how to fill a $1 billion hole in the transportation fund. Senate Republicans have proposed more borrowing. Assembly Republicans want to raise more revenue, perhaps through increasing the gas tax and vehicle registration fees. Negotiations between the two sides have gone nowhere.
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Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald held a news conference Tuesday to announce Senate Republicans have decided to craft a new budget. It contains all the provisions the finance committee has already approved, plus new language setting up $712 million in additional borrowing for road work. It sticks with Walker's plan to give public schools an additional $650 million, repeals the personal property tax that businesses pay on assets and opens the door for more people to obtain state vouchers to attend private school by raising income limits.
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It's unclear where things go from here. Fitzgerald told reporters he doesn't have enough votes to pass the new budget. He said he hoped crafting the new spending plan would send a clear message to the Assembly about where the Senate stands.
"My point is to try to get the process back on track, by demonstrating once again that this caucus has been meeting each and every week and there's not that much left to do," Fitzgerald said. "This clearly puts it back in the Assembly's court to develop what their position is."
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Kit Beyer, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, had no immediate comment. She said Vos would issue a statement later Tuesday.
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Vos said last week that he's accepted that Fitzgerald and Walker will never permit gas tax or vehicle registration increases. He said without a way to pay for additional borrowing for roads, the only option is to hold the transportation budget flat. He warned that would slow down or halt work on major interstate projects in southeastern Wisconsin.
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State Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the finance committee, said during the news conference that the Assembly's refusal to accept any additional borrowing is "totally unrealistic."
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"It is impossible to pay for those projects in cash we have never done that and it's not smart to do that," Darling said.
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Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach immediately took to the podium after Republican senators finished their news conference, saying he's concerned about our state highways calling them "a wreck."
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Kit Beyer, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, had no immediate comment. She said Vos would issue a statement later Tuesday.
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Vos said last week that he's accepted that Fitzgerald and Walker will never permit gas tax or vehicle registration increases. He said without a way to pay for additional borrowing for roads, the only option is to hold the transportation budget flat. He warned that would slow down or halt work on major interstate projects in southeastern Wisconsin.
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State Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the finance committee, said during the news conference that the Assembly's refusal to accept any additional borrowing is "totally unrealistic."
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"It is impossible to pay for those projects in cash we have never done that and it's not smart to do that," Darling said.
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Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach immediately took to the podium after Republican senators finished their news conference, saying he's concerned about our state highways calling them "a wreck."
"I think it's incumbent on Governor Walker no matter where he is in the state right now or in the country is to come back to Madison sit down with the speaker, sit down with the majority leader, and stay there until we have a budget," Erpenbach said.
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Walker is hopeful a version of the bill will make it to his desk by the end of July.
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Walker is hopeful a version of the bill will make it to his desk by the end of July.
