BROWN DEER, Wis. — A more than $60 million proposal to cut down on reckless driving has been eliminated from Governor Tony Evers' budget by Republicans.
The GOP says they are putting together their own budget plan. They say they have a different strategy than the governor when it comes to solving reckless driving.
Gov. Evers spent Tuesday morning filling potholes in Brown Deer to talk about infrastructure. This as a major proposal to make streets safer from reckless drivers is now gone from his budget proposal. Republicans removed the reckless driving plan that includes $60 million for traffic calming measures and another $6.5 million that would go towards lowering the cost of driver's ed and adding 35 more Wisconsin State Troopers, along with other measures. Evers says there was no reason these things can't happen.
"None of them are huge expensive items in the budget compared to other things so I think all three could happen,” said Evers.
Republican Representative Adam Neylon says these are not cuts to the budget. The governor has his budget and the Republicans will have theirs.
"We are not eliminating anything. We are starting over. We are throwing out his budget and we are looking at (the) previous budget and see where we need to increase from that base level,” said Neylon.
That is being done by the Joint Finance Committee which is led by Republicans. According to Neylon, there is no specific proposal targeting reckless driving in the GOP budget plan.
"We are looking at different ways we can address this problem such as increasing the penalties, making it more difficult to do these different types of crimes, and also looking at ways we can increase public safety in investment in law enforcement. To make sure we are keeping the right level of law enforcement in the community,” said Neylon.
But Neylon says nothing has been voted on yet and proposals are still being worked out. That means things can still change, which the governor agrees with.
"We will continue to push for it. Things that are taken out of the budget can be put back in. That's a priority for us to have safe roads,” said Evers.
We did reach out to the Joint Finance Committee for a comment on their proposal but did not hear back. Pieces of the budget start going up for a vote as early as this Thursday. The budget needs to be passed and signed by July 1.
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