MADISON, Wis. — Republicans who control the Legislature’s budget-writing committee postponed a vote on funding for the Universities of Wisconsin on Tuesday and passed a corrections plan that didn’t include policies aimed at closing the troubled Green Bay Correctional Institution.
The Republican co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee declined to say why they had postponed the vote on UW funding.
Watch: Republicans delay UW budget vote, pass corrections plan without policies to help close GBCI
It comes as two Senate Republicans have signaled that they might not vote for the GOP-authored budget when it is passed out of committee. With a slim 18-15 majority in the Senate, that puts Republicans at risk of needing Democratic support for their budget bill and could be contributing to delays.
The budget the committee passed for the Department of Corrections puts $20 million in additional state funding towards overtime pay for correctional officers. However, the plan only contains small investments for job training and early release programs that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has said are crucial to his plan to close GBCI.
You know, I thought we had bipartisan agreement that we want to close GBCI,” Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys said. “But to be able to make those kind of facility changes, if we want to do that, we need to make some policy changes.”
Read also: Local officials continue push to close overcrowded, understaffed Green Bay prison
Evers’ plan would shut down the deteriorating facility without the need to build a new prison. It hinges on reducing the state’s prison population and upgrading existing prisons.
“That means letting people out into your community. Maybe on electronic monitoring, but they’re gonna take a few classes and get let out into your community,” Republican Sen. Eric Wimberger said.
Republicans say they’d rather build a new prison to replace GBCI. That plan would be more expensive than what Evers proposed, but GOP leaders haven’t released specifics yet.
The budget-writing committee is set to meet on Thursday to vote on a plan to close GBCI, as well as funding for child care.
Republicans also passed a plan on Tuesday to raise pay for assistant district attorneys and public defenders by roughly $2.31 an hour. In the last budget, prosecutors and public defenders saw a nearly nine-dollar-an-hour pay raise meant to help retain more attorneys in those jobs.
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