MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Republicans stripped more than 600 of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ spending proposals from the state budget on Thursday, including plans to legalize marijuana, create a new tax bracket for millionaires and billionaires, and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in child care and clean water.
“The governor’s budget was not a realistic budget,” Republican Rep. Mark Born, who co-chairs the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, said. “He sends us a executive budget that’s just piled full of stuff that doesn’t make sense and spends too much and spends recklessly and raises taxes and has way too much policy.”
In a party line vote, the Joint Finance Committee got deleted 612 of Evers’ proposals. They included investments in lead filtration systems for schools, elections reforms, and funding to combat PFAS contamination. A full list can be found here.
WATCH: Wisconsin Republicans kill hundreds of Evers’ budget proposals
“Republicans consistently reject basic, commonsense proposals that can help kids, families, farmers, seniors, and Wisconsinites across our state,” Evers said in a statement.
Republicans who control the Legislature have scrapped hundreds of Evers’ proposals and written their own plan in every budget cycle since Evers was elected. That didn’t stop Democrats from putting up a fight on Thursday.
“You’re trying to make it harder for people to access child care. You’re making it harder for small businesses to succeed in a difficult economy. You’re making things less affordable and more difficult for regular, working people. And that’s bad, and we shouldn’t do it,” Democratic Rep. Tip McGuire said.
Thursday’s vote kicked off the finance committee’s work drafting a new two-year budget, which they typically send to the governor before July. Evers can then remove pieces of the budget using his expansive partial veto power, but he cannot add in new items.
The committee will meet over the coming weeks to set budgets for individual agencies before forwarding their plan for votes in the full Assembly and Senate. Those budget deliberations will paint a clearer picture of how lawmakers intend to address big issues, including prison reforms, tax cuts, and conservation funding.
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