MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Following Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed 2023-25 state budget, local lawmakers will now spend the next four months trying to have their own ideas included in the final budget that is passed.
They listened to his address Wednesday night before receiving the detailed document.
If Evers’ third budget is anything like this first two, expect the Republican-controlled Legislature to do a total rewrite of the budget over the next four months and pass their own version.
Yet, some Republican senators from Northeast Wisconsin say they did like things Evers had to say, but they’ll need to read the details.
Click here for a breakdown by the numbers of Evers’ proposal.
“It’s really hard to tell just from the speech itself because it is kind of light on content, on more on rhetorical flourishes,” said State Rep. André Jacque, R-1st District. “It’s going to be a lot of the details on the budget that I’m going to crack into as soon as I get back to the office.”
“He has good ideas on how to spend your money, I know that,” said State Rep. Eric Wimberger, R-30th District. “We’ll see what the details are, but there are some things that are good. I think the Nitschke Bridge I heard, we’ll see where we go with that one. Would have liked to hear something about the Southern Bridge connector but also more details on the PFAS situation that he had in mind.”
Evers promised back in October that he would include $50 million in this budget to help make the Southern Bridge happen over the Fox River to help commuters going between the Green Bay area and the Fox Valley.
We have no reason to believe it wouldn’t be included in the budget; it just wasn’t mentioned in tonight’s address. A lot of other projects just like that likely have local lawmakers ready to dig into this budget and see what is in and what is out.
Democratic State Representative Kristina Shelton of Green Bay says she liked everything she heard from Evers.
“Tonight it is a celebration of what is possible in the state of Wisconsin. We have an incredible budget surplus. It’s really an opportunity for us to take on projects that maybe have been left behind in years past.”
Both sides seem to have agreement on the idea of getting money back to Wisconsinites with the state having a record surplus.
“The middle class tax rate, the highest tax rate is 7.65% so if you’re talking about middle class, it’s 5% or less, so 10% out of that, we’ll see what that shakes out to be,” said Wimberger. “I don’t know the details, but I do like the idea of him reducing the tax burden on people who paid in because if we have such a surplus it’s sort of like we over taxed and it’s not good to just spend all that money that was an over taxation.”
“It really prioritizes every day working people, small businesses, farmers and growers. It prioritizes these folks,” said Shelton. “People are seeing rising costs at the grocery store, housing, transportation, gas. So, we have to make sure we put the most money we possibly can back into the pockets of working people and prioritize those folks over millionaires and billionaires and corporate wealth,” said Shelton.
Evers has proposed a 10% tax cut for the middle class with single people making up to $100,000 being eligible and couple making up to $150,000.
The goal is for a budget to be passed so it can take effect July 1 and run through June of 2025.
