CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – There are two GOP conservatives in the Wisconsin State Senate who were alarmed at the higher levels of spending in the proposed state budget. Steve Nass and Chris Kapinga were prepared to vote against the budget, which would have forced this year’s budget to roll over into next.
Nass and Kapinga were knee-capped by their fellow Republicans in the final budget deal announced yesterday. Instead GOP budget negotiators caved in on so many items on Governor Tony Evers wish list that Nass’ and Kapinga’s ‘yes’ votes were no longer needed. The budget agreement is such an overwhelming win for the Governor that there are dozens of democrats who will gleefully vote for it.
The governor got all of the budget items he wanted – just not at the dollar amounts he requested. Dollar amounts in every budget are subject to give-and-take. Ask for unreasonably high dollar amounts; claim victory over whatever is agreed to.
What did the governor get? Direct payments from the state to childcare centers across the state; $330-million worth.
A huge increase in UW funding, as DEI reforms stalled. The university system gets its biggest funding increase in twenty years.
The state will now pick up 40-percent of special education funding for public schools. That’s on top of the 435-year per-student tax increase that’s now locked in after a state supreme court ruling earlier this year.
What do Republicans get in return? A tiny tax cut. It amounts to about $140 per family. That’s about $12 a month — which doesn’t even cover the cost of lunch. The rest of our state’s $4-billion surplus: squandered, on new spending.
Assembly speaker Robin Voss said last week that he needed to present a budget that the Governor would sign. He warned fellow conservatives that many compromises would have to be made. Who knew that he’d give away the store.
And those conservative senators… well, they were inconvenient hold-outs who got steamrolled.
Democrats won. Republicans lost. The new state budget stinks.
Chris Conley
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