MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday approved a two-year spending plan after dramatically cutting the size of a Republican income tax cut that would have moved the state closer to a flat rate. .
Evers, a Democrat, called the Republican-drafted budget “flawed and incomplete,” but did not veto the entire plan, which would have required the Legislature to start over. He called on Republicans to do more to address key areas, including higher education. and help with childcare.
Republicans have proposed tapping nearly half of the state’s projected $7 billion budget surplus to cut income taxes by $3.5 billion. Evers reduced the size of the cut to $800 million by removing the rate cuts for the two highest tranches.
Evers was unable to undo the University of Wisconsin’s $32 million cut, which was funding that Republicans say would have gone to diversity, equity and diversity. inclusion – or DEI – to programming and staff. The budget Evers signed allows the university to get the funding later if it can show it would go to workforce development and not DEI.
Evers previously threatened to veto the entire UW cut budget. But on Wednesday, he noted the university could recoup the cut, and he used his partial veto to protect 188 DEI positions at UW that were to be cut under the Republican plan.
Evers called the UW funding cuts “shortsighted, misguided, and bad for the workforce and bad for our state.”
Democratic state lawmakers united to vote against the budget. They argued that Republicans were wrong to prioritize cutting taxes over funding other areas such as a pandemic-era child care program that will see its money dwindle. exhausted this year. Democrats also criticized an increase in aid to private schools that accept students using a taxpayer-funded voucher.
But most Democratic lawmakers refrained from calling on Evers to veto the entire plan. Some of those who voted against the budget joined Evers, local leaders, members of his cabinet and others at a bill-signing ceremony on Capitol Hill.
Evers ignored a call from 15 liberal advocacy and government watchdog groups who urged him to ‘fight like hell for our collective future’ and veto the entire budget, which they say will would reinforce racial and economic inequalities.
“By vetoing this budget, you have the opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to the well-being of our state and its citizens,” the groups said in a letter last week. “If you refuse to veto this dangerous and harmful budget, it will leave a lasting mark on your balance sheet.”
Groups endorsing the letter included the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera, Citizen Action of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals.
Evers said vetoing the entire budget would have left schools in a bind and meant rejecting $125 million in funding to tackle water pollution caused by the so-called products. chemicals forever known as PFAS, as well as denying $525 million for affordable housing and wage increases for state employees. .
No governor has vetoed the entire budget since 1930. This is the third time Evers has signed off on a budget that passed a Republican-controlled legislature. In 2019, he issued 78 partial vetoes, and in 2021, he got 50. That year, Evers took credit for the Republican-drafted income tax cut and used it as his key part of his successful re-election campaign in 2022.
This year, he issued 51 partial vetoes.
The budget also increases salaries for all state employees by 6% over the next two years, with larger increases for guards at understaffed state prisons.