Here & Now

2023-25 Budget Enacted as Politicians Argue Over Vetoes

Frederica Freyberg:

In a breaking ruling today, a Dane County judge says a lawsuit attempting to overturn Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban will indeed move forward following an attempt to dismiss the lawsuit. Judge Diane Flipper wrote in her ruling, “There is no such thing as an 1849 abortion ban in Wisconsin. A physician who performs a consensual medical abortion commits a crime only after the fetus or unborn child reaches viability”. The 1849 law applies to feticide and not consensual abortions, she said.

Turning to budget news, the state’s record $7 billion surplus meant new opportunities and new challenges for lawmakers. Governor Tony Evers signed the Republican Legislature’s budget but not without making some considerable changes with his veto authority.

The months-long budget process kicked off with the governor releasing his budget, a veritable wish list of Democratic priorities. When Republicans on the finance committee got their crack at it, they threw out the governor’s budget and started from scratch. But that boilerplate political posturing was contrasted by compromise on K-12 education spending and shared revenue funding for local governments.

Robin Vos:

What we’re announcing today is the single largest investment in local governments in the history of Wisconsin. That is something that all of us should be proud of because it’s being done in a collaborative Wisconsin bipartisan way.

Frederica Freyberg:

After big ticket agreements, the GOP-led budget committee raced to finish. Its work included a $3.5 billion income tax cut, giving the biggest breaks to the highest earners, a $32 million cut to the UW system for diversity initiatives, and cuts to the Childcare Counts program. Evers had threatened to veto the Republican budget in its entirety over such provisions, but instead used his powerful partial veto to reduce the income tax cuts from $3.5 billion to $175 million by eliminating tax cuts for the two highest income brackets and he restored the 188 UW positions related to diversity.

Tony Evers:

I have also used my broad veto authority to provide school districts with predictable long-term increases for the foreseeable future.

Frederica Freyberg:

Foreseeable future became not two years of a budget, but 402 years, because Evers struck individual numbers and punctuation to increase school district levy limits through the year 2425. Republicans were livid. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos saying, “Clearly now that he’s won re-election by taking credit for Republican ideas, it’s business as usual for Governor Evers as he returns to his true liberal ideology.”