Zac Schultz:

Work on the state budget slowed down the past couple of weeks as legislative Republicans negotiated amongst themselves and with Democratic Governor Tony Evers to reach a compromise on shared revenue for local municipalities. The solution required promises from the governor to sign off on a big increase in state payments to private voucher schools, an extra billion dollars for public schools, and dropping the requirement that Milwaukee go to referendum in order to pass an increase in their sales tax. They say the best deals in politics are often the ones where no one comes away completely happy, which was certainly the case this week as the Senate and Assembly signed off on the bills with bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition.

Man:

There are 21 ayes, 12 noes and the bill is concurred in as amended.

Melissa Agard:

This could have been a clean bill. It could have been passed with broad bipartisan consensus and instead Republicans, to my understanding, are still in-fighting because they’ve decided to insert bad policy and unpopular ideas into this vitally important piece of legislation.

Man:

There are 68 ayes and 26 noes. Senate amendment one is concurred in as amended.

Robin Vos:

Part of the legislative process is give-and-take. There are parts in the bill that we are going to be voting on today, that if it were just me, I would have done differently, by that’s disagreements even amongst Republicans. Then you add in trying to find a truly bipartisan agreement. We had to give up on some things that are really important to Republicans.