Here & Now

State Legislature Passes Tax Cuts

Frederica Freyberg:

A flurry to the finish for the Legislature. This week the state Assembly wrapped what’s expected to be its final day for the year. The Senate comes in for one final day in March. Both houses passed and sent to the governor’s desk a $250 million income tax cut. That’s the majority’s use of the newly-projected $620 million budget surplus. Governor Evers wants to use the surplus to lower property taxes and spend more on schools.

Chris Taylor:

It’s hard to believe in 2020, there are 20 individuals who make $30 million and over each and they’ll get $50.4 million in tax breaks. And yet today you all, you all said that you weren’t going to send more money to your public schools. You rejected our governor’s proposal.

John Nygren:

More than anything else, unfortunately, education funding, education has become 100% political. 100% political. No matter what we do on this side of the aisle, is it ever going to be enough?

Frederica Freyberg:

In tonight’s Capitol Insight, we check in with Laurel White on this and other action. Laurel, thanks a lot.

Laurel White:

Absolutely.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the expectation is that Governor Evers will veto this tax cut?

Laurel White:

So that’s kind of the million dollar question right now. We really don’t know. We know the governor has been critical of the proposal since it was first rolled out. He obviously had a really different idea for how he wanted to spend that money. But he hasn’t said outright whether he’ll veto it or not so we’re just going to have to keep an eye on it.

Frederica Freyberg:

But it has landed on his desk at this point?

Laurel White:

It is on his desk and he could act on it anytime.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do Republican leaders say about if or when they would take up additional school aid as the governor had called for?

Laurel White:

So Republicans are saying that kind of the appropriate time to take out more school aid would be during the next state budget process, which of course starts next year. They point out that they made a big investment in education in the current state budget, so they kind of point to that as a win and say, hey, we can talk about education more in the future.

Frederica Freyberg:

That’s kind of a long time to wait, I would imagine, for Governor Evers. But how big of a tax cut did just pass?

Laurel White:

So the income tax cut that passed is about $247 million. It’s going to save, on average, $106 per income tax filer in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, there are other tax cuts that came by way of a farm aid package that incorporated some of what Evers asked for; is that right?

Laurel White:

That’s right. So that was part of a package of bills aimed at supporting the dairy industry in Wisconsin. Those tax proposals had to do with farmers deducting their health insurance costs from their income tax bills and a little bit of a tweak to property taxes related to agricultural buildings on their property. So a couple little tax elements to a really big, broad package of bills about dairy in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

I understand that won’t get a Senate vote until next month?

Laurel White:

That’s right. So both the Senate and Assembly were in this week, but the Senate isn’t expected to come back and vote on any more bills until sometime in March.

Frederica Freyberg:

What have you been hearing about whether or not the Senate would be expected to actually pass that particular bill? Or package of bills?

Laurel White:

So we don’t know for sure. We know obviously that the Senate has a history of sometimes departing from what the Assembly has done. Obviously the Assembly is done for the year now. So any changes that the Senate makes would compromise the future of those bills, not get them in the governor’s desk. So it’s a little bit uncertain right now. They did pass, though. I think it’s important to note, with broad bipartisan support in the Assembly.

Frederica Freyberg:

Exactly. Now, here’s an item I understand not moving forward. The sexual assault kit backlog bills which got amended to include what Democrats were calling “poison pills,” why isn’t that kind of rape kit backlog bill bipartisan?

Laurel White:

There was a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate. The problem there, a little bit of the hang up, is the Assembly amended the bill to include those so-called poison pills to Democrats. One of those provisions would require individuals accused of sexual assault who were in the country illegally to be reported to federal immigration officials. Another has to do with school vouchers, private school vouchers and eligibility of sexual assault victims. They would be eligible for the state voucher program if they are victims of sexual assault regardless of previous eligibility. So that’s what’s come of the Assembly and it’s obviously very different from what’s come out of the Senate.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how is Attorney General Kaul taking this development?

Laurel White:

So Kaul is very frustrated. He had pushed really hard for that bipartisan bill that passed the Senate earlier this year. He was very frustrated with the changes that the Assembly made and said that this proposal is really essential to ensuring that we don’t have a backlog of sexual assault kits like we’ve had in Wisconsin in the past.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, the Assembly snuck in an amended version of a bill to affect PFAS pollutants early this morning. What do you know about where that is headed?

Laurel White:

That was a really late addition. The Assembly passed that bill after midnight this morning. It came out of a long caucus that Republicans held in the wee hours of the morning. We really don’t know where the Senate stands on that because it’s such a new proposal. It’s certainly in question whether the Senate will take that up in March and whether it will be headed to the governor’s desk or not.

Frederica Freyberg:

And that was another one that at least in its original form was bipartisan in nature.

Laurel White:

Mm-hmm. That’s right. There have been a number of bipartisan water quality bills that have passed the Assembly recently. So this is something that lawmakers have been working on, things like PFAS. Things like well contamination. So it will be really interesting to see if the Senate comes together in a similar way.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Well, Wisconsin Public Radio’s Laurel White, we really appreciate you joining us from the Capitol. Thanks.

Laurel White:

Absolutely.