Here & Now

Senate Debates Late Budget

Frederica Freyberg:

A first look tonight at the final flurry of the legislature working in tandem to pass the $76 billion state budget and the $3 billion Foxconn deal this week. Even as four Republican senators held out on voting in favor of the budget, with three of them making demands, right down to the wire.

[Roll call vote]

Frederica Freyberg:

The state senate went in today on the budget, even with its majority leader not sure late into the week that he had the votes to pass it. Three Republican senators were demanding changes in return for their votes. Changes including raising the income limit for school choice and banning the UW from spending money on diversity training.

Robin Vos:

To root out every area of waste and abuse.

Frederica Freyberg:

That angered the Assembly Speaker, who did not want to make substantive changes at the last minute.

Robin Vos:

Wholesale changes where somebody says “I've got all kinds of things throughout the process and now I want one more thing to vote yes.” That’s not how our process works. And we’re not going to be held hostage to individuals who have some kind of a wish list that they want after the process has continued.

Frederica Freyberg:

The Assembly this week passed the state budget on a 57-39 vote, with five Republicans voting no along with all Democrats. Minority Leader Peter Barca bemoaned the document for failing to find a funding source for roads and highways.

Peter Barca:

You can ask the various people that are involved in this industry. And every one of them will tell you that this is an absolute catastrophe. That the delays are going to be enormous. It’s going to hurt rural districts and rural places around the state that are already beginning to turn some of their asphalt roads into gravel.

Robin Vos:

You will not hear me say this again today, but the Democrats have a point. We have tried as hard as we could to find a solution for transportation. Now, we have taken a step backwards to say this budget today ensures that the problem does not get worse under our watch.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, the Assembly and Senate passed the $3 billion Foxconn incentive package and it awaits the governor's signature. Now the remaining work lies with the senate which is on the floor right now after some drama and deal-making today over whether the majority leader had the votes to pass the budget. WPR’s Capitol Bureau Chief Shawn Johnson is just outside the chambers tonight. Thanks for joining us.

Shawn Johnson:

Hi Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

Any idea whether those holdouts will in fact vote in the affirmative on this budget?

Shawn Johnson:

So they’ve said that they would. You had three Republican senators–actually four Republican senators– going into today saying that they were no votes. We’ve now heard from three of them or from their offices that they will vote for this budget. Those senators were Steve Nass, Chris Kapenga and Duey Stroebel. And they came to that conclusion that they were going to be yes votes after a discussion with the governor this morning via phone while the governor was in South Korea.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how did the Republican leader and the governor get those holdouts to this yes votes? Any ideas?

Shawn Johnson:

We don’t know the specifics of that yet. They’ve said that they’re going to announce those details after the budget vote. So we’ve got a situation tonight where about 17 amendments are going to be discussed in the Senate tonight. They won’t pass. There will be changes made to the budget that we know. But they’re going to come after this is all said and done. So we’re going to hear about those details later. But we know that the governor made some type of veto assurances to these Republican senators that made them feel comfortable enough that they could support the plan.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how unusual is all of this? To have the majority go this close over a major bill like the budget and all of this right at the last moment? In the midst of it?

Shawn Johnson:

So it’s not unusual for a budget to go up to the last minute. It’s just kind of when they decide the last minute is going to be. If you look at the big picture here, Republicans have their largest majorities in the capitol in decades. And so for them to be two and a half months past deadline, that in and of itself is unusual. The way they’re wrapping up is a bit unusual. You don’t usually hear veto assurances discussed that morning in kind of a public way. And then the details of those veto assurances not come out until later that night. So there are a lot of elements of this that are not your typical budget. But the fact that they’re going up to the last minute as they kind of set that clock, that’s pretty typical.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, take us through what the budget does and doesn’t do.

Shawn Johnson:

So, I mean, big picture, it’s a $76 billion state budget when you take state money and federal money. The governor’s big highlight he talks about at nearly every stop when he talks about this budget is the increased school funding. The $639 million worth of increased funding for K-12 public schools. It would phase out a property tax. Reduce property taxes on businesses and so those are kind of the high points for Republicans. For Democrats there’s been a lot of talk about that education increase being too little too late. They’ve really kind of sought to contrast what’s in this budget and what could have been in the budget with what Republicans approved earlier this week, which was a $3 billion incentive package for Foxconn that came before the budget vote.

Frederica Freyberg:

I thought it was curious that the Assembly Speaker said he would not vote again on this budget to appease senate Republicans, but if there are changes he wouldn’t have a choice, would he?

Shawn Johnson:

You would have had a pretty big game of chicken at that point because you had the Assembly basically saying, “We’re not going to do–we’re not going to take up what you’re voting on.” You would have had the Senate saying, “So what. You’re going to have to. We passed it.” They would have been at a standstill at that point. So they’ve avoided that this time. You’re not going to get to see that game of chicken. It looks like we’re going to have budget tonight.

Frederica Freyberg:

Shawn Johnson, thanks very much for joining us and don’t stay too late.

Shawn Johnson:

You're welcome.