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Cut/uncut

Huge revenue boost means bigger surplus, reversal of agency cuts, possible tax cuts

Flush with $4.4 billion in unexpected

revenue growth, Gov. Tony Evers has reversed $250 million in agency cuts while GOP legislative leaders called for deep tax cuts.

Citing “unprecedented” general fund collections in 2020-21, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected the state is now expected to take in $4.4 billion more through mid2023 than was anticipated just four months ago. LFB now projects the state will finish the current fiscal year June 30 with a surplus of $2.6 billion.

Following a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said his goal is to cut taxes by $4 billion. He said the method was still under discussion, though his preference is to address income and property taxes.

“My goal would be to figure out the largest possible tax cut that we could, returning this record surplus back to the people who paid it, as opposed to growing the size of government,” Vos told reporters. “All tax cuts are good.”

Vos said he was open to negotiating with the Senate, as well as Tony Evers if “the governor would actually want to sit down and talk about what kind of tax cut.”

Evers has been calling on lawmakers to make sure the final version of the budget adequately funds education.

He announced the reversal of the $250 million in lapses from state agencies for 2020-21 that he ordered in September. Those lapses were on top of $70 million in cuts he had previously ordered in fiscal year 2019-20. Both steps were taken in anticipation the COVID-19 pandemic would put a dent in state revenues.

With the new estimates in hand, Evers reversed the $250 million in lapses for 202021. Of that, the UW System accounted for $45 million.

“We made tough decisions this past year to put our state in the best fiscal position to bounce back from this pandemic, and now Wisconsin is among the best in the country for both getting shots in arms and our low unemployment rate,” Evers said.

Stewardship program gets four years more from Republicanrun budget committee

The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program would be renewed for four years with $32 million annually, under a motion the Joint Finance Committee approved along party lines.

That money for preservation and recreation initiatives was well short of the 10 years and $70 million annually that Dem Gov. Tony Evers had proposed. The GOP approach also would include $24 million in bonding annually and $8 million from the conservation fund to cover project costs.

Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, noted Evers only sought a two-year extension of the stewardship program in the 2019-21 budget rather than the typical ask from guvs for approval for another 10 years. She said that gave lawmakers the opportunity to do a closer look at how the program is funded.

Finance committee votes to fund OT for prison guards

The Joint Finance Committee has voted along party lines to put an additional $34.4 million into the Department of Corrections and Juvenile Justice, much of it to help cover overtime for prison guards.

But Dems knocked the June 10 motion for not embracing the guv’s call for measures meant to reduce the prison population such as expanding the state’s earned release program.

Rep. Evan Goyke, D-Milwaukee, bemoaned that Wisconsin is one of the few states that puts 17-year-olds into the adult prison system and challenged his GOP colleagues to embrace reforms that would drive down the number of incarcerated people in Wisconsin, save the state money and reduce recidivism.

“We have not begun to scratch the surface of what we need to do,” Goyke said.

Opioid settlement bill gets counties association backing

Local government proponents backed a bill that would put in place guidelines on how the state should handle lawsuit settlements from opioid manufacturers.

But Mark O’Connell, executive director of the Wisconsin Counties Association, in an Assembly Committee on State Affairs public hearing said local governments do not want to get involved in the bill’s more politically divisive aspects giving more power to the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee.

The bill would require any settlements on the suit between the attorney general and local governments and opioid manufacturers, marketers or distributors to first be approved by JFC.

“There may be a dispute on that particular item between branches of government,” he said. “But while we are having that dispute, we still have a gigantic problem called opioids. It would be a travesty for us to not utilize those dollars as quickly as possible because we’re having a political fight.”

The bill would also require 30 percent of the settlement to go to state coffers, with the remaining 70 percent split between local governments.

Dem AG Josh Kaul in 2019 joined a multistate lawsuit against opioid manufacturers alleging they’re responsible in part for the deadly opioid epidemic which has rocked the nation. While settlement totals are still unknown, officials in the hearing suggested it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and that payments should start coming in later this summer or in fall.