It took a little longer than expected, but the 2025-27 biennial Wisconsin budget is now settled — making some folks happy but disappointing others.
The $111 billion state budget was officially signed into law in the early hours of July 3 by Gov. Tony Evers following a marathon session by the Wisconsin Assembly the day before to reapprove the budget by a 59-39 vote after changes were made in the Wisconsin Senate. One of the upsides in the region is that the budget paid for two additional assistant district attorney positions for Shawano County and a part-time position for Oconto County.
Rep. Elijah Behnke was one of the yes votes and talked about the timeline with NEW Media prior to going into the marathon session. He noted that Republicans were waiting to see how the spring election went, due to the potential for the Wisconsin Supreme Court turning conservative, but the court remained a 4-3 liberal majority.
“The line item veto, which is so powerful in Wisconsin and kind of scary to us because (Evers) put that 400-year increase in local school funding through property tax by manipulating the numbers in the last budget; we were not only watching the Supreme Court race but also the Supreme Court ruling,” Behnke said. “We just found out last week with the new court that we are allowed to pass a bill with the language of policy and then put the money separately in the budget, and the governor can’t veto the policy so that we can enforce the policy and the funding of the policy to go hand in hand.”
Legislative leaders started to negotiate on the budget in April, but things started to “fizzle” later in May, according to Behnke, which prompted Republicans just to write their own budget, similar to what has been done for years. He said the GOP planned no increase in funding to the Universities of Wisconsin, while Evers was pushing for $100 million. The negotiated budget settled on $25 million.
Behnke noted there had to be some accountability for that additional funding, “like professors cannot just get paid just to write a book. They have to be paid to teach a minimum of 12 or 15 hours. We’re bringing in some reforms for the additional funding.”
The question of UW funding on Behnke’s mind is why the system needs more taxpayer dollars when it has an endowment to dive into.
The Assembly also ran into a snag when five GOP senators said they would not vote for the budget for one reason or another. Behnke said that resulted in trying to get support for Senate Democrats.
“Part of the reason it’s so bloated is because Senate Republicans wouldn’t sign on to reasonable negotiations, and now spending has gotten more unreasonable,” Behnke said.
Originally, K-12 schools were not going to get additional funding in the two-year budget, primarily because of Evers’ veto action two years ago that was recently overturned by the Supreme Court. But with the GOP needing Senate Democrats’ support to pass the budget, a compromise was made to increase special education funding by 35-45%, which doesn’t completely compensate for those expenses but was something pushed by school districts.
“I think we need to reform the way we fund K-12 schools,” Behnke said. “I think we spend way too much per student for the quality of student we get back. DPI (Department of Public Instruction), I think we should get rid of them. I think we need to reform the school funding formula so it’s more fair for small, rural schools. You’re getting $20,000 per student in Milwaukee, but yet $10,000 for a kid in Suring. It’s not fair.”
Behnke praised the action to add the assistant district attorney positions, saying they’re sorely needed.
“That is a huge win for our backyard,” he said.
Another like for the state budget comes from Community Alternatives in Shawano lobbying for additional funding for homes to take care of disabled adults. As a result, Behnke said, $200 million was put into the budget to help provide such care facilities.
“There are half a dozen to a dozen homes around the Shawano area that basically have these sweet ladies take care of our most vulnerable population, and I was able to advocate heavily for that,” Behnke said. “My budget motion to help the care facilities statewide to care for the disabled adults was my big ask for the state budget.”
Behnke’s support of the budget was also due to an expected 1% tax cut for the middle class.
“It is something,” Behnke said. “With a Democratic governor, getting a tax cut is significant.”
Sen. Eric Wimberger did not reply to NEW Media’s request for an interview, but his office submitted a written statement after the budget was signed where he criticized Evers’ actions, including vetoing a provision that would have closed the Green Bay Correctional Institution by 2029. This is in spite of the governor’s own calls for the prison to be decommissioned in the next four years.
“Gov. Evers’ veto is a signal he is not interested in very simple facility management to solve the GBCI question,” Wimberger said. “Closing GBCI is doable by 2029 if we convert and expand existing facilities to take more medium-security inmates currently housed in maximum-security prisons because of overcrowding. Evers’ plan for medium-security inmates instead would expand the Earned Release Program and let thousands of dangerous criminals into our neighborhoods in coming years.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
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