MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - The Wisconsin Assembly approved the new state budget just after 3 a.m. Thursday.
The vote was 60 to 38, with Independent Bob Ziegelbauer joining all Republicans in voting yes.
All Democrats voted no, after they offered numerous amendments that the GOP rejected. One of them would have wiped out a cut in the Earned Income Tax credit for the working poor.
Majority Republicans added numerous changes to the budget late Wednesday night, rejecting several last minute items from the Joint Finance Committee.
The Senate will take up the two-year, $66 billion budget Thursday at 11 a.m.
The Assembly decided not to make it harder for landowners to challenge government land seizures for new roads and utilities. They also dropped the idea of making private contractors build most smaller road projects.
Transit workers would keep their bargaining rights, so the state doesn’t lose millions in federal aid. People can still get ethics statements of public officials by e-mail, instead of having to drive to Madison to see them. Republicans also agreed not to touch WiscNet, which provides high-speed Web service to schools and public libraries.
The state-funded private school voucher program will not expand to Green Bay. GOP lawmakers added a couple new items, like giving schools until the start of 2013 to get rid of their Indian team names.
Republican Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said the budget still includes the sacrifices needed to get the state’s fiscal house in order. But Democratic leader Peter Barca said it comes at the expense of the poor and the middle class.
Only a handful of spectators were still around when the Assembly voted on the package. Three people in the gallery were arrested Wednesday for disorderly conduct. And a woman was removed for shouting while finance chair Robin Vos was speaking. Another person was arrested for possessing drug paraphernalia in the Capitol.
