MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — The budget stalemate is over.
Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald plan to announce the specifics of the deal Wednesday. The Republicans met behind closed doors for over five hours Tuesday to hammer out their differences, which mostly centered around transportation funding and the proposed Bucks arena project.
Senator Luther Olsen says Republicans in his chamber want the Bucks arena deal taken out of the budget and dealt with separately. Olsen also says that Republican senators want to reduce transportation borrowing in the state budget from the $1.3 billion proposed by Governor Walker to $500 million by cutting or delaying road projects. The GOP senators would like to fund road projects already under construction, such as the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee.
Joint Finance co-chair, Sen. Alberta Darling confirmed that party leaders had a deal, which she expects the committee to see Thursday. Darling cautioned that the deal by leadership is not a done deal until the rank-and-file Republicans in both houses sign off on it.
If Joint Finance could finish work on the budget bill late this week, floor votes in the Senate, Assembly, or both could happen next week.
There’s still no word on what deals Republicans made on other important items in the budget, including state income tax changes, rolling back the prevailing wage, shoreland zoning changes, and the proposed statewide hotel room tax for tourism proposal.
