GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Following Governor Tony Evers’ passing of the state budget last week, which featured 78 line-item vetoes, some members of the state assembly are voicing their displeasure.
A number of those concerns are being raised not only in relation to where the money is going, but where it is being pulled from.
Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair John Nygren says Governor Evers took money from other areas to fund an additional $65 million in education.
“I think even more important than where the money is going, is where the money came from,” says Representative Nygren.
According to him, it’s not responsible to drain funding for certain programs just to relocate it somewhere else.
“He cut things such as resources for [the] implementation of work requirements for folks on welfare,” explains Nygren.
He shared these thoughts while joining the John Muir Show Monday morning.
Nygren reiterated that with unemployment throughout the state at record low marks it’s vitally important to allocate the resources necessary to keep that momentum moving forward.
“Why would you take the funding away for a program that’s going to help people become productive, tax-paying citizens,” he says.
When signing the budget last week, Governor Evers insisted that he’s allocating funds to areas that have been long overlooked.
“While this budget makes critical investments in areas that were included in The People’s Budget, this is a down payment on the progress we must make in the next biennial budget,” says Governor Evers. “Vetoing this budget would have meant passing up the opportunity to provide investments in special education, the largest general school aid increase in a decade, increased revenue to fix our roads, and critical investments in broadband expansion, Wisconsin shares, child welfare, rural hospitals, and transit, among other important priorities.
Not everyone is on board, though.
Representative Nygren said he thinks the budget has a chance to eventually succeed, but worries that issuing 78 line-item vetoes will work to stifle too many voices across the state.
“Could this be implemented successfully, it could,” he says. “But, it also kind of empowers the bureaucrats, rather than giving the legislature and elected officials a say.”
The full interview can be found here.
