GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Wisconsin’s Lieutenant Governor says that a significant divide still exists between a final budget penned by the Joint Finance Committee and what Governor Evers would like to see.
On Thursday, the budget panel concluded it’s work that features a total tax cut less than half the size of the Democrats plan.
One of the major areas of consternation between both parties has been K thru 12 education funding.
The Joint Finance Committee actually opted to increase spending in their plan, but apparently not enough to please everyone.
“It wasn’t an increase to the level that the Governor would like to see, it wasn’t even an increase to the levels of the historic cut from eight years ago,” explains Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes. “This doesn’t even get us back to par.”
Barnes joined WTAQ’s Morning News with Matt & Earl Friday morning to discuss the ongoing budget battles.
According to him, simply increasing K-12 funding isn’t enough, because that area has taken such a significant hit in the past.
“It’s like education funding jumped into the deepest pit and because it jumped into the deepest pit it has the largest leap,” says Barnes. “And we still didn’t even get out of that pit.”
Governor Evers had championed his budget as the “People’s Budget,” claiming that the strategic moves included were directly correlated to a number of listening sessions he held around the state.
Because of that, Barnes thinks that the people of Wisconsin are getting a raw deal if the Joint Finance Committee takes their red pen to the Governor’s proposed budget.
“The budget that came out of joint finance is much different than the priority items that the people across the state of Wisconsin laid out,” he explains.
Next up, the budget is on its way to the full legislature.
Eventually, Governor Evers will have the opportunity to administer a number of partial vetoes or he can opt to veto the budget in its entirety.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos commented Thursday that he doesn’t think the Governor will do away with the proposal in full.
“What did Governor Evers say, fix the damn roads? We’re doing that. What did he say, make sure we have a budget that can help children? We’re doing a kid-friendly plus budget. He said make sure that we have the ability to take care of the most vulnerable. We’re doing that without expanding welfare. And we have enough resources left over that we prioritized a very large tax cut, that’s going to help every single family that pays taxes in the state.”
Additionally, Barnes thinks any conversation regarding vetoes is premature at this time.
“If they don’t have the votes to get the budget off the floor of the Senate, then we’re going to find ourselves asking other questions,” he explains.
The budget year ends in sixteen-days and with the threat of vetoes looming, Barnes does admit that the clock is ticking and time might run out.
“It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary or totally unexpected if we didn’t have a budget before the deadline,” says Barnes.
The full interview can be found here.
