In a letter asking lawmakers to send him the GOP tax cut package, Dem Gov. Tony Evers urged legislative leaders to “do the right thing” by boosting school funding.

Evers’ Friday letter to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, came ahead of GOP leaders signing their tax cut and debt reduction bill yesterday. That action began the seven-day window for the guv to act on it.

The guv wrote he was “disappointed” the package didn’t include elements from a competing proposal he backed that would boost funding for schools. Evers called on the Republican leaders to schedule a meeting with him “to come to a compromise on this issue.”

“I’d like to offer an opportunity for you all to reconsider your decision to move forward without additional funding for our public schools,” he said in the letter.

A Vos spokeswoman directed WisPolitics.com to a tweet from Vos Monday touting the benefits of the package.

“There’s no reason why it shouldn’t become law,” Vos wrote in the tweet.

The $392.4 million GOP package would spend a chunk of the anticipated $451.9 million surplus the state expects to have by mid-2021. It would cut income taxes, expand a property tax break for businesses and reduce state debt. It was approved largely along party lines last week.

But Evers backed a separate plan to use a portion of the surplus to restore two-thirds funding to the state’s public schools and reduce property taxes, among other things.

In the letter, Evers indicated he planned to take action on the GOP package this week.

A Fitzgerald spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

See the letter here.

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