MADISON – Today, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau released new revenue estimates showing the state is now expected to take in an additional $818.2 million through mid-2021 than previously projected. Assembly Democratic Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) released the following statement:

“As the U.S. continues the longest economic expansion in our nation’s history, it’s encouraging to see continued growth. Despite Wisconsin underperforming the national economy over the past 8 years, we still have modest growth in state revenues.

“These new state revenues should be used for areas of urgent need. There has been bipartisan agreement about the issue of school-based mental health care. Governor Evers called for the legislature to act on additional funding in December after incidents at high schools in Oshkosh and Waukesha. There must be urgency to get this done. With this new revenue, it is my hope that Republicans will come back to the table to look at funding critical school-based mental health care programs they cut from Governor Evers’ budget.

 “With this news comes opportunity. Shortsighted decisions by Republicans during the state budget debate resulted in cuts that are worth reconsidering at this time. For instance, despite a decade of national revenue growth, the UW system has been decimated by funding cuts since 2011. Legislative Republicans rejected the funding Governor Evers proposed in his budget that would have begun restoring higher education in Wisconsin, like the majority of other states have done during these strong economic times.”

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