Madison- Tonight, the Wisconsin State Assembly passed the biennial State budget. The budget, stripped of investments such as the Right to Counsel, will head to Governor Evers’ desk.
Representative Clancy (D-19) issued the following statement:
“There is so much wrong here it is hard to know where to begin. Diversity and Equity funding, special education, public transit, mental health, and more all are failed by the budget put before us today. We sit on a $7 billion surplus. It could have become a compelling vision for the State of Wisconsin, but instead we have…this.
This budget fails our residents who need it the most, and the numbers are appalling. It gives 11 people making $75 million or more a year an average $1.8 million dollar tax cut, while someone making under $50,000 will receive about $36.
We offered amendments that would have undone some of this harm, and that would have helped Wisconsin to thrive, but they were dismissed without due consideration. I’m grateful Gov. Evers promised to veto the budget if the Republican lead legislature cuts diversity and equity funding from the UW System, which they did to the tune of 188 positions and $32 million over the biennium.
This budget isn’t a compromise. It isn’t incremental change. It’s not a smaller victory that we would have liked. It’s class warfare. I hope the Governor’s response to this attack on the working class is a veto in its entirety.”
