Hi, this is Senator Howard Marklein. I am the co-chair of the legislature’s budget-writing, Joint Committee on Finance.
The State Budget was just signed into law. I am very proud of our work to fund our priorities and meet our obligations for the next biennium. Our State Budget is made for Wisconsin.
We provided $1.2 billion in new, spendable resources for K-12 education.
We allocated $1.5 billion more for Transportation, including $362.8 million for local roads and bridges.
We directed $3.1 billion for Health Services, including $387 million for hospitals, $195 million for nursing homes, and $41 million toward meeting Wisconsin’s mental health needs.
We approved $2.4 billion for Capital Building Projects throughout the state, which was the largest investment in state history.
We created a $125 million PFAS fund and directed $525 million into workforce housing initiatives.
And then we tried to cut taxes by $4.4 billion with a $3.5 billion income tax cut!
Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed our middle class tax cut. And now the Legislative Fiscal Bureau says that we will have a $4 billion ending balance in our general fund.
This is a painful reminder of what we could have done – what should be done – with the Republican tax
cut. This massive balance is caused by the Governor’s veto of the middle class tax cut.
Instead of money going to taxpayers, it is going to be sitting in a general fund surplus. We aren’t going to just spend the money because it’s there. It belongs to the taxpayers and should be returned to them. The measly $36 each of us will see in the Governor’s so-called tax relief is a joke.
