The GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee will kick off work on the state budget Thursday by voting on a motion that would strip 612 of Dem Gov. Tony Evers’ proposals from the document he sent the Legislature in February.
That motion would remove gender-neutral language that would change “mother” to “person inseminated” in state law governing artificial insemination, as well as knocking out tax hikes such as a new 9.8% bracket on income of more than $1 million.
The motion also would strip Evers plans calling for repeal of taxes on cash tips, funding efforts to combat PFAS contamination and creating an incentive for local governments to freeze their property tax levies.
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The committee’s four Dems ripped the motion, saying it shows Republicans “once again plan to turn their backs on working families by removing broadly popular policy proposals in pursuit of a massive tax giveaway to their ultra wealthy donors.”
The GOP-controlled committee voting to strip hundreds of provisions from Evers’ budget proposals has become standard operating procedure for Joint Finance since the Dem took office.
Two years ago, the committee pulled 545 provisions from Evers’ 2023-25 state budget with its first vote, while it knocked out more than 380 items from the 2021-23 proposal and some 130 from his first two-year spending plan in 2019.
Many of the provisions targeted in the motion on Thursday’s agenda have been stripped by the committee in past budgets. That includes an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, legalizing marijuana, and capping tax breaks for manufacturers and those who claim capital gains.
Evers also included language in his last two budgets proposing gender-neutral terms for state law governing artificial insemination. Those proposals didn’t generate much attention. But inclusion of the language in this year’s budget became national headlines, especially in conservative media.
Under current law, if a woman is artificially inseminated with semen donated by a man who isn’t her husband, and the husband consents in writing to the procedure, he is the natural father of any child conceived. Under the change Evers proposed, the same protection would exist for a same-sex couple going through the procedure. To accomplish that, Evers proposed instead of using “husband,” inserting “spouse” in state statute; instead of “woman,” it would be “person inseminated;” and instead of “father,” it would use “parent.”
Some of the items targeted for removal this week include:
- Allowing some undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at UW and state tech schools.
- Prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of an individual’s gender identity or gender expression.
- Expanding the state’s worker compensation program to cover post-traumatic stress disorder for emergency medical responders, corrections officers and others. It now only applies to law enforcement.
- Expanding the state’s earned release program for prisoners as part of Evers’ plan to revamp the Corrections system.
- Exempting residential electricity and natural gas from the state sales tax.
- Expanding a property tax credit for veterans and their surviving spouses to those who are 70% disabled. Current law limits it to those who are 100% disabled.
While the motion would strip the provisions from the budget as Joint Finance begins its work on the document, the committee could vote to add back anything it takes out on Thursday.
The notice for Thursday’s hearing also includes 10 agencies the committee plans to take up:
- Board for People with Developmental Disabilities
- Board on Aging and Long-Term Care
- Court of Appeals
- Employment Relations Commission
- Governor
- Investment Board
- Judicial Commission
- Kickapoo Reserve Management Board
- Labor and Industry Review Commission
- Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority
