The Joint Finance Committee rejected Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to eliminate the DNR’s Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine. But the committee approved 12-4 publishing the magazine four times a year rather than the current six. The motion also designated the DNR communications director to serve as editor of the magazine and

The committee approved repealing the requirement the DNR to establish a grant program to remove car-killed deer from Wisconsin roads and transfer the responsibility to the DOT. The Department of Transportation would be required to contract with private vendors, counties or municipalities to remove deer carcasses. But the agency would

The committee approved GOP earmarks through the Department of Tourism that include that include $7,500 for the city of Pittsville to put up a sign marking the geographic center of Wisconsin. The earmark would come from the Department of Tourism’s $1.8 million annual appropriation for marketing. The committee also approved

The committee signed off on the guv’s plan to give Supreme Court justices and state judges a pay boost. But it rejected Scott Walker’s call to create a new method for determining judicial pay going forward. The guv called for $334,000 in general purpose revenue to provide pay increases of

The Joint Finance Committee voted to cut the Parole Commission in half, but rejected the guv’s call to wipe it out. Walker wanted to eliminate the eight-member Parole Commission and instead rely on a new appointee in the Department of Corrections to decide the fate of offenders eligible for release.

The Joint Finance Committee last night green-lighted Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to drug test Medicaid recipients, adopting a GOP motion that also left intact many of the other changes to both Medicaid and food stamps the guv was pushing for. In addition to making Wisconsin the first state to require

A GOP omnibus motion on the Department of Health Services that would modify the guv’s call to require able-bodied adults with school-aged children to meet work requirements to remain eligible for food stamps. The motion also would approve re-estimates of general purpose revenue costs for some Medicaid programs. That includes

The Joint Finance Committee motion on UW that passed 12-4 today adopts performance-based funding for the UW System but in a much different way. For one, that model wouldn’t start in 2017-18 as Walker had called for and instead start a year later. Nygren said it’s “gonna take [UW] a

The Joint Finance Committee today argued over whether Republicans are adding funding toward UW or cutting it. The committee passed 12-4 an omnibus motion on UW that freezes tuition again, adds performance funding for the UW System and makes some investments that Gov. Scott Walker hadn’t called for in his

The Joint Finance Committee today rejected Dem efforts to make tuition free at the two-year UW Colleges and add $500 million to the UW System to make up for past GOP cuts. The omnibus GOP motion the committee is taking up today adds investments to the UW System. But Dems hammered Republican

The Joint Finance Committee plans to take up the Department of Corrections, DNR and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority when it meets next Wednesday. Committee members are also planning to take on the Supreme Court, district attorneys, the Investment Board, Tourism and Workforce Development when they convene at 2 p.m. Also

The Joint Finance Committee is expected to reject Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to cut tuition and instead opt for continuing the freeze for in-state undergrads. Walker had proposed keeping the freeze for the next year and then cutting tuition by 5 percent in 2018-19 while backfilling that with $35 million

The Joint Finance Committee recessed for today and plans to take up the UW System portion of the biennial budget on Thursday, according to Co-chair Alberta Darling. The committee had pushed off today’s scheduled votes on UW, as Republicans continue to disagree over whether they’ll sign off on Walker’s proposed tuition cut for

The Joint Finance Committee today unanimously approved Walker’s call to ease the “benefit cliff” that families face with the state’s childcare subsidy program. Now, families earning up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $37,777 for a family of three, are eligible for the subsidy. Once eligible,

The Joint Finance Committee approved 12-4 Walker’s plan to sanction parents in W-2 programs whose children are habitually absent from school. Currently, W-2 participants can be sanctioned if they fail to enroll their child in school. According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, there has been one such sanction issued since

The Joint Finance Committee today signed off on Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to expand drug testing and use a more stringent screen in the W-2 program. The state already screens and tests non-custodial parents in the program, as well as those who have been convicted of a drug-related felony. The

The committee rejected Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to create a public campaign to encourage young people to graduate high school, maintain a full-time job and then wait to have children until they’re married and older than 21. Walker had proposed $500,000 annually in federal money for the “success sequence” campaign.

The committee unanimously rejected Gov. Scott Walker’s call to end $500,000 annually in federal money for grants of up to $75,000 to programs that provide legal services for low-income families related to domestic violence, sexual abuse, restraining orders, and injunctions. The money was sunsetted in the 2015-17 budget for June

Joint Finance would be able to review any state lease of more than $500,000 before DOA could sign it under a motion the committee approved along party lines. It also would require DOA to perform a cost-benefit analysis of renewing the lease vs. purchasing the space or considering an alternative.

The Joint Finance Committee largely signed off on Scott Walker’s plan to consolidate human resources functions at the Department of Administration over Dem objections it would give the guv more power and concerns the move would not save money. Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, slammed the proposal, questioning if consolidating the