Gov. Scott Walker has sent legislative leaders a letter proposing to reduce transportation borrowing by $200 million as part of a proposal to break a budget impasse. The guv also proposed an unspecified amount of contingency bonding for megaprojects in
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said today Republican budget negotiations are “back on track” after today’s meeting with the guv. Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, met with Gov. Scott Walker today as part of their weekly gathering
The Legislature’s top Republicans lobbed bombs at each other Tuesday over their remaining budget disputes in an unusual public airing of their differences. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, called Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’s position on transportation “laughable” as he
Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Alberta Darling said today top GOP leaders have a long way to go on reaching a consensus on transportation, another sign the budget won’t be completed by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Joint Finance Committee Co-chair John Nygren today confirmed that the Joint Finance Committee will not meet tomorrow. Nygren, R-Marinette, had last week told JFC members to keep their calendars for tomorrow open. But he told reporters this afternoon that he instead
GOP legislative leaders are still at an impasse on the transportation budget, although they’re confident they will strike a deal on K-12 education soon. Following a full day of meetings yesterday with top Republicans, as well as an additional meeting
GOP legislative leaders reported progress on hammering out a budget deal today but will meet again tomorrow as they work through major items like K-12 education, taxes and transportation. Participants’ spokespeople provided no specifics, though, and a notice for a
Senate and Assembly leaders are meeting tomorrow to hammer out differences over the budget’s remaining big-ticket items, ahead of a potential Joint Finance Committee meeting on Thursday. Co-chair John Nygren, R-Marinette, told members last week to keep Thursday open, but
The Joint Finance Committee has adjourned for the evening but may come back on Thursday, according to JFC Co-chair John Nygren. Nygren, R-Marinette, told committee members at the close of the session to keep Thursday open on their calendars. Nygren
The Joint Finance Committee today voted to prohibit people in the future from entering into a type of domestic partnerships available only to same-sex couples under state law. Republicans pitched it as a fairness issue, noting that specific arrangement and the benefits
The committee unanimously approved providing less money to cover overtime costs at state prisons than Gov. Scott Walker proposed as Dems Republicans weren’t doing enough to boost pay and morale for guards. The committee’s action dropped the amount available for
The committee approved 12-4 Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to kill the the Local Government Property Insurance Fund, which has seen municipalities flee over the last two years, spooked by a 2015 attempt to kill it and a more than 70-percent
The committee voted 12-4 along party lines to go along with Gov. Scott Walker’s call to end providing domestic partner benefits to state and local public employees. The move would end all health insurance coverage for partners and dependents of
The committee unanimously signed off on giving state and UW employees raises in 2018 and 2019. Under the plan, non-UW state employees would get a 2 percent raise Sept. 30, 2018, and another 2 percent on May 26, 2019. To
The Joint Finance Committee today unanimously shot down Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to self-insure state workers, putting an end for now to an effort the Walker administration has studied for years. The committee rejected Walker’s plan on a bipartisan 16-0
