JFC approved a significant increase in the daily rates state taxpayer and counties pay to house juvenile offenders. State Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, objected to the modification and slammed the “inhumane” treatment of those housed at Lincoln Hilly and Copper Lake. “Instead of increasing the rates, we should be giving

The Joint Finance Committee approved a boost of $1 million annually for lottery advertising, $2 million less than what Gov. Scott Walker wanted. It would be the first increase in advertising in nearly a decade. Dems proposed using $96,600 of that money to increase responsible gaming public service announcements to

The Joint Finance Committee signed off along party lines 12-4 on the guv’s plan to reorganize the DNR, including the eliminating the Bureau of Science Services and transferring its research position to other areas. The plan also would consolidate functions such as the creation of an Environmental Management office that

The Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 along party lines to create a new exemption from permitting requirements for placing riprap on up to 200 feet of rivers and inland lakes or 300 feet on a Great Lake. Currently, a permit is required to lay the stone on an embankment to

Returning from a two-month break, the Joint Finance Committee today went back to work on the state budget, unanimously rejecting Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate a program that seeks to encourage schools to buy locally sourced food. The committee’s action would keep $66,400 in general purpose revenue and one

The Joint Finance Committee will be in Monday to take up public instruction, the choice program and the building program. Other items on Monday’s agenda include: the Building Commission, the school levy tax credit and the lottery fund. The five areas under public instruction that will be taken up Monday

The Joint Finance Committee will end a more than two-month break from the budget today with an agenda that includes the reorganization of the DNR, the repeal of the forestry mill tax and DATCP. The guv’s call to repeal the forestry tax, the only state property tax, was originally expected

Gov. Scott Walker said today Republicans have reached a deal “in principle” on the state budget that would include a partial repeal of the personal property tax, saying he expects to sign the budget by Sept. 22, when summer ends. But he also said there are “a few little details”