Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee are signaling Gov. Tony Evers’ nearly $2.4 billion capital budget will be pared back once GOP lawmakers go over it. Evers today unveiled a proposal that includes more than $1 billion for the UW System,

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Gov. Tony Evers is proposing $2.3 million to support the use of body cameras for Capitol Police, DNR wardens and the State Patrol as part of his budget. The proposal comes on the heels of a DOJ survey that found more than

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The Senate will be on the floor tomorrow in special session to take up legislation stemming from Gov. Tony Evers’ call to modernize the state’s unemployment insurance system. The office of Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said the chamber will convene

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — In his budget address tonight, Gov. Tony Evers will tell Wisconsinites to ignore those who say the state can’t make health care more affordable while fully funding schools and cutting taxes. What’s more, Evers will argue the state also has the means

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — After an adverse court ruling, the state’s Natural Resources Board today unanimously signed off on a February wolf hunt. The board had originally rejected establishing a hunt in a 4-3 vote last month. But a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge last week

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — JCRAR today advanced a measure designed to stop the Elections Commission from telling local clerks they can send absentee ballots to assisted care facilities without first having special voting deputies visit. Meanwhile, the Joint Audit Committee approved a review of the Nov.

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The Joint Finance Committee voted 11-4 today to ensure Wisconsin businesses that received PPP loans aren’t taxed on the expenses they covered with the money, saving those businesses $419 million through mid-2023. That’s one of more than two dozens changes the bill

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — A Waukesha businessman today asked the state Supreme Court for an injunction halting enforcement of Tony Evers’ latest public health declaration, accusing the guv of having “plunged this State into a constitutional crisis.” Jere Fabick’s emergency motion comes on the heels of

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Wisconsin’s first community-based vaccination clinic is set to open in Rock County on Feb. 16. The announcement comes as the state has dramatically improved vaccination rates. Gov. Tony Evers and the Department of Health Services announced today a new partnership with AMI

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Declaring he is putting the public before politics, Gov. Tony Evers this afternoon issued a new public health declaration and mask mandate before Republicans had taken the final step to overturn the one he issued last month. In a video message accompanying

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The Assembly has scheduled a floor session for 10 a.m. tomorrow to adopt a new amendment to the COVID-19 bill and pass its own version of a resolution aimed at overturning Gov. Tony Evers’ public health declaration and mask mandate. The move

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The GOP co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee today warned Gov. Tony Evers against introducing another budget like his first one that was “full of tax increases, excessive spending and divisive non-fiscal policy.” The letter comes two weeks ahead of Evers introducing

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The Department of Transportation says it’s looking at $26 million in savings on all active major and southeastern Wisconsin mega projects. Meanwhile, the cost to do an environmental impact study for proposed work on I-39/90 between Madison and the Wisconsin Dells is

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Assembly Speaker Robin Vos slammed Gov. Tony Evers for “acting like a dictator” by declaring health emergencies to address COVID-19 without support from the Legislature. The Rochester Republican said in a WisPolitics.com virtual event the guv’s decision to keep reissuing emergency orders

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Lawmakers in 2020 claimed per diems totaling $555,149, about 70 percent of what they took home in the previous election year, as the COVID-19 pandemic cut into activity at the Capitol. Overall, lawmakers claimed 5,498 days of per diem in 2020, compared

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — State tax collections through mid-2023 will be nearly $1.2 billion higher than what Gov. Tony Evers’ administration had expected just two months ago, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. LFB Director Bob Lang wrote in a memo to the Joint Finance co-chairs

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — A court-ordered monitor says staff at youth lockups in northern Wisconsin are making “every attempt to maintain facility operations as best as possible” during the “challenging” COVID-19 pandemic. Monitor Teresa Abreu today reported she was “pleased that many key positions have been

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — The Assembly will convene Tuesday to take up the COVID-19 bill that the Senate amended earlier this month. Still, the notice Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, sent to members didn’t detail whether Assembly GOP leaders plan to sign off on the Senate’s

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Grocery store workers have been added to the recommendations of those who are next in line for COVID-19 vaccinations. Brandon Scholz of the Wisconsin Grocers Association said the decision to add grocery store employees to the second phase of vaccine eligibility was

Exclusively for WisPolitics Subscribers From WisPolitics.com … — Two GOP legislative leaders today said they remain unconvinced Gov. Tony Evers needs a special session bill to begin overhauling the state’s unemployment insurance computer system And interviews with Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna,