(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers was scheduled to begin a statewide public listening tour on Monday before he is scheduled to submit his proposed state biennial budget in early January.
At issue is a projected $4 billion surplus of state funds and how much of that should be spent in the next budget.
Evers was scheduled to be at Appleton’s Einstein Middle School from 5:30-7 p.m. Monday with more dates set to be announced in the coming days and the public asked to register online in order to attend.
“We have big budget challenges ahead of us, Wisconsin, from bolstering our workforce and reducing barriers to work, preventing our child care industry from collapse, investing in our kids and our schools, ensuring folks have accessible, affordable health care and continuing our work to fix the darn roads and connect Wisconsinites to high-speed, affordable internet,” Evers said. “These conversations will help guide our path forward to find solutions to the challenges we face, and I look forward to hearing from Wisconsinites in the weeks ahead.”
Wisconsin departments have requested $53.8 billion next fiscal year and $55.8 billion in fiscal 2026-27, an 8.8% increase in spending for the first year and then an additional 3.7% increase for the second year.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has said the new state budget won’t include all of those requested increases.
The Department of Public Instruction has asked for a $3 billion increase and Evers’ proposed an $800 million increase for the University of Wisconsin System.
The Libertarian Party of Wisconsin, meanwhile, is asking state leaders to give the surplus money back to taxpayers.
“We have a record-surplus and … at least for Assembly Republicans, we are not in a rush to spend that. We are in a rush to return it back to the people of Wisconsin,” Vos said.
