(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s legislative budget makers are three-quarters of the way through their budget tour but are not saying how close they are to a new spending plan.
The Joint Committee on Finance held its third regional budget hearing in Hayward, in the northwoods, Monday.
“Usually you hear about local issues more,” Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, told reporters.
Born, however, didn’t say if the budget-making princess has changed since the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year school funding veto.
Born, along with JFC co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, had said that it would be tough to craft a state budget if the court signed off on the governor’s power to add things to the budget. The court’s decision essentially grants the governor the power to erase numbers and punctuation marks, as well as allow him to add something to the budget.
“Every budget has things that impact it, and this one won’t be different,” Born added.
One of those things are negotiations between the legislature and Evers on a tax cut proposal.
Last week, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he’d prefer to keep the tax cut out of the budget, while the governor is insisting any tax cuts be a part of the broader spending plan.
“I think those negotiations are one of many variables that will affect our budget,” Marklein said. “[As well as] the conversations including the Fiscal Bureau numbers that will be getting in a few weeks.”
Marklein has said at earlier budget hearings that the process won’t really begin until the Fiscal Bureau’s revenue estimates are delivered in mid-May.
After that, no one is saying.
“We’ve sketched out a plan,” Marklein explained. “And we’re not prepared to release the details of that, yet. But we believe our plan will be similar to what we’ve done in prior budgets, and that we’re very hopeful we can get the budget done before the end of the fiscal year.”
That would be the end of June.
