(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s $114.2 billion budget passed the Wisconsin Senate on Wednesday night on a 19-14 vote with support from five Democrats while Senate President Mary Felzkowski voting against the bill.
The Assembly is also expected to take a Wednesday night vote before the bill is pass along to Gov. Tony Evers.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos indicated there was urgency to get the bill signed before the federal “big, beautiful bill” to capture Medicaid funding to benefit rural hospitals and health care in the state.
“I don’t want to speak for the governor, but I think the timeline is for him to sign it, hopefully, late tonight or early tomorrow as his staff goes through and does their own review process,” Vos said. “But we all understand that, once the signature goes on on the federal level, it really limits the options for us to capture that federal revenue and, of course, that’s one area where we found pretty widespread agreement.”
Felzkowski is reportedly the first Senate President to vote against a budget bill in Wisconsin, WisPolitics.com reported.
Felzkowki said that she voted against the budget because it relied on a gimmick in the Hospital Assessment and Access Payments provision where hospitals pay in $419 million per year and those funds are used to leverage additional federal funds, which go back to hospitals with hospitals receiving $679.9 million and the state receiving $150.4 million.
“To help cover the $12 billion spending increase in this budget, Republican Legislative Leaders and Governor Evers are maxing out this gimmick,” Felzkowski said. “The budget increases the amount hospitals pay in to $1.5 billion per year, meaning they get almost $2.7 billion back (netting over $1.1 billion annually).
“Additionally, the state receives $448 million. Where does the $1.5 billion hospitals pay in come from? The cost is passed on to patients.”
The total Wisconsin budget is an increase from the $111.1 billion initial estimate as the Wisconsin Senate is discussing the budget and a series of 25 proposed amendments early on Wednesday afternoon. The budget will then head to the Assembly.
The last Wisconsin budget represented an 11% increase from the prior budget while the 2022-23 budget was a 7% increase from the prior budget, MacIver showed.
The budget process accelerated after Legislative leadership and Gov. Tony Evers reached a compromise Monday and the details of that compromise were part of a budget passed by the state’s Joint Finance Committee with a 13-3 vote on Tuesday.
The fiscal bureau budget analysis shows that Wisconsin will have more than $46 billion in general purpose revenue, $33.7 billion in federal revenue, nearly $16.6 billion in program revenue, $14.8 billion in segregated revenue and $3.2 billion in bond revenue over the two-year period compared to $99.3 billion in total revenue in the last biennial budget.
“This is only true because we spent a lot of the surplus instead of issuing debt so it looks like “spending” vs saving taxpayer money with less interest,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wrote on social media in response to MacIver’s chart on budget spending increases.
The $3.2 billion in bonding is above the $700 million in bonding in the last budget, $1.7 billion in 2022-23 and $1.9 billion in 2020-21, MacIver showed.
Wisconsin Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, said that he did not receive a copy of the budget until 8:55 a.m. on Wednesday.
“8:54am: Just received the 421-page, $111.1 BILLION budget for the first time, which I’m supposed to read through and vote to approve in the next hour,” Kapenga wrote on social media. “Looks like a Nancy Pelosi-inspired approach: approve it first, and then we can read it!”
Republican leaders touted a $1.4 billion tax cut measure while Democrats touted funding for child care, increased K-12 and University of Wisconsin System funding and an increased special education reimbursement rate.
The budget includes expanding Wisconsin’s second income tax bracket of 4.4% for all filers and exempting the first $24,000 of retirement income for those who are at least 67 before the end of a tax year with a maximum exemption of $48,000 for married couples.
That retirement income tax cut was projected to reduce state tax collections by $395 million in 2025-26 and $300 million in 2026-27.
The cut is expected to reduce taxes on approximately 280,000 Wisconsin filers by an average of about $1,000 per filer.
“This is a responsible budget,” said Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, a co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee. “We are investing in priorities and doing it in a responsible way.”
The Republican-proposed income tax cut would apply to the majority of Wisconsin tax filers in different ways as the amount of income taxed at 4.4% compared to the next tax bracket of 5.3% increases.
For married couples, that will move the cap on 4.4% from $39,150 to $67,300 while for single filers the line moves from $29,370 to $50,480.
“This is something we can agree on,” said Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton.
