(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says Republicans won’t work on the next state budget until Gov. Tony Evers signs their tax cut package.
“We are not going to pass a budget with increases in spending unless we get some kind of guarantee that Gov. Evers will put a big chunk of the money going back to the taxpayers,” Vos told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber. “We’re not even saying that we should return all of the surplus he vetoed last time, even though that’s our preference. We’re trying to say it should be at least $2 billion, which is again a very reasonable number.”
Vos has made it clear that he wants to return Wisconsin’s $4.3 billion surplus to the taxpayers in one shape or another.
“Our focus would have it go toward middle-income individuals and seniors. I think that’s the smartest idea for us to help deal with the inflationary times caused by Joe Biden,” Vos said.
Inflation actually rose to 3% at the end of January after President Donald Trump took office, following a growth trend after the November 2024 election.
Inflation rose steadily under former President Joe Biden, before consistently falling from September 2023 until November 2024.
Vos said Wisconsin Republicans will talk this week about what a tax cut package may look like and then send it to Evers.
“We’re not going to pass a budget that increases spending and go to this entire, you know farse frankly, where Gov. Evers says he’s for tax cuts. Until push comes to shove, and then he only takes the tax increases through the form of more spending,” Vos said.
In the last tax cut proposal, Evers kept a tax cut for Wisconsin’s bottom two tax brackets, but vetoed the rest of the cut, calling a tax cut for millionaires.
Evers’ proposed budget would add about $10 billion in spending each year of the new two-year state budget. In all, Wisconsin’s budget would grow to $120 billion for the two years, up from nearly $100 billion over the past two years.
Vos has said the Republican-controlled legislature will kill most of what Evers wants, but not everything.
“We’ve been saying for a decade now that we need to tear down the Green Bay prison, which is over 100 years old, and build a replacement that’d be safer for the guards, and more able to control the population,” Vos said. “Gov. Evers frankly took our idea to tear down Green Bay, which is a good thing, but he is not replacing it with a new facility of anywhere near the amount that we need.”
