(The Center Square) – A public hearing will be Wednesday for a bill claiming Gov. Tony Evers’ administration kept $172 million in taxpayer dollars from interest earned on unspent funds since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The interest came from a 2023 audit from the Legislative Audit Bureau with an updated number reported to the co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
“Under current law, unless specifically provided by law, miscellaneous receipts collected by a state agency, such as interest earnings, must be credited to general purpose revenues of the general fund,” the bill text says.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, is a co-chair of the committee and co-author of the bill along with Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Calendonia.
The public hearing will come at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development.
Melissa Schmidt, attorney for the Wisconsin Legislative Council, determined in a January 2024 memo that the interest must be reported as general purpose revenue and be sent to the state’s general fund.
The interest comes on $3 billion worth of federal funds received related to COVID-19 relief between 2021 and 2022 with $1.5 billion in May 2021, $1.3 billion in May 2022, and $205.8 million in June 2022.
“In the absence of any federal requirement for how the interest earnings on CSLFRF payments must be spent, and because this interest is not funding ‘received from the federal government’ … the interest must be recorded as GPR and deposited into the general fund,” Schmidt wrote.
Federal rules specifically allowed states to deposit the relief funds into interest bearing accounts but stated that the interest is not subject to COVID-relief fund rules.
“When there is no provision specifically providing for the appropriation of GPR, including miscellaneous receipts like interest earnings on advanced CSLFRF payments, the state law provides that moneys must be deposited into the general fund, lose their identity, and are then eligible for the Legislature to appropriate,” Schmidt concluded.
