(The Center Square) – The top Republican in the Wisconsin Senate is promising to strip out any policy in the governor’s new budget.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu was a guest on UpFront over the weekend. He said Gov. Tony Evers’ ideas, like a citizen referendum proposal, are DOA in the legislature.
“It’s not a policy vision for the governor,” LeMahieu said.
LeMahieu said Republicans are focused on cutting taxes in the new session. He said the governor is focused on spending more.
LeMahieu didn’t say how much money Republicans at the Capitol are looking to spend. Instead, he said Evers is looking to spend too much.
“A lot of the requests, in education, K-12 is way too much. He said $4 billion was almost too much for him in education, so we’ll see what he puts in there,” LeMahieu added.
The governor has also endorsed the University of Wisconsin’s $855 million budget request.
LeMahieu said the legislature will “not fully fund” that request.
“Outside of Madison and maybe one or two other campuses, enrollment is declining,” LeMahieu said. “I’m not sure why it makes sense to continue to put more money into a system that’s in decline.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he intends to pass a tax cut first, then deal with the governor and the rest of the budget.
LeMahieu said he’s planning to do the same.
“I think it’s important to get a commitment from the governor to cut taxes first before we pass the budget,” LeMahieu added. “We’ll work with the Assembly, but it might be a Senate bill, there might be an Assembly bill, and we’ll work together to maybe do both or combine.”
LeMahieu is less sure what will happen with ideas like an early-count law for absentee ballots or a medical marijuana program. Both of those ideas have support in the Assembly but are not as popular in the Senate.
Senate Republicans killed the last attempt at early count legislation because some senators saw it as an opportunity for election fraud.
LeMahieu opposed the latest medical marijuana pitch because he doesn’t like the idea of state-owned marijuana dispensaries.
“I think there are members of our caucus who are supportive of medical marijuana,” he said. “The challenge with the bill in the Assembly introduced last time was state-run dispensaries. I think from our caucus standpoint, my standpoint, is just having a certain number of dispensaries run, growing the size of government doesn’t seem to be the best way to do it.”
Evers has promised to deliver his state budget next month. Lawmakers then have until the end of June to approve a new budget for the next two years.