storyteller
Veteran
It's a long one...but worth the read for the all the Republican nonsense he vetoed while preserving what gains he earned for normies.
www.jsonline.com
Tony Evers uses veto powers to extend annual increases for public schools for the next four centuries
In signing the state budget, Gov. Tony Evers used his broad partial veto powers to make permanent annual per-pupil increases for public schools.
www.jsonline.com
Tony Evers uses veto powers to extend annual increases for public schools for the next four centuries
MADISON – Gov. Tony Evers, a former public school educator, used his broad partial veto authority this week to sign into law a new state budget that increases funding for public schools for the next four centuries.
The surprise move will ensure districts' state-imposed limits on how much revenue they are allowed to raise will be increased by $325 per student each year until 2425, creating a permanent annual stream of new revenue for public schools and potentially curbing a key debate between Democrats and Republicans during each state budget-writing cycle.
Evers told reporters at a press conference in the Wisconsin State Capitol on Wednesday his action would "provide school districts with predictable long-term increases for the foreseeable future."
Evers crafted the four-century school aid extension by striking a hyphen and a "20" from a reference to the 2024-25 school year. The increase of $325 per student is the highest single-year increase in revenue limits in state history.
The veto was one of more than four dozen the Democratic governor made to reshape the $99 billion two-year state budget Republicans passed last week. Among the vetoes was the majority of the centerpiece of Republican lawmakers' budget plan: a $3.5 billion tax cut that focused relief for the state's wealthiest residents.
Instead, the reshaped budget will provide $175 million in tax relief and won't condense the state's four income tax brackets into three as Republicans proposed, according to the governor.
Evers said last year he would not sign a budget that included tax relief for wealthy residents and GOP lawmakers crafted the budget in a way that would allow him to veto the changes to the top bracket to ensure the entire the budget would not be scrapped, according to Rep. Evan Goyke, the ranking Democratic member of the Legislature's budget-writing committee.
Even so, Republican lawmakers blasted Evers for the move − calling the pair of vetoes to cut the income tax plan and to create permanent increases for schools an assault on taxpayers and going back on his campaign promise to enact a middle-class tax cut. Part of Evers' veto action includes scrapping reductions for residents earning between $36,840 and $405,550 each year.
“Vetoing tax cuts on the top two brackets provides hardly any tax relief for truly middle-class families. His decision also creates another economic disadvantage for Wisconsin, leaving our top bracket higher than most of our neighboring states, including Illinois."
The Republican plan would have reduced the top tax rate of 7.65% to 6.5%, which amounts to a 15% reduction for the top earners in the state who earn as a married couple $405,550 or more annually. The second-highest rate, which covers married filers who earn between $36,840 and $405,550 annually, would have been reduced by about 17%, from 5.3% to 4.4%. Evers vetoed both changes.
He kept in place reductions for the third-highest tax rate which covers those who earn $36,840 and less as a couple. That rate would go from 4.65% to 4.4%, or a 5.4% reduction, and the bottom rate would slightly reduce from 3.54% to 3.5%.
Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August said the move "broke a deal" between Evers and GOP lawmakers on school funding as part of a broader agreement on a separate bill to boost funding for local government that was aimed at saving Milwaukee from entering a fiscal crisis.
“Legislative Republicans worked tirelessly over the last few months to block Governor Evers’ liberal tax and spending agenda. Unfortunately, because of his powerful veto authority, he reinstated some of it today," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a statement.
"After months of good faith negotiations on major budget items, it is unacceptable that he went back on his word and broke our agreement," August said. "It will be difficult, if not impossible, to ever negotiate with this governor again in the future.”
Evers' spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said August "was never part of any conversation the governor had with Republican leaders."
"If he had been, he’d know that the governor upheld every part of the bipartisan compromise reached with the Speaker and the Majority Leader," Cudaback said in a tweet, referring to Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.
Dan Rossmiller, who represents the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, said the permanent annual funding increase was "certainly appreciated." But Rossmiller said the impact of additional funding could vary by district and worried the increase wasn't enough to meet or exceed the rate of inflation for some districts.
"I wish the amount would have been higher," Rossmiller said. "With inflation at 40-year highs, it's really important to be able to attract and retain teachers and staff, and to be able to pay the increased costs of everything in a school district's budget."
