LFB Releases Comparative Summary of Budget Recommendations
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 24, 2019
In case you missed it, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau released its Comparative Summary of Budget Recommendations Last week. See the Public Instruction recommendations here.
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LFB: Just 7 Policy Provisions in JFC Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 24, 2019
From WisPolitics.com …
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau identified just seven policy provisions in the budget that emerged from the Joint Finance Committee.
That’s down from 69 items in the 2017-19 budget approved by the JFC.
Republican lawmakers looked to limit policy added to the proposed budget to avoid giving Gov. Tony Evers room to use his veto pen.
Of the seven included in the proposed budget, four are related to restricting local regulations for quarries, which were added as part of a JFC transportation package.
Another of the identified non-fiscal policy items was also included in the JFC transportation package. It included new requirements for designing highway projects.
The other two items identified in a memo released Friday, include: requiring a report on security around the state Capitol grounds; and deleting a three-year contract limit for the sale of wholesale electricity by a merchant plant to a utility. The provision would apply if the merchant plant has a financial interest in the utility, according to LFB.
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LFB: Property Tax Impacts the Same on JFC, Evers Budgets
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 19, 2019
From WisPolitics.com …
Property taxes on a median-valued home would go up the same amount under the GOP’s budget plan as they would under Gov. Tony Evers’ original proposal, according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis.
That’s despite JFC Republicans last week pumping $58.6 million into the lottery to free up additional money for a tax credit to blunt increases.
JFC Co-chair Rep. John Nygren slammed property tax increases in Evers’ budget in making his closing arguments before the JFC approved its version of the budget last week. He said Evers’ budget would increase taxes 3.6 percent on a median-valued home and “would be the largest increase in property taxes in a decade.”
In a news conference after last week’s vote, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Evers wanted property taxes to increase and that “our budget holds the line on property taxes and keeps them lower than they would have been under Gov. Evers’ proposed plan.”
Quizzed on LFB memo yesterday, the Rochester Republican pivoted to his party’s plan for a middle-class tax cut. Vos highlighted the GOP’s budgetary priority to not raise taxes, which he said the Evers middle-class tax cut plan did.
“I think we were able to achieve our results while spending less, lowering taxes not raising them and doing it in a way that’s sustainable for the long run,” he said.
The median-valued home, worth $166,967 at the end of last year, saw a property tax bill of $2,871.
Under Evers’ budget, that would go up $56 to $2,927 in the first year of Evers’ budget and $48 to $2,975 in the second. Those increases amount to 2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.
Under the Republican-controlled JFC’s budget, the LFB estimated the increases would be the same.
Under current law, the property tax bill for that same home would go up $72 in the first year and $45 in the second.
See the LFB memo here.
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Evers Waiting for Final Budget Before Making Veto Decision
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 18, 2019
From WisPolitics.com …
Gov. Tony Evers yesterday said he will not make a decision on how to use his partial or full veto authority on the state budget until lawmakers present him with a finalized version.
The Joint Finance Committee last week wrapped up its deliberations on the guv’s original proposal. The panel approved a number of GOP-backed measures and largely rejected Evers’ proposals on health care, education and transportation.
The JFC version of the budget now heads to the state Assembly and Senate, where it is expected to be taken up on the floor in the last week of June.
But when quizzed by reporters, Evers refused to tip his hand as to what he plans to do with GOP-backed document.
“At the end of the day, we won’t be making any decisions until we see what comes out of both houses,” he said.
The guv also said he has yet to meet with Republican legislative leaders to negotiate changes to the budget, but added that he plans to reach out to them before the bodies meet to take up the JFC’s proposal.
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JFC Passes State Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 14, 2019
The GOP-led Joint Finance Committee passed its state budget bill yesterday. Check out the recap from Wisconsin Public Radio.
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