>> Billions of dollars separate Republican state
budget provisions from the two year spending plan.
Governor Tony Evers first introduced last night. The
Joint Finance Committee voted to increase K-12
school funding by $336 million. That's $3 billion
less than Evers called for. On special education
funding, Republican budget writers targeted $228
million, putting the percentage of state funding
going to schools for those services at 37.5%. In the
second year, far short of the 60%. Evers and Advocates
wanted. On income tax cuts, Republicans expanded the
second lowest bracket, taxed at 4.4% to single filers,
making up to about $50,000. That's up from those making
30,000. They also included $700 million in tax cuts for
retirees with an income tax exclusion for the first
$24,000 of income for filers 67 years or older. For more
on all of this, we go to senior political reporter
Zac Schultz at the Capitol and Halzack.
>> Hello, Fred. >> So that's quite a gulf in
K-12 spending between Republican budget riders and
Evers. >> Yeah, that is a big gulf.
And the question that remains to be seen is how
Governor Evers will take this when this budget
eventually gets to his desk. We had known all along that
there was going to be a big gulf between what he wanted
and what Republicans would agree to, but this is even
bigger than what we had thought at first, simply
because they're not funding any of the per pupil aides
that Governor Evers created in his partial veto of the
last budget. Remember the 400 year veto that increased
per pupil funding by $325 a kid per year for 400 years?
The Supreme Court held that up as legal, but Republicans
did not put any state money behind that, so it will be
up to individual school districts to their levy will
be increased. But you have to then decide if they want
to raise property taxes to gather all that revenue for
operations. >> On special education
funding, the majority raised the percentage of funding
coming from the state from 33% to 37, and a half
percent in the second year, but that again is far short
of what Evers and Advocates wanted.
>> Yeah, and we've been covering this on "Here& Now"
for quite a few years about that shortfall in special
education funding coming from both the state and the
federal government. Neither have held up their end of
the bargain for what they promised, dating back to the
70s. And IT school districts that are left picking up the
pieces, and they're the ones who have to figure out how
do we provide the services to these special needs kids.
And often they end up taking it out of general dollars.
That would serve the rest in all of the student body.
Often that's the driver for a lot of these districts
going to referendum over the last decade is they simply
need more money to fund don't give the money, that's
guaranteed to these special education students, they can
be sued. And quite often they have been. As more and
more parents and advocates say go fight for the rights
of your child, it's the school districts that have
to find the money to make up for it. Now, this is an
increase in Republicans are saying this is well above
where it's been in recent years and decades, and even
dating back to when Governor Evers was the secretary of
education at DEI. This is above what he was
requesting, but it's still far short of what Democrats
would like to see now. >> On tax cuts. It's $1.3
billion to expand the second lowest tax bracket. And for
retirement income tax cuts. Now, this wouldn't seem to
be something that the governor would oppose with
his veto pen. Right? >> No. These tax cuts
definitely feel more in line with what Governor Evers has
proposed over his first four budgets versus what
Republicans have passed in their first three budgets,
which were targeted toward higher end earners in
Governor Evers vetoed all of those. This time around, if
you remember, back in December, Assembly Speaker
Robin Vos said he wanted to know for sure what Governor
Evers would sign into law for tax cuts rather than see
a veto come out. When Republicans propose their
budget. He wanted to pass a separate bill. That didn't
happen, but they did enter into negotiations that went
on for apparently nearly a month between the upper
leadership of Republicans and Evers and his staff. And
it has the feeling of the result that comes into this
budget feels sounds like what Governor Evers may have
agreed to. I spoke to some staffers for Democrats, and
the negotiations, but they got the sense that this was
in line with what Governor Evers had said. So if that's
the case, Republicans went into negotiations, found out
what Evers could support in terms of tax cuts on his
end, put it in the budget, and now they're not giving
Evers what he wanted in terms of education and
basically daring him to say, veto this budget, if you
will. But it does have a little more money for
cuts that, in theory, fit more with who you want to
see tax cuts go for. Typically lower income
people. >> So next week the Joint
Finance Committee is taking up corrections and the UW
system. How big ticket are those.
>> Well those could be very big ticket. UW has not
received nearly as much in recent budgets as they have
asked for. They continue to ask for hundreds of millions
of dollars. And Republicans have not been giving it to
them. Could they see more of this time? We don't know.
Corrections. Obviously, Governor Evers has asked for
a lot of money to completely rearrange the corrections
down the green Bay facility eventually. We don't know
what that will look like. And there's one more. The
Department of Children and Families, which could
include any child care subsidies that could go out
providers and parents. That was one of the things that
Evers and his team were negotiating. So we don't
know where that will fall is left. So some big ticket
items that could include some money or might include
nothing, we don't really know, but we are keeping on
track for having this budget get done. Near the end of
June. budget writers have made
this document veto proof? Do you suppose?
>> Well, nothing's veto proof because Governor Evers
can still lower dollar amounts and make these tax
cuts smaller or eliminate entire sections, as he
likely will for some of the provisions that are put in
there. But they're going to make it much more difficult
for him to create new language, as he did with
that 400 year veto. We were talking about in education
from the last budget. >> All right, Zac Schultz,