In signing Wisconsin’s new two-year spending plan Wednesday, Democrat Governor Tony Evers liberally applied his veto pen to the Republican-crafted biennial budget, gutting a $3.5 billion tax cut proposal that had reduced the state’s tax brackets and delivered relief for all taxpayers.
Republicans blasted the governor for his 51 partial vetoes, including a particularly sneaky one that changed the meaning of funding for schools to a four-century commitment. The constitutionally suspect move would bind future legislatures to increase school aid to a whopping $325 per student through the year 2425.
“With just a few strokes of his powerful veto pen, Evers gutted legislative Republicans’ $3.5 billion income tax cut and reduced it by 95%. Wisconsin’s middle-class families and small businesses across the state will no longer see meaningful tax relief,” said state Senator Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville) in a press release.
“To add insult to injury, Evers’ used his Frankenstein veto authority to loosen property tax limitations for K-12 schools through year 2425, which will result in significant increases in the property tax bills of Wisconsin homeowners in the future.”
So the Republicans’ historic tax cut melted to just $175 million in actual relief.
In his budget signing message Wednesday, Evers decried the Republicans’ tax cut plan, which he claimed would most benefit the wealthiest Wisconsinites. The liberal governor said he was giving the Republican-controlled legislature a “second chance” to “do the right thing.”
“I am using my broad, constitutional veto authority to ensure ample state resources are readily available for the Legislature to complete their work on this budget—to do the right thing, to rise to meet this moment of historic opportunity and responsibility, and to focus on passing real solutions for the urgent challenges facing our state,” he said.
In short, spend more money.
The Republican-crafted $99 billion biennial budget, which passed along party lines last month, cut some $6 billion from Evers’ original spending plan. It also included a signature tax cut and reform package that would have consolidated Wisconsin’s four tax brackets into three. While the highest-income earners and taxpayers would have seen significant tax relief, so, too, would middle-income earners.
State Representative Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said Evers’ partial veto means those with truly middle-class incomes will see negligible reductions in their tax bill.
“Families making $50,000 per year, struggling to make ends meet due to the record-high inflation of the past few years, will now receive practically no tax relief thanks to Governor Evers,” Born said.
“And eliminating the income tax cut on hardworking Wisconsinites wasn’t enough for Governor Evers—his budget vetoes will massively increase property taxes on the same families. In total, this veto could have the impact of increasing property taxes by billions of dollars.”
The governor was miffed that Republicans didn’t take up his proposed $1.2 billion tax cut plan that provided more funding for earners with limited tax liabilities. In the end, he got little of what he sought, and Republicans got practically nothing at all in tax reform.
But the two sides sure did spend a fortune, including an additional $1 billion on a k-12 public education system that has led Wisconsin’s students into embarrassingly low achievement rates.
Republicans celebrated some victories, like historic funding for the parental school choice program — at least for now. But Evers’ veto gimmicks in the current budget, as in his previous two, show he’s not opposed to double-dealing.
“Unfortunately, Gov. Evers revealed himself to be dishonest in his negotiations with his line-item vetoes of our budget,” said State Representative Barb Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) in a press release. “He wasted more of Wisconsinites hard-earned dollars by finding ways to restore funding of gender transition surgery via Medicaid and restoring 188 DEI positions in the UW System.” She noted Evers’ signed budget devotes a minuscule .0025 percent of the state’s nearly $7 billion surplus to tax relief.
“Sadly, the damage caused by Gov. Evers behavior outweighs the good things Republicans negotiated in good faith in this budget,” Dittrich added. “Wisconsin will continue with some of the most onerous taxes in the country, chasing both good businesses and residents to better environment.”
Republicans didn’t say whether they would attempt to override Evers’ vetoes. They hold a supermajority in the State Senate, but are a few seats shy of the votes needed in the Assembly.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Tony Evers” and Background Photo “Budget Signing Ceremony” by Tony Evers.
