(The Center Square) – There is no property tax deal at the Wisconsin Capitol, and the second-in-command in the State Assembly isn’t sure there will be.
Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August told News Talk 1130 WISN on Wednesday that Republicans are willing to talk with Gov. Tony Evers about exchanging property tax relief for more special education funding, but only if the governor ends his 400-year veto that the governor said is crucial for funding schools in the state.
“I’m not certain how serious they actually are about trying to get to a deal when one of the provisions in one of the governor’s proposals was to basically codify in statute his 400-year,” August said. “That is not something that Assembly Republicans are going to do. I’m never going to trade a 400-year property tax increase for a permanent property tax increase.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Tuesday said the framework of the not-yet deal includes spending more than $1 billion of Wisconsin’s $2.5 billion surplus, including:
● $200 million for special education funding.
● $450 million for general school aid next year to buy out the projected statewide school property tax levy.
● $550 million for property tax relief through the School Levy Tax Credit.
● $97.3 million to cover a plan to exempt cash tips from state income taxes
“We’ve been discussing all kinds of different options. We have over $2 billion surplus. We believe that that money should be delivered back to taxpayers, because the issue isn’t that government spent too little. It’s that we taxed too much,” August said. “There’s a lot of discussion about how to get that money back out to taxpayers. Of course, if the governor had his way, if liberals had their way in Madison, they would just spend all of the money on new programs or new money for schools. So that’s really what we’re negotiating against.”
August said there is some support for a property tax relief plan among Senate Republicans, but he didn’t offer a vote count or say if Senators have any must-haves of their own.
Evers is set to deliver his State of State speech next week, and the Assembly is looking to wrap up its business by the end of the month. Lawmakers may not return until the end of the year.
