(The Center Square) – The latest budget battle at the Wisconsin Capitol has little to do with what’s going to be in the state’s next spending plan.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers over the weekend criticized Republicans after they voted to remove a wave of non-budgetary policies from his budget proposal.
“Republicans on the state’s budget committee gutted over 600 provisions that did what’s best for our kids and the folks, families, and communities that raise them,” Evers said. “While Wisconsinites struggle to keep up with rising costs, Republicans are rejecting my plan.”
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos immediately fired back and blamed Evers for his take-it-or-leave-it approach to the state budget.
“Do you think instead of complaining, perhaps you could actually sit down with Republicans and negotiate on the state budget?” Vos asked on social media. “If you don’t want to work with us, stop making these videos and pretending like you’re leading.”
Vos was not the only Republican to criticize.
Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, and Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, were on UpFront on Milwaukee TV and said the governor isn’t talking with Republicans, specifically about the tax cut package Republicans want passed first.
“Right now, the governor doesn’t seem serious about talking about it, and he keeps trying to push it into the budget discussions more,” Born said.
Republicans, including Vos, have said they want to pass a tax cut first as a test of how willing the governor is to work with them.
Republicans at the Capitol have said they have “zero” trust in Evers.
Marklein and Born say it will be hard to regain that trust after the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the governor’s 400-year school funding veto.
Marklein and Born said they are waiting on new revenue numbers from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which are due this week, before they make any spending decisions.

(The Center Square) – A pair of Wisconsin bills that would create treatment courts and commercial courts along with expand access to grants for diversion courts for non-violent offenders related to mental health passed a Senate committee this week.
Senate Bill 153 would make treatment alternatives and diversion grants from the Department of Corrections and the Department of Health Services available for treatment programs for those with a mental illness in cases that don’t involve alcohol and other drug treatment.
Currently, those grants must only go to alcohol and drug treatment programs.
“This bill expands this program to include those who have a mental health diagnosis,” Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, said in a statement on the bills he authored. “According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, 97% of TAD graduates stayed out of state prison after completing their TAD program.”
Senate Bill 80 would allow offenders to voluntarily participate and receive drug treatment services instead of a jail or prison sentence.
While the Wisconsin court system began a pilot commercial court program in 2017, the bill would establish commercial court in state law.
Several varieties of cases must be assigned to the court, including cases regarding governance or internal affairs of a business, the sale of transfer of securities, intellectual property rights, unfair competition or antitrust claims, disputes between franchiser and franchisees, disputes involving the Uniform Commercial Code of $100,000 or more, receiverships over $250,000, real estate or construction disputes over $250,000 and more.
“The lack of specific authorization by state rule or statute leaves their future uncertain,” Jacque said in a statement. “Legislative action to recognize these courts within state statute will put in place a permanent system proven to aid the efficient resolution of commercial disputes and help provide more certainty for our economy.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin is one of 47 states with a teacher apprenticeship program, but its size doesn’t compare with other states and it is a large issue in Wisconsin’s struggle to retain teachers, a new report says.
The Institute for Reforming Government has long been an advocate for a teacher apprenticeship program while Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly has advocated for increased teacher pay as a solution.
Wisconsin’s pilot program includes paying for 50% of the tuition for apprentices along with gaining four years of experience while still graduating in four years.
“States across the nation, red and blue, are solving their educator shortages with teacher apprenticeships. But Wisconsin remains far behind due to a failing pilot program, and it hurts our students, schools, and future educators,” Quinton Klabon, IRG Senior Research Director, said in a statement. “Wisconsin can and should grow its own teacher workforce: solving shortages for schools, lowering costs for teachers, and improving outcomes for kids.”
A recent report from DPI showed that average total compensation for teachers in the state is down $22,000 per year since 2010 in inflation-adjusted dollars while only 26.1% of teachers remained at the same Wisconsin public school for their first seven years of teaching.
There were 3,334 educators who completed the teacher preparation program in the state while there were 2,187 retirements in 2022-23. Of those who competed the program, 79.3% were certified as teachers and 66.6% went on to teach in Wisconsin public schools.
Wisconsin Senate Bill 917 sought to formalize an apprenticeship program and passed the Wisconsin Legislature in the 2023-24 session but the bill was vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers.
Wisconsin currently has zero active teacher apprentices while Tennessee has 610, Nevada has 860, Missouri has 359 and Iowa has 439, according to data used in IRG’s report.
“Wisconsin’s teacher shortage has reached a crisis level,” IRG’s report said. “Rural districts are giving local jobs to out-of-state virtual providers. Urban schools are recruiting overseas. Suburban schools are receiving fewer qualified applicants. Choice schools are closing their doors.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Joint Committee on Finance took 612 items out of Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal Thursday, including Medicaid expansion in the state, department creations and tax exemptions.
Evers and Democrats on the committee pointed to the policy items as spending important to Wisconsin residents on items such as child care, health care, corrections and more.
But Joint Committee on Finance co-chairs Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said that the items taken out of the budget weren’t all bad ideas but many should instead be separate legislation that goes through the normal legislative process, including public hearings and separate votes from each section of the Wisconsin Assembly.
“Unfortunately, he sends us an executive budget that is just piled full of stuff that doesn’t make sense and spends too much, spends recklessly and raises taxes and has way too much policy,” Born said. “So we’ll work from base and the first step of that today is to remove all of that policy in a take-out motion and then have a motion to take us to base and begin the work of rebuilding the budget with a legislative budget for all of Wisconsin.”
Committee member Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha, said that the budget subtractions showed that the Republican Party’s signature both in the state and nationally is to make life more difficult for regular Wisconsin residents.
While the committee began its work, Evers sent out a statement regarding the gutting of his proposed budget, pointing to specific policy items that he believes would help Wisconsin residents.
“While Wisconsinites struggle to keep up with rising costs, Republicans are rejecting my plan to lower out-of-pocket costs on everything from utility bills to over-the-counter medication, including voting against over half a billion dollars in property tax relief to prevent property taxes from going up statewide,” Evers said. “While Wisconsinites are struggling to afford the life-saving healthcare and prescriptions they need, Republicans today are gutting my plan to crack down on health insurers and prescription drug companies, combat prescription drug price gouging, and cap the cost of insulin.
“While working families are struggling to find and afford child care, Republicans today are going to axe my plan to help lower the cost of child care, cut wait times, and get more kids into available child care slots.”
Born pointed to Evers’ plan to spend $325 million to realign the state’s correctional institutions, including closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution in 2029, as the start of a plan that could make sense due to Evers’ acknowledgement that the Green Bay facility should be closed.
But Born also called the actual plan “half-baked” and said that it needs more thought before being implemented.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Senator says President Donald Trump’s tax cut package and budget deal is “big” and “a bill,” but “it’s not beautiful.”
Senator Ron Johnson told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber on Thursday that there is no way he can vote for the “big, beautiful, bill” that Republicans in Congress are crafting.
“I’m not the only one saying I’ve got real problems with this bill,” Johnson said. “But my problem with it is principles.”
Specifically, Johnson said the proposal spends too much.
“I would think one criteria for the one big, beautiful bill would be we wouldn’t add to the deficit,” Johnson added. “Right now, this bill would increase deficit spending. It’s not going to decrease it. It’s going to increase deficit spending.”
Johnson also called the savings in the plan, a “rounding error,” and said the real goal should be for the federal government to get back to pre-pandemic spending levels.
“In 2019 we spent $4.4 trillion, this year we’ll spend over $7 trillion,” Johnson explained. “That’s a 60% increase, basically.”
Johnson’s criticism, and his opposition to more federal spending, aren’t new. He’s been saying the same thing for months.
“You can’t pick off a couple programs, make a few tweaks, do a CBO score, clap your hands, and say ‘We’re done.’ No, you have to literally go through the budget line-by-line-by-line. We don’t do that, obviously we don’t,” Johnson added. “I mean what DOGE has exposed was not only the waste, fraud, and abuse, but how oblivious everyone is to the waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Johnson, however, said he’s ready to support pieces of the ‘big, beautiful bill’ on their own.
“I’ll vote for the border spending, I’ll vote to extend the tax law, but I’m not going to vote on massive new tax cuts that explode our deficit further,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he is not optimistic that the plan will be finalized and passed by the July 4 deadline.

(The Center Square) – The Madison Police Department has arrested the father of the Abundant Life Christian School shooter and have charged him with contributing to the delinquency of a child and providing a dangerous weapon to someone under 18 resulting in death.
Jeffrey Rupnow, 42, was arrested in the early morning hours Thursday and his arrest record was unsealed in the afternoon.
Both 42-year-old teacher Erin West and 14-year-old student Rubi Vergara were shot and killed at the school on Dec. 16 along with the shooter, who died from self-inflicted wounds.
Police determined the freshman shooter opened fire in a mixed grade study hall classroom. Two guns were found at the school but only one – a handgun – was used in the shooting, according to Madison Police.

(The Center Square) – A new lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s congressional maps has been filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court with Elias Law Group representing nine Wisconsin voters.
The challenge claims that the current maps are gerrymandered, leaving the state with two Democrats in Congress despite Democrats winning state offices such as governor and a recent state supreme court race.
“Wisconsin voters deserve congressional districts that ensure all voices and viewpoints are fairly represented,” Elias Law Group partner Abha Khanna said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Wisconsin’s current congressional map has unfairly rewarded Republicans with a significant electoral advantage and will continue to do so for the remainder of the decade. Wisconsin voters should not have to endure another election cycle under unconstitutional district lines, and we are proud to represent voters who are calling on the court to strike down this illegal map.”
The challenge was expected by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which wrote a statement in early April about how such a challenge would be unconstitutional.
“The narrative that Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election would determine control of the House of Representatives was created by political operatives on both sides for fundraising and to drive turnout in the election,” WILL wrote in a memo on the topic. “Now that the dust has settled, while it is certainly a possibility that the Wisconsin Supreme Court will again be asked to re-draw Wisconsin’s congressional district maps before the next census, it is clear that such a legal challenge would have to overcome a number of significant hurdles.”
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, claims the maps violate equal protection.
“Wisconsin’s congressional map is antithetical to virtually every principle necessary to sustain a representative democracy,” the lawsuit says. “It impermissibly disadvantages voters based on their political views and partisan affiliation, systematically disfavoring Democrats because they are Democrats.”

(The Center Square) – A bill that would create a tax benefit extension for a potential data center project in Port Washington will now also include Beaver Dam.
Assembly Bill 175 allows for an exception to the 12% rule related to tax increment financing districts, which allow business owners within the district to keep the additional property taxes they would have paid for building out a project and use those funds toward building improvements.
The rule says that not more than 12% of the property value in a district can be part of a TIF. A new potential $80 million Cloverleaf data center is being discussed for the area.
Currently, just less than 8% of the property value in Port Washington is in a TIF, allowing for more than $137.7 million of value under current state law.
Meta is discussing a nearly $1 billion data center in Beaver Dam, Bloomberg reported.
Incentives for data centers are often opposed because, despite the large amount of money spent on the buildings, they do not require much staff and they take a large amount of energy.
A group of Republican lawmakers in the state are pushing a $2.25 million nuclear study to increase the state’s energy capacity.
During discussions of the nuclear siting, Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, said that a new Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant would use the same amount of energy as the city of Madison and the Cloverleaf project in Port Washington would use the same amount of power as the entire city of Los Angeles.
Pat Garofalo, the director of state and local policy at the American Economic Liberties Project, recently compared states losing money on TV and film tax credits to those now offering tax incentives for data centers.
He wrote that “some of the earliest adopters, most prominently Virginia (which has been subsidizing data centers since 2008), looking at costs that are set to spiral out of control and negative knock-on effects in the local communities that host data centers multiplying.”
A least 10 states are currently losing $100 million or more in taxes from data centers, according to an April report from Good Jobs First.
“As the end users of building materials, machinery, and equipment, data center companies would normally pay sales and use taxes,” the report states. “States, however, exempt those purchases, making these exemptions the costliest state subsidies for data centers. Because server farms are extremely capital intensive and require replacement of servers every two to five years when they wear out, these exemptions are lucrative for companies and costly for states and localities.”