(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ decision to veto a Brillion marsh dredging project from the 2025-27 Wisconsin biennial budget is under fire, as Republican lawmakers say the rural farmers they represent could now be at risk of flooding.
The Legislature’s budget originally required the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to give $70,000 towards dredging the Brillion marsh to assist more than 100 farmers and other residents along the Manitowoc River who face annual flooding due to river backup, according to Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, and Rep. Ron Tusler, R-Harrison.
However, Evers vetoed the provision over lawmakers’ decision to discontinue the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship program in the budget, according to his veto message.
“Gov. Evers approved funding in the budget for multiple similar DNR earmarks, including the Kewaunee Marsh within my district,” Jacque said in a statement. “The governor chose to play games at the expense of Brillion to score political points.”
The Stewardship program that Evers cited previously gave $500,000 annually toward facilities, recreation projects and habitat restoration projects.
Jacque said Evers is “targeting” Brillion specifically over the Stewardship program cut, citing the Browns Lake dredging, Green Lake Sediment Inactivation, and Echo Lake and Rothschild Dams as examples of other DNR projects Evers allowed to stay in the budget.
According to Jacque and Tusler, the veto leaves the original $70,000 in place with “no statutory guidance on how to use it.”
They said the provision would have gone to providing “long-overdue relief” to farmers along the Manitowoc River who suffer “thousands of dollars in crop damage each year.”
Additionally, the funds would have helped reopen the Brillion Marsh to kayakers and visitors.
Jacque and Tusler said this is the second budget they have submitted funding requests for this project.
Calumet County, where the Brillion marsh is, has reported five instances of property damage related to floods or flash floods since 2010, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture previously declared a disaster in Calumet County after flooding caused the county to lose 30% of its strawberry crop in 2017.

(The Center Square) – Politicos across Pennsylvania are reacting with a mix of triumph, anger and despair following the passage of the federal budget resolution.
Once enacted, the law will support a massive expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, make sweeping cuts to programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, offer huge tax breaks and, many say, fundamentally change the nation while increasing the national debt.
Ahead of yesterday’s vote, the commonwealth’s highest elected official, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, warned, “the bill Congressional Republicans are rushing to pass would have devastating impacts on Pennsylvania.”
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis shared his sentiment, calling the bill “absurdly cruel and unconscionable.”
The governor highlighted Republican-led districts, noting how many would lose health care coverage in each. In total, over 300,000 Pennsylvanians are expected to lose Medicaid and about half as many to lose SNAP.
In staunch Trump ally Rep. Scott Perry’s Central Pennsylvania district, the number exceeds 18,700. Perry did ultimately vote for the bill, despite initial misgivings about the increased debt it presents.
Perry’s fellow Republican House member Rep. Ryan Mackenzie issued a press release detailing the gains he saw for his constituents.
“As we began this term, we understood what the people of the Greater Lehigh Valley were counting on: lower costs, a stronger economy, secure borders, and policies that put America First,” said Mackenzie. “In the face of relentless opposition from those who advocated for the largest tax increase in American history and a return to open borders, we’ve passed a budget that holds firm and keeps our promise to the American people.”
Mackenzie’s colleague across the aisle, progressive Democrat Rep. Summer Lee of Pittsburgh, voted against the bill.
“This is a deliberate choice to make life harder for working families here in Western Pennsylvania and across the country, to strip dignity from our seniors, to push children and parents deeper into poverty and hunger,” wrote Lee. “I will continue doing everything in my power to mitigate the harm and fight back against this fascist regime.”
The state’s Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick posted to X, “Congratulations to @POTUS for putting his vision into action and to Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson for putting so much of that agenda in one bill.”
McCormick highlighted tax relief, border security, “energy dominance,” defense, and school choice as wins in the bill, saying, “These are the policies I promised to pass and they’ll make a real difference for the people of Pennsylvania.”
In terms of energy dominance, recent claims that China has pulled away from the U.S. to become the global leader have roiled the states. Some believe the best answer is to double down on the nation’s wealth of fossil fuel resources, while others insist that Biden-era clean energy incentives were key to keeping up with competitors.
Pennsylvania state representative and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia posted to BlueSky, “The budget Republicans passed is a death knell to healthcare for 17 million Americans, will send kids to school hungry, hurt seniors, raise our energy prices and the list goes on. All to give a tax break to the ultra rich. And they are (expletive) celebrating it. VOTE THEM OUT!!!”
His account featured a screenshot of a since-deleted X post from Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden which seemed to cheer the loss of safety nets for millions.
Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, wrote, “I am disgusted that on the eve of our nation’s celebration of independence and triumph over tyranny, that Republicans in Congress have risked American freedom by thrusting us back under the control of an authoritarian leader; pledging their allegiance to Donald Trump and ignoring the people they represent.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, a Republican, posted a graphic on X from the White House celebrating the tax breaks, defense spending, clean energy rollbacks, and immigration enforcement afforded by the bill.
Of the Medicaid cuts, she wrote, “Don’t let the media gaslight you. PA’s Medicaid programs are spiraling out of control — and taxpayers are stuck with the bill. Enrollment has more than doubled to over 3 million residents, despite the state experiencing out-migration & population growth.”
Her Democratic colleague from Philadelphia, Sen. Nikil Saval, wrote that the bill “is a legislative abomination.”
“People who would do this to their neighbors and fellow Americans cannot meaningfully be said to be ‘public servants.’ The divorce between what the American people want, and what their representatives delivered, is total, wrote Saval. “Americans across the country are opposed to this bill, on every count and every measure.”
Outside of the legislature, Americans have had a mixed but largely negative response to the bill. One poll from KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, showed a majority of Americans viewed the bill unfavorably, including most non-MAGA Republicans.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s new budget includes $5 million that will re-start the state’s film tax credits and create a state film office as part of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.
Advocates, including Gov. Tony Evers, have pushed the tax credits as a way to have more movies and television shows film in the state, saying that will increase the amount of money spent by film production crews in Wisconsin.
But economists who have studied the tax credits believe they are simply a way to divert taxpayer funds to a specific industry.
Economist J.C. Bradbury of Georgia’s Kennesaw State University extensively studied Georgia’s larger film credit program, writing in a peer-reviewed paper that the state spent $230 per household on foregone tax revenue because of the initiative, which has cost taxpayers the equivalent of $110,000 per full-time job in the industry without bringing the promised benefits from the program.
The Wisconsin film tax credit would be applied to 25% of income paid to Wisconsin residents up to $250,000 apiece and for 25% of film-related expenses in the state and credits for acquiring or improving property that wasn’t owned before Dec. 31, 2025.
The budget inclusion was applauded by the advocacy group Action! Wisconsin, which pushed for the incentives and said that they will be crucial when production companies are deciding where to film.
“This budget provides a great start to growing Wisconsin’s film and tv industry, strengthening our overall economy, and showcasing our state on screens large and small across the country and the world,” said Katie Heil, founding member of Action! Wisconsin.
The tax credit excludes live sports productions, news, awards ceremonies and more.

(The Center Square) – Despite Republican Assembly leaders and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers having reached a budget deal to appropriate the interest earnings from unspent COVID-19 relief funds toward budget initiatives, Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, claims there is still $4 million unaccounted for.
The current 2025-27 Wisconsin biennial budget, signed into law by Evers early Thursday morning, accounts for only $171 million of the interest earnings, which Wimberger said has now ballooned up to $175 million.
While $170 million will fund key budget initiatives, with most of it dedicated to child care, the remaining $4 million will continue to accrue interest if left in Evers’ Department of Administration.
In other words, the budget deal, which Wimberger previously said “probably solves a potential constitutional crisis,” has not securely ended the months-long fight over the governor’s “slush fund.”
“State law makes it clear that the $175 million slush fund accrued by Governor Evers was illegal,” Wimberger said in a statement to The Center Square. “The legislature must be the body to appropriate these funds, and the Governor concedes this point in the budget agreement.”
As co-chair of the Audit Committee, Wimberger said he would continue to monitor the amount of interest accrued until all the federal COVID-19 relief money is spent.
Additionally, his office affirmed that he will continue to advance the legislation co-authored with Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia, to ensure that CSLFRF interest money left unspent gets transferred into the treasury.
In the budget, $115 million of the interest earnings went to fund child care initiatives, while another $50 million went to support a building commission grant program.
Also, $5 million goes to a food security grant program and another $1 million goes to a UW-Green Bay high school college credit program.
Joint Finance Committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, previously said in an interview with The Center Square that negotiating with Evers to put the money towards actual budget initiatives was better than leaving it up to Evers’ discretion or a court fight.
“In our discussions with the governor, we continued to find ways to make investments – preferably one-time investments – to get the money used for something so it didn’t just become a slush fund that he was just gonna try to control,” Born said.
The budget appropriations, in total, leave $171 million accounted for of the $175 million, the majority of which went to Evers’ highest child care priorities.
However, a growing $4 million in interest earnings remains with the DOA.
According to federal law, all CSLFRF funds most be expended by December 31, 2026.
That gives Evers until then to hand over or expend the remaining $4 million.
Additionally, Wimberger criticized Evers’ decision to veto four new auditors for the Legislative Audit Bureau from the budget, saying it underscores his “bad policies.”
“As Audit Committee co-chair, we’ve been able to uncover a $175 million slush fund, administrative bloat at the UW System, discriminatory DEI policies across state government, and major dysfunction at the Department of Public Instruction,” Wimberger said in a statement. “Vetoing funding for new auditors is simply the Governor’s attempt to stifle good government oversight of his bad policies.”
However, Evers stated his only reason for having vetoed the positions was that “the Legislative Audit Bureau currently has sufficient funding and position authority to fulfill its role,” according to the governor’s veto message.
Evers’ office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment at the time of publication.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers used a partial veto to remove Green Bay Correctional Institution’s closure date from the 2025-27 Wisconsin biennial budget early Thursday morning.
The Legislature had made a $15 million budget investment into plans that would lead to the closure of the maximum-security prison by 2029.
Evers, however, contended the budget provided “no real, meaningful, or concrete plan” to close the institution within that timeframe and, while he did not veto the $15 million investment, removed the 2029 deadline.
“As of this writing, there are 1,133 people at Green Bay Correctional Institution; the Legislature provides nowhere for these maximum-security-status individuals to go if Green Bay Correctional Institution is closed,” Evers wrote in his veto message.
Evers stated the budget gave the 362 people working at the prison nowhere to go when the prison was to close.
Also, he pointed out that while Wisconsin can physically house 17,638 individuals at its correctional institutions, there are currently 23,375 total people living in Department of Corrections institutions in the state, including temporary and overflow settings.
The governor’s bottom line is that the Legislature’s budget provided “no steps whatsoever to stabilize the state’s skyrocketing prison population.”
Although the 2029 closure date was vetoed, the $15 million budget plan will still go towards site surveys, architectural blueprints, cost estimates and preparatory groundwork necessary before any physical closure or construction begins.
According to a DOC report, the prison operates on an annual budget of $39 million, but the prison’s operating cost in 2024 alone was more than $54 million, another report says.
Evers and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have sought to close the prison for years, citing a dangerous environment for both officers and inmates inmates, as well as the expensive cost to upkeep the 19th-century facility.
However, the veto would effectively extend the prison’s annual operating costs indefinitely until a concrete closure date is adopted.
Instead of setting a hard deadline, Evers advocated for a “domino” series of facility changes and modernization efforts across Wisconsin’s prisons to limit prison-building.
The plan, outlined in Evers’ previous proposed budget, would have included a $3.7 million plan to expand the Earned Released Program to include “educational, vocational, treatment or other qualifying training programs.”
Evers argued that expanding workforce training for eligible prisoners might reduce the likelihood that released inmates might reoffend.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, however, pushed back on Evers’ claims.
“Governor Evers’ veto is a signal he is not interested in very simple facility management to solve the GBCI question,” Wimberger said in a statement.
According to Wimberger, closing GBCI is “doable by 2029” if Wisconsin converts and expands existing facilities, like the Lincoln Hills facility, to take more medium-security inmates currently housed in maximum-security prisons because of overcrowding.
Additionally, Evers’ “domino” plan to expand the Earned Release Program would only increase threats to public safety, according to Wimberger.
“Evers’ plan for medium-security inmates would let thousands of dangerous criminals into our neighborhoods in the coming years,” Wimberger said.
“Wisconsin learned soft-on-crime policies were harmful in decades past,” Wimberger said. “There is a better path to closing GBCI than to let robbers and carjackers out into neighborhoods early with a slap on the wrist and some job training, as Governor Evers desperately wants.”
Evers still emphasized his desire to see the prison closed with bipartisan support.
“Green Bay Correctional Institution should close – on that much, the Legislature and I agree,” he said. “It simply is not responsible or tenable to require doing so by a deadline absent a plan to actually accomplish that goal by the timeline set.”
Evers concluded that the conversation will have to move forward in the coming weeks and months so that both sides can find common ground for a plan to close the prison within the Legislature’s 2025-27 session.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s hospitals are much more focused on the money they will get under the new state budget than the money they’re going to have to pay.
Included in the plan that Gov. Tony Evers signed early Thursday morning is a large increase in the tax that hospitals across Wisconsin pay. The hospital assessment is going from 1.8% to the maximum 6%.
But the Wisconsin Hospital Association on Thursday praised the new state budget, because that higher tax is going to be used to grab more money from Washington, D.C. to boost Medicaid funding in the state.
“This increased funding will help hospitals sustain and expand access to care for patients across Wisconsin when one-third of the state’s hospitals are operating at a deficit, driven by $1.6 billion in losses from Medicaid reimbursement,” WHA President and CEO Kyle O’Brien said in a statement.
O’Brien called the Medicaid money capture “unprecedented.”
The boost to Medicaid reimbursement comes at a critical time for Wisconsin hospitals. The WHA recently released a report that said over a third of hospitals in the state are operating at a loss. The report added that higher than affordable Medicaid costs were one of the driving reasons.
The hospitals are also praising the new budget’s new fee schedule for work-related injuries.
Lawmakers and the governor came to terms on a new workers; comp deal that will set payments across the state.
“Under the budget bill, worker’s compensation insurance carriers and self-funded employers would be given a different maximum rate of reimbursement for certain hospital services if they reimburse a hospital claim promptly,” Brien explained. “This timely payment reform to the worker’s compensation system is something that hospitals have sought for years, as worker’s compensation carriers are often the slowest to reimburse a hospital for care provided to injured workers.”
Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Walworth, said while there will be more Medicaid money flowing to hospitals under the new state budget, Wisconsin is not expanding Medicaid or adding anyone new to the rolls.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed the state’s budget into law in the early morning hours Thursday after the state Legislature passed the bill during sessions that spanned all of Wednesday with the Assembly running into early Thursday.
State leaders rushed to complete the bill before a federal reconciliation bill was signed to set funding levels for a hospital assessment program that leads to federal funding for the state. That funding mechanism was the reason Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, pointed out when voting against the budget bill.
Overall, the budget bill included $114.2 billion over two years with $3.2 billion of that coming from bonds.
“This budget is also a reflection of bipartisan compromise – that means everyone gets something they want, and no one gets everything they want,” Evers said in a statement after signing the bill around 1:30 a.m. “I spent months working together with Republican leaders to reach common ground and find consensus.”
The budget includes a $1.4 billion tax cut measure along with increased funding for child care, K-12 education and the University of Wisconsin System.
The budget includes expanding Wisconsin’s second income tax bracket of 4.4% for all filers and exempting the first $24,000 of retirement income for those who are at least 67 before the end of a tax year with a maximum exemption of $48,000 for married couples.
Evers pointed to $360 million for child care including $110 million in direct payments to child care providers, $66 million to fund a new “Get Kids Ready” program for providers who work with 4-year-olds and $123 million to increase rates under the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program to lower out-of-pocket child care costs for working families.
“Wisconsin is a purple state,” Evers said. “At the end of the day, it is my job as governor to get things done, and it is my job to be a governor for the whole state. I made a promise to always work to do the right thing for Wisconsin. And I believe working together to find common ground so we can pass a bipartisan budget that reflects the will of the people of this state is part of keeping that promise.”
Evers said that he used his veto power to block some areas of the budget that were not included in negotiations with Republican legislative leaders.
Felzkowki said that she voted against the budget because it relied on a gimmick in the Hospital Assessment and Access Payments provision where hospitals pay in $419 million per year and those funds are used to leverage additional federal funds, which go back to hospitals with hospitals receiving $679.9 million and the state receiving $150.4 million.
“To help cover the $12 billion spending increase in this budget, Republican Legislative Leaders and Gov. Evers are maxing out this gimmick,” Felzkowski said. “The budget increases the amount hospitals pay in to $1.5 billion per year, meaning they get almost $2.7 billion back (netting over $1.1 billion annually).
“Additionally, the state receives $448 million. Where does the $1.5 billion hospitals pay in come from? The cost is passed on to patients.”
The deal also included $1.4 billion increase in funding for K-12 schools and a $256 million increase for the University of Wisconsin system.

When I think of my neighboring state to the north, Wisconsin, I generally reflect on how much I despise the Green Bay Packers. However, more recently, I’ve been watching in abject horror as the Badger State becomes yet another victim of the climate alarmist green transition.
Meet Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who is certain that climate change is causing doom in his state, despite a total lack of evidence.
According to Evers, “The climate crisis is taking an undeniable toll on the health, safety, and economic well-being of folks across our state. The livelihood of Wisconsin farmers is in danger with extreme and unpredictable weather taking a toll on crops and production, our state’s tourism industry and economy depends on our vast and valuable natural resources, and as health professionals have indicated, the health of our people depends on the health of the environments they live in.”
Based on this false premise, which will be debunked below, Evers has launched an ambitious “Clean Energy Plan.”
“Every Wisconsinite – whether they live in the Driftless, the Central Sands, the Northwoods, or in the heart of our urban areas – has experienced the effects of climate change in one way or another, and reducing carbon emissions and bolstering clean energy opportunities will remain a priority for me as long as I am governor,” Evers declared.
“We don’t have to choose between mitigating climate change and protecting our environment and good-paying jobs and affordable energy. Wisconsin is ready for bold and urgent solutions that will stop treating these goals as mutually exclusive – we can and will do both,” he added.
Under his Clean Energy Plan, Wisconsin will become “100 percent carbon-free by 2050,” fulfill “the carbon reduction goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement,” reduce “disproportionate impacts of energy generation and use on low-income communities and communities of color,” maximize “the creation of, and equitable opportunities for, clean energy jobs,” and prioritize “health equity, environmental justice, and equitable economic development.”
The problem is that this plan would put Wisconsin back into the Stone Age. And it would litter the state’s pristine landscapes with big, ugly, bird-killing windmills and solar panels. It would also cause residents of the Badger State to pay through the nose for electricity and gasoline, if internal-combustion engine vehicles are still allowed in Wisconsin years from now.
The most whacky part of all this climate alarmism and fantasies of a quick and easy green transition in Wisconsin is that the state is thriving due to modest recent warming.
This is not speculation, it is based on empirical data.
As my colleague, Linnea Lueken, notes in a new climate profile of Wisconsin, “According to USDA data, Wisconsin’s corn grain production, which includes corn for human and animal consumption, as well as ethanol production, has increased 45 percent since 1990, and soybean production rose an astounding 477 percent in that same period.”
“Harmful climate change is not evident in Wisconsin’s weather, climate, or agricultural data. Winter temperatures are not quite as cold, which benefits human health, not harms it. Neither flood nor tornado trends are worsening. Modest warming has boosted agricultural output, benefiting Wisconsin farmers and consumers,” the report concludes.
Regardless of these indisputable facts, Evers continues to plow forward with his Clean Energy Plan.
Even if Evers is right, his assertion that his Clean Energy Plan “will improve the reliability and affordability of the energy system” is flat-out wrong.
In “Affordable, Reliable, and Clean: An Objective Scorecard to Assess Competing Energy Sources,” Heartland Institute President James Taylor notes, “Affordable, reliable, and clean are the foundational elements of sound energy policy. An in-depth analysis of seven common electrical power sources reveals that natural gas makes the most sense according to the affordable, reliable, and clean standard, with nuclear, hydro, and coal not far behind. Biomass trails by a moderate margin while wind and solar stand apart as the least desirable power sources.”
Moreover, it must be emphasized that so-called green energy is not good for the environment when the totality of its manufacturing process is taken into account.
In sum, it looks like all is well in Wisconsin. There is no pending climate catastrophe.
The real imminent threat comes from climate alarmists like Gov. Evers, who know that their harebrained green energy transition will make life a whole lot worse for residents of the Badger State while destroying huge swaths of beautiful, untouched land.