Democratic Wisconsin governor guts Republican tax cut before signing state budget

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) gutted a GOP tax cut before signing off on a two-year state spending plan Wednesday.

Evers used his constitutional veto power to reduce the income tax cut included in the budget passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature from $3.5 billion to $175 million, and did away with tax cuts for the highest two income brackets entirely.

In all, Evers made over 50 line-item vetoes to the budget, calling the version sent to him by the legislature “imperfect and incomplete.”

In a veto message, Evers said the line-item vetoes, which address affordable housing, child care and other priorities, give the legislature a “second chance” by ensuring “ample state resources are readily available for the Legislature to complete their work on this budget.”

“In many ways, Republicans in the Legislature have failed to meet this historic moment, sending my budget back to my desk absent critical investments in key areas that they know — and publicly acknowledge — are essential to the success of our state, all while providing no real justification, substantive debate, or any meaningful alternative,” Evers said. “That decision is, to put it simply, an abdication of duty.”

The governor used his veto authority to increase the amount of money K-12 schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425. Evers took the $325 a year increase applied to the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and deleted the “20” to make the end date “2425”

In addition, the budget also gives the University of Wisconsin System the ability to retain 188 positions that “had been targeted by the Legislature for work remotely related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” per a press release from the governor’s office.

Evers acknowledged the frustration his partial vetoes would cause, but said he could not abandon priorities he has advocated for years by instead vetoing the budget in full.

“It would mean leaving schools and communities in the lurch after rightfully securing historic increases for the first time in years; it would mean forgoing the first real and substantive Republican effort to address PFAS after years of inaction; it would mean forfeiting one of the largest investments in workforce housing in state history; it would mean deserting our justice system and state workforces, our tourism industries, our farmers and producers, and our veterans, among others,” he said.

The Hill has reached out to GOP Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly Robin Vos for comment.

The biennial budget, covering the years from 2023 to 2025, makes an investment of $1 billion per year in public education, per the press release.

This isn’t the first time Wisconsin governors, both Republican and Democrat, have used partial vetoes to shape the state budget. Former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson issued a record 457 partial vetoes in 1991, per Yahoo News.