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Madison, Wisconsin (AP) — The Wisconsin Republican who controls the state legislature is newly reelected on tax cuts, how to fund local government, and whether to extend private school choice programs to wealthy families. Poised to clash with Democratic Governor Tony Evers.
But Evers and Republicans have a better relationship over the next few years than Evers’ first term, in which the governor saw a cast, despite being on opposite sides on issues like abortion and pushing for a flat income tax rate. We are also talking about building a Most vetoes in state history.
“I think I’m a pretty rational person,” Evers told the Associated Press when asked how he plans to work with Republicans in the next Congress. I’ll see you sometime.”
Evers’ meeting with Republicans is itself a change from the last four years, when Evers had barely spoken to Republican legislative leaders, let alone negotiated them. Evers and Congress Speaker Robin Voss met privately for the first time in two years at the governor’s mansion on Friday.
“I’m tired of fighting,” Voss said in a pre-meeting interview. tries not to draw an ultra-bright line in the sand.
Still, Evers has already made it clear that he opposes many of the things Republicans say they want to do during the two-year congressional session that begins Jan. 3.
Evers opposed the Republican-preferred flat income tax rate, opposed expanding school choice programs, and the 1849 bill to maintain the state’s abortion ban allowed exceptions, even though they are not currently in force. As well as promised to refuse. He would like to see the law completely repealed.
Evers’ re-election victory virtually guarantees that Wisconsin’s election laws cannot be reworked for the 2024 presidential election as Republicans hope. Still, both sides could approve some changes, including allowing absentee ballots to be processed before Election Day and increasing the security of absentee ballots for military members. I agree with you.
Evers and Republican and Democratic legislative leaders have all said they want to build better partnerships in this session.
“I hope this session will be different from the last one, with new opportunities to advance substantive policy,” said Greta Neubauer, Democratic Congressional Minority Leader.Republicans toward its policy goals outside of conversations with the majority.
Republicans won a majority in Congress last year, falling short of a supermajority capable of overriding Evers’ veto, but even if they lost the votes of more moderate lawmakers, they could still pass what they wanted. have enough seats for
Like many states, Wisconsin enters the year with a projected budget surplus of $6.6 billion, aided by federal pandemic support and better-than-expected tax revenues, partly due to inflation.
The battle will be how much tax cuts will be given to more funding for K-12 schools and local governments.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Melissa Agard said, “We don’t have to choose between reinvesting in our communities and helping the public. We can do both.”
Republicans support lowering the income tax to a flat rate of 3.5%. Democrats support Evers’ plan to target the middle class with income tax cuts, while calling for more funding for K-12 public schools and local governments.
Evers plans to release its proposed budget for the two years from 1 July to 30 June 2025 on 15 February. Congress could then spend months tearing apart the bill to develop its own plan and pass it in late June. Evers can then reshape it with a partial veto.
Voss said he was open to using some of the state sales tax to finance counties, cities, towns and villages, and Evers said he wanted to increase shared income by 4% each year for the next two years. I’m looking for
Evers said he was open to the idea of a sales tax, but did not promise to back it over his plan.
“All I know is that whatever the sales tax goes, there are resources available to give more money to local governments,” he said. “And that’s where I am.”
Evers also takes a wait-and-see approach to school funding, saying he doubts the Republicans will actually require expanding private school vouchers to everyone regardless of income. rice field. Vos would like to at least increase the value of the voucher.
Evers proposed a $2 billion increase in funding for K-12 public schools.
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