{"id":3946,"date":"2023-06-30T05:06:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3946"},"modified":"2023-06-30T10:00:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T10:00:22","slug":"wisconsin-senate-okays-99-billion-two-year-state-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3946","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Senate Okays $99 Billion, Two-Year State Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-senate-okays-99-billion-two-year-state-budget\/tcsquare\/2023\/06\/30\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n

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The majority of Wisconsin Republican state senators are on board with the new $99 billion state budget.<\/p>\n

Almost every Republican voted for the two-year spending plan Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, our budget invests in core priorities and returns a record amount of money back to the taxpayers,\u201d Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (pictured above) told lawmakers during the vote.<\/p>\n

The budget spends $1 billion more on public schools in Wisconsin, increases pay for state workers, and earmarks hundreds of millions of dollars for road and bridge projects across the state.<\/p>\n

The spending plan also includes a $4.4 billion tax cut, but Gov. Tony Evers may veto that out of the new budget.<\/p>\n

Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, was one of two Republicans to vote against the new budget. He said it simply spends too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2023-25 budget \u2026 will total more than $99 billion in spending (All Funds) for a state of only 5.9 million people.\u00a0 This is a $10.3 billion increase over the current budget (ALL Funds) or about an 11.7% growth in spending,\u201d Nass said. \u201cThe budget submitted by the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) will take this state from a $7 billion structural balance to a $2.5 billion structural deficit at the start of the next budget period on July 1, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats in the State Senate also voted against the budget, because they say it doesn\u2019t spend enough.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Republicans] voted to turn their backs on families, on parents, and on children. And instead, they voted for a massive tax break for the wealthy. That will ensure that we cannot fund programs like childcare counts in the future,\u201d Sen. Mark Spritzer, D\u2013Beloit, said.<\/p>\n

The budget also includes a $32 million cut to the University of Wisconsin aimed at the University of Wisconsin System\u2019s diversity, equity, and inclusion.<\/p>\n

Gov. Evers had threatened to veto the budget because of that cut, but over the weekend softened on that stance because lawmakers are giving the university a chance to spend the money elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The State Assembly next takes up the budget Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

After that, the spending plan will head to the governor\u2019s desk for his signature or veto.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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The post Wisconsin Senate Okays $99 Billion, Two-Year State Budget<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/wisconsin-senate-okays-99-billion-two-year-state-budget\/tcsquare\/2023\/06\/30\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 The majority of Wisconsin Republican…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3947,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3946\/revisions\/3947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}