{"id":4061,"date":"2023-07-06T05:04:37","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T05:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4061"},"modified":"2023-07-06T05:58:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T05:58:12","slug":"wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-signs-budget-guts-3-5-billion-tax-cut-with-frankenstein-veto-pen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4061","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Signs Budget, Guts $3.5 Billion Tax Cut with \u2018Frankenstein\u2019 Veto Pen"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/politics\/wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-signs-budget-guts-3-5-billion-tax-cut-with-frankenstein-veto-pen\/mkittle\/2023\/07\/06\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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In signing Wisconsin\u2019s new two-year spending plan Wednesday, Democrat Governor Tony Evers liberally applied his veto pen to the Republican-crafted biennial budget, gutting a $3.5 billion tax cut proposal that had reduced the state\u2019s tax brackets and delivered relief for all taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Republicans blasted the governor for his 51 partial vetoes, including a particularly sneaky one that changed the meaning of funding for schools to a four-century commitment. The constitutionally suspect move would bind future legislatures to increase school aid to a whopping $325 per student through the year 2425.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith just a few strokes of his powerful veto pen, Evers gutted legislative Republicans\u2019 $3.5 billion income tax cut and reduced it by 95%. Wisconsin\u2019s middle-class families and small businesses across the state will no longer see meaningful tax relief,\u201d said state Senator Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville) in a press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo add insult to injury, Evers\u2019 used his Frankenstein veto authority to loosen property tax limitations for K-12 schools through year 2425, which will result in significant increases in the property tax bills of Wisconsin homeowners in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the Republicans\u2019 historic tax cut melted to just $175 million in actual relief.<\/p>\n

In his budget signing message Wednesday, Evers decried the Republicans\u2019 tax cut plan, which he claimed would most benefit the wealthiest Wisconsinites. The liberal governor said he was giving the Republican-controlled legislature a \u201csecond chance\u201d to \u201cdo the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am using my broad, constitutional veto authority to ensure ample state resources are readily available for the Legislature to complete their work on this budget\u2014to do the right thing, to rise to meet this moment of historic opportunity and responsibility, and to focus on passing real solutions for the urgent challenges facing our state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In short, spend more money.<\/p>\n

The Republican-crafted $99 billion biennial budget, which passed along party lines last month, cut some $6 billion from Evers\u2019 original spending plan. It also included a signature tax cut and reform package that would have consolidated Wisconsin\u2019s four tax brackets into three. While the highest-income earners and taxpayers would have seen significant tax relief, so, too, would middle-income earners.<\/p>\n

State Representative Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said Evers\u2019 partial veto means those with truly middle-class incomes will see negligible reductions in their tax bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies making $50,000 per year, struggling to make ends meet due to the record-high inflation of the past few years, will now receive practically no tax relief thanks to Governor Evers,\u201d Born said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd eliminating the income tax cut on hardworking Wisconsinites wasn\u2019t enough for Governor Evers\u2014his budget vetoes will massively increase property taxes on the same families. In total, this veto could have the impact of increasing property taxes by billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor was miffed that Republicans didn\u2019t take up his proposed $1.2 billion tax cut plan that provided more funding for earners with limited tax liabilities. In the end, he got little of what he sought, and Republicans got practically nothing at all in tax reform.<\/p>\n

But the two sides sure did spend a fortune, including an additional $1 billion on a k-12 public education system that has led Wisconsin\u2019s students into embarrassingly low achievement rates.<\/p>\n

Republicans celebrated some victories, like historic funding for the parental school choice program \u2014 at least for now. But Evers\u2019 veto gimmicks in the current budget, as in his previous two, show he\u2019s not opposed to double-dealing.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Gov. Evers revealed himself to be dishonest in his negotiations with his line-item vetoes of our budget,\u201d said State Representative Barb Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) in a press release. \u201cHe wasted more of Wisconsinites hard-earned dollars by finding ways to restore funding of gender transition surgery via Medicaid and restoring 188 DEI positions in the UW System.\u201d She noted Evers\u2019 signed budget devotes a minuscule .0025 percent of the state\u2019s nearly $7 billion surplus to tax relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, the damage caused by Gov. Evers behavior outweighs the good things Republicans negotiated in good faith in this budget,\u201d Dittrich added. \u201cWisconsin will continue with some of the most onerous taxes in the country, chasing both good businesses and residents to better environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans didn\u2019t say whether they would attempt to override Evers\u2019 vetoes. They hold a supermajority in the State Senate, but are a few seats shy of the votes needed in the Assembly.<\/p>\n

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

M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
\nPhoto \u201cTony Evers<\/a>\u201d and Background Photo \u201cBudget Signing Ceremony<\/a>\u201d by Tony Evers.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The post Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Signs Budget, Guts $3.5 Billion Tax Cut with \u2018Frankenstein\u2019 Veto Pen<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/politics\/wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-signs-budget-guts-3-5-billion-tax-cut-with-frankenstein-veto-pen\/mkittle\/2023\/07\/06\/ In signing Wisconsin\u2019s new two-year spending plan Wednesday, Democrat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4061","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\/4061","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\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4062,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions\/4062"}],"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=4061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}