{"id":36374,"date":"2025-07-03T21:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36374\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:55:09","slug":"governor-signs-budget-in-early-morning-to-secure-medicaid-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36374\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor signs budget in early morning to secure Medicaid funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a new two-year budget in the early morning hours Thursday in a race against Congress to ensure the state gets a federal Medicaid match<\/a> that it would lose under President Trump\u2019s tax and spending cuts package<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an extraordinarily rapid succession of events, Evers and Republican lawmakers unveiled a compromise budget deal<\/a> on Tuesday, the Senate passed it Wednesday night and hours later just before 1 a.m. on Thursday the Assembly passed it. Evers signed it in his conference room minutes later.<\/p>\n

Democrats who voted against the $111 billion spending bill said it didn\u2019t go far enough in meeting their priorities of increasing funding for schools, child care and expanding Medicaid. But Evers, who hasn\u2019t decided on whether he will seek a third term, hailed the compromise as the best deal that could be reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe most Wisconsinites would say that compromise is a good thing because that is how government is supposed to work,\u201d Evers said.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s budget would affect nearly every person in the battleground state. Income taxes would be cut for working people and retirees by $1.4 billion, sales taxes would be eliminated on residential electric bills and it would cost more to get a driver\u2019s license, buy license plates and title a vehicle.<\/p>\n

Unprecedented speed<\/p>\n

There was urgency to pass the budget because of one part that increases an assessment on hospitals to help fund the state\u2019s Medicaid program and hospital provider payments. Medicaid cuts up for final approval<\/a> this week in Congress cap how much states can get from the federal government through those fees.<\/p>\n

The budget would increase Wisconsin\u2019s assessment rate from 1.8% to the federal maximum of 6% to access federal matching funds. But if the federal bill is enacted first, Wisconsin could not raise the fee, putting $1.5 billion in funding for rural hospitals at risk.<\/p>\n

In the rush to get done, Republicans took the highly unusual move of bringing the budget up for votes on the same day. In at least the past 50 years, the budget has never passed both houses on the same day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get this thing done today so we have the opportunity to access federal funding,\u201d Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said at the start of debate just before 8 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Governors typically take several days to review and sign the budget after it\u2019s passed but Evers took just minutes.<\/p>\n

Bipartisan compromise<\/p>\n

In a concession to the Democratic governor, Republicans also agreed to spend more money on special education services in K-12 schools, subsidize child care costs and give the Universities of Wisconsin its biggest increase in nearly two decades. The plan would also likely result in higher property taxes in many school districts due to no increase in general aid to pay for operations.<\/p>\n

The budget called for closing a troubled aging prison<\/a> in Green Bay by 2029, but Evers used his partial veto to strike that provision. He left in $15 million in money to support the closure, but objected to setting a date without a clear plan for how to get it done.<\/p>\n

Republicans need Democratic votes<\/p>\n

The Senate passed the budget 19-14, with five Democrats joining with 14 Republicans to approve it. Four Republicans joined 10 Democrats in voting no. The Assembly passed it 59-39 with six Democrats in support. One Republican voted against it.<\/p>\n

Democratic senators were brought into budget negotiations in the final days to secure enough votes to pass it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bipartisan deal,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said before the vote. \u201cI think everybody left the table wishing it was different, but this is something everyone has agreed on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats said newly drawn legislative maps, which helped them pick up seats<\/a> in November and narrow the Republican majorities, led to greater compromise this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat gave us leverage, that gave us an opportunity to have a conversation,\u201d Democratic Sen. Mark Spreitzer said.<\/p>\n

Still, Spreitzer said the budget \u201cfell far short of what was needed on our priorities.\u201d He and other Democrats said it didn\u2019t go enough to help fund child care, K-12 schools and higher education, in particular.<\/p>\n

Evers vetoes prison closure deadline<\/p>\n

The governor noted in his veto message that the state has \u201cpainful experience\u201d with trying to close prisons without a fleshed-out plan, pointing out that the state\u2019s youth prison remains open even though lawmakers passed a bill to close the facility in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreen Bay Correctional Institution should close \u2014 on that much, the Legislature and I agree,\u201d Evers wrote. \u201cIt is simply not responsible or tenable to require doing so by a deadline absent a plan to actually accomplish that goal by the timeline set.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Rafter, president of the village of Allouez, the suburb where the prison is located, issued a statement Friday saying the veto shows how broken state government has become. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe time for studying has come and gone,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Village of Allouez and our community demand action and the certainty they deserve about when this facility will be closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governor kills grant as payback for ending stewardship<\/p>\n

Evers used his partial veto powers to wipe out provisions in the budget that would have handed the town of Norway in southeastern Wisconsin\u2019s Racine County an annual $100,000 grant to control water runoff from State Highway 36. The governor said in his veto message he eliminated the grant because Republicans refused to extend the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship Program.<\/p>\n

That program provides funding for the state and outside groups to buy land for conservation and recreation. Republicans have complained for years that the program is too expensive and removes too much land from property tax rolls, hurting local municipalities. Funding is set to expire next year. Evers proposed allocating $1 billion to extend the program for another decade, but Republicans eliminated the provision. <\/p>\n

Evers accused legislators in his veto message of abandoning their responsibility to continue the program while using the runoff grant to help \u201cthe politically connected few.\u201d He did not elaborate. <\/p>\n

The town of Norway lies within state Rep. Chuck Wichgers and Sen. Julian Bradley\u2019s districts. Both are Republicans; Bradley sits on the Legislature\u2019s powerful budget-writing committee. Wichgers didn\u2019t immediately return a voicemail. No one from Bradley\u2019s office responded to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tony Kurtz and Sen. Pat Testin, both Republicans, introduced a bill last month that would extend the stewardship program through mid-2030, but the measure has yet to get a hearing.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADISON, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a new two-year budget in the early morning hours…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[25710,245,29741,69,4934,57,325,330,29744,29742,29745,50,18242,29740,80,29743,618,14830,29746,89,61,322,67,132,68,14831,1398],"class_list":{"0":"post-36374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-child-care","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-dianne-hesselbein","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-education-funding","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-government-budgets","16":"tag-government-programs","17":"tag-jim-rafter","18":"tag-julian-bradley","19":"tag-mark-spreitzer","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-norway","22":"tag-pat-testin","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-robin-vos","25":"tag-taxes","26":"tag-tony-evers","27":"tag-tony-kurtz","28":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","29":"tag-u-s-news","30":"tag-u-s-republican-party","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us","34":"tag-wi-state-wire","35":"tag-wisconsin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114791535393575138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}