On Thursday, February 28 Governor Tony Evers delivered his 2019-2021 State Budget Address before a joint session of the legislature. The speech marked Evers’ first budget address as Governor and the first budget introduced by a Democratic Governor in ten years.

Evers called his proposal “The People’s Budget” after explaining how he and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes toured the state following their victory in November to gain input on how to craft the budget proposal.

In the nearly 40-minute speech, Evers outlined the major components of his plan to fund state agencies and programs for the next two years. In total, the Evers’ budget aims to spend over $83 billion, which is nearly a $6 billion increase over the budget proposed by former Governor Scott Walker in 2017.

Regarding healthcare, Evers’ told the legislature his proposal accepts federal Medicaid expansion dollars, which could enable further investment in MA programs and reimbursement levels.

“82,000 more Wisconsinites will have access to affordable, quality healthcare coverage. And because we’re accepting these federal dollars, we have the opportunity to invest in programs that improve healthcare access and affordability across our state,” Evers told the legislature.

Wisconsin is one of fourteen states that have not accepted federal Medicaid expansion dollars since they became available following the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Former Governor Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature opposed accepting the funds.

The budget proposal also includes the following healthcare initiatives:

• The Governor recommends providing additional funding for medical student tuition assistance to provide Wisconsin residents attending the college with tuition assistance at the 2014-15 academic year level of $5,057 per student.
  
  
• Provide $1,000,000 GPR in each year to continue two family medicine residency training programs at the Medical College of Wisconsin covering northeast Wisconsin. These programs produce well-trained, board-certified family physicians. The funding will allow for additional faculty hires to ensure long-term programmatic accreditation, enhanced resident rotations and expansion of residents at each site.
  
  
• Establish medical service delivery through telehealth under the Medicaid program. Provide $2.3 million in fiscal year 2019-20 and $3.5 million in fiscal year 2020-21 to fund the increase of services due to increased access under the telehealth delivery model.
  
  
• The Governor recommends providing additional funding for the Well Woman program. The Governor also recommends adjusting statutory language in the Well Woman Program to allow the program to expend up to $60,000 on multiple sclerosis testing.
  
  

Evers’ also announced his intention to fund public K-12 education at a two-thirds funding level, which essentially means the state would pay for 67% of the total cost of public K-12 education, as well as a $600 million dollar increase for special education funding and more than $150 million for the University of Wisconsin system.

Evers’ finished his speech by announcing his intentions to raise new revenues for transportation projects.

“We're going to raise more than $600 million in new revenues to fix our roads, bridges, and highways and make sure that our transportation fund is sustainable for our future,” said Evers.

Evers plans to raise revenues by increasing registration fees for heavy trucks and by raising the gas tax by 8-cents.

For the budget proposal to become law, it needs to pass both houses of the Republican-controlled legislature. Following the address, Republican legislative leaders reacted negatively to the proposal and almost immediately rejected much of the proposal.

“The governor claims he wants to find common ground but then puts forth divisive proposals that Republicans would never support like expanding welfare programs and raising taxes,” said Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. “The problem with Governor Evers’ budget is that it spends too much. It spends way more than Wisconsin can afford by increasing spending by $6 billion. That translates into an increase in spending of about $1,071 for every man, woman and child in Wisconsin.”

“Governor Evers campaigned on bringing people to the table, however Republicans weren't even consulted before he rolled out one of the most liberal budgets in Wisconsin history,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in a statement. “His plans will raise the tax burden on manufacturers, potentially send the cost of private health insurance skyrocketing, and hurt the ability of low-income students to escape failing schools.”

The proposal has been sent to the legislative Joint Committee on Finance. The committee has released a tentative schedule for its work, as follows:

• Wednesday, April 24 – Public Hearing – Green Bay Area
  
  

Exact times and locations for the public hearings have yet to be announced. Following their hearings, the committee will vote on and amend provisions in the budget one at a time. Significant changes to the proposal are expected.

Following the committee’s work, the budget will be sent to the legislature for approval. The legislature’s goal is to pass a budget and send it to the governor before the fiscal year ends on June 30. The governor will have the opportunity to sign the bill or veto it in whole or in part.

Evers told the media he wouldn’t rule out vetoing a Republican-passed budget in whole or in part if it didn’t meet his goals.

WAFP’s government affairs team will update the academy as the budget process continues.