On July 22, Gov. Evers announced a directive for state agencies to identify $250 million in additional savings for the current fiscal year (FY 20-21). This is the second round of cuts by the administration to manage state expenditures, as state revenues are down due to pandemic. In April, the governor ordered a five percent cut to state agency spending – totaling $70 million.

At the beginning of July, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau released revenue numbers showing the state is $1,306 million behind in collections for April-June 2020 compared to April-June 2019. Overall, Wisconsin collections for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019-20 are 4.7 percent below the collections in the previous fiscal year.

The severity of the state’s revenue loss will become more apparent in the coming weeks now that the July 15 tax filing deadline has passed.