Update: Assembly Passes Shared Revenue Bill
Read more: Assembly Republicans Release Shared Revenue Proposal and Finance Committee Begins Voting on 2023-25 Budget Motions, Removing Hundreds of Gov. Evers’ Proposals
On May 2, the Joint Committee on Finance started voting on motions to reshape the 2023-25 state budget as originally proposed by Gov. Evers. This process, expected to conclude by mid-June, will result in the final budget bill that will be voted on by the full Legislature. The committee began by approving a motion to remove hundreds of spending proposals and non-fiscal policy items from the budget, effectively resetting spending levels to the 2021-23 baseline (the current budget). The motion, approved by a party-line vote, removed many significant changes to state law proposed by Gov. Evers. The finance committee took similar steps to remove most of Gov. Evers’ proposals from the 2019-21 and 2021-23 budgets.
The previous week, Assembly Republican legislators outlined their proposal for “shared revenue,” state tax revenue that is divided among local governments to support various programs and services. The proposal shares some similarities with Gov. Evers’ executive budget, in particular dedicating one-fifth of the state’s sales tax revenue to fund additional shared revenue payments. However, legislation to implement the shared revenue plan was not well received by Gov. Evers, who promised to veto the bill in its initial form. Legislative leaders have indicated that negotiations are ongoing.