In its first executive session on the 2019-21 state budget on May 9, the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted to remove provisions of Gov. Tony Evers’s proposed budget making changes to worker’s compensation procedures.

Evers’s budget had proposed unifying worker’s compensation proceedings under the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) by moving disputed worker’s compensation claims from the Department of Administration Division of Hearings and Appeals to DWD. Evers also proposed attaching the Labor and Industry Review Commission (LIRC) to DWD. Currently, LIRC is attached to the Department of Administration.

The Joint Finance Committee voted 11-4 along party lines to remove the worker’s compensation provision, along with a total of 131 policy items that had been proposed by the governor.

The Joint Finance Committee will continue voting on various agency budgets throughout May before sending their amended budget to the full legislature for approval.