On Tuesday, February 16, Governor Tony Evers unveiled his 2021-23 executive budget, which spends $91 billion over two years and contains a variety of policy changes and spending programs. Here, we compiled an extensive overview of the governor’s proposal.

Immediately following the governor’s budget address, a group of Republican legislative leaders issued a press release criticizing the proposal. In a statement, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said that “The spending plan contains far too many poison pills like expanding welfare, legalizing recreational marijuana, repealing Act 10 and growing the size of government.” According to Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg), Republicans plan to “set Evers’ bad budget aside and continue to build on our strong foundation that put our state on strong fiscal footing over the decade.”

The release also featured similar statements from Senator Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Representative Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee (JFC). As we reported in our preview of the governor’s budget, the JFC co-chairs sent a letter to Gov. Evers prior to his address asking him to avoid proposing significant tax and spending increases and to leave non-fiscal policy items out of his proposal.