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Governor Moving Forward with Prison Changes
Governor Evers announced his administration plans to move forward with his correctional facilities plan announced in February. The plan aims to close the Green Bay Correctional Institution and Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools. The Governor, as chair of the State Building Commission, intends to ask the Commission at their meeting on Tuesday, October 28th, to release $15 million from the 2025-27 State Budget to allow the Department of Administration to get contracts in place for the development of the preliminary plans.
In February, Evers announced that Wisconsin’s prison population was beyond its designed capacity (housing 23,074 with a capacity of 17,638). He called his proposal a “domino” series of facility changes, improvements, and investments. The proposal announced in February included:
- Completing construction on the planned Dane County Type 1 facility in late 2028, with plans to close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools in early 2029.
- Making key upgrades that allow the Department of Corrections (DOC) to convert Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools into a 500-bed, medium-security adult facility.
- Closing Green Bay Correctional Institution and converting Stanley Correctional Institution to a 1,500 maximum-security institution with the ability to “flex” as a medium-custody institution.
- Converting the facility would allow DOC to absorb all persons in care at Waupun and Green Bay Correctional classified as maximum-security.
- Converting John Burke Correctional Center to a female institution, adding 300 women’s beds to DOC’s system at no cost.
- Expanding Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center to increase bed space by 200 minimum-security beds, adding much-needed minimum-security beds to the system, and accounting for some of the displaced workforce at Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Wisconsin FY2025 Ended with $4.6 Billion
According to a release from Governor Evers, the state ended Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 with a positive ending balance of $4.6 billion in the General Fund. The release comes in response to the Department of Administration Annual Fiscal Report for FY2025 which states, “The General Fund has an undesignated balance of $4.606 billion as of the end of the fiscal year. General purpose revenue taxes were $22.363 billion compared to $21.330 billion in the prior year, an increase of $1,033 million or 4.8 percent. General purpose revenue expenditures, excluding fund transfers, were $21.118 billion. This is $169 million more than the budgeted expenditure allocation of $20.949 billion.”
The report went on to say, “In fiscal year 2025, the State of Wisconsin continued to devote a major share of state tax collections to the assistance of local school districts, municipalities and counties. Local assistance accounted for 44.8 percent of total general purpose revenue expenditures. Aid payments to individuals and organizations represented 30.1 percent of total general purpose revenue expenditures. The University of Wisconsin accounted for 6.3 percent of total general purpose revenue expenditures and state operations expenditures for all other state agencies accounted for 18.8 percent of the total.”
Session Updates
Both the Senate and the Assembly were on the floor on October 14th. The floor session started with both houses recognizing First Responders from across all of Wisconsin. On the 14th, both chambers took up a number of public safety proposals while the Senate also passed several health care proposals. A week prior, the Assembly was also in session to pass housing proposals.
There are currently between two and three dozen bills which have passed both houses and are ready for executive action by the Governor. The next floor period for the Legislature is scheduled for November 11th-20th. While no specific dates have been set yet, it is anticipated that each house will meet at least once during that two-week period.
Flurry of Introductions
Legislators have been introducing bills in succession recently. Since the signing of the budget (July 4th), Legislative Democrats have introduced over 10 bill packages and Republicans have introduced at least two packages and created four Speaker’s Task Forces to draft legislation for the January/February session. Those packages include:
Republicans
Democrats
- Accountability for For-Profit Colleges
- Rights of Nature
- Higher Education
- Pro-Democracy
- V.O.T.E.
- CWD Prevention
- Freedom from Fear
- Kids First
- Education
- Labor - Build a Stronger Wisconsin
- Keep Families Together
- Gun Safety
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