Senate & Assembly Pass Budget Bill, Gov Signs | | |
The Senate and Assembly voted today to pass the $111.1 billion 2025-2027 state budget. Progress on the budget was stalled for almost two weeks until a deal was negotiated between Gov. Tony Evers, Republican legislative leaders, and Sen. Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein and announced on Tuesday morning. The Senate debated the budget bill for nearly 11 hours and rejected along party lines 12 amendments proposed by Democrats before ultimately tabling the remaining 13 amendments to push through final passage of the bill in a 19-14 vote with five Democrats voting “yes” (Hesselbein, Dassler-Alfheim, Pfaff, Smith and Wall) and four Republicans voting “no” (Felzkowski, Hutton, Kapenga, and Nass). Final passage followed approval of a 35-page “technical amendment” that passed on a 20-13 vote (Kapenga voted yes on the technical amendment). Meanwhile, the Assembly spent over 5 hours on the floor while tabling 24 Democratic amendments and ultimately passing the bill 59-39 with seven Democrats voting “yes” (Billings, Doyle, Emerson, Johnson, McCarville, Ortiz-Velez, and Palmeri) and one Republican voting no (Allen). Rep. Callahan was not present for the floor session.
Less than an hour after being passed by the Legislature, Gov. Evers officially signed the budget bill into law as 2025 Wisconsin Act 15. A statement from the Governor touted the bipartisan nature of the budget, as well as its “historic investments in our kids and schools, families, and communities across our state.” The statement also includes 23 vetoes made by the Governor.
| | Pre-Floor Session Press Conferences | | Sen. Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said the budget included the second largest tax cut in state history that will benefit seniors and working families. Other GOP Senators emphasized investments in the UW System and mental healthcare, as well as how much less money is being spent in the budget compared to the levels proposed by the Governor. | Calling the budget bill “better than what it would have been...but it is not perfect,” Sen. Hesselbein touted items such as increased special education reimbursement rates, as well additional funding for higher education and childcare as examples of how Senate Democrats were able to leverage their seat at negotiations to get their priorities included in the budget. | Touting the bipartisan nature of the budget agreement, Speaker Vos said the budget achieves wins for residents across the state by including historic investments in special education, a tax cut that will actually be signed into law, as well as support for Wisconsin families through investments in K-12 education and mental healthcare. | | Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer said although Gov. Evers and Senate Dem Leader Hesselbein did the best they could and were able to create a better budget than it would have been otherwise, she would still be voting “no" because the budget does not address the needs in her district and Assembly Democrats did not have a seat at the table during negotiations. | | | | “Through this bipartisan budget, we are making progress on key state priorities to move Wisconsin forward: making critical investments supporting our kids and schools, lowering costs of child care and household bills for working families, stabilizing our child care industry, cutting taxes for seniors and middle-class families, ensuring Wisconsinites have access to healthcare, continuing to fix our roads and bridges, and significant investments in our local communities, among much more. Simply put: this is a pro-kid budget that is a win for Wisconsin’s kids, families, and communities, and our state’s future in 2025 the Year of the Kid, and I am incredibly proud of this important work." | | | | “There are easy wins in this budget no matter what part of the state you’re in...everybody wins.” | | | | “This is a budget that works for Wisconsin. Every community across our state will be impacted by the investments in K-12 education, public safety, and transportation, in addition to the reforms in this budget. I am proud of this compromise budget that cuts taxes by $1.5 billion and invests in core services in our state.” | | | | "I don’t think this budget solves the needs that are present in my district. We have schools that are really struggling, we went to referendum again earlier this year… we appreciate that work, but we were not at the table in this negotiation, and I am not going to give my vote to a budget that doesn’t meet the needs of my community.” (Via press conference) | | | | “This budget is a monumental win for the state of Wisconsin. Today’s workforce is more mobile than ever. We’ve all seen the boom that low- and no-income tax states have experienced. Creating and maintaining a competitive tax structure in Wisconsin is the most important economic development tool that we have. This budget will accomplish what Senate Republicans have committed to do since January: fund core priorities and cut taxes without creating an unsustainable deficit.” | | | | “We cut taxes by $1.5 billion to provide relief to nearly every resident of the state. We made targeted investments to fund special education at historic levels, increased funding for our roads and bridges by $1.3 billion, supported healthcare providers, expanded Wisconsin’s workforce, and made impactful reforms to our childcare system without making pandemic-era subsidies permanent. We used one-time money for building projects to reduce reliance on bonding and keep the state’s financial position strong.” | | | | “Healthcare costs are the largest financial concern for most Wisconsin families and businesses. Instead of addressing these costs, Governor Evers sold out to hospital lobbyists and willingly turned down a golden opportunity to enact bipartisan healthcare reforms that would have lowered costs for our constituents.” | | | | “Through tough negotiations, compromise and spirited discussion, we now have an agreement that, while not perfect and not the budget Democrats will craft when we are in the majority, addresses the priorities Wisconsinites have clearly expressed: fund our public schools, make childcare more affordable, and invest in the UW System.” | | | | "The Vos-Evers budget deal can only be described as on orgy of spending designed by two leaders that probably won't be here to deal with the financial mess it will create in the 2027-29 biennium." | | | | “During my time as an elected official, I have been honored to champion many tax cuts that have sought to return every tax dollar possible to the hard-working taxpayers of Wisconsin. Most recently the Republican-led legislature on at least three separate occasions presented proposals that would have provided important income tax relief to the citizens of this great state. Unfortunately, these proposals were vetoed by Governor Evers. This budget now seeks to leverage those vetoes to hide the 12% increase in spending the Governor required in this budget and the $1.2 billion deficit this budget creates, putting Wisconsin families in a worse spot for the future.” | | | | “For over a year our region has been trying to pick up the pieces from the hospital closure crisis. Republicans failed to deliver on their promise for the $15 million. This budget finally offers the funding needed to shore up hospitals to prevent future closures. Without Democratic support, we would be left financially unsustainable. There is so much more to do, but stabilizing our health care industry has been too important to let this opportunity to pass. This budget moves the needle in the right direction for the Chippewa Valley. I supported the final passage because it prioritizes much needed support for healthcare in our region.“ | | “The Wisconsin Legislative Socialist Caucus will vote against this budget. It is a betrayal of Wisconsin’s future, gutting the public systems families rely on while bending to Republican demands. Instead of investing in education, healthcare, and the working class, this budget protects tax breaks for the wealthy and continues the steady dismantling of our public institutions. We will not endorse a document that cements the privatization of our schools, denies care to the most vulnerable, and raises property taxes to make up for a state government unwilling to tax the wealthy and adequately fund public needs.” | | |
On July 2, 2025, the State Supreme Court ruled 4–3 that a criminal statute passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature in 1849 banning the destruction of an unborn child is no longer enforceable as applied to abortion. The majority held that the law had been “impliedly repealed” by decades of legislation regulating nearly every aspect of abortion access in Wisconsin. The Court found that these newer laws were clearly intended to replace, not coexist with, the older statute, and that enforcing both would be legally contradictory.
Read the full memo from Michael Best Strategies.
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Wisconsin GR Team
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