Evers' budget tour hits Milwaukee: With a $4 billion state surplus, everyone wants a slice

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A packed foyer of the new ThriveOn King multiuse building resembled a convention of sorts. So many groups were represented, ranging from victim advocates to teachers unions and charities. Wisconsin will begin a new two-year budget cycle with a $4 billion surplus, and everyone wants a piece.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers held the second stop of his statewide budget listening tour Tuesday night in Milwaukee's Bronzeville neighborhood. In addition to the general fund surplus, the state also has a record-high $1.9 billion stashed away in the state's 'rainy day' reserve.

Knowing the state is fiscally healthy, most of the people speaking up in side groups Tuesday made the case for their causes and organizations to receive additional state funding.

Organizers split the session into groups depending on topic. The group dedicated to education had one of the biggest collections of people. Ingrid Walker-Henry, president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, said she believed Evers, a former state superintendent, hadn't pushed hard enough for additional K-12 state funding.

"Governor Evers ran as a public education governor, and we appreciated that," Walker-Henry said. "And we want the message to get out about how Wisconsin values public education. Unfortunately, that isn't what has happened."

Other education advocates called for the state to increase funding for charter and private choice schools. Those schools get a smaller share of per pupil funding than public schools, but public education advocates note choice schools are not subject to each of the same reporting requirements.

"Nearly half of our kids are outside Milwaukee Public Schools," Colleston Morgan, director of the City Forward Collective, said. "Those students are still facing significant funding gaps."

Both public education and private K-12 funding got significant funding jumps as part of a broad compromise that increased state aid to local governments. 

Evers said he'd again prioritize school funding in his budget but added it takes two to tango with a Republican-controlled Legislature.

"We'll do as much as we humanly can," Evers said when asked about education funding. "I mean, I'm the governor. We work with the Legislature. I think the Legislature is gonna be more able to understand that issue, and so, we will put as much money in the budget as humanly possible to make that happen."

Others had their own ideas for what needed to be prioritized in a state budget that spent $48.9 billion in the 2025 fiscal year.

Jeanne Geraci, director of the Benedict Center, said she wanted Evers' budget to grant the Department of Justice's request for $66 million dedicated to crime victims' services. She said those dollars would help her organization work with victims of sex trafficking and other traumatic pasts.

John Polk, who leads the Wisconsin chapter of Disabled American Veterans, said he wanted Evers' budget to expand the property tax credit for disabled veterans.

Blue Pelikan, with the Milwaukee chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, said he wanted the budget to once again include funding for a tenant's right to counsel in eviction cases.

"A public defender in housing instead of just criminal," Pelikan said.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has fired opening shots in the upcoming budget battle, stating Republicans will prioritize tax relief and will reject any tax increases or "welfare expansions."

A report last month from the non-partisan Wisconsin Policy Forum found Wisconsin's state and local taxes are the smallest share of their income since 2000.

"You now brazenly take credit for our tax cuts," Vos wrote on X. "Fortunately we eliminated every single one of your tax increases. You've failed for 6 years to turn us into a dysfunctional Illinois lookalike and you will fail again in 2025."

Republicans have said one of their budget priorities will be requiring state employees to return to in-person work. Evers initially said over the weekend he would veto a budget that included a ban on state employees working from home, but he had a somewhat softer tone Tuesday, saying he would just line-item veto that part of a budget.

"I would rather veto that part of it, the budget. It's just ridiculous," Evers said. "There's no data to support the speaker's alleged- what he was alleging." 

The next budget listening stop will be Thursday in Ashland, 5.5 hours from Milwaukee in the far northwest corner of the state. Evers will deliver his budget address in late February or early March, then the Legislature will begin a weeks-long process of rewriting the governor's budget through the powerful Joint Finance Committee.