One-Hundred and Sixth Regular Session
6:33 P.M. WEDNESDAY, February 15, 2023
The Senate met.
The Senate was called to order by Senate President Kapenga.
Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (6), the Chief Clerk made the following entries under the above date. _____________
Introduction, First Reading, and Reference of Proposals
Read first time and referred:
Relating to: creating a hazard mitigation revolving loan program and making an appropriation.
By Senator Jacque; cosponsored by Representatives Krug, Andraca, Mursau and Knodl.
hist162540To the committee on Labor, Regulatory Reform, Veterans and Military Affairs. Relating to: mistreating an animal and providing a penalty.
By Senators Wanggaard and Cabral-Guevara; cosponsored by Representatives Spiros, Nedweski, Plumer, Rettinger, Rodriguez, Steffen, Kitchens and Behnke.
hist162541To the committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. Relating to: seasonal period for farm service license endorsement.
By Senators Tomczyk, Ballweg, Cowles, Felzkowski, James, Marklein, Nass, Spreitzer, Stafsholt, Stroebel and Taylor; cosponsored by Representatives Plumer, Brooks, Edming, Gundrum, S. Johnson, Kitchens, Krug, Mursau, Novak, Oldenburg, Shankland, Spiros, Tranel, VanderMeer and Wittke.
hist162542To the committee on Transportation and Local Government. Relating to: changing the phase-out of utility aid payments for decommissioned power plants.
By Senators Ballweg, Cowles, Felzkowski, Marklein, Pfaff and Wanggaard; cosponsored by Representatives Oldenburg, Plumer, Brooks, Knodl, Michalski, Mursau, Nedweski, Rodriguez and Subeck.
hist162543To the committee on Utilities and Technology. Relating to: a resident lifetime fishing license, a lifetime fishing trust fund, providing an exemption from emergency rule procedures, and granting rule-making authority.
By Senators Testin, Cabral-Guevara, Felzkowski and Taylor; cosponsored by Representatives Tusler, Penterman, Edming, Bodden, Mursau, Kitchens, Magnafici, Rozar, Steffen and Murphy.
hist162544To the committee on Financial Institutions and Sporting Heritage. Relating to: restoration of the right to vote to a person barred from voting as a result of a felony conviction.
By Senator Stroebel; cosponsored by Representatives Sortwell, Behnke, Bodden, Duchow, Edming, Gundrum, Magnafici, Murphy, Mursau, Penterman, Rettinger, Rozar, Spiros and Tusler.
hist162545To the committee on Government Operations, Elections and Consumer Protection. Relating to: state finances and appropriations, constituting the executive budget act of the 2023 legislature.
By the joint committee on Finance.
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Petitions and Communications
hist162509Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (5), Representative Clancy added as a cosponsor of Senate Bill 7. hist162510Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (5), Representative Clancy added as a cosponsor of Senate Bill 14. hist162536Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (5), Senator Cowles added as a coauthor of Senate Bill 41. hist162508Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (5), Representative Clancy added as a cosponsor of Senate Bill 44. _____________
President Kapenga appointed Senators Hutton and Hesselbein to escort his Excellency, the Governor, to the Joint Convention.
Senator LeMahieu, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate recess until 6:45 p.m. and proceed is a body to the Assembly Chamber to meet in Joint Convention to receive the Governor’s Budget Address, and further, that the Senate stand adjourned pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1, upon the rising of the Joint Convention.
6:35 P.M.
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Recess
The Senate proceeded in a body to the Assembly Chamber to meet in Joint Convention to receive the Budget Address.
6:45 P.M.
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In Assembly Chamber
In Joint Convention
7:00 P.M.
Senate President Kapenga in the chair.
The Committee to wait upon the Governor appeared with his Excellency, the Honorable Governor Tony Evers, who delivered his message as follows:
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State of the Budget Address
“Good evening, Wisconsin!
Honorable Supreme Court Justices, Tribal Nation leaders, constitutional officers, members of the Wisconsin National Guard, active and retired members of our armed forces, cabinet members, Senate President Kapenga, Majority Leader LeMahieu, Minority Leader Agard, Speaker Vos, and Minority Leader Neubauer, legislators, distinguished guests, and all the folks tuning in at home, thank you for being here tonight.
I’m Tony Evers, and I’m proud to deliver my third biennial budget message tonight as the 46th governor of the great state of Wisconsin.
After accidentally suggesting when I was here last time that she’s been married twice, I’m happy to report that Kathy and I are still married—and she’s up in the gallery tonight. Kathy, I’m glad it was just one wedding, and I’m still jazzed it was with me. I love you so much.
Wisconsin, as I share our agenda for our next two years together, we begin this biennium in the best fiscal position we’ve ever been in our 175-year statehood. This is a breakthrough budget, one that has rarely—if ever—come along in our state’s history. And with this opportunity comes responsibility—today, we carry the weight of posterity.
While we must find ways to save where we can, we have a duty to invest in needs that have long been neglected. While we cannot afford to be careless or reckless, we have a duty to protect the future we’ve worked hard to build together. While we must continue to stay well within our means, we have a duty to create prosperity that will define our state for generations.
Tonight, I’m proud to report that our 2023-25 biennial budget balances these important obligations.
My plan to cut your taxes is a good example. I promised cutting taxes would be part of our agenda to help working families afford rising costs—and it is. And I’m proposing we do it responsibly by targeting relief to working Wisconsinites who need help affording rising costs.
So, I’m delivering on my promise of a 10-percent, middle-class tax cut and providing $1.2 billion in tax relief for working families. Under my plan, if you’re a single filer making less than $100,000 or a married joint filer making less than $150,000, the cornerstone of my tax plan will cut your taxes by 10 percent. That’s real, sustainable relief that will keep income taxes low now and into the future without causing devastating cuts to priorities like public schools and public safety.
And here’s who else we can help if we can get this done: seniors living on fixed incomes that haven’t kept up with rising costs; working families with kids to help afford child care and reduce child poverty; families providing care and assistance to an aging relative; and veterans and surviving spouses paying rent. My plan provides tax relief to help you, too.
Giving working families a little extra breathing room is just one key part of our plan to bolster the middle class, maintain our economy’s momentum, reduce barriers to work, and address our state’s workforce challenges. But we have a lot of work to do together to keep building our economy from the ground up.
Let’s start with making sure our infrastructure is prepared to support a workforce and economy of the 21st Century. No administration in state history has done more to expand access to high-speed internet than we have. We’ve allocated more than $340 million to ensure more than 390,000 homes and businesses will have new or improved, reliable, high-speed internet. That’s a big deal, folks.
But in this century, nearly everything about our economy, our workforce, and our way of life depends on access to reliable high-speed internet. And the longer it takes to get everyone connected, the more costly it becomes for our state to catch up. We can’t afford not to keep our same pace. In fact, we need to double our efforts.
So, I’m again proposing to make the largest investment in high-speed internet in our state’s history. I’m asking the Legislature to join me in supporting a $750 million investment into Broadband Expansion Grants, so the state is doing our part to meet our goal of getting every Wisconsinite, every home, and every business connected to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet by the end of 2025. We have to do it, folks. And together we will.
Part of ensuring our infrastructure is ready for a 21st Century workforce and economy is building upon our work over the last four years to improve over 5,800 miles of roads and nearly 1,600 bridges. I’m also proposing the highest level of funding ever into aid that goes directly toward helping local counties and communities repair and maintain our roads to do just that.
We’re also investing in key projects across the state, from the Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge in Green Bay to the Blatnik Bridge in Superior. And we’re expanding transportation alternatives in our small communities, building out our electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and re-engineering roads to improve safety and help prevent reckless driving.
These investments will be critical for bringing our infrastructure into this century. At the same time, we’re still balancing these investments with prudent decisions to prepare for future economic uncertainty. So, we’re going to use a portion of our state’s surplus not to create more ongoing expenses but to reduce them. We’re going to pay down $380 million in state debt in transportation revenue bonds. That means we’ll spend less of your hard-earned tax dollars in the future paying on debt and interest so we can stay focused on fixing the darn roads.
Investing in 21st Century transportation and infrastructure is essential to prepare our workforce and our economy for the future, and we have to start right away. But infrastructure is only one part of the work ahead of us to keep our talented workforce here and bring more talent to Wisconsin.
We have to continue harnessing local innovators and ingenuity to maintain our economic momentum and retain and recruit talented workers to build a workforce for the future. And building an economy from the ground up starts with investing in our Main Streets, our communities, and our local partners.
So, I announced last month we’re continuing our successful Main Street Bounceback program—and that’s great news. This program has already helped revitalize our Main Streets and move more than 8,500 businesses into vacant storefronts across our state.
But I also recognize that, when it comes to bolstering our workforce, no two communities’ needs are alike. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to our state’s workforce challenges. We trust our local innovators, communities, business, and economic development partners to know best what they need to support a strong, successful workforce and bring new workers to their area. They might need more high-quality child care providers, they might need more clinics and accessible healthcare, or to expand job training in high-demand industries—we must meet those unique needs, whatever they may be.
It’s why one of the most significant investments we make in this budget is to invest nearly $500 million into programs designed to support local and regionally-based projects in communities and regions to help expand the state’s workforce, invest in healthcare infrastructure, and other capital projects in communities across our state.
These innovative investments will ensure communities have what they need for local workers to live here, work here, and raise a family here based on local needs—and that’s critically important. It’s also only one part of the equation: we need to make sure Wisconsin workers and families—and the talent we hope to recruit—have housing in our communities, too.
Lack of access to affordable housing will hold our workforce and our economy back. So, we’re going to take a multi-pronged approach to make sure we have safe, reliable, and affordable housing across our state. We’re creating a new Affordable Workforce Housing program with a $150 million investment into local communities to maintain and develop workforce housing across our state.
We also know we can expand housing options in our communities by renovating and restoring housing that’s already available. So, we’re investing $200 million into renovating and restoring existing residential properties, including providing low-interest and forgivable loans to help working families update and remediate lead in their current homes.
Our local partners have always played a critical role in our work to build an economy and workforce for the future. But let’s be frank: work at the local level over the last decade hasn’t been helped by the fact our local partners have been asked to do more with less. Whether it’s expanding affordable housing, repairing streets, ensuring clean parks and water, safety services like EMS, police, and fire, or supporting local libraries and public health, so much of the hard work in this state happens at the local level. And it’s time for the state to do its part.
