I have always believed that what's best for our kids is what's best for our state, and after three months of difficult negotiations, I am proud to be signing my fourth bipartisan budget as Governor that makes critical investments in our kids, families, and communities across our state. This budget is proof of all we can accomplish when we put politics aside to get good things done for the people we are here to serve. I want to thank legislative leaders for being willing to come to the table so we could get a real, meaningful bipartisan budget done for Wisconsin.
I also would be remiss if I did not extend my deep gratitude to my staff, the dedicated public servants at the State Budget Office, my cabinet, and leaders and workers from across our administration and legislative service agencies for the many Jong days and nights they have put into supporting this important work and helping finalize this state budget for the people of our state. The biennial budget is an entire enterprise-wide effort, and the people of Wisconsin are better off thanks to your hard work, dedication, and commitment to serving our great state.
While there is much work ahead, this bipartisan budget proves that, despite these divisive times and the policy differences and disagreements we may share as elected officials, in Wisconsin, we still believe in being able to work together with the collaborative and innovative spirit that Wisconsinites have embraced for generations. Our work together building the future we want for our kids and our grandkids continues in earnest tomorrow.
Forward, and for Wisconsin, always.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
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Veto Message
Table of Contents
AA. DOING WHAT’S BEST FOR KIDS 11. Grants to Lakeland STAR Academy 22. Funding for Wisconsin Works Case Management Incentive Payments BB. BUILDING A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMY & WORKFORCE 33. Program Revenue Account Transfer 44. Windows to Work Funding CC. BUILDING SAFE AND STRONG COMMUNITIES 77. I 94 Freeway Signs in Racine County 88. Village of Warrens Zeda Street Project 99. Statutory Daily Rates 1010. Capital Development Staffing and Institution Maintenance Staffing 1111. Advance Planning for the Department of Corrections 1212. Noise Barriers on I 897 and I 41 1313. I 94 Corridor Study in Western Waukesha County DD. PROTECTING & CONSERVING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES 1414. Deerskin River Dredging Earmark 1515. Wisconsin Rapids East Riverbank Earmark 1616. Brillion Marsh Dredging Earmark 1717. Iowa County Grant – County Hwy C 1818. Daily Vehicle Admissions for State Parks EE. ADDITIONAL KEY PRIORITIES 2020. Financial Assets Management 2121. Positions for the Legislative Audit Bureau 2222. Funding for Actuarial Audit Services 2323. Delete Vacant Board of Commissioners of Public Lands Position _____________
A. DOING WHAT'S BEST FOR KIDS
1. Grants to Lakeland STAR Academy
These provisions provide $250,000 GPR in fiscal year 2025-26 and $500,000 GPR in fiscal year 2026-27 as one-time funding in a newly created annual appropriation for grants to the Lakeland STAR Academy. Specifically, they require the Department of Public Instruction to provide a grant to the Lakeland UHS School District for the Lakeland STAR Academy. The appropriation would be repealed on July 1, 2027.
I am partially vetoing section 17 [as it relates to s. 20.255 (2) (ag)] and vetoing the remaining sections in their entirety to eliminate the grant program for Lakeland STAR Academy. As I have repeatedly said, I object to providing state grants to specific schools. Our responsibility as a state is to provide the necessary level of state dollars across a number of critical programs that serve schools statewide, such as school nutrition, special education and mental health categorical aid programs. While this budget has made significant progress on special education funding, it still does not make investments at the level I proposed, and it fails to address many other critical areas of school funding. As I have stated previously, there are hundreds of charter schools authorized by public school districts, and it is unfair and inequitable to single only one school out for a state grant. Also, as I have said before, every kid in Wisconsin should be able to get a great education in a public school regardless of what district they live in, and state funding decisions should not pick winners and losers among our kids. 2. Funding for Wisconsin Works Case Management Incentive Payments
Section 170
This section establishes the allocation for Wisconsin Works case management incentive payments under s. 49.175, reducing the allocation from $2,700,000 to $1,000,000 for each fiscal year in the 2025-27 biennium. I am vetoing this section because I object to the decrease in the annual allocation for this program at a time when federal funding for programs that support the needs of low-income individuals is at risk. As a result of this veto the current law amount of $2,700,000 in each fiscal year is restored.
B. BUILDING A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMY & WORKFORCE
3. Program Revenue Account Transfer
Section 9238
This section requires the Department of Safety and Professional Services to transfer $5,000,000 from the program revenue appropriation account under s. 20.165 (1) (g) to the general fund in fiscal year 2025-26. This appropriation funds the department's licensing, credentialing, rulemaking and other regulatory functions. I am vetoing this section in its entirety as I object to this transfer of funds. The regulation of licensing and credentialing supports our skilled workforce and protects the people of our state. These funds, generally consisting of fees assessed for services provided by the department, should be retained by the department to enhance service levels, lessen time to receiving a credential or license, and generally increase the workforce in much-needed areas.
4. Windows to Work Funding
Sections 326 and 9108 (2)
These sections direct the Department of Corrections to allocate $1,000,000 GPR in fiscal year 2025-26 to fund education and vocational training utilizing virtual reality technologies and modify statutory language describing community services established by the department to include education and vocational training utilizing virtual reality technologies.
I am vetoing these sections because I object to the Legislature placing additional constraints on the department and its workforce development programming. Given the Legislature's failure to properly fund existing commitments within the department's reentry unit, it is important that any additional funding is allocated for areas the department has identified as highest need. For example, the department's technical mobile labs, critical to providing career and technical education programming, increasing employment opportunities upon release, and decreasing recidivism, received no additional funding. By vetoing this provision, I am providing the department the flexibility to prioritize reentry programming that demonstrates the greatest success while keeping our communities safe.
C. BUILDING SAFE AND STRONG COMMUNITIES
5. Tribal County Grants
Section 9
This provision directs the Department of Administration to distribute grants of equal amounts to each county in the state in which the headquarters of a federally recognized Tribe is located. A separate provision of the budget bill would create an appropriation at the department that could receive $2,000,000 annually of Tribal gaming revenues from funding reserved in a Joint Committee on Finance supplemental appropriation.
I am partially vetoing section 9 to remove the requirement that the grant funds be distributed equally to each county in this state in which a federally recognized Tribe is headquartered. I object to mandating that these amounts be distributed evenly, when the department can best determine the appropriate distribution of these revenues to the relevant counties, including taking into account the impact to counties who have been affected by the 2022 federal court decision regarding property taxation and other local needs.
6. Tribal Grants
Section 9101 (2)
This section would direct the Department of Administration, in the 2025-27 biennium, to award $11,000,000 of Tribal gaming revenues in grants in equal amounts to each of the nine federally recognized Tribes that received similar grants in the 2023-25 biennium.
I am partially vetoing section 9101 (2) to remove the requirement that the grant funds be distributed exclusively to the nine federally recognized Tribes that received these grants in the 2023-25 biennium, as well as the limitation of funding to the 2025-27 biennium, while retaining the statutory language that provides $11,000,000 PR annually in general grants to tribes. I object to singling out two Tribal Nations to be excluded from receiving the general grant funds, as this goes against the language and spirit of the Tribal compacts from which these gaming revenues are derived. Each of the Tribal Nations are partners of the state. Their citizens are Wisconsin citizens. The Legislature has no right to treat some Tribes or their citizens differently on purely arbitrary bases by denying them general grants intended for all federally recognized Tribes. As a result of this veto, all 11 federally recognized Tribes in the state will be entitled to an equal share of the $11,000,000 each year, and the $11,000,000 annual general grants will be included in the 2027-29 adjusted base.
7. I 94 Freeway Signs in Racine County
Section 280
This section mandates that the Department of Transportation erect and maintain two directional signs along eastbound and westbound interstate highway 94 at the County Trunk Highway K interchange in Racine County displaying the words "The Prairie School" and "The Wind Point Lighthouse."
I am vetoing this section because my objections remain the same as when I vetoed 2023 Wisconsin Assembly Bill 603, which imposed the same requirements on the department. continue to object to requiring the department to erect signage that would put it out of compliance with its own policies that are derived from federal rules regarding the types of signage that are allowed to be placed on an interstate highway interchange.
8. Village of Warrens Zeda Street Project
These provisions require a one-time grant of $25,000 SEG from the local government fund under the newly created appropriation under s. 20.395 (2) (fw) to be awarded to the village of Warrens for the Zeda Street project no later than June 30, 2027. I am vetoing these provisions as I object to providing additional resources to the village of Warrens when they already have access to $25,000 of funding which may be used for any eligible project in the village by June 30, 2029. Given that they already have access to this funding, I further object to singling one community out for additional funding when the transportation needs of many communities remain unmet under this proposed budget.
9. Statutory Daily Rates
Section 327m
These provisions establish a per person daily cost assessment to counties of $2,501 in fiscal year 2025-26 and $2,758 in fiscal year 2026-27 for care of a juvenile who is in a Type 1 juvenile correctional facility or transferred from a juvenile correctional facility to an inpatient treatment facility. The daily rate in fiscal year 2024-25 is $1,268.
I am partially vetoing these provisions to establish a daily rate of $501 in fiscal year 2025-26 and $758 in fiscal year 2026-27 because I object to establishing a daily rate that is unaffordable to counties. I have heard loud and clear from counties that the current daily rate is burdensome and will detrimentally impact public safety. Unbelievably, despite that clear message from the counties, the Legislature has chosen to increase that rate by over $1,000 per day. This increase and funding model is untenable, and counties have expressed that this unaffordable increase will have serious and detrimental effects on other county services. With this veto, I am establishing daily rates while still ensuring it is manageable for local partners. My budget recommended providing GPR to the Department of Corrections to buy down the daily rate. I urge the Legislature to revisit this issue in separate legislation and appropriate those additional GPR funds to the department.
10. Capital Development Staffing and Institution Maintenance Staffing
Section 9108 (1)
This section assigns a 1.0 FTE GPR electrician position to the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution.
I am vetoing this section to remove the specificity of locating the position at Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution because I object to the Legislature singling out one specific institution when there is a demonstrated need at multiple correctional facilities throughout the state. This will allow the Department of Corrections the flexibility to determine where the greatest area of need is across all 36 institutions and provide the necessary staffing.
11. Advance Planning for the Department of Corrections
Section 9104 (7) (a)
This provision allocates $15,000,0000 in funding from the State Building Commission's planning and design appropriation under s. 20.867 (2) (r) to develop preliminary plans and specifications for construction projects contributing to a realignment of the Department of Corrections and leading to the closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institution by 2029. I am partially vetoing this provision to remove the reference to the 2029 deadline for the closure of the Green Bay Correctional Institution because I object to the Legislature assigning a date by which Green Bay Correctional Institution must be closed while providing virtually no real, meaningful, or concrete plan to do so. Let me be clear: I support closing Green Bay Correctional Institution. Indeed, my administration spent years working on a comprehensive corrections reform plan to be able to close Green Bay Correctional Institution quickly, safely, and cost efficiently, which was included in the biennial budget I introduced months ago. I proposed a "domino" series of facility changes, improvements, and modernization efforts across Wisconsin's correctional institutions while improving public safety by expanding workforce training opportunities to reduce the likelihood that people might reoffend after they are released. Under that plan, Green Bay Correctional Institution would be closed in 2029. Instead, the Legislature sent this budget with that same deadline and no plan of which to speak.
As of this writing, there are 1,133 people at Green Bay Correctional Institution; the Legislature provides nowhere for these maximum-security-status individuals to go if Green Bay Correctional Institution is closed. As of this writing, there are 362 individuals who work at Green Bay Correctional Institution; the Legislature provides nothing to make sure they have job security, continuity, and the opportunity to continue working at the Department of Corrections if Green Bay Correctional Institution is closed. As of this writing, Wisconsin has the capacity to house 17,638 individuals at its correctional institutions but there are 23,375 people living in Department of Corrections institutions across Wisconsin; the Legislature provides no steps whatsoever to stabilize the state's skyrocketing prison population. The list goes on. Wisconsin already has about a decade's worth of painful experience learning how well it works in practice to set unrealistic, artificial timelines and due dates for closing prison facilities without a complete and thorough plan for implementation: look no further than Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake School today, nearly a decade after a bill was passed in 2017 to require their closure in 2021. It is 2025 and both schools still remain open. It would be foolish and dangerous to attempt to take a similar approach with a maximum-security institution like Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Green Bay Correctional Institution should close-on that much, the Legislature and I agree. It simply is not responsible or tenable to require doing so by a deadline absent a plan to actually accomplish that goal by the timeline set. I look forward to continuing this conversation in the weeks and months ahead and remain hopeful that our bipartisan work on this budget will help ensure we can find common ground on a safe, realistic, and cost-effective plan to close Green Bay Correctional Institution this session.
12. Noise Barriers on I 894 and 141
