July 2025 Extraordinary Session
THURSDAY, July 3, 2025
The Chief Clerk made the following entries under the above date.
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Chief Clerk's Entries
Senate Enrolled Proposals
The Chief Clerk records:
Report correctly enrolled on 7-3-2025.
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Petitions and Communications
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
July 3, 2025
The Honorable, the Senate:
The following bill(s), originating in the Senate, have been approved, signed and deposited in the office of the Secretary of State:
Bill Number Act Number Date Approved
Sincerely,
TONY EVERS
Governor
Pursuant to s. 35.095 (1)(b), Wisconsin Statutes, the following 2025 Act(s) have been published: Act Number Bill Number Publication Date
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Legislative Reference Bureau Corrections
Corrections In:
SENATE AMENDMENT 26 TO SENATE SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 2,
TO 2025 SENATE BILL 45
Prepared by the Legislative Reference Bureau
(July 2, 2025)
In enrolling, the following corrections were made:
hist2072961. Page 2, line 15: delete that line and substitute “study under section 9144 (1) of this act.”. 2. Page 6, line 3: delete that line.
3. Page 6, line 18: delete “2027”.”” and substitute “2027”.”.
4. Page 13, line 12: delete “rates” and substitute “, the rates”.
5. Page 15, line 7: delete “commitee” and substitute “committee”.
6. Page 19, line 15: delete “to 6” and substitute “to 5”.
7. Page 20, line 7: delete “, in” and substitute “in”.
8. Page 25, line 12: delete that line and substitute:
“134. Page 370, line 8: after “license fee” insert “of $10”.”.
9. Page 25, line 17: delete “1m.” and substitute “1m”.
10. Page 25, line 19: delete “3m.” and substitute “3m”.
11. Page 25, line 20: delete “3m.” and substitute “3m Effective dates date.”.
12. Page 26, line 1: delete “(1).” and substitute “(1)”.
13. Page 171, line 25: delete “of Milwaukee”.
14. Page 420, line 13: delete “of Milwaukee”.
SENATE SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 2,
TO 2025 SENATE BILL 45
Prepared by the Legislative Reference Bureau
(July 2, 2025)
In enrolling, the following corrections were made:
hist2072971. Page 235, line 22: before “9144” insert “section”. 2. Page 236, line 18: delete “Warrens” and substitute “Warrens;”.
3. Page 262, line 13: delete “are” and substitute “is”.
4. Page 287, line 18: after “In” insert “fiscal year”.
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State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
July 3, 2025
The Honorable, the Senate:
I have approved Senate Bill 45 as 2025 Wisconsin Act 15 and deposited it in the Office of the Secretary of State. Over the past three biennial budgets, I have made it a priority to listen to the will of the people, to do the right thing for Wisconsin, and to create prosperity that will define our state for generations. We've worked hard to be prudent with taxpayer dollars and save where we can, while still investing in the needs that had long been neglected, cutting taxes for working families, and staying within our state's means. As a result, over the last several biennia, I've been proud to use my signing pen and my broad, constitutional veto authority-to secure historic investments in our kids and schools, families, and communities across our state.
During my time in office, together, we've secured generational increases to shared revenue for local communities, made historic progress in our work to fully fund our public schools, provided some of the largest state increases in state history in critical infrastructure investments, including investing over half a billion dollars to build housing for our workforce, expanding access to affordable highspeed internet to help 410,000 homes and businesses get connected to new or improved service, and improving more than 8,600 miles of our darn roads and 2,000 bridges statewide. In fact, Wisconsinites could drive from Wausau, Wisconsin, to Disney World in Orlando, Florida-and back-three times over--on the number of miles of roads we have fixed. We have made critical investments in our farmers, producers, and their families, including supporting our meat and dairy producers, investing in farmer mental health resources, and bolstering Wisconsin's exports worldwide to ensure our $116 billion agricultural industry remains on top and that we continue to retain the title of "America's Dairyland" for generations to come.
We have made investments in key priorities, delivering for kids, families, schools, veterans, seniors, communities, and so many more, and we have been able to do so all while cutting taxes for hard-working Wisconsinites. Through our bipartisan work to cut taxes over the past six years, Wisconsinites are keeping more of their hard-earned income today than at any point in the last 50 years. When I first took office in 2019, the state had the 24th-highest tax burden in the nation. Now, a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report shows Wisconsin's state and local tax burden has dropped to a record low in 2024, and today, the state and local taxes Wisconsinites pay as a share of their income is the lowest it has been in over half a century.
We have invested in state needs and priorities that have long been neglected while still delivering real, meaningful tax relief to Wisconsinites who needed it-and we did so all while staying well within the state's means. Since 2019, we have:
• Had a positive General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) ending balance for all five full fiscal years that I have been Governor after the state previously ran a GAAP deficit for 30 consecutive years;
• Increased our Budget Stabilization Fund (also known as the "rainy-day'' fund) to record-high levels, six times more than when I took office to a figure that will exceed $2 billion later this year;
• Achieved our state's first underlying AAA bond rating on our General Obligation bonds since the early 1980s, which we have maintained since 2021;
• Reduced our state's overall outstanding debt by $2.5 billion, or nearly 20 percent, over the past six years; and
• Completed numerous debt refinancing transactions providing present value debt service savings of nearly $600 million.
Each budget I have introduced and signed as Governor has balanced the important obligations of both finding ways to save where we could while still upholding our duty to protect the future Wisconsinites deserve that we are working in earnest to build, together. The budget I am signing with improvements today is the rule, not an exception.
Thanks to our bipartisan work and strategic investments over the last six years, we began this 2025-27 budget process with a robust opening balance, reduced debt, and steady economic growth. And much like every budget I have ever built, the 2025-27 Executive Budget began as every budget always has for me, by doing what is best for our kids.
I have always believed that what's best for our kids is what's best for our state-our kids are why I became an educator, a principal, and a superintendent, they are why I ran to serve as State Superintendent of Public Instruction for a decade, and they are why I ran for Governor. I wanted to do more and do better for our kids.
I began 2025 by declaring it the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin, and I introduced the most pro-kid budget of any Governor and of any budget in our state's history. If we want to improve our kids' outcomes and make sure our kids can be successful both within and beyond our schools, we must shorten the odds, I made it clear from the get-go that my top priority would be to pass a pro-kid budget that makes meaningful investments in Wisconsin's kids at every stage and every age, from early childhood to K-12 to our higher education institutions. While the final budget being sent to my desk today is far from the budget I introduced and fought for, after months of negotiations with Republican leaders, I am proud to have reached a bipartisan budget agreement that delivers on that important promise.
Republican lawmakers had long indicated this budget would not invest in child care providers. Today, I am proud to be signing into law a budget that invests over $361 million in our child care industry, including a third of which will provide direct support to child care providers, much like the wildly successful Child Care Counts Program, to help providers find staff, cut wait lists, and lower the cost of child care for working families. This investment also includes a new first-of-its-kind "Get Kids Ready" initiative to help get kids ready for the classroom and get an earlier jump start on learning. This is the first-ever child care program funded solely through general purpose revenue (GPR) in state history, helping to ensure that future budgets will include an ongoing and continued state commitment to our child care providers statewide.
Republican lawmakers had also long indicated this budget would provide no new increases for our K-12 schools. Today, I am proud to be signing into law a budget that provides nearly $1.4 billion in spendable revenue for K-12 schools, including the largest increase in the special education reimbursement rate for K-12 schools ever in state history with more-than-half-a-billion-dollar investment. This will bring the special education reimbursement rate to 42 percent in the first year of the biennium and 45 percent in the second year of the biennium -the highest rate schools have seen in 30 years and a larger increase for special education than the last three state budgets combined. Additionally, we know our kids are struggling with their mental health perhaps now more than ever, which is why I fought hard for the second consecutive biennial budget to ensure our state budget invests in comprehensive, school-based mental health services for our kids. While I am disappointed the Legislature declined to make sure this investment is an ongoing and sustainable state obligation, the $30 million I fought to secure in this budget will ensure our kids will continue to be able to access mental health services and support at school modeled on my successful "Get Kids Ahead" initiative I created several years ago. All told, through our bipartisan budget agreement, this budget includes a net categorical aid increase for our K-12 schools that is five times larger than the increase provided in the most recent state biennial budget.
Finally, I have spent the last year advocating for increased investments in the UW System to prevent further campus closures, staff and faculty layoffs, and program cuts and consolidations, so Republican lawmakers' threats to cut nearly $90 million from our UW System were a nonstarter for me. I am especially proud that the bipartisan budget I am signing today makes the largest increase in our UW System in nearly two decades with an increase of over $250 million for the UW System over the next two years. This includes over $100 million to support UW System campuses statewide to help stabilize the system after recent campus closures, layoffs, and program cuts and consolidations and ensure UW institutions remain economic and workforce hubs in communities across our state.
We are also making critical investments in our UW System faculty and staff with a $54 million investment to help retain and recruit faculty in high-demand fields and increasing wages for UW System workers with an almost $90 million investment. We are also making critical investments in capital building projects on campuses across the state, including projects at UW-Madison, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Stout, Milwaukee, and Stevens Point, with an over $1.2 billion investment. Together, these investments will help ensure our UW System institutions remain competitive, world-class institutions and continue to be the gem of our state.
Furthermore, a critical part of our work doing what's best for our kids in the Year of the Kid must be supporting the families and communities that raise them, too. As families and communities face devastating federal cuts to basic needs programs, including Medicaid and food security programs, as well as efforts to gut tax credits that will make household utility bills go up, our bipartisan budget works to lower everyday out-of-pocket energy costs, supports access to local, nutritious food for Wisconsin's kids, families, and seniors, and ensures Wisconsinites have access to quality, affordable healthcare.
Household budgets are already stretched too thin. So, I am proud this bipartisan budget includes my budget proposal to lower out-of-pocket costs on energy and utility bills for working families by eliminating the sales tax on household energy and utility bills. This will help reduce energy costs for families and save Wisconsin households over $178 million over the next two years alone.
Through this bipartisan budget, 1.6 million Wisconsin income taxpayers will see income tax cuts with an average tax cut of $180. All told, this budget brings the tax cuts I have enacted since taking office to over $12.6 billion, including $2.4 billion on an annual basis by the end of this biennium, helping Wisconsinites keep more of their hard-earned money in their household budgets. With these reductions and four consecutive state budgets signed that included significant middle-class income tax cuts, most middle-class individual income taxpayers will have seen total reductions of 20 percent or more under the budgets I have been proud to sign into law.
Additionally, this budget also works to ensure Wisconsinites have access to quality, affordable healthcare statewide, especially in our rural communities with new efforts to bolster health systems across the state. Currently, hospitals in Wisconsin pay an assessment of approximately 1.8 percent of their net patient revenue to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS). The department uses a portion of these funds to make supplemental Medicaid payments back to hospitals and transfers a portion of the funding to the Medical Assistance Trust Fund. This budget requires DHS to establish the hospital assessment at six percent, with 30 percent of the funds generated retained by the state in the Medical Assistance Trust Fund, which helps to fund the state Medicaid program. The remainder of the funds will be used for investments in hospital provider payments, resulting in over $1.1 billion in investments in Wisconsin hospitals. This will help prevent hospital closures and ensure access to healthcare in communities across the state.
