The budget agreement would put $ 1.2 billion in education, childcare, tax reduction by $ 1.5 billion

Dem Governor Tony Evers and legislative leaders have announced that they had entered into an agreement to inject an additional $ 1.2 billion into education K-12, childcare and the UW system.

The agreement also includes a tax reduction set of $ 1.5 billion, adding two of the GUV priorities to the fact that the joint financing committee controlled by the GOP had already approved.

Evers described the “pro-Kid budget which is a victory for children, families and our future of Wisconsin”.

Meanwhile, GOP legislative leaders have praised tax reductions in the agreement, as well as adding changes to Wisconsin universities such as new requirements for increased teaching expenses in exchange for 256 million dollars of additional state aid that the system would receive.

And the head of the Senate minority, Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, also praised. His caucus is considered key to obtaining a budget by the State Senate, where the Republicans have a majority of 18-15. Several members of the GOP have already publicly expressed reservations on the passage of a negotiated budget with Evers.

The biggest piece of the package is a boost of more than $ 500 million to finance special education compared to the current law.

The joint finance committee controlled by the GOP had previously approved the reimbursement rate at 37.5% during the second year of the budget, against the current level of 32.1%. The Committee has also approved the 90% versions to reimburse the districts for high costs of special education students, those which incur expenses of $ 30,000 or more in one year.

The agreement would bring the reimbursement rate to 45% by the second year of the budget while keeping the decision of the committee on children at high cost.

Evers had previously threatened to oppose its veto to the budget, unless GOP legislators include a commitment to process childcare costs, and the agreement provides for $ 331.6 million in new funding on this front.

This includes $ 110 million in direct payments to childcare providers to help cover costs because the state ends the Count Count program.

Evers had used COVVI-19 federal funds to cover these grant payments thanks to the number of daycare services. The agreement provides for the use of $ 110 million in the interest of COVVI-19 money Covid-19 to cover the new grant program.

The portion of child care also includes:

• 123 million dollars to stimulate a subsidy program for state guard services for poor workers. The increase would help to guarantee that families who qualify receive sufficiently large payments to afford 75% of childcare niche in their region.
• $ 66 million for a new “Get Kids Ready” initiative which would provide payments to childcare providers who serve 4 -year -old children and participate in a program designed to prepare them for school.
• $ 28.6 million to increase reimbursement rates for those who serve toddlers and infants.

The agreement also includes policy changes that the Republicans had proposed, such as the authorization of large family care centers to serve up to 12 children and to reduce to 16 the minimum age for assistant daycare teachers. They must now be 18 or 17 years old, depending on the qualifications they respond.

“This compromise will provide significant tax alternatives to retirees and the middle class, will stabilize the childcare system without making subsidies from the pandemic era and strengthen our schools by reimbursing special education services at a higher rate,” said the leader of the majority of the Senate Devin Lemahieu, R-Oostburg, and the co-owner of Senate Howard Marklein R-SPRING GREEN.

GOP legislators had considered a reduction of $ 87 million to UW. Instead, the system would get an increase of $ 256 million in state aid.

The package also provides $ 840 million for fixed assets across campuses. This includes $ 194 million for a scientific scientific center, $ 189 million for a health science building in Milwaukee and $ 137 million for a new library on the Oshkosh campus.

As part of the package, UW employees would see $ 94 million increasing on the two -year budget.

In exchange, educational staff would be required to increase their teaching expenses or use external resources to buy their time, and it would be easier to transfer general education credits UW to other institutions, according to speaker Robin Vos, RR-Croconster and the Coprés finance of the Assembly Mark Born, R-BEAVER DAM.

“This budget grants our two largest priorities; a tax relief for Wisconsin and reforms to make government more responsible,” said your. “This agreement brings together these investments and reforms and creates a Wisconsin that works for everyone.”

The agreement also provides $ 1 million for the Rising Phoenix Early College High School program from Uw-Green Bay which allows high school students to win university credits. As with subsidy payments for children’s custody, this cost would also be covered by the interests of COVVI-19 federal funds.

GUV and GOP legislators disagreed on these interests of interest, estimated at $ 172 million.

The Republicans argued that Evers was forced to deposit this money in the General State Fund, which the Guv disputed. Earlier this year, the Republicans pushed a bill to force the GUV to transfer money and a suggested legal action may be necessary to resolve the dispute.

The agreement includes the addition of Evers call to exempt the residential public services from the sales tax.

This should reduce state revenues by $ 178 million on the Biennale.

The GUV also called its budget for a film tax credit, while the GOP legislators have advanced autonomous legislation on the proposal. The agreement includes a new credit capped at $ 5 million per year and shaped by the bill now before the Legislative Assembly.

This is added to the tax reduction of $ 1.3 billion that the joint financing committee has already approved. This component seeks to increase the amount of income covered by the second lowest taxation tranche in the state while creating a new exemption for retirement income.

The agreement between the GUV and the legislators also provides for income increases of $ 200 million for transport.

During a briefing with journalists yesterday, the Guv office said that the details of the increase were still being developed.

The other provisions of the agreement include:

• Passing the assessment of the State on the income of hospital patients to 6%. This evaluation is now 1.8% and Evers had proposed in the budget to increase it to 5.4% with the support of state hospitals. The State uses the evaluation to generate additional federal counterpart funds, and the EVERSIVE administration estimates that hospitals would see more than a billion dollars more under the proposal. The state would keep 30% of funds, which would go to Wisconsin’s Medicaid Trust Fund. The Republicans at the national level had proposed a repression of this evaluation within the framework of the bill of reconciliation. The two houses had a different language on the evaluation.
• Implement a calendar of costs for the State workers’ compensation program. The GUV office said that the proposal reflects the modifications proposed in a last -session Assembly bill which aimed to impose maximum fees that a health care provider can invoice during the processing of an injured employee through the workers’ compensation system. The Wisconsin Hospital Association and the Wisconsin Medical Society opposed this bill the last session, just like other suppliers, while groups of companies such as manufacturers and the Wisconsin trade had pushed for this.
• A general salary adjustment for state employees, including those in the UW, 3% during the first year of the budget and 2% in the second.

The GUV office gave an overview of the agreement yesterday with representatives of the legislative caucus other than the demons of the assembly present.

Hesselbein then said that the Senate DEMS participation in discussions had improved the agreement.

“Thanks to difficult negotiations, compromises and animated discussions, we now have an agreement which, although not perfect and not the budget, the Democrats occur when we are in the majority, addresses the priorities that Wisconsinites have clearly addressed: finance our public schools, to make custody more affordable and to invest in the UW system,” she said.

The GUV office said that within the framework of the agreement, Evers would light up the agreement. But it was free to use this authority on other areas of the budget.

See the protruding facts of the agreement in the Guv declaration.