News
Wisconsin’s state budget finalized
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed the biennial budget this morning at an elementary school in Whitefish Bay. Evers remains critical of what the Republican-controlled legislature did not put in the budget but says he’s pleased with more than 100-million in new school funding and the 15% tax cut for middle-class families.
Republicans including Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair Howard Marklein criticized the Democratic Governor for taking credit for tax cuts after proposing a billion dollars in tax increases in his own budget proposal. Marklein says it is, “a great budget for rural Wisconsin that includes $100 million for local, rural roads, increased reimbursements for hospitals and nursing homes and support for the workers who care for us.”
The new budget provides 129 million dollars to fund more broadband expansion grants and 200-thousand dollars in each of the next two years to create an annual meat processor grant program so facilities can expand. The budget also includes funding for farmer mental health assistance, seven million for the Soil and Water Resource Management Program, and increases funding for producer-led watershed protection grants up to a million dollars a year.
The Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection tells Brownfield the department’s talent development funding was not approved, and just four of the requested six meat inspector positions were funded.
The new budget is getting praise from Wisconsin Farmers Union.
