Gov. Tony Evers today used his partial-veto authority to modify 78 items in the 2019-21 biennial state budget bill before signing it into law today.

At a press conference this morning, Evers said he was adding $100 million in per-pupil aid increases for K-12 education and making many other modifications to the budget bill using a partial veto. Evers said he considered vetoing the budget bill in its entirety because it did not include enough education funding or Medicaid expansion, but he did not want to participate in "petty politics."

Among his partial vetoes today:

• Quarries: Evers eliminated the budget bill provisions that would have limited the authority of political subdivisions to place conditions or limits on the operation of quarries.
• Volkswagen settlement funds: The budget bill originally allocated $3 million of the $25 million in Volkswagen settlement funds for the replacement of school buses, with the rest toward public transit vehicle replacement. The veto eliminates the $3 million for school buses and directs the Department of Administration to allocate up to $10 million for electric vehicle charging stations and at least $15 million for the transit capital assistance grant program.
• Local roads projects funding: Evers reduced the one-time local roads funding budget provision by $15 million - from $90 million to $75 million for 2019-20. The Legislature had specified how the $90 million should be divided among counties, cities, villages and towns, but Evers' veto removes the set amounts for each subsect and instead gives the Department of Transportation the ability to distribute the $75 million between these groups based on need and priority of the project.
• Mileage-based fee and tolling study: Evers eliminated the requirement that the Department of Transportation study a mileage-based fee and tolling in Wisconsin and come up with an implementation plan. Evers says he objects to the financing of another study that "will show yet again that the motor fuel tax is the most effective way to collect revenue."
• Wheel tax fee increase: Evers eliminated a budget bill provision that would have required the Department of Transportation to charge at least 27 cents per vehicle registration application for municipal or county vehicle registration fees.
• Video service provider fees: The budget bill provided a state aid payment program for 10 years to compensate municipalities losing revenue as a result of the bill's reductions to fees paid by video service providers. Evers' veto will make the payments ongoing and will not end after 10 years.
• Non-state construction projects: Evers eliminated a $25 million grant program that would have allowed municipalities to apply for grants on behalf of nonstate organizations for the construction of a building serving a public purpose. Instead, he is using $22 million of these dollars toward the replacement of the Lincoln Hills School.

Click here to see Gov. Tony Evers' veto message.