Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday partially vetoed 50 items in the 2021-23 state budget bill before signing it into law. It is now 2021 Wisconsin Act 58.
The major budget items the governor partially vetoed on Thursday include:
- Changes to the income tax withholding tables;
- A $550 million transfer to the state's rainy-day fund;
- An annual transfer from the general fund to the transportation fund.
- Requiring the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development to create rules to establish occupational drug testing for unemployment insurance purposes.
- Providing $25,000 to allow DWD to conduct a study about converting the state's unemployment insurance system into a sliding scale system in which benefit calculations and eligibility weeks are adjusted based upon the unemployment rate.
Major items in the enacted budget:
- Tax cuts. More than $2 billion in income-tax cuts for the third income-tax bracket and $600 million in property tax relief.
- Broadband. $129 million for broadband expansion, mostly through bonding.
- Local roads. $100 million for grants for local transportation projects and an increase of 2% in each year for local transportation aids.
- Ambulance services reimbursement. Provide $6.7 million GPR ($16.75 million All Funds) to increase MA reimbursement rates for ground ambulance transport to 80 percent of the 2021 Medicare urban rates applicable in Wisconsin, effective January 1, 2022.
- EMS funding assistance program. Increase funding for the EMS assistance program by $239,800 GPR annually so that $2.2 million GPR annually would be budgeted for the program.
- Regional crisis response system grants. Provide $10 million GPR in 2021-22 in the JFC program supplements appropriation for regional crisis services or facilities.
- Stewardship program. Reauthorized the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program for four years at current spending levels.
- Tuition freeze. End the UW System in-state, undergraduate tuition freeze.
- School funding. Schools that remained open for in-person instruction will see a minimum per-pupil funding increase of $781. State funding for special education will increase by 10% or $86 million.
Links & More Information About the Partial Vetoes
Click here to read the governor's budget message and more information about each of the partial vetoes.
Click here to read the enacted budget bill and more.