Governor signs budget in early morning to secure Medicaid funds

MADISON Wis AP Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers signed a new two-year budget in the early morning hours Thursday in a race against Congress to ensure the state gets a federal Medicaid match that it would lose under President Trump s tax and spending cuts package In an extraordinarily rapid succession of events Evers and Republican lawmakers unveiled a compromise budget deal on Tuesday the Senate passed it Wednesday night and hours later just before a m on Thursday the Assembly passed it Evers signed it in his conference room minutes later Democrats who voted against the billion spending bill declared it didn t go far enough in meeting their priorities of increasing funding for schools child care and expanding Medicaid But Evers who hasn t decided on whether he will seek a third term hailed the compromise as the best deal that could be reached I believe the majority Wisconsinites would say that compromise is a good thing because that is how cabinet is supposed to work Evers mentioned Wisconsin s budget would affect nearly every person in the battleground state Income taxes would be cut for working people and retirees by billion sales taxes would be eliminated on residential electric bills and it would cost more to get a driver s license buy license plates and title a car Unprecedented speed There was urgency to pass the budget because of one part that increases an assessment on hospitals to help fund the state s Medicaid undertaking and hospital provider payments Medicaid cuts up for final approval this week in Congress cap how much states can get from the federal governing body through those fees The budget would increase Wisconsin s assessment rate from to the federal maximum of to access federal matching funds But if the federal bill is enacted first Wisconsin could not raise the fee putting billion in funding for rural hospitals at danger In the rush to get done Republicans took the highly distinctive move of bringing the budget up for votes on the same day In at least the past years the budget has never passed both houses on the same day We need to get this thing done currently so we have the opportunity to access federal funding Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos mentioned at the start of debate just before p m Wednesday Governors typically take several days to review and sign the budget after it s passed but Evers took just minutes Bipartisan compromise In a concession to the Democratic governor Republicans also agreed to spend more money on special tuition services in K- schools subsidize child care costs and give the Universities of Wisconsin its biggest increase in nearly two decades The plan would also likely development in higher property taxes in plenty of school districts due to no increase in general aid to pay for operations The budget called for closing a troubled aging prison in Green Bay by but Evers used his partial veto to strike that provision He left in million in money to aid the closure but objected to setting a date without a clear plan for how to get it done Republicans need Democratic votes The Senate passed the budget - with five Democrats joining with Republicans to approve it Four Republicans joined Democrats in voting no The Assembly passed it - with six Democrats in patronage One Republican voted against it Democratic senators were brought into budget negotiations in the final days to secure enough votes to pass it It s a bipartisan deal Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein mentioned before the vote I think everybody left the table wishing it was different but this is something everyone has agreed on Democrats revealed newly drawn legislative maps which helped them pick up seats in November and narrow the Republican majorities led to greater compromise this year That gave us leverage that gave us an opportunity to have a conversation Democratic Sen Mark Spreitzer declared But still Spreitzer stated the budget fell far short of what was needed on our priorities He and other Democrats revealed it didn t go enough to help fund child care K- schools and higher teaching in particular Source