The Wisconsin State Senate is “nowhere near” the 17 votes needed to pass the $1.8 billion budget surplus deal Governor Evers struck with legislative Republican leaders, multiple sources confirmed to the Heartland Post Tuesday.
The Joint Finance Committee took up the proposal Tuesday afternoon and is expected to advance it, but as things currently stand, it will not pass the Senate. Democrat Senate Minority Leader Diane Hesselbein blasted the measure almost as soon as it was announced Monday, indicating that her caucus was not behind it.
“From my perspective, there is no deal: Three men who will not be in elected office next year have come up with this proposal which Senate Dems will be reviewing,” she said. “Senate Democrats will have more to say once we have seen the full details of this expensive proposal and have gotten some clarifying information on revenue projections in this time of significant economic uncertainty and upheaval.”
The only Republican Senator to publicly come out against the plan was Steve Nass, who called it a “closed-door deal with [Assembly] Speaker Robin Vos to spend $1.8 billion using projected revenues that have not even been collected yet.”
Republicans hold an 18-15 majority in the Senate and could not afford any other defections to pass the measure if, as Hesselbein suggested, no Democrats will vote for it.
Several sources tell the Heartland Post that Democrats in both houses of the Legislature are furious Evers negotiated with Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu behind their back and rank-and-file Dems want to sink the deal because they don’t fear repercussions from the Governor, who is not seeking re-election.
Vos and LeMahieu, too, are retiring and are increasingly seen as lame duck leaders within their respective caucuses, but the biggest obstacle Republican leaders face in passing the deal is GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany’s opposition.
“Governor Evers is acting like the arsonist who wants praise for spraying a drop of water on the fire he started,” Tiffany said Tuesday in a post on X. “This backroom ‘relief deal’ does nothing to repeal Governor Evers’ 400-year property tax increase. It does nothing to stop Madison’s addiction to taxing and spending. And after Governor Evers’ PSC approved billions in utility rate hikes, a one-time $300 check barely scratches the surface.”
The agreement is expected to pass the Assembly once it emerges from the Joint Finance Committee, but passage in the Senate, sources indicate, may prove impossible–at least for the deal in its current form. It is unclear what changes, if any, would garner GOP support and whether Governor Evers would be willing to sign a bill that includes those changes.
