Evers vetoes tax cuts
Governor says GOP plan should have included funds for schools.
WAUWATOSA - Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a tax cut Wednesday, saying Republican lawmakers should have coupled it with additional money for schools.
It marked the second time in a year that the first-term governor vetoed an income tax cut offered by Republicans. In the 12 months between those vetoes, Evers signed legislation that is expected to lower income taxes by $136 per person on average this year.
Republicans expressed disappointment with the latest veto and said they may try to override it, even as they acknowledged they likely could not get the votes they needed. They rejected Evers’ latest call for more school funding, with one GOP leader calling his demands for more money for school his “Achilles’ heel” in budget negotiations.
From the start, Evers expressed skepticism of the proposed tax cut and he killed it Wednesday during a news conference at Lincoln Elementary School.
“Republicans are more concerned about the perceptions of giving a Democratic governor a win than by getting things done,” he said. “Politics, plain and simple.”
He said Republicans should have used a projected surplus to pair a tax cut with increased school funding that would ensure the state covers twothirds of the cost of education. Republicans in the past have backed that level of school spending.
“At the end of the day, when the Republicans choose to play politics instead of keeping their own promise or working together to find common ground on something they have supported in the past, I’m not the one that’s losing,” Evers said. “The kids are losing, the schools are losing and the property tax payers are losing.”
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau shot down the possibility of reaching a compromise with Evers this year.
“I don’t think there’s any common ground between now and February of next year,” he told reporters at a stop in Franklin. “There’s no time for compro
mise right now.”
The Republican plan would have provided more than 2 million tax filers with an average income tax cut of $106. That part of their proposal would have cost $248 million in the next fiscal year.
The legislation also would have scaled back personal property taxes paid by businesses by $45 million a year. And it would have reduced state debt by $100 million.
In all, the GOP plan would have cost about $400 million through June 2021.
Evers noted the plan would have reduced how much money would otherwise be in the state’s rainy-day fund.
Evers offered a plan this month to put $252 million toward schools and property tax relief. Republicans rejected the idea, saying they wanted to focus solely on cutting taxes and reducing debt.
Both sides developed their proposals after they got revenue projections that said the state is expected to have an extra $620 million in its main account by the summer of 2021, even after putting hundreds of millions of dollars in the rainy-day fund.
Now that Evers has vetoed the tax cut, the extra cash will remain in the state’s coffers.
Evers said he was open to cutting income taxes and reducing state debt, as Republicans want.
But any agreement must include more funding for schools and some reduction in property taxes, Evers said.
“It’s time for Republicans to put politics aside so we can do what’s right for our kids, our schools and of course our property tax payers,” Evers said. “I’m ready to work across the aisle to get this done and I’m willing to come to a compromise that works for everyone.”
“I don’t care who gets the credit, I just know that the people of our state deserve elected officials that get things done, and funding our schools and reducing our property taxes should be something we can agree on.”
FItzgerald, who is running for Congress this fall, rejected finding a compromise this year, noting the Assembly last week ended its session for 2020. The Senate plans to meet once more this year, in March.
Though the regular Assembly session is over, Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester said he would likely reconvene his house in May to try to override Evers’ veto. Fitzgerald said he was considering doing that as well but acknowledged Republicans likely could not get the twothirds majorities they would need to do that.
Regardless, trying to override the veto would show Republicans are committed to cutting taxes, Fitzgerald said.
He argued Republicans have been fair with school funding and said Evers, a former state schools superintendent, has been too willing to funnel money from other parts of the state budget to education.
“With him being the superintendent for as many years as he was in Wisconsin, he’s got a soft spot and it’s always going to be more money, more money, more money for education and ignoring other parts of state government, which I think is really going to be kind of his Achilles’ heel going into this next budget cycle,” Fitzgerald said
GOP Rep. John Nygren of Marinette, the co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee, said in a statement that Evers has been fixated on property taxes because they went up under the spending plan he and lawmakers approved last year.
“It seems that the Governor has realized he screwed up and now wants a doover,” Nygren said in his statement.
Those making $25,000 to $30,000 a year would have received an average cut of $88, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Those making $70,000 to $80,000 a year would have received an average cut of $146
Individuals who make more than about $120,000 and married couples who make more than about $145,000 would not have gotten a tax cut.