Nonfinancial Provisions Stay In Budget, For Now

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Republican lawmakers, for now, plan to leave most of the nearly 60 proposals that are unrelated to the state’s finances in Governor Scott Walker’s budget.

The proposals, highlighted in a memo from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, include a major expansion of the school voucher program, an end to local government employee residency requirements like the one in Milwaukee, and a deregulation of the rent-to-own industry.

Democrats wanted most of it taken out of the budget. Cory Mason (D-Racine) singled out the rent-to-own provision.

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“This thing comes up like a bad penny and just reeks of out of state special interest putting policy in the budget at the expense of Wisconsin consumers. It seems to me that we ought to have a conversation at the outset of this budget-today-about the negative impacts that that has on the Wisconsin middle class and ordinary folks.”

But Republicans who run the Joint Finance Committee held off on voting these policy items in or out. Senate Co-Chair Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) says lawmakers can deal with them one by one as the budget process continues.

“The Governor put these issues in the budget. He put them in because he felt they were important, and we will be having a very fierce debate on those issues and I’m sure there are differences of opinion, and I expect those differences to be brought out and debated here.”

Darling and Assembly Co-Chair John Nygren (R-Marinette) did release a memo that recommended 12 of the items be removed from the budget. Included is a provision that would end Wisconsin’s ban on foreign ownership of large tracts of farmland.