Wisconsin Republicans on building commission reject governor’s spending plan

Republicans on a state building commission have once again rejected a plan from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for capital projects.

The $4.1 billion proposal for the next two fiscal years now heads to the Legislature’s GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee without the committee’s recommendation.

Among other projects, the proposal calls for tearing down a dilapidated Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completing deferred maintenance projects across the state.

But during a commission meeting this week, state Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said she’s troubled by the amount of borrowing called for in the governor’s plan.

“There’s a lot of really worthy projects in this capital budget, but this is $3.85 billion in new bonding,” Felzkowski said. “I think to get a more appropriate level, further discussion is needed, and we need to hear from stakeholders and the public. And that just hasn’t happened.”

The commission ended up deadlocking on the governor’s plan with a series of 4-4 votes after Felzkowski joined other Republicans in voting against.

Since Evers became governor in 2019, Republicans on the building commission have similarly blocked recommending his other capital budget requests.

Evers’ latest capital proposal includes a roughly half-a-billion-dollar plan to reorganize the state’s prison system. That proposal would have Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections renovate some prisons and eventually shut down the troubled maximum-security Green Bay Correctional Institution.

Evers has called for reducing the state’s prison population through the expansion of an earned release program for nonviolent offenders. Eventually, his budget proposal would decrease the capacity of Wisconsin’s prison system by about 700 people. Currently, there are more than 23,000 people locked up in Wisconsin’s prisons, and the system is over-capacity.

Last month, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, told reporters that GOP lawmakers are likely to scrap Evers’ prison reorganization plan and put forth a Republican proposal instead.

In a news release sent just before the building commission voted on Tuesday, the governor said he hoped his capital budget would gain bipartisan support.

“We can’t afford to kick the can down the road on key infrastructure projects across our state, most especially as the cost of building materials may only get more expensive with each day of delay due to potential tariff taxes and trade wars,” Evers said in a statement.