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Assembly speaker says he won't be 'held hostage' on state budget

Posted at 4:05 PM, Sep 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-13 19:26:08-04

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday he would not be "held hostage" by Senate Republicans who are seeking last-minute changes to the $76 billion state budget in order to approve a spending plan that is already 10 weeks late.

His refusal to further negotiate with senators came as the Assembly began budget debate and Gov. Scott Walker told reporters he would sign off on speeding up repeal of the prevailing wage and making additional reforms at the state Transportation Department to win over reluctant senators. Both ideas have been floated by Republican senators who have said they don't yet support the two-year budget.

Vos said he would only make technical changes to the budget during Assembly debate, raising doubt about whether the spending plan would pass the full Legislature this week.

"We are not going to allow individual senators to rewrite the budget," Vos said.

Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, when asked on his way to a private meeting Wednesday with GOP senators if there were the needed 17 votes for the budget yet, said, "I hope so!" Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald smiled, shrugged and walked into his office without verbal comment when asked if he had secured enough support.

Assembly budget debate began more than two months after the two-year spending plan was due on July 1. Current spending levels continued during the impasse, lessening the urgency for Republicans to reach a deal. Republicans control the Assembly 64-35 and were expected to reject all Democratic changes and pass the plan sometime Wednesday evening.

Walker defended the proposed budget plan from Democratic critics, saying it fulfills his goals of increasing funding for K-12 schools without increasing property taxes.

The proposal largely mirrors what Walker introduced in February and comes as he is preparing to run for a third term next year. It increases spending for K-12 public schools by 5.9 percent, freezes tuition on University of Wisconsin campuses, raises fees on electric and hybrid car drivers, and borrows $400 million more for road projects.

"We are going to live within our ability to pay," said Republican Rep. John Nygren, co-chair of the Legislature's budget-writing committee, at a news conference. "This is a positive budget. This is something we all should be supporting."

Assembly Democrats focused their criticism on tax cuts benefiting the wealthy rather than reducing taxes for the working poor, saying Republicans had "rigged" the budget against the middle class. They also highlighted the failure of Republicans to come up with a long-term funding plan for roads.

"The Republicans essentially are Robin Hood in reverse in this budget," Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca said at a news conference.

All prevailing wage requirements for state projects would be eliminated under the budget in September 2018. Walker said Wednesday he would be fine with moving up the elimination date to Jan. 1 or even earlier. The prevailing wage law sets minimum salaries for construction workers on public projects. The Legislature in 2015 eliminated the prevailing wage for local government projects.

The change is another blow to unions, which have suffered a series of defeats during Walker's seven years in office.
 

 

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