Wisconsin Senate approves tax cut, Assembly to follow

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By TODD RICHMOND and SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Senate voted along party lines Thursday to pass a Republican plan to reduce income taxes by $250 million, setting up a vote later in the day in the Assembly to send the plan to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

The rare early morning vote came after Democrats in the Senate blocked a final vote on Wednesday. All 19 Republicans voted for the bill, with all 14 Democrats against.

Evers has not said whether he will sign the proposal, which Republicans put forward after new estimates projected the state would have a $620 million budget surplus by the middle of next year. Evers instead wants to tap the surplus to lower property taxes and spend more on K-12 schools, but lawmakers have refused to take up his $250 million plan.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who discussed both plans with Evers this week, said he hoped the governor would sign the tax cut even though the Legislature is rejecting his school-aid plan. Any discussion of bolstering aid for schools will have to wait for the next state budget in 2021, Fitzgerald said.

In another sign that a veto of the tax cut bill was likely, Evers tweeted that the plan is “unsustainable” and urged Republicans to “do the right thing” and pass his school proposal.

The Assembly was voting on the tax cut Thursday on the final day it planned to be in session this year. The Assembly was giving final approval to bills that had already passed the Senate or making proposals available for it to vote on next month. The Senate plans to return for one final day in March.
The proposed tax cut bill would would deliver an average reduction of $106 for most qualifying filers. Married couples who file jointly would see an average cut of $145; all other filers would see an average reduction of $81. The bill also would reduce taxes for manufacturers by nearly $45 million by exempting their machinery and tools from property taxes and trim state debt by $100 million.

The Assembly was separately moving to pass a farm-aid package that includes elements of what Evers wanted, but goes further by reducing taxes for farmers by $30 million a year and another $6 million for self-employed people. Evers hasn’t said whether he will go along with those tax reductions, which also must win approval from the Senate. Fitzgerald said senators were “picking and choosing” what they like from the farm-aid package. He didn’t elaborate.

The Assembly also planned to vote on a trio of bills that would prohibit labeling food as meat, milk or dairy if it doesn’t contain those products.

One proposal would ban labeling or selling a product as meat unless it includes animal flesh. Eleven other states already have such a ban. The other two bills would ban labeling a beverage as milk unless it comes from cows, goats or certain other animals and labeling a product as cream, yogurt or cheese unless it includes dairy. Those two proposals would take effect only if 10 other Midwest states approve similar prohibitions by 2031.

None of the bills has passed the Senate yet.

Also on the agenda is a proposal to extend bar time to 4 a.m. statewide during the Democratic National Convention in July. Milwaukee is the host city for the event. Evers has said he would sign the proposal into law, but Fitzgerald said the idea is losing momentum in the Senate and he’s not sure it will pass in March.

The Assembly also planned to:

– Mandate that schools teach cursive writing. The Department of Public Instruction estimates public and charter schools would have to spend as much as $7.6 million on student materials such as workbooks and teacher training in at least the first year of the requirement.

– Raise state trooper salaries by 10% retroactive to July 2019, money that would be payable in a lump sum; boost troopers’ starting salaries by $6,000 annually; and adjust the pay scale for all troopers according to seniority. All troopers would also receive a 2% raise for each of the past two years. The Senate approved the bill Wednesday.

– Require police departments to give the public access to most officer body-camera footage under Wisconsin’s open-records law. The Senate passed the bill Wednesday.