The state Senate is scheduled to take up more than twenty bills in a floor session Tuesday in a jam-packed day at the state Capitol preceding Gov. Tony Ever’s budget address in the evening.
Many of the bills are reintroduced from the 2019-2020 session ending early last year, but several are comprised of key Covid-related measures after passing their committee hearings.
Key bills include legislation that would prohibit government officials from requiring Covid-19 vaccines and another that would limit public health powers mandating closures of public gatherings in places of worship.
Senate minority leader Janet Bewley said some of those provisions can expect clear vetoes from the Governor, should they pass both houses. (Republican leaders, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate leader Devin LeMahieu, and Assembly majority leader Jim Steineke either didn’t respond or declined requests for interviews on Monday.)
The Assembly is set to consider a bill with a late-added addition last week that would give about $540 million in state income tax relief to businesses using paycheck protection program (PPP) loans. While Republicans want to provide the state income tax breaks (already provided at a federal level) to all businesses with expenses covered by the loans, Democrats want to cap the tax breaks at businesses who’d received up to $250,000 in PPP loans. That would cover about 90% of the Wisconsin businesses who’d received PPP funding.
“Washington-style budgeting doesn’t have to balance, but Wisconsin does,” Assembly minority leader Gordon Hintz told News 3 Now on Monday. “Democrats are going to be proposing an amendment that caps the deduction and pours the savings into direct aid to businesses.”
The rest of the state income generated by businesses who are over the $250K cap (they would still get a deduction for up to $250,000 under the Democrats’ amendment) would be retargeted for additional relief for smaller businesses, Hintz said.
Republican leadership in the Assembly, Senate and Joint Finance Committee all declined or didn’t respond to requests for interviews on Monday.
Governor’s Budget Address
The Governor has announced a few of his budgetary priorities ahead of Tuesday night’s address kicking off a long budget season where Republicans are expected to rewrite many of those priorities over the coming spring and summer. The governor’s list includes familiar measures rejected by Republicans in past budget cycles, including accepting federal dollars for Medicaid expansion and legalizing recreational marijuana.
Republican Sen. Duey Stroebel, who sits on the Joint Finance Committee, announced his opposition Monday to legalizing recreational marijuana in the state budget.
Republican leaders in the legislature have also opposed proposals to accept federal funding for Medicaid expansion in the past.
Covid-19 relief legislation
Some key Covid-19 relief measures that were agreed to in an original compromise bill between Republican leadership and the Governor’s office have now been introduced as twenty-two separate bills, awaiting hearings at a committee level with Democrats hopeful they can fast-track key compromise components from the last failed bill.
Earlier in February, Governor Tony Evers vetoed a relief package after Republican lawmakers went back on a compromise agreement.
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