(The Center Square) – The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says there will be a budget by the end of the month, but he’s not saying what will be included.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was on UpFront on Milwaukee TV on Sunday. He talked about the end of budget negotiations with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, and said the governor simply wanted to spend too much, and wouldn’t change his mind.
“Everytime we met they could never get to a yes,” Vos said. “We’re willing to give an actual increase to the UW System for the first time in a decade. But because it wasn’t exactly what they wanted, or it wasn’t in their mind wasn’t a big enough increase, they walked away. I negotiate a lot as part of my job, asking for things that the other can never give is not good-faith negotiation.”
As for the final state budget, Vos didn’t offer a price tag.
Vos said he hopes to include the tax cut that lawmakers tried to negotiate with the governor.
“We’re going to still work on this,” Vos said. “We believe that tax relief should be in the middle class, and we also believe that it should be something that is focused on retirees. Keeping more people here in Wisconsin by having a lower tax burden, and hopefully not having people move to a warmer climate for six months out of the year.”
Vos said Evers didn’t like those ideas, which is one of the reasons negotiations collapsed.
Evers said in a statement last week that Republicans were the ones refusing to negotiate. He said Republicans wouldn’t support public education, the University of Wisconsin, and child care.
Vos called that a “lie.”
“When you read that statement it makes it sound like we were at zero,” Vos added. “We were never at zero on any of those topics.”
Vos said Republicans are willing to spend more on K-12 schools to help students, and are willing to spend more on child care to help parents. He said Republicans are not interested in simply spending more money.
Lawmakers are supposed to have a spending plan to the governor by the end of this month. Vos said he expects to be on time, or at least close to the deadline.
