Democrats, some Republicans reject budget surplus package Evers negotiated with GOP

A rift between Tony Evers and legislative Democrats has broken open just eight months before the two-term Governor is set to leave office.

Senate Democrats voted unanimously to reject the budget surplus deal Evers made with Republicans on Monday that would have offered one-time tax rebates along with additional public-school funding, calling it an election-year ploy and criticizing Evers for leaving them out of the negotiations entirely.

Three Republican senators joined all 15 Democrats to vote down the proposal 18-15.

“I'm really sad that we're in this situation,” said Sen. Kris Dassler-Alfheim (D-Appleton). “I'm sad because more than 90 percent of us didn't know what this deal was until Sunday or Monday. I don't know about you, but that's not how I thought it worked here. I thought we actually were supposed to work together and roll up our sleeves and punch it out together and find a deal and then take it to the governor, and he's going to sign it. Because we did that together. That's how I was hoping that we would function as a full body.”

Democrats criticized the $1.8 billion bill as short-sighted and fiscally irresponsible, given that the state surplus, estimated today at $2.3 billion, is certain to dwindle due to inflation and economic contraction. Furthermore, they argue, the proposals in the bill for shoring up public education are inadequate given the years of cutbacks from Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker that have put public school budgets under near constant strain.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects that the proposal, along with expected contraction in the economy, will produce a nearly $3 billion structural state deficit by the 2027 budget cycle.

The $300 million in additional school aid was designed to offer property tax relief for property owners who have been forced to cover the gaps in school funding created by those cuts to state funding over the past 15 years. Democrats called the one-time influx inadequate and a gimmick.

Dassler-Alfheim objected to the deal on several fronts, including a potentially too-rosy assumption about the surplus itself, especially given fluctuating growth trends, including the downward growth trend over the past several years. Dassler-Alfheim pointed out that those numbers have gone from a 4.98 percent rate in 2022 to 2.07 in 2023 and 1.7 percent in 2024. 

“Now I literally work with money and spreadsheets for a living,” she said. “If somebody asked me to run a projection on their future income, and I came up with a negative $2.98 million-billion-dollar deficit, projecting an overly aggressive interest rate, I would not be in business yet. Yet, here we are being asked to vote on this bill.” 

She went on to criticize the proposal on the grounds that many of those in the negotiations intend to leave office after this year and, thus, will not be around to deal with any fallout.

“I think pretty rational minds could have talked this out together in the last few months, but neither side was given that opportunity, and that disappoints me,” she said. “It disappoints me that we're here and our caucus has been given basically a day to figure this out, and in that I have math and I have questions and I can't say yes to something that I can't validate

“I'm a no on this, not because I don't want to fund our schools, and not because I don't want to help out our taxpayers, but because the math ain't mathing. And I'm going to be here with all intent to deal with the consequences of the actions we take in this body. And if you're not, then you shouldn't be the ones pushing this bill. Leave it to those of us that are committed to being here and doing it right.” 

Politics are also in play as the Democrats’ rejection of a school-funding and tax-relief deal made by Evers is likely to show up in campaign ads this fall, forcing Democrats to have to defend their no votes.