[Madison, WI] – State Representative Calvin Callahan (R-Tomahawk) released the following statement this afternoon in response to Governor Evers signing the 2023-2025 state budget:
“Legislative Republicans presented the governor with a budget that worked for ALL Wisconsinites, including a $3.5 billion income tax cut benefitting the middle class. This, and much more of our months-long efforts, were undone today. Our budget protected the people from many of the liberal wish list items the governor had initially included in his proposal. I’m disappointed to see several of these return to the budget in the form of his 51 vetoes.
“The governor has left only $175 million in income tax cuts, while the rest of the surplus, your money, sits in the state’s general fund. Under his veto, the largest reduction a single filer would receive is about $40; for married filing jointly, about $55. Despite the state surplus and the $3.5 billion tax cut we laid out for him, the governor seems to think Wisconsinites don’t deserve more than a tank of gas. To add some salt to the wound, another one of his vetoes will cause property taxes to soar even higher for the next 400 years.
“This budget, Republicans had worked to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion positions at the University of Wisconsin System, so the university can focus on actually educating the students, not teaching a divisive, woke ideology. Another provision we included was prohibiting Medicaid funds from being used on gender transition or gender-affirming care. Medicaid is for low-income families who need that funding for their healthcare, not for transgender surgeries. The governor has vetoed both these provisions and showed us once again that his Madison & Milwaukee base is more important to him than the rest of the state.”
