Madison – Representative Barbara Dittrich (R – Oconomowoc) issued the following statement regarding signing and line-item vetoes of the 2023-2025 biennial Wisconsin State Budget:
“There are reasons to celebrate and reasons to be upset in our great state today. For the third time, Gov. Evers has signed a Republican state budget into law. Our party worked extremely hard to give communities what they need to assure essential services like EMS, fire, and police are supported. We worked on getting critical road funding in place. Republicans shaped a multi-faceted plan to address next generation housing and housing shortages. And we provided record funding for every public, choice, and charter K-12 student in Wisconsin.
“Unfortunately, Gov. Evers revealed himself to be dishonest in his negotiations with his line-item vetoes of our budget. He wasted more of Wisconsinites hard-earned dollars by finding ways to restore funding of gender transition surgery via Medicaid and restoring 188 DEI positions in the UW System. He refused tax-cuts to 69% of Wisconsinites, returning only $175 million of the $6.9 billion surplus, or .0025% of that surplus to taxpayers. Additionally, he was disingenuous on school funding, and created an environment hostile to Wisconsin homeowners by increasing property taxes, writing in a public school funding increase each year for the next 402 years.
“Sadly, the damage caused by Gov. Evers behavior outweighs the good things Republicans negotiated in good faith in this budget. Wisconsin will continue with some of the most onerous taxes in the country, chasing both good businesses and residents to better environment.”
