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Evers Wants to Spend the State's Surplus
Wisconsin’s governor is making the case to spend almost 90% of the state’s $4.3 billion surplus as a way to counter President Donald Trump.
Gov. Tony Evers took to X on Monday to say Wisconsin needs to spend the money because the Trump Administration is looking at federal spending cuts.
“President Trump and Republicans' reckless threats to gut Medicaid, the Department of Education, and federal programs that Wisconsin's kids, families, farmers, veterans, and seniors depend upon every day will blow a hole in our state budget—so, we have to prepare for the worst,” Evers wrote.
Republican lawmakers have said for months their top priority is returning the surplus to taxpayers. We will likely get a glimpse at that when legislative Republicans write a new tax cut package, and write the next state budget.
Evers, on Monday, said he wants to spend $3.8 billion of the surplus.
"We made tough decisions to save where we could, leaving about $500 million in our state’s checking account to respond to federal funding cuts,” the governor added. "We need to have state resources readily available to respond to basic and emergency situations alike.”
Republicans on Capitol Hill are looking for $2 trillion in spending cuts, but have promised to leave Medicaid, Social Security, and other core programs untouched.
Evers did not say in his X thread what programs he fears will be cut in Wisconsin, or how he plans to spend $3.8 billion to counter the federal cuts.
More than half the nearly $14 billion that Wisconsin gets every year from Washington, D.C. goes to Medicaid, better known as the state’s BadgerCare program. But the federal government also pays for things like conservation, clean water, and research at the University of Wisconsin.
It’s unclear if any of that funding will be cut, or how Gov. Evers would spend the surplus to boost those areas.
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