Wisconsin’s next constitutional amendment may give taxpayers in the state their money back.
Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, on Monday said Republicans are looking to see if they can use the constitution to get around Gov. Tony Evers and return Wisconsin’s record budget surplus back to the people.
“If you go back and you look at his budgets, and the way he wants to spend the money, those are his priorities. He wants to spend all of [the surplus], plus raise taxes. Because he wants to take-in more money,” Bradley told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber. “We've got to find a way to circumvent him. Right now, we're using Constitutional Amendments when necessary. And I think opening up a constitutional amendment that says ‘once we hit maybe x amount of dollars in surplus, we find a way to get it back to the people’ is something that we're examining. We're looking into how that would work, and what it would look like. But it's the only way to get around a governor that just wants to tax and spend.”
Wisconsin’s Department of Revenue last week announced that the state should end the final year of the current state budget with $4.6 billion in extra money.
“It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd. It's disgusting, and it should anger people. Especially with the state of the economy,” Bradley explained. “People should be frustrated because this governor has been absolutely an obstructionist to trying to return that money.”
The $4.6 billion surplus, by the way, is in addition to Wisconsin’s nearly $2 billion rainy day fund.
"We’ve got too much taxpayer money just sitting in coffers,” Bradley added.
Gov. Evers, however, wants to spend the surplus.
Last week he said he’s planning the next two-year state budget around spending billions of new dollars.
"As I begin to prepare our state’s next biennial budget, this news comes at a critical time as we have needs that have long been neglected—stabilizing our child care industry, investing in public education at every level, and addressing rising costs for working families—that must be a top priority for us in this budget," Evers said in a statement.
Evers’ has proposed spending the state’s surplus for the past three state budgets, but Republicans have blocked him each time.
The debate over the next state budget isn’t expected to be any different. Republicans, like Bradley, say they are once again looking to play defense in the next legislative session.
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