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Kapenga Still on the Fence Regarding State Budget
One of the Wisconsin Senate’s Republican holdouts says he’s not a “No vote,” but says he’s a long way from a ‘Yes’ vote.
Former Senate President Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, was a guest on UpFront over the weekend. He said he’s trying to be clear with fellow Republicans about where he stands on the still-being-written state spending plan.
“I’m hearing from a lot of people saying where are you at? What’s going on?” Kapenga explained.
Last week Kapenga posted on X that he is leaning toward not voting for a new state budget, and instead forcing Gov. Tony Evers to live with the current state spending plan.
Kapenga said by doing that, Wisconsin Republicans can avoid another set of sweeping vetoes from the governor.
“I’m not a no vote yet. I’m still waiting,” Kapenga said. “We don’t have the budget finalized yet, but as I’ve said in my post, I’m very concerned at this point with all the items we’re exposed on.”
He added, however, that “it would be hard to get to a yes.”
Kapenga is one of two Senate Republican hold-outs, Se. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, has also said he doesn’t want to vote for a new state budget.
Without them, Senate Republicans do not have enough votes to get the budget through on their own.
On Thursday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Gov. Evers’ office both blamed Senate Republicans for derailing the most recent round of budget talks.
Democrats on the budget-writing Joint Committee on Finance last week said Kapenga and Nass are setting Republicans up for an electoral shellacking next fall with their budget opposition.
“What we really need is for Republicans to pick up the phone. For the Senate Majority Leader to decide that he is not willing to risk his majority and his more vulnerable members to kowtow to the most extreme voices that have clearly said that they're actually not interested in a budget,” Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said.
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