A Liberal’s Wish List, A Nightmare For The Wisconsin Taxpayer
Billions more in spending, a multitude of tax increases, hundreds of new government positions, untold amounts of borrowing to pay for it all and the roll back of nearly all taxpayer-friendly reforms.
March 4, 2019
A MacIver Institute Preliminary AnalysisBased on the Budget In Brief From the Department of Administration
Gov. Tony Evers introduced his 2019-21 biennial budget proposal Thursday night. The sweeping document would spend $83.5 billion over two years, at least $7 billion more than former Gov. Scott Walker’s last budget.
The proposal has been described by Speaker Robin Vos as a “big liberal wish list.” Looking at the expansive list of progressive policies that vastly grow the size and scope of government, it is hard to argue with that description. From Medicaid expansion, the end of recent welfare work requirements, an unneeded increase in the state’s minimum wage, a green pipe dream to make the state carbon free, the creation of many new government programs, an assault on proven education reform programs, the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, to the end of the property tax freeze — this budget is full of liberal dreams. These changes, and many more that we will detail later, will be paid for with a slew of tax increases and hundreds of millions of dollars in new bonding.
While we sift through the thousands of pages of the budget document line by line, we thought it would be helpful to produce a preliminary analysis of the Governor’s budget based off the Budget In Brief produced by the Department of Administration. As the name implies, the BIB is not comprehensive and we won’t know what the total picture of this budget looks like until our exhaustive examination is complete.
The compete study here > Analysis: What You Need to Know About Gov. Tony Evers’ First Biennial Budget