The Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee voted Thursday to provide $9 million in funding to create programs to help people reintegrate into society after being released from prison and to boost tourism.
The Public Education Department and child care advocacy groups criticized the Republican-led committee for not addressing other funding requests, such as statewide literacy programs and grants for child care centers. These are some of several funding requests that lawmakers have refused to take up in recent months, including funding for PFAS and hospitals.
Lawmakers approved spending $4 million on a new re-entry program for people formerly incarcerated under the Department of Corrections.
Officials are directed under Wisconsin Act 233, signed into law in March, to contract with at least one organization to establish community re-entry centers. The centers would serve as the first point of contact for health, identification, financial, housing, employment, education and supervision services for people released from state correctional facilities.
“This is an important pilot project, establishing a center in Milwaukee to help people re-entering society from prison, particularly those who have been incarcerated for a long time and have a lot of challenges re-entering society, and this is going to be very helpful to them,” said committee co-chair Rep. Mark Vaughn (R-Beaver Dam). “I think this is a good program and I hope it will help the transition for a lot of people here in Wisconsin.”
The committee also voted to spend $5 million to establish the Opportunity Attraction Acceleration Fund at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which was directed to create the program under Wisconsin Act 169.
The Department may award grants under this program to help cover the costs of major events or events that garner national attention and lead to economic development and increased tourism to Wisconsin. Under the law, successful applicants may use grant funding to compete with states and jurisdictions outside Wisconsin to attract events to Wisconsin and to host events secured through competitive bids.
“We are confident that WEDC and the tourism department can continue to work together to bring benefits to Wisconsin,” Sen. Joan Ballweg (R-McClam) said during the meeting. “You hear a lot since ‘Top Chef’ has aired that there’s been what’s called a halo effect. It’s not just that the show is on the air. It’s that people all across the country are realizing that if they visit Wisconsin, they’re going to have a great experience.”
Rep. Deb Andraka (D-Whitefish Bay) criticized Republicans for spending only $5 million, half of the $10 million WEDC requested in its 2023-25 budget.
“If this proposal was featured on Top Chef, I would probably tell them to put away their knives and get out,” Andraka said. “This is half of what they’re asking for and we’d get half the profits.”
Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Green Lake) said lawmakers will likely spend only $5 million because Wisconsin is already halfway through its current biennium budget.
“This seems like an appropriate amount,” Dallman said of the amount allocated by the committee, adding, “We’re excited to get the program started and see how successful it will be in the future.”
Childcare, literacy, PFAS, and hospitals not on the calendar
The funds released Thursday represent just a fraction of the funding requests submitted to the committee in recent months. Republicans have rejected several requests, including $125 million for PFAS countermeasures, nearly $50 million for literacy programs and $15 million to help hospitals in western Wisconsin. The continued delays in releasing the funds led to repeated debate on Thursday.
“We’re not going to take up matters that are not in place before us, such as the PFAS request,” Vaughn said at a press conference before the meeting. “Obviously, the governor vetoed that bill. That’s the governor’s responsibility.”
Child care advocacy groups first took notice of the recent delays, noting that a recent funding request to support the Child Care Counts program was not on the committee’s calendar.
The same week that JFC received its tourism fund request, the Evers Administration also requested $15 million in spending to support grants through the Child Care Counts program. The Finance Committee’s Republican majority initially budgeted the money for a revolving loan program, but Gov. Tony Evers used a partial veto to change it to a grant program.
The Wisconsin Care Coalition, which includes foster care agencies and other support groups, urged lawmakers to provide the funding, saying it would help centers care for children and help families stay in care.
“All we ask is that the Joint Finance Committee implement the funding allocation passed by law,” the coalition said in a statement. “Every day, child care centers across Wisconsin are forced to decide whether to stay open or close permanently. The Child Care Counts program has provided a critical lifeline, but due to the Legislature’s inaction, its funding has been cut by 50%.”
After the meeting, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly called on Republicans to provide funding to implement a new state literacy program under Wisconsin Act 20, which became law nearly a year ago. Of the $50 million budgeted, only $327,400 has been funded so far to support the literacy director.
State lawmakers and Evers have been suing each other over the literacy program, which has also delayed funding. In their lawsuit, Republican lawmakers argue that the legislation is not an appropriations bill and therefore does not allow Evers to use his partial veto to eliminate the language. Their lawsuit asks the court to bar DPI from spending the funds as if Evers’ veto stood. Evers, meanwhile, is suing, arguing that the Legislature is “unfairly withholding” the funds.
“Every day we delay makes it more difficult to meet the requirements of Bill 20, the bipartisan legislation enacted to help Wisconsin children learn to read and write, and our children will pay the price,” Underly said in a statement.
“We have worked collaboratively with the Legislature throughout this process, and our shared goal is to improve literacy instruction and outcomes for all Wisconsin students. This week, we announced the hiring of a Director of Literacy to advance this effort,” Underly continued. “We again ask the Joint Finance Committee to release the appropriated funds so we can achieve our shared goal of helping children learn to read and learn by reading.”
Fighting with notes
The dispute also intensified Thursday over the Joint Finance Committee’s ability to release funds already budgeted to address PFAS contamination and medical needs in the Chippewa Valley.
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Diane Hesselbein (D-Middleton) traded attacks with Vaughn and Marklein over a Wisconsin state legislative committee memo that could potentially release those funds.
The memo also included a warning about a hypothetical court ruling that could block such a measure as a result of a veto, a possibility that the Republican JFC co-chairs raised as an excuse for vetoing the funding.
On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) and Rep. Jody Emerson (D-Eau Claire) released a Legislative Reference Service memo identifying times when the JFC disbursed funds for budget items despite partial vetoes.
The 88-page memo identifies 10 instances in which the committee took action “on items that had been vetoed in part by the governors.” [Scott] “Mr. Walker and Mr. Evers have mentioned this matter since 2011.” The matter was initially identified by the Legislative Finance Bureau, according to the bureau’s memo.
The memo included the individual budget line items, the language the governors removed in their partial vetoes, the budget document for the JFC when the Department of Finance put the items on the agenda, and minutes of the JFC’s subsequent actions.
In their statements, Smith and Emerson focused on $15 million set aside to address hospital closures in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. Evers used his partial veto to remove a restriction in the original bill that limited the money to bolstering emergency services in Eau Claire and Chippewa counties.
“Republicans want people to believe they cannot spend $15 million, when in fact they have done so at least 10 times in recent years,” Smith said in a joint statement.
“Let me be very clear: It’s a deliberate choice by Republicans not to release these funds,” Emerson said.
They noted that Vaughn and Marklein, in a joint statement Wednesday, argued that fears of being sued for money laundering were justified, and specifically pointed to a “litigious” Evers.
“Fearing a lawsuit for complying with the governor’s request is the weirdest, saddest excuse ever. It’s no joke,” Smith said. “The excuse is now ridiculous. They’ve done it before. They can do it again.”
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