Legislature Should Go Back to the Drawing Board on State Budget; Citizen Action calls for “No” votes and a full budget Veto

For Immediate Release: June 29, 2021
Contact: Robert Kraig, (414) 322-5324, [email protected]

Legislature Should Go Back to the Drawing Board on State Budget

Citizen Action calls for “No” votes and a full budget Veto

Statewide: The conservative-dominated Legislature appears poised to miss the greatest opportunity in decades to make badly needed investments that would improve the lives of most Wisconsinites.

The historic federal commitment to jump-start the nation’s recovery from the pandemic and its economic fallout for working Americans gives Wisconsin the fiscal freedom to make up for decades of austerity budgets, and to make long overdue investments.

But instead, the conservatives who control the Legislature are poised to turn down over a billion federal dollars, and to prioritize tax breaks for the wealthiest Wisconsin over investments in education, health care access, transit, expanding economic opportunity and racial equity. The Legislature also fails to make investments in the green economic transition needed to head off a climate catastrophe.

“Citizen Action calls for legislators to reject this budget, and for Governor Evers to veto it in its present form. The refusal to expand the popular BadgerCare program when tens of thousands of working Wisconsinites lack access to healthcare is only one example of the reckless cruelty of this budget,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “This budget could only be supported by lawmakers who have isolated themselves from public opinion behind rigged legislative maps. Conservative legislators are literally throwing away money through tax giveaways and the refusal to accept federal money earmarked for Wisconsin rather than making overwhelmingly popular and badly needed investments in health care, education, jobs, transit, and a green economy that improves economic and racial equity.”

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