WI Gov. Tony Evers signed the state’s budget into law today after issuing a few dozen line-item vetoes. The action came after the GOP-controlled Legislature approved the $81 billion spending plan last week, sending it to the governor’s desk.
Among the items he struck from the bill was the plan requiring the Department of Transportation to study tolling and mileage-based fees for drivers.
He kept a Republican-backed middle-income tax cut, totaling more than $300 million over the biennium. The decision followed a separate GOP-backed tax cut bill that cleared the Legislature earlier this session and was vetoed by Evers.
The measure also includes additional staffing and equipment to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to speed up the approval process for growers of industrial hemp.
The bill sent to the Governor by the Legislature excluded major elements of Evers’ earlier budget proposal. Among those elements excluded were legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin, increasing Wisconsin’s minimum wage and offering state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards to immigrants living in the country illegally.
The Legislature also removed from the governor’s transportation plan a provision that would have increased the gas tax by 8 cents a gallon.
