Senate & Assembly Pass Budget Bill, Gov Signs
The Senate and Assembly voted today to pass the $111.1 billion 2025-2027 state budget. Progress on the budget was stalled for almost two weeks until a deal was negotiated between Gov. Tony Evers, Republican legislative leaders, and Sen. Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein and announced on Tuesday morning. The Senate debated the budget bill for nearly 11 hours and rejected along party lines 12 amendments proposed by Democrats before ultimately tabling the remaining 13 amendments to push through final passage of the bill in a 19-14 vote with five Democrats voting “yes” (Hesselbein, Dassler-Alfheim, Pfaff, Smith and Wall) and four Republicans voting “no” (Felzkowski, Hutton, Kapenga, and Nass). Final passage followed approval of a 35-page “technical amendment” that passed on a 20-13 vote (Kapenga voted yes on the technical amendment). Meanwhile, the Assembly spent over 5 hours on the floor while tabling 24 Democratic amendments and ultimately passing the bill 59-39 with seven Democrats voting “yes” (Billings, Doyle, Emerson, Johnson, McCarville, Ortiz-Velez, and Palmeri) and one Republican voting no (Allen). Rep. Callahan was not present for the floor session.
Less than an hour after being passed by the Legislature, Gov. Evers officially signed the budget bill into law as 2025 Wisconsin Act 15. A statement from the Governor touted the bipartisan nature of the budget, as well as its “historic investments in our kids and schools, families, and communities across our state.” The statement also includes 23 vetoes made by the Governor.
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