Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu
On the 15th of this month, Governor Tony Evers delivered his 2023-25 Budget Proposal.
State Senator Devin LeMahieu appeared on the WCUB Breakfast Club Monday for the first time since the address, and took to task some of those proposals.
The Senate Majority Leader began by describing the current budget ending on June 30th with a $7 billion surplus due largely to inflation, higher income taxes, and not knowing what 2020 would bring when the current budget was worked out.
He says the challenge of having such a large surplus, is that Governor Evers has also increased spending in by $7 billion in the next budget on ongoing expenses.
While LeMahieu likes a lot of what the Governor is investing in, he feels the issue lies in how much he proposes to spend.
“I would contend that he’s overinvesting in a lot of areas,” he explained. “That’s going to create a deficit going into out following budget of over $2 billion.”
Despite the difference of opinion on what should be done with the surplus money, LeMahieu is optimistic the new state budget will be ready to go by June 30th.
The finance committee will now start bringing in state agencies to talk and have hearings toward the end of March.
“In April, we’ll have listening sessions around the state. We’ll probably have 4 of them,” he told host Craig Dillon. “When we get to May, the finance committee will start voting on the budget…department by department. The plan is to have it done by the end of the fiscal year…which is June 30th.”
You can hear the entire conversation by going to the podcast section of CubRadio.com.
