Senate Passes State Budget, Born Talks Transportation

9/16/17 – The Senate late Friday adopted the two-year state budget on a 19-to14 vote, sending it to Gov. Scott Walker. Walker is expected to sign it as soon as next week after just returning from a trade mission to Asia.  Passage came after Walker promised vetoes which would limit when schools could hold referendums and speed up the repeal of a minimum wage for workers on public infrastructure projects.  Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse said missing the July 1st deadline by such a wide margin shows dysfunction in the Republican-controlled Legislature. The budget was approved by the state Assembly Wednesday. One of the biggest sticking points that delayed passage of the biannual state budget for over two months was transportation. Republican State Representative Mark Born of Beaver Dam, who sits on the Joint Finance Committee, says while the two-year, $76-billion-dollar package does not provide a long-term solution to transportation funding, it does have several positive aspects such as getting transportation bonding down to $150-million dollars. There was also a new fee added for hybrid and electric vehicles. Born told us yesterday on WBEV’s Community Comment that its only fair since the gas tax is the primary revenue source to fund transportation. Born says every road project in the next two years is funded in the document.