Wisconsin Right Now

Wisconsin’s budget-makers are expecting less money over the next year but say that shouldn’t stop the state from giving taxpayers some of their money back. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released an updated revenue forecast for the state budget that will end in June 2025. “Based upon our analysis, we project the closing, net general fund balance at the end of this biennium (June 30, 2025) to be $3,152.0 million. This is $439.1 million below the net balance that was projected at the time of enactment of the 2023-25 biennial budget,” the report stated. Most of that decrease, some $422 million, comes from an expected drop in tax collections. Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, and Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, the head of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee said even with the lower estimate, a $3.1 billion surplus is plenty of money to pay for a tax cut for Wisconsinites. “Earlier this week, Republicans introduced a plan to send over $2 billion to the people of Wiscons

The president of the University of Wisconsin says young people are not choosing the university’s branch campuses. President Jay Rothman told a crowd in Milwaukee the demand is simply not there for the UW’s local campuses like it once was. “We had to accept what was market reality,” Rothman said at an event at the Milwaukee Press Club. “The attendance at those campuses have dropped drastically in the past 10 years, far more than any of our universities. We have to accept consumers aren’t looking at those branch campuses the way they once were.” Rothman said online options are making things difficult for small, local campuses. “If you’re in a branch campus, or somewhere hard to reach, online availability has changed the landscape,” Rothman said. Rothman’s comments came after UW-Green Bay last week said it will end in-person classes at its Marinette campus at the end of the current semester. UW-Milwaukee County ended in-person classes at its Washington County campus, and UW-Os

  As the conflict between the federal government and Texas escalates over the state's right to defend its border with Mexico, Gov. Greg Abbott is not backing down as a congressional Democrat called on President Joe Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard. If the Texas National Guard were federalized solely to usurp Abbott’s constitutional authority to secure the Texas border, Congress should consider whether doing so constitutes a high crime and misdemeanor – an impeachable offense – under the U.S. Constitution, a constitutional law expert told The Center Square. After Abbott invoked his constitutional authority to defend Texas’ border on Wednesday, saying, “The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States,” reports surfaced that Biden could federalize the Texas National Guard. This would result in pulling them from the Texas border and breaking the chain of command under Abbott. Abbott called up several thousand guard members an

Why the heck did the Republican Legislature approve TONY EVERS' maps? A primer... We didn't agree with Republicans in the Legislature voting to approve Evers' maps (yes, there are a couple tweaks, but they are minimal and just tried to undo some of the unfairness in his maps. They are, for all practical purposes, Evers' maps.) We disagreed with this vote because: Under multiple credible scenarios, Evers' maps give control of the Legislature to the Democrats. 2. The maps are horrible on principle. They are terrible partisan gerrymanders that seem designed to screw over Republican incumbents and disenfranchise voters while gaming it for the left. That's not how this is supposed to work, and it's not fair. They kick good people out of the Legislature and rob some voters of the chance to vote for a Senator every four years. 3, it's hard to argue that Evers' maps are horrible (and they are) when you're voting for them. It muddles the

It seems that daily we hear from President Biden, Democrats, and the media, that if Donald Trump is elected president, our democracy will die. This baseless fearmongering will most certainly ramp up in the days to come as America draws closer to the presidential election on November 5th, 2024. The real attack on democracy began with the election of Barack Obama – the most intentionally divisive and anti-American president in history. It really ramped up with the later selection of Joe Biden to continue Obama’s desire to transform the country into a socialist utopia. Was a short-lived unorganized riot on January 6th, 2021 in Washington D.C. an attack on Democracy? NO. Democracy was never in danger that day. Watch the unedited films from that date – the ones the Democrats don’t want to see or acknowledge. January 6th just became gleeful fodder for the left and media. January 6th is just the gift that keeps on giving for the Democrats and media. How about examining the White House’s

Today, the Republican-controlled state Senate approved Democrat Gov. Tony Evers' redistricting maps which, through many credible scenarios, hand control of the Legislature to Democrats by 2026. Yes, you read that right. The Republicans in the state Senate voted to approve outrageously gerrymandered maps that most likely give control of the Legislature to Democrats. All Democrats and all but four Senate Republicans voted for Evers' maps, with Democrats taking turns shrilly trashing Senate Republicans for... voting for Evers' maps. Yes, welcome to the theater of the absurd. Sure, the Republicans made some small tweaks to undo a couple of Evers' partisan moves. But it's now being reported that the Assembly might even remove those tweaks. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos even said approving the maps give "Gov. Evers a huge win," and he has "no problem with Gov. Evers maps." https://twitter.com/Emilee_Fannon/status/1749982218296893784 What? We

The Wisconsin Law Enforcement Standards Board (LESB) has created a committee to review its policies as it relates to part-time police officers. Last month, Wisconsin Right Now exposed a quiet LESB policy change that prevents part-time police officers from keeping their law enforcement certification to take new law enforcement jobs, if there is any gap at all between employment, even one day. Full-time officers retain their certification for three years after leaving a force. Part-time officers get no time. Wisconsin Right Now has since heard from several officers concerned that this policy change will affect them, including an officer whose employment gap was due to military service. According to a meeting notice, LESB Policy Review Advisory Sub-Committee meeting will be held this Thursday, January 25, 2024, at 10:00 a.m., via Zoom. [embeddoc url="https://www.wisconsinrightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/lesb_advisory_subcommittee_policy_review_meeting_1-25-2024_0.pd