Wisconsin passed a budget with Democratic votes. But is it enough?
Dianne Hesselbein and Senate Democrats proved critical in achieving major wins in a compromise deal. But overall, did Evers and Democrats press hard enough with newfound leverage?
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time NINETEEN-TIME Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
For news coverage of the votes on the state budget in the Assembly and Senate, see our report here at Civic Media.
For months, the state budget process crept along, going through the typical circular process we’ve seen in this era of divided government.
Tony Evers proposed a budget — a pretty good one, too — and legislative Republicans voted out essentially all of it. Behind-closed-doors negotiations continued for weeks, ranging from “productive” conversations to a falling-apart impasse. It seemed like we were getting nowhere. Republicans began to craft a budget of their own, even proposing deep cuts to areas like the Universities of Wisconsin (UW System).
Then, the process started to accelerate, as reality began to set in for the State Senate — that they could not pass the budget bill with only Republican votes. Republican state senators Steve Nass of Whitewater and Chris Kapenga of Delafield signaled they would not be voting for the proposed budget being drafted by GOP leaders in the budget committee. With the margin of the GOP’s majority in the upper chamber sitting at 18 to 15, Republicans could only afford to lose one vote from their members.
Bizarrely, no one seemed to acknowledge this reality for weeks on end. But then, finally, that dynamic changed. As I reported on Friday, June 27, State Senate Democratic Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein was invited to join negotiations last week — the first time in recent memory any legislative Democrats had been invited to the bargaining table for the state budget.
That’s when things really started moving quickly. A compromise deal was struck by late Monday, was announced early Tuesday by Gov. Tony Evers, moved through the Joint Committee on Finance later that same day, and hurtled toward votes in the Assembly and Senate by Wednesday.
That timeline became further accelerated due to a pending complication involving hospital funding and Medicaid matching funds coming from the federal budget reconciliation bill — President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” — that, without a change in the state budget, could have meant the state missing out on more than $1 billion from the federal government if the federal bill was signed before the state budget1.
That was a big reason why Tony Evers was there to sign the budget almost immediately after it was passed, at just about 1:30 a.m. — which ended up being about 12 hours before the federal bill passed in the House.
The budget Evers quickly signed had just passed 59-39 in the Assembly2 and 19-14 in the Senate3.
Zooming out, what made this budget negotiation different from the three other Republican-authored budgets Evers has signed as governor was Senate Democratic leadership being at the table. Because of the deeply gerrymandered maps in the Wisconsin State Legislature, Republicans have not needed Democratic votes to pass a budget in quite some time. But with new, fairer maps, the GOP’s margins in their majority shrunk.
That’s a credit to voters in many swing districts, and to the State Senate candidates who won in tough races last fall. There were five swing races in the upper chamber in the November 2024 election, and Democrats won all five. With new maps brought new state senators, and with new state senators brought Democrats to the table to notch several significant wins for the state of Wisconsin.
Multiple sources in Democratic circles praised the work of Dianne Hesselbein in these negotiations, crediting her and Senate Democrats with the inclusion of key elements of the final agreement, including the increase in funding for the Universities of Wisconsin, a number of capital and building projects both within the UW system and and at more local levels (particularly with transportation and infrastructure-related projects), and a larger increase in reimbursement rates for special education funding, when the GOP wouldn’t go over 40%.
This was able to materialize because, for the first time in more than a decade, Democrats had actual leverage in these budget negotiations. But the governor didn’t seem to acknowledge this dynamic until very late in the process. It seems like he approached this no differently from the other budgets he’s signed in his two terms in office. It’s unclear what this budget might have looked like had Hesselbein and Senate Democrats not entered discussions at the 11th hour. It’s very possible many of the wins in the compromise agreement might not have been there.
Some Democratic frustration with Evers boiled over during discussion on the Senate floor, where Democratic State Sen. Chris Larson said, “Never in my 15 years in the legislature have I seen a governor fight so little for his own budget proposal as Gov. Evers did this year.” Larson, like most legislative Democrats, voted against the budget.
The reaction to Evers’ compromise agreement and the warp speed path to passage it took this week is getting mixed reviews. On one hand, he got a deal done, delivering on several of his stated priorities, — particularly on child care, where his administration used some creative accounting to extend direct assistance to providers, at least in the short term — along with special education funding, and shepherded a bipartisan budget to the finish line in the nick of time.
On the other hand, many left this budget process wondering if more could have been accomplished. Those advocating for public education funding have been especially upset with this bill, suggesting that the level of funding there will not stem the tide of school funding referendums that have been happening at record-setting levels — with more than 240 across Wisconsin in the year 2024 alone. That was the most common topic raised among the many Assembly Democrats who spoke out against the bill during the floor session. And even before that, a coalition of groups that included the Wisconsin Education Association Council and Wisconsin Public Education Network released a statement encouraging lawmakers to vote “no” on the budget, saying Evers should veto his own deal. Some child care advocates, too, raised concern about the long-term viability of this plan. Throughout the process, others wondered if Evers was doing enough to advocate for his policies to draw a line and let people know where he and Democrats stood. And this has been a common under-the-radar complaint year after year: Evers just does not do enough to work with and coordinate messaging with legislative Democrats.
Dan Shafer discussed the state budget votes with Todd Allbaugh, Thursday on “The Todd Allbaugh Show” (2-4 p.m. weekdays on Civic Media). Listen here, or stream below.
Throughout negotiations, the governor prioritized K-12 education funding, child care funding, and funding for the UW system, but other areas of the budget could have risen to that level of priority, too — like Medicaid expansion, extending Medicaid coverage for new moms, or continuing funding the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Program in the state budget. There are a host of issues left undone.
But you can’t expect to get every last thing you want in a time of divided government, and perhaps the governor’s creative 400-year partial veto from the last budget — held up in April by the Wisconsin Supreme Court — meant Vos and Republicans had little willingness to budge on any level of education funding.
Nevertheless, there is a distinct “what if” element of the larger agreement, and of this budget. Does this mean to offer merely a glimpse of what a Democratic trifecta might look like in Madison, if they were to achieve that in 2026? Or is this merely getting to the best possible compromise, given the realities of divided government? You can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good, after all.
These questions, and many more, will continue to be asked as people across Wisconsin continue to unpack this agreement in the coming weeks, months and beyond. The budget and the votes just held will be critical to evaluate for any state lawmakers seeking re-election in 2026.
But for now, many are left wondering: With the most leverage Democrats have had on a state budget in more than 15 years, is this really the best deal there could have been?
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he became the Political Editor of Civic Media. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 23 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.
Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.
Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!
Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.
Never mind that Robin Vos and his Republican colleagues have never applied very same logic to Medicaid expansion, a position that has, for more than a decade, been denying the state of billions and billions of dollars that could have gone toward helping people with lower incomes get health care coverage.
In the Assembly, 53 Republicans and six Democrats voted in favor of the bill, while 38 Democrats and one Republican voted against. Votes largely fell along party lines, but as in the Senate, several Democrats voted in favor. Democrats voting in favor of the bill include Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, Lori Palmeri, Jodi Emerson, Steve Doyle, Tara Johnson, Maureen McCarville, and Jill Billings. Republican Scott Allen of Waukesha was his party’s lone “no” vote. Find more of my coverage of the vote at Civic Media with News Director Chali Pittman.
Despite having an 18-15 majority, Republicans did not have the votes to pass the budget with only Republican votes. Senate Democrats voting for the bill include Dianne Hesselbein, Kristin Dassler-Alfheim, Jamie Wall, Brad Pfaff, and Jeff Smith.
I like Chris Larsen, but his ambition is showing.