GOP Lawmakers Not Worried About Federal Funding Cuts
They should be, Democrats warn. Evers suggests setting aside $500 million fund.
Wisconsin state lawmakers listen to constituents during a public hearing on the 2025-27 state budget at Kaukauna High School on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. Joe Schulz/WPR
As the Trump White House looks to reduce federal spending, Wisconsin lawmakers have begun the process of writing the state budget.
State Republicans who hold the powerful Joint Finance Committee, which writes Wisconsin’s biennial budget, say they’re not worried about national uncertainty.
In an appearance on WISN-TV over the weekend, Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said the budget committee navigates changes in federal funding all the time.
“They’ve made changes in previous budgets. People are curious about it now, it’s getting a lot more attention, but they still have to actually make changes before it actually impacts the state,” he said.
Some cuts to federal spending have already affected programs and grants addressing education, health and mental health and medical research in Wisconsin, among other areas.
And late Sunday, Republicans in the U.S. House proposed sweeping changes to Medicaid that would unenroll millions of people.
In Wisconsin, about half of funding for the Badgercare public health insurance program comes from federal sources. Last month, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services released a report saying that federal cuts to Medicaid could cut people off from coverage and increase costs for those who remain on the program.
Born’s co-chair counterpart, Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said they’ll monitor changes out of Washington as they craft the budget.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen yet,” he said. “We’ve always based our budget decisions on the best available information.”
But Wisconsin Democrats have repeatedly warned about federal funding uncertainty. Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, who sits on the Joint Finance Committee, said that means being “very clear-eyed about the fact that we cannot afford to pass any more irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest in big business, which is all Republicans have been focused on for years and years at the expense of every other thing.”
Republicans, who control the committee and will ultimately write the state document, have said that tax cuts are a top priority. Gov. Tony Evers and Republican leaders have recently said they’re having “productive” talks about what those will look like.
Roys also argued that the state won’t be able to fill in the gaps left after federal cuts.
“It’s a very scary time for our state economically, to contemplate what’s going to happen if the Republicans get their way and they see these very serious cuts to this essential program,” she said, referring to Medicaid.
Announcing his proposed budget in February, Evers called for the state to set aside a balance of $500 million just in case.
“With irresponsible decisions in Washington every day hurting people in Wisconsin, we will need to have state resources readily available to respond to basic and emergency situations alike,” he said at the time. “So, as the Legislature deliberates my proposal, I urge you to take seriously the disastrous consequences federal decisions will have on Wisconsinites and our state — and plan accordingly.”
The Joint Finance Committee began its work last week, cutting more than 600 provisions in Evers’s proposal.
Federal funding cuts coincide with Wisconsin state budget plans was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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