Assembly Reaches Bipartisan Deal To Fund WisconsinEye
But now Senate needs to take up bill. Network remains offline.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, announce a bipartisan bill to fund WisconsinEye, the state’s public affairs network, at a press conference in the Wisconsin State Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2025. Anya van Wagtendonk/WPR
Assembly leaders from both sides of the aisle proposed legislation Thursday that would fund WisconsinEye and return the public affairs network to streaming Capitol proceedings, weeks after the state’s version of C-SPAN went off the air.
At a joint press conference, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Assembly Minority Leader, Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said they would soon introduce a bill that would establish an endowment for WisconsinEye, while still requiring the nonprofit network to fundraise.
“We do want to ensure that there’s access to everything going on in the Capitol,” said Neubauer. “We hope that they will continue to increase their offerings as we move forward in terms of covering more hearings and committees, but this is a really good start.”
It is unusual to see opposing party leadership jointly promote legislation, but Vos said it reflected a shared commitment to transparency in government.
“At a time when we don’t always find consensus, it is nice that on something like transparency and open government, I think we’re in sync,” he said.
It is unclear whether the bill will be taken up the Senate, but Vos said there had been good conversations across both chambers, with a goal of having WisconsinEye rolling again in February.
“We don’t have a finalized agreement,” said Vos. “But I feel like all four of us (in legislative leadership) are in a similar place.”
The announcement comes days after the Wisconsin Supreme Court announced it would independently stream upcoming oral arguments “in support of continued public access to court proceedings.” It also comes a day after the Senate broadcast its own, fixed-camera livestream of session with the help of the Legislature’s technology office.
Vos said on Thursday it would be inefficient for different branches of the government to develop separate systems for broadcasting their affairs.
“The idea of having one network and one operation for the courts, another for the Legislature, another for the executive branch, certainly is going to cost more than any amount we would give WisconsinEye,” said Vos.
“We’re going to make sure that they’re financially stable,” he continued, “and hopefully they can continue doing the work that they’ve already done.”
WisconsinEye has livestreamed, and maintained archives of, Wisconsin state government proceedings since 2009, including Assembly and Senate sessions, court arguments, committee hearings, press conferences, election commission meetings and other events.
The gavel-to-gavel coverage went dark in December, as the organization faced a massive funding deficit and failed to raise enough money to meet a matching requirement to access state funds. In addition to ceasing live coverage, the network also removed its archive of more than 30,000 hours of footage from the internet.
In the absence of WisconsinEye cameras, the state Legislature resumed its business after the winter holidays by enforcing rules previously not enforced that restrict anyone except for credentialed press from recording proceedings.
Assembly leaders announce bipartisan plan to fund WisconsinEye was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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