A top Republican believes GOP members of the state Building Commission rejected Governor Evers’ capital budget to leave more time to negotiate.
Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke of Vandenbroek believes they have to agree to an amount to spend, and then decide what projects to include. He’s concerned that Evers wants to spend a lot more than lawmakers allowed under the last capital budget.
Evers is looking to spend $2 billion in the capital budget. Former Governor Scott Walker’s last capital budget had about $800 million in spending.
Steineke says Republicans do support a lot of the items.
Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh didn’t expect GOP lawmakers to support all of the projects, but he didn’t think they wouldn’t back any of them. He argues that’s not how the process has worked during the history of the state.
Hintz says since the governor wants to use surplus money to pay for transportation, the state would borrow less money than Republicans claim.
