Gov. Evers Delivers 2023-25 Budget Address, Including Problematic New Ways to Sue Businesses

Posted on by Hamilton

Gov. Evers (D) gave his third biennial budget address on February 15, unveiling his 2023-25 executive budget recommendations. He proposes an operating budget of $103.8 billion over the next two fiscal years, adding a net 816.55 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions. For comparison, the 2021-23 state budget spent $87.5 billion with a net reduction of 174.19 FTE positions.

A detailed overview of the provisions in Gov. Evers’ budget, separated by issue area, is available here, prepared by the Hamilton Consulting Group. The complete budget bill, budget in brief, and other executive budget documents are available here, from the Department of Administration. The governor’s office has also published his prepared remarks and a recording of his address, as well as selected excerpts.

Civil Justice Provisions

Among the many non-fiscal policy items included in Gov. Evers’ executive budget are the following initiatives:

  • Creation of a new civil cause of action allowing a person to bring an action alleging that an employer has violated employment discrimination, unfair honesty testing, or unfair genetic testing laws (currently, a person may file a complaint with the Department of Workforce Development). Back pay, attorney fees, and compensatory & punitive damages could be awarded.
  • Creation of a new civil cause of action allowing any person to bring an action against a broadband service provider alleging the provider has denied access to broadband service to any group of potential residential customers because of the race or income of the residents in the area in which the group resides. Costs and attorney fees could be awarded. The Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection could also enforce this provision.
  • Restoration of the ability of private parties to bring a qui tam action against a person for making a false claim with the state, such as Medicaid. The private party bringing the claim on behalf of the state could be awarded up to 30 percent of the amount recovered, along with attorney fees. The Wisconsin Civil Justice Council successfully worked in the 2015 legislative session to remove a similar provision under prior law. (Currently, the Department of Justice may bring an action against a person for making a false Medicaid claim.)

The Wisconsin Civil Justice Council is already working with key legislators to ensure that these provisions, which would harm Wisconsin’s business community and worsen the state’s civil litigation climate, will be removed from the budget, set aside, and not considered further.

Other Notable Provisions

  • Under current law, courts are prohibited from giving deference to agency interpretations of law and agencies are prohibited from seeking such deference from a court. The executive budget repeals these provisions.
  • The executive budget provides no funding and no position authority for the Wisconsin Judicial Council. The Wisconsin Civil Justice Council has opposed funding and position authority for the council.

The Budget Process

By law, Gov. Evers’ budget was introduced as a bill in the Wisconsin Legislature. The Joint Committee on Finance (commonly the Joint Finance Committee, JFC) will spend several months reviewing and altering the proposal. Based on past experience, we expect the following to happen:

  • The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) will release a plain-language summary of the budget recommendations in about a month, that is, by the middle of March.
  • JFC will hold agency briefings and conduct public hearings on the budget recommendations.
  • The co-chairs of JFC will identify non-fiscal policy items and slate them for removal from the budget bill, which should occur roughly by the middle of April.
  • JFC will vote, agency by agency, on changes to the budget.
  • By June, the full budget should be available for debate and passage by both houses of the Legislature.

Very few of Gov. Evers’ budget recommendations will survive the budget-writing process in the Republican-led Legislature. Shortly following the governor’s address, Republican Majority Leaders Sen. LeMahieu and Rep. August called the proposal “out of control” and a “liberal wish list,” respectively. JFC Co-Chairs Sen. Marklein and Rep. Born issued statements promising to remove all of the governor’s taxing and spending proposals and non-fiscal policy provisions and start over. Meanwhile, Democrats on the finance committee released a joint statement supporting Gov. Evers’ executive budget.