CHICAGO — Debate was expected to began Wednesday in the Wisconsin Assembly on a new budget, one day after the state’s high court reinstated Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill that raised employee pension payments and health care premiums and curbed most public unions’ collective bargaining rights.
The Assembly was poised to amend the $59 billion proposed spending plan to include the budget-repair bill provisions if the state Supreme Court did not issue a ruling by Tuesday. The ruling overturned a Dane County judge’s decision last month blocking the law.
The lower court ruled that the law was approved earlier this year in violation of state open-meetings rules because of the short public notice provided by Republican lawmakers who pushed through passage of the measure.
The Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 that Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi overstepped her authority when she prohibited the legislation from being published, a necessary step for it to take effect.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling provides our state the opportunity to move forward together and focus on getting Wisconsin working again,” Walker said in a statement.
Walker proposed the bill — which originally also included a debt restructuring authorization — to address a shortfall in the current budget and to save money in the coming years. Democratic senators fled the state in opposition to the collective bargaining provisions, preventing the necessary quorum from being established to allow a vote.
Republicans, who control the Legislature, stripped the debt restructuring and other provisions that required a higher number of senators to be present for a quorum and moved the new bill quickly through a conference committee and onto the Senate and Assembly floors where it passed. Opponents of the bill and the Dane County prosecutor alleged the conference committee’s vote violated state open meetings rules.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Doug La Follette said he would publish the law on June 28. It would then take effect a day later. State officials want him to act more quickly. Additional litigation is expected to be filed after the law takes effect.
The provisions raising pension payments and health care premiums are expected to save $300 million in the next two-year budget. The Senate will begin debate on the budget plan Thursday. The state is facing a $3 billion deficit in the next two-year budget cycle.
