Last night, Governor Evers shared a budget that starts to address some of the challenges confronting families across the state. During the “Year of the Kid,” we look forward to working on both sides of the aisle to ensure that the state budget includes every kid in Wisconsin.

We applaud the Governor for acknowledging the risk of sweeping federal cuts to health care, education, and child care that will directly harm Wisconsin families.

The state budget is how we help ensure that every family — regardless of zip code, income, or race — has a chance to thrive in Wisconsin. But, over decades, powerful wealthy interests have rigged the rules, funneling the benefits of our hard work out of our communities and into their pockets. To keep their grip on power, the wealthy few stoke division, using race and geography to pit Wisconsinites against each other. Rigging the rules leaves behind all but the wealthy few.

Reimagine Wisconsin is our community-informed policy agenda. It’s how we rewrite the rules, reclaim, and rebuild a Wisconsin that works for everyone.

We applaud the Governor for lifting up several policies from the Reimagine Wisconsin policy agenda last night, plus several other measures that will help everyday families:

• Extend 12 months postpartum coverage for Medicaid members. Wisconsin and Arkansas are the only states that have failed to do so. Extending coverage will help address Wisconsin’s stark racial maternal and infant mortality disparities and ensure a stable source of care. 
• Provide $440M to Child Care Counts. Wisconsin’s lack of accessible child care short-changes children, while those who can find care struggle to pay for it. 
• Make mental health care more accessible to all kids in our schools. 
• Target tax relief to middle income and other working families. Currently, Wisconsin’s tax system requires families with fewer resources to pay a larger share of their income than the wealthiest one percent. 
• Take steps to reduce the out of pocket costs that residents face when picking up a prescription or going to the doctor, and holding insurance companies accountable.
• Ensure school meals for all kids regardless of their ability to pay, so that no kids go hungry while they’re in school. 

After our team reviews the full proposed budget, we will share our analysis. We hope to read more in the proposed budget about:

• Solutions to the horrific treatment of young people in our juvenile justice system, especially young Black men, and investments in community-based alternatives.
• Removing the barriers that make life harder for Wisconsin immigrants by allowing access to driver licenses, professional certification, and in-state tuition for all residents, while also combating wage theft. 
• A living wage and other worker protections that families desperately need to survive. Growing economic inequality has held working families back for decades, but every parent or caregiver in Wisconsin deserves to have a secure foundation to raise their family. 

We will be sharing our full analysis on how the Governor’s budget impacts children and families furthest from opportunity on Wednesday, April 2, 12pm CST – register for the webinar here.