Gov. Evers enacts 2025-27 budget to do what’s best for kids and working families by lowering out-of-pocket costs for child care and energy bills, cutting taxes for retirees and middle-class families, making historic investments in the UW System, increasing spendable revenue for schools and special education reimbursement rates, investing in healthcare, local communities, and infrastructure, and supporting Wisconsin’s farmers and veterans

MADISON - Gov. Tony Evers, who began 2025 by declaring it the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin, has been clear from the beginning of this biennial budget process that his top priority in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget would be to pass a pro-kid budget that makes meaningful investments in Wisconsin’s kids at every stage and every age, from early childhood to K-12 to our higher education institutions. Delivering on this promise, on Tuesday this week, Gov. Evers announced a bipartisan budget agreement after months of conversations and negotiations with legislative leaders.

Gov. Evers today enacted the bipartisan budget agreement in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, securing significant investments in child care, K-12 schools, and the University of Wisconsin (UW) System statewide in 2025 the Year of the Kid. As enacted, the 2025-27 Biennial Budget approved by the governor includes:

• Nearly $1.4 billion in spendable revenue for K-12 schools, with the largest increase to the special education reimbursement rate in state history;
• The largest increase to the UW System in nearly two decades;
• Over $360 million to support Wisconsin’s child care industry and help lower child care costs for working families, a third of which is in direct payments to providers;
• A tax cut for working and middle-class families, bringing tax cuts enacted by Gov. Evers since he took office to over $12.6 billion;
• Lowering out-of-pocket energy and utility costs for Wisconsinites by eliminating the sales tax on household energy bills, saving Wisconsin households over $178 million over the next two years;  
• Supporting healthcare access, especially in rural communities, and continuing funding for BadgerCare;
• Continuing support for Wisconsin farmers and producers through mental health services for farm families, food security initiatives, producer-led watershed protection efforts, and bolstering the supply chain;
• Fixing Wisconsin’s roads and bridges and making sure the state’s infrastructure meets the needs of a 21st-century workforce and economy, including three percent increases in each year for General Transportation Aids and $150 million to repair rural roads and bridges;  
• $14 million investment in local communities across the state through municipal service payments to ensure local communities have the resources they need to meet basic and unique needs alike; and
• Funding to support the operations of the Wisconsin Veterans homes and a five percent increase for County and Tribal Veterans Service Offices.

Gov. Evers also exercised his broad, constitutional veto authority to partially veto aspects of the budget that were outside of the bipartisan budget negotiations. Highlights of the 2025-27 Biennial Budget and Gov. Evers’ line-item vetoes are provided below. Excerpts from Gov. Evers’ veto message are available below.

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Over the past three biennial budgets, I have made it a priority to listen to the will of the people, to do the right thing for Wisconsin, and to create prosperity that will define our state for generations. We’ve worked hard to be prudent with taxpayer dollars and save where we can, while still investing in the needs that had long been neglected, cutting taxes for working families, and staying within our state’s means. As a result, over the last several biennia, I’ve been proud to use my signing pen—and my broad, constitutional veto authority—to secure historic investments in our kids and schools, families, and communities across our state.

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Through this bipartisan budget, we are making progress on key state priorities to move Wisconsin forward: making critical investments supporting our kids and schools, lowering costs of child care and household bills for working families, stabilizing our child care industry, cutting taxes for seniors and middle-class families, ensuring Wisconsinites have access to healthcare, continuing to fix our roads and bridges, and significant investments in our local communities, among much more. Simply put: this is a pro-kid budget that is a win for Wisconsin’s kids, families, and communities, and our state’s future in 2025 the Year of the Kid, and I am incredibly proud of this important work.

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At the same time, this budget is also a reflection of bipartisan compromise—that means everyone gets something they want, and no one gets everything they want. I spent months working together with Republican leaders to reach common ground and find consensus. Today, I am signing a bipartisan budget compromise that reflects those months of conversations and is supported by a majority of the Legislature with bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats alike.

While this budget looks drastically different than the budget I proposed and does not include everything I asked for and hoped it would, frankly, I believe most Wisconsinites would say that compromise is a good thing because that is how government is supposed to work.

Wisconsin is a purple state. At the end of the day, it is my job as governor to get things done, and it is my job to be a governor for the whole state. I made a promise to always work to do the right thing for Wisconsin. And I believe working together to find common ground so we can pass a bipartisan budget that reflects the will of the people of this state is part of keeping that promise.

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While there is much work ahead, this bipartisan budget proves that, despite these divisive times and the policy differences and disagreements we may share as elected officials, in Wisconsin, we still believe in being able to work together with the collaborative and innovative spirit that Wisconsinites have embraced for generations. Our work together building the future we want for our kids and our grandkids continues in earnest tomorrow.

Forward, and for Wisconsin, always.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2025-27 BIENNIAL BUDGET

Stabilizing Wisconsin’s Child Care Industry and Lowering Child Care Costs for Working Families
Gov. Evers has made investing in the state’s child care industry to help fill available child care slots, cut child care wait lists, and lower the cost of care for working families a top priority of his administration. After months of negotiations with legislative leaders, Gov. Evers secured a more than $360 million investment in child care in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, including delivering on the governor’s promise to secure direct payments for child care providers—a bright line the governor previously signaled would force him to veto the budget if Republicans failed to pass a budget without it.

The more than $360 million investment in child care included in the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget signed by Gov. Evers today includes:  

• $110 million in direct payments to child care providers to help providers keep their doors open and lights on, cut child care wait lists, and lower out-of-pocket child care costs for working families; 
• The new program will make monthly payments and monthly per-child investments in child care providers to ensure continued, direct support for providers as the Child Care Counts program winds down. 
• $66 million to fund a new “Get Kids Ready” initiative, the first-ever child care program funded solely by general purpose revenue, or GPR, in Wisconsin state history, which will support child care providers serving four-year-olds to help prepare Wisconsin’s kids for the classroom and get an earlier jump start on learning at a critical time in development;
• The new first-of-its-kind program in Wisconsin is also designed to help ensure the state’s child care industry will receive sustainable, ongoing state investments into the future after Child Care Counts ends.
• Kids in the program will be taught by child care providers using curriculum that meets the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) model early learning standards. 
• $2 million designed to help child care providers across the state build capacity to be able to cut child care wait lists and ensure more kids and families have access to affordable child care;
• The grant will expand access to high-quality child care in the state, including launching an online software platform that is linked to the department’s website to connect child care providers with child care workers. 
• $2 million intended to help bolster Wisconsin’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (CCR&Rs), which help parents find child care locally and provide training and technical assistance opportunities to child care providers; 
• Over $123 million to increase rates under the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program to help lower out-of-pocket child care costs for working families across the state; and
• The investment will raise rates for the Wisconsin Shares program to ensure Wisconsin meets its statutory obligation, designed to ensure families can access 75 percent of child care slots within a given geographical area and lower the cost of child care for parents. 
• $28.5 million for a pilot program to help support expanding capacity across Wisconsin’s child care industry to ensure more families with infants and toddlers can access quality, affordable child care. 
• The proposal will increase the reimbursement rate to providers caring for infants and toddlers across the state through the Wisconsin Shares program. 
• Under the plan, providers would receive payments of $200 per month for every infant under 18 months and $100 per month for every toddler between 18 months and 30 months. 
• The investment will also help ensure more families and kids have access to affordable child care by helping providers accommodate more infants and toddlers under a new temporary pilot program aimed at aligning Wisconsin with peer states like Minnesota, enabling providers to care for seven toddlers between 18 and 30 months of age per staff member.

Additionally, new changes under the agreement will help expand access to child care for working families by allowing for ‘large family care centers’ that can serve up to 12 kids and standardize the minimum age for assistant child care teachers to 16 years of age while retaining all requirements for assistant teachers. 

Investing in Wisconsin’s Kids and Public K-12 Schools
While the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget does not include the full and significant investment Gov. Evers initially proposed in his executive budget, the state budget enacted today builds upon the governor’s historic increase in spendable authority for public school districts in the 2023-25 biennium, which included using his partial veto authority to ensure new spendable authority for public school districts would be predictable and substantial.  

As a former teacher, principal, superintendent, and state superintendent, Gov. Evers fought hard to make sure the 2025-27 Biennial Budget provided increased investments for Wisconsin’s kids and public K-12 schools. After Republican lawmakers threatened to provide no new increases for schools, through negotiations, Gov. Evers secured:  

• A nearly $1.4 billion increase in spendable revenue for K-12 schools across the state in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, an over $200 million increase from the historic 2023-25 K-12 budget;
• The net categorical aid increase is roughly five times larger than the increase provided in the most recent state Biennial Budget and a nearly 100 percent increase above the amount previously approved for K-12 schools by Republican lawmakers on the state budget committee.
• The largest percent increase in the special education reimbursement rate in state history, which will increase to 42 percent in the first year of the biennium and 45 percent in the second year of the biennium;
• This is the highest reimbursement rate in 30 years and a larger increase for special education than the last three state budgets combined.
• This is a more than half-a-billion-dollar investment and more than double the increase from the previously approved motion by Republicans on the state budget committee.
• Over $54 million over the biennium for high-cost special education aid;
• This will increase the reimbursement rate of this program from its current estimated 25.9 percent to 50 percent in fiscal year 2025-26 and 90 percent in fiscal year 2026-27.
• $30 million to continue providing comprehensive school-based mental health services statewide, modeled on the governor’s successful “Get Kids Ahead” initiative; and
• In 2022, Gov. Evers created the successful “Get Kids Ahead” initiative, designed to help support kids’ mental and behavioral health in schools across Wisconsin, and directed $30 million in federal funding to support the effort to expand access to school-based mental health services.
• Gov. Evers previously fought to secure $30 million in state funding as part of a bipartisan compromise on shared revenue during the last biennium to build upon the success of his “Get Kids Ahead” initiative and ensure kids across Wisconsin would continue to have access to comprehensive mental health services in K-12 schools.
• This investment secured by Gov. Evers in bipartisan budget negotiations with Republican leaders continues building upon this important work, ensuring school-based mental health services continue to be available for kids at school through the next two years.
• $2 million in operations funding for the DPI in the state budget committee’s Supplemental Fund after Republican lawmakers previously voted to cut 10 percent of the agency’s operating costs in each year of the biennium through the state budget process. 

Stabilizing the UW System and Supporting Wisconsin’s Future Workforce
Gov. Evers has spent the last year advocating for increased investments in the UW System to help prevent further campus closures, staff and faculty layoffs, and program cuts and consolidations. In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers indicated they planned to cut the UW System by tens of millions of dollars—nearly $90 million—in this state budget, prompting Gov. Evers to threaten to veto the budget in its entirety.

Instead, Gov. Evers negotiated to secure the largest increase for the UW System in nearly 20 years. The 2025-27 Biennial Budget provides over $250 million for the UW System and includes:  

• Over $100 million to support UW System campuses statewide to help stabilize the system after recent campus closures, layoffs, and program cuts and consolidations and ensure UW institutions remain economic and workforce hubs in communities across our state;
• $7 million to support 24/7 virtual telehealth mental health services to nearly all students across UW System campuses;  
• $54 million to help retain and recruit faculty and staff in high-demand fields of study to ensure UW System institutions remain competitive, world-class institutions;
• Nearly $90 million to increase wages for UW System workers, including faculty and staff; and
• $1 million for UW-Green Bay’s Rising Phoenix Early College High School Program that enables high school students to earn college credits. 

In addition to providing the largest increase for the UW System in nearly two decades, the 2025-27 Capital Budget will also make critical investments in capital building projects on campuses across the state, including projects at UW-Madison, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Stout, Milwaukee, Platteville, and Stevens Point, with a nearly $1.2 billion investment.

Supporting the Future of Wisconsin’s Technical Colleges  

Gov. Evers knows that the Wisconsin Technical College System is essential to the future of the state’s economy and workforce, providing high-quality, affordable education and training in high-demand fields. The final 2025-27 Biennial Budget invests $13 million over the biennium in supporting Wisconsin’s technical colleges, including:  

• $8.3 million in general aid increases to the technical college system to continue efforts to train the workers of the future;  
• $3 million to ensure students have the materials and resources they need to learn without breaking the bank; and  
• $2 million to provide grants to technical college district boards to support the adoption and use of artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare our workers to be ready for the future of AI.  

Additionally, the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget signed into law by Gov. Evers includes over $6 million to support the Youth Apprenticeship Program, which gives high school students the opportunity to earn while they learn and gain skills to build careers in high-demand fields. Investing in this program is critical, as the state’s Youth Apprenticeship Program has seen four consecutive years of record-high enrollment, with 11,344 youth apprentices enrolled in the 2024-2025 school year—a 14 percent increase from the prior year.

Lowering Costs on Energy Bills and Cutting Taxes for Working Families and Retirees 

Building on the governor’s efforts over the past six years to cut taxes, Wisconsinites are keeping more of their hard-earned income today than at any point in the last 50 years. All told, including the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget signed into law today, Gov. Evers will have enacted $12.6 billion in tax cuts since taking office.

Through the governor’s negotiations, the 2025-27 Biennial Budget includes the governor’s proposal to eliminate the sales tax on household energy bills to help reduce energy costs for families. This will help lower out-of-pocket costs on energy bills for Wisconsinites across the state, saving Wisconsin households over $178 million over the biennium.

The budget also reduces Wisconsin individual income tax burdens by over $600 million annually, which includes: 

• A tax cut for Wisconsin’s working and middle-class families;
• 1.6 million Wisconsin income taxpayers will see income tax cuts under the provision, with an average tax cut of $180.
• 82 percent of the tax cut will go to Wisconsin taxpayers with adjusted gross income below $200,000.
• Eliminating retirement income taxes for many Wisconsin retirees; and
• Allowing those age 67 or older to exclude up to $24,000 (up to $48,000 for married-joint filers) of retirement income payments, which will reduce taxes on approximately 280,000 Wisconsin filers by an average of about $1,000 per filer.
• Creating a film tax credit and establishing a State Film Office in the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, which will allocate up to $5 million in film production and investment tax credits in each fiscal year. 

Expanding Access to Quality, Affordable Healthcare 
Gov. Evers believes healthcare should not be a privilege afforded only to the healthy and the wealthy. No one should ever have to choose between life-saving medication and care or putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their head. Wisconsinites should be able to get the healthcare they need when and where they need it, and without breaking the bank.  

The final 2025-27 Biennial Budget makes historic investments to support Wisconsin’s healthcare industry and ensure Wisconsinites have access to quality, affordable healthcare—especially in rural areas—with new efforts to bolster health systems across the state. This includes:  

• Over $1.1 billion to support healthcare access, especially in rural communities;
• Continuing funding for BadgerCare;
• Over $53 million to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for personal care, obstetrics, private duty nursing, residential opioid treatment, and home health services, and more;  
• Fully funding the minimum fee schedule implemented by the Department of Health Services last biennium to help long-term care facilities avoid staffing cuts and closures;  
• $1.5 million in increased funding over the biennium for free and charitable clinics;  
• $7 million to support crisis intervention through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline;  
• $2 million to support the WisCaregiver Career Program to help address the state's shortage of certified nursing assistants and direct care professionals; and  
• $3.8 million to support Aging and Disability Resource Centers across the state, among many other critical provisions.  

Supporting Wisconsin Veterans and their Families
Supporting Wisconsin’s veterans and their families and ensuring they have the resources and tools needed to thrive in their civilian lives has been a top priority for Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration since Day One.  

In 2022, Gov. Evers signed Executive Order #157, creating a Blue Ribbon Commission on Veteran Opportunity to develop comprehensive, long-term efforts to support the state’s veterans and address the challenges they face. Based on the Commission’s recommendations, Gov. Evers invested $10 million toward addressing gaps in existing veteran services and reducing barriers to economic security, including efforts to expand access to higher education and job training, address housing insecurity, and increase mental and behavioral health support and substance use disorder treatment. 

The final 2025-27 Biennial Budget builds upon that important work, providing investments and provisions that will help expand access to affordable housing and comprehensive support services for veterans. This includes:

• $5 million to support the operations of the Wisconsin Veterans homes;
• $150,000 to increase transportation grants to counties;  
• $50,000 to increase the grant amount for Camp American Legion;  
• Providing a five percent increase for county veterans service officers and Tribal veterans service offices that serve veterans in communities across the state;
• $2.5 million for a new grant program to fund housing and comprehensive support services to veterans;  
• $35 million for needed capital building projects at the Wisconsin Veterans Homes to repair plumbing, abate lead, replace boilers, and improve technology, with over $3.4 million devoted to continuing expansion of the Northern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery; and
• $5 million to support a grant for war memorials in populous counties to honor our nation’s heroes. 

Building 21st-Century Infrastructure to Support a 21st-Century Economy  

After years of neglect under the previous administration, Gov. Evers has made fixing Wisconsin’s roads and bridges and making sure the state’s infrastructure can meet the needs of a 21st-century workforce and a 21st-century economy a top priority. Since 2019, under his administration, the state has improved more than 8,600 miles of roads and 2,000 bridges statewide. In fact, Wisconsinites could drive from Wausau, Wisconsin, to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and back three times on the number of miles of roads fixed. In each of his biennial budgets, Gov. Evers has secured historic investments in Wisconsin’s transportation infrastructure, and improving Wisconsin’s roads and bridges continued to be a priority for the governor in this budget.

The final 2025-27 Biennial Budget signed by Gov. Evers provides $1.1 billion in new funding for key transportation investments. This includes:  

• Increasing General Transportation Aids (GTA) by three percent in both 2026 and 2027, which will provide municipalities with $33.2 million more over the biennium and counties with nearly $10 million over the biennium;
• A historic increase of nearly $333 million over the biennium in the state highway rehabilitation program;  
• $100 million for the Local Roads Improvement Program;  
• Continuing support for the Agricultural Roads Improvement Program, created by Gov. Evers in the 2023-25 biennium, with a $150 million investment to continue repairing and improving Wisconsin’s rural roads to help farmers and producers and the state’s agricultural and forestry industries move products to market safely and efficiently;
• $30 million of the $150 million secured for ARIP will be specifically targeted to bridge and culvert repair to help improve and repair deteriorating bridges across the state.
• $244.5 million to keep key projects, such as I-41 and I-39/90, on schedule;  
• A 10 percent increase to paratransit aids, increasing funding by $687,600 over the biennium;  
• Improving safety on Milwaukee County expressways with $38 million in expressway policing aids; and
• $50 million for the harbor assistance program, including $15 million for the Menominee Harbor Project and $20 million for the Port of Green Bay.  

The 2025-27 Biennial Budget also improves ongoing transportation fund revenues by generating nearly $200 million in additional revenue to improve the sustainability of the transportation fund.  

In addition to robust investments in transportation infrastructure statewide, the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget invests in local communities to ensure that they are able to address the unique needs of their constituents and bolster local infrastructure, including: 

• $50 million to fund building projects in local communities, providing grants to local governments and nonstate entities for local construction projects which serve a public, statewide purpose, such as clinics, arts centers and museums, public libraries, and more; and 
• $14 million for local communities across the state through municipal service payments to ensure local communities have the resources they need to meet basic and unique needs alike. 

Supporting Wisconsin Farmers and Agriculture  
In addition to $150 million for the Agricultural Roads Improvement Program to support the state’s rural roads and agricultural industry, Gov. Evers, over the past six years, has secured critical investments for farmers, producers, and their families, including supporting the state’s meat and dairy producers, investing in farmer mental health resources, and bolstering Wisconsin’s exports worldwide. Gov. Evers recognizes that Wisconsin’s $116 billion agricultural industry is as critical to the state economy as it is to Wisconsin’s heritage and culture, and ensuring its continued growth and success for generations to come will be critical to ensuring Wisconsin’s continued growth and success.  

Building upon efforts of the Evers Administration to date to support Wisconsin’s agricultural industry and proud heritage as “America’s Dairyland,” the 2025-27 Biennial Budget provides:  

• $10 million to continue the Food Security Initiative, a program created by Gov. Evers that connects local nonprofit food assistance programs, such as food pantries, with local producers to keep shelves stocked;  
• $3 million to continue the Tribal Elder Food Security program that helps Tribal elders access nutritious, culturally-relevant food while supporting Wisconsin producers; 
• $800,000 to increase the available funding for the successful Dairy Processor Grant Program; 
• $1 million to bolster and support the Meat Processor Grant Program; 
• Over $2.4 million over the biennium for the Meat Inspection Program to ensure meat products are produced safely and match nutrition labels; 
• $200,000 to support farmers and their families’ mental health; 
• $500,000 to increase funding for the Producer-Led Watershed Protection Grant Program, which helps enable producers and producer-led groups to implement nonpoint source pollution abatement strategies to improve Wisconsin’s soil and water quality;  
• $2 million to continue the commercial Nitrogen Optimization Pilot Program, which aims to protect vital soil and water resources; and 
• An additional $1.6 million to support the cover crop insurance program, which helps assists farmers with rebates of $5 per acre of a cover crop planted for crop insurance premiums paid on those acres. 

Ensuring Access to Safe, Clean Drinking Water  
Every Wisconsinite deserves access to clean, safe water—free of lead, PFAS, and other contaminants that have long been known to harm our kids, families, farmers, communities, and industries across our state.

To continue building upon the governor’s work over the past four years to ensure Wisconsin’s kids and families have clean, safe drinking water, this budget increases borrowing for the state’s Environmental Improvement Fund by $731.6 million to secure federal clean water and safe drinking water capitalization grants over the next four years. This will help meet the increasing demand from local communities who need support to upgrade local water systems and infrastructure to ensure every Wisconsin kid, family, and community has clean, safe drinking water.    

In addition, this budget provides:  

• $2 million for the development of a remedial action plan for remediation of arsenic-contaminated sediment in the Kewaunee Marsh; 
• $4 million to be used for remedial action at the Amcast Superfund site; 
• $6 million in bonding to be used for the Kenosha Dunes restoration project; 
• $7.5 million for contaminated sediment removal from sites in the Great Lakes or its tributaries that are on Wisconsin’s impaired waters list to continue protecting this resource; 
• $4 million for Urban Nonpoint Source cost-sharing and the Municipal Flood Control Program; 
• $6.5 million to counties for capital projects that implement land and water resource management plans under the Targeted Runoff Management Program; 
• $7 million for grants to counties for implementation of land and water resource management plans, including cost-share grants to landowners that install conservation practices on their land, such as erosion prevention strategies, through the Soil and Water Resource Management Program; 
• $4 million for the repair, reconstruction, and removal of dams; 
• Over $1.8 million over the biennium to update the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) systems and improve customer service for Wisconsinites; and 
• More than $12 million to support county conservation staff around the state. 

Protecting Wisconsin’s Natural Resources
Wisconsin’s system of state parks, forests, and trails has been the gem of the state for 125 years, boasting over 100 protected areas and serving over 20 million visitors annually. To ensure facilities in these recreational areas are well maintained, this budget provides $5 million for the development of parks and trails across the State Park System and increases targeted fees to bring in additional revenue to support operations and property development at state parks and forests.  

Additionally, preserving Wisconsin forestland and other outdoor spaces is not only important for Wisconsinites’ health and well-being but also key to the state’s economic success. Outdoor recreation is a more than $11 billion industry in the state, which is why the governor was proud to create the Office of Outdoor Recreation in his first budget as governor. This budget recognizes the demonstrated success of this office in strengthening Wisconsin’s recreation economy and quality of life by finally making the Office of Outdoor Recreation a permanent hub for industry partners and stakeholders.  

Finally, Wisconsin’s forestry industry is also a critical facet of the state’s economy, and this budget increases funding for state, local, and private forest landowners to improve the health and productivity of forests, including: 

• $1 million to award a grant to conduct a forestry industrywide strategic plan to help ensure the long-term economic viability of Wisconsin’s forestry industry; 
• $500,000 for the County Forest Administration Grant Program to support salaries for county forest administrators; 
• $500,000 for the Sustainable Forestry Grant Program to support sustainable forest management projects on county forest land, such as storm-related projects or hiring temporary staff to address short-term workload projects; 
• $260,000 for the County Forest Wildlife Habitat Grant Program to support wildlife habitat improvements and management activities on county forest lands; 
• $2.2 million for fire suppression equipment at the DNR to more effectively combat wildfires; and 
• $4.1 million to be used to contract for the removal of hazardous trees on departmental properties.

Building Safe and Strong Communities 
Gov. Evers knows that an important part of doing what’s best for kids includes keeping kids, families, schools, and communities safe by reducing crime and preventing violence. That’s why, earlier this year, Gov. Evers announced the creation of a statewide Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention and directed $10 million to support the office’s efforts to work with law enforcement agencies and local governments and with school districts, nonprofits, and firearm dealers to administer grants supporting violence and gun violence prevention efforts statewide. Building on these efforts, the 2025-27 Biennial Budget:  

• Provides more than $1.5 million and 13 permanent positions to support the Office of School Safety; 
• Invests $319,300 and two positions to support the Missing Child Alert System; 
• Increases grants to child advocacy centers with a $2 million investment; 
• Provides more than $1.2 million to fund the GPS Sex Offender Registry Program; 
• Invests nearly $6 million to allow one-step of pay progression in each year for assistant and deputy district attorneys to increase retention of experienced attorneys; 
• Provides more than $5.6 million over the biennium to allow one-step of pay progression in each year for assistant state public defender attorneys to increase retention of experienced attorneys; 
• Supports an additional 43 assistant district attorney positions across the state, 1.5 assistant state public defender attorney positions, and 11.5 support staff positions to prevent case backlogs and ensure Wisconsin's justice system is fair and efficient;  
• Includes $20 million to counties for circuit court costs; and  
• Funds the WISCOM public safety interoperable communications system with an investment of nearly $80 million.

Additionally, over the last six years, Gov. Evers has consistently worked to support and invest in dedicated advocates and organizations across Wisconsin that support crime victims and survivors of domestic abuse, especially in the face of federal funding cuts. This budget continues the governor’s commitment to support victims and survivors with $20 million for grants to crime victim service providers and child advocacy centers to supplement federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants.  

This budget also includes a series of facility changes, improvements, and modernization efforts across Wisconsin’s correctional institutions, including ultimately closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI), to improve public safety across Wisconsin, lower rates of recidivism, and support corrections staff. This includes:  

• More than $4 million to support the Division of Community Corrections’ reentry programming aimed at reducing recidivism and community reintegration; 
• $15 million to develop preliminary plans and specifications for the realignment of the Department of Corrections and the ultimate closure of GBCI;
• More than $130 million to build a second Type 1 Juvenile Correctional Facility in Dane County, bringing the state another step closer to closing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake and relocating youth safely; and  
• $1.5 million to develop preliminary plans and specifications for the construction of a new 16-bed facility at the Grow Academy.  

Finally, this budget helps to address staff vacancy rates and increasing support for community supervision efforts by enhancing the pay progression for probation and parole agents at the Department of Corrections and providing parity increases for correctional field supervisor positions and supporting the continuation of the existing $5 per hour add-on for correctional officers, sergeants, and agents working at Waupun Correctional Institution, as well as those working at institutions with vacancy rates greater than 40 percent among security classifications.  

2025-27 Biennial Budget documents, including the governor’s full veto message and the enacted budget, are available here.