Republicans Dramatically Scale Back Governor Evers' Spending Plan Regarding Prisons
Thursday, June 13th, 2019 -- 9:42 AM
(AP) -Republicans are dramatically scaling back Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to spend $194 million more to build smaller facilities to house juvenile offenders when Wisconsin’s youth prison closes.The Legislature last year unanimously approved a bill shuttering the troubled youth prison outside Irma. The bill requires the prison to close by January 2021 and offenders to be transferred to new, smaller state- and county-run facilities. The measure authorizes $25 million in borrowing to build smaller regional state facilities as well as $15 million to expand the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center. The law also provides $40 million in borrowing to fund grants for counties to build juvenile detention centers.
Evers’ state budget would spend an additional $194 million on the new facilities and the Mendota expansion. Republicans on the Legislature’s finance committee introduced their own plan Tuesday that sets out only $43.9 million in new funding. That money would be earmarked only for the Mendota expansion.
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