News of the Day

The Republican-controlled state Legislature took no action Tuesday during a special session called by Gov. Tony Evers to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin and accept $1 billion in additional federal funds.

Governor Evers called the special session last week and proposed a bill that would add Wisconsin to a list of 38 other states and Washington, D.C., that have expanded Medicaid since 2014, when it was first offered as part of the Affordable Care Act. The expansion would extend Medicaid health benefits to 91,000 additional people in Wisconsin by raising the income cap from 100 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $26,500 for a family of four, to 138 percent, or $36,570.

“I think we should be doing everything we can to make sure our economy bounces back from this pandemic, and this special session was about finding common ground and getting bipartisan support for our efforts,” Evers said in a prepared statement. “Clearly, it’s disappointing Republicans don’t seem to take that responsibility seriously, and they’ll have to explain to Wisconsinites why they made the decision they did today.”

Wisconsin Republicans have for years opposed the expansion, calling it an unnecessary increase in welfare and arguing it could saddle Wisconsin with additional costs in the future, if federal support were to decrease.

“Wisconsin provides quality, affordable coverage for all those who need it and expanding the program would simply lead to more people on a taxpayer funded government program and more expensive private plans for others,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said in a letter to the governor Tuesday. “Expanding Medicaid as you have proposed is unneeded and even reckless in a state that has no coverage gap and has an effective reinsurance program.”

Short-term health plans, which are typically cheaper than regular insurance because they don’t have to meet many requirements of the Affordable Care Act, could last up to three years in Wisconsin instead of 18 months under a bill to be debated Wednesday.

Governor Tony Evers revived his push to expand Medicaid on Wednesday, this time tying it to a plan that would spend $1 billion in federal incentives on projects throughout Wisconsin.

The proposal represented an attempt by the Democratic governor to recast the well-worn debate as about more than just expanding health coverage, framing it instead as a chance to capture a rare federal incentive payment to spend on dozens of projects, some of them in lawmakers’ backyards.

“We’re going to be utilizing it for projects all across the state,” Evers said at a Wednesday press conference in Middleton. “If the Republicans decide not to do this, they’ll be turning away projects in their own districts.”

But just hours after Evers introduced his plan, several of the Legislature’s top Republicans issued a written statement saying they opposed it.

“Our unique-to-Wisconsin solution is working, and we will not shift tens of thousands of people off their private insurance to a government-run system,” said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg.

Wisconsin is one of a dozen states that have decided not to expand Medicaid since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Wisconsin offers Medicaid, or BadgerCare, to people who earn up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Evers’ proposed budget would have expanded that to 138 percent, which would have covered an estimated 91,000 additional residents. BadgerCare currently covers about 1 million people in Wisconsin.

Republicans on the Legislature’s budget committee rejected the governor’s plan, just as they did two years ago after Evers proposed expanding Medicaid in his 2019 budget.

The Legislature’s GOP-led rules committee voted Wednesday to eliminate the state’s emergency rule waiving work search requirements in order to be eligible for unemployment benefits.

The work search waiver first went into effect in March 2020 and was set to expire in July. Starting Sunday, unemployed people will again have to perform four work-search activities each week in order to obtain benefits.

“We need every able-bodied person to re-enter Wisconsin’s workforce to rebuild our economy,” committee co-chairman Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said in a statement following the vote, which was opposed by the committee’s Democratic members.

Committee member Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said the vote to reinstate work search requirements “is yet another example of Republicans abusing the rule-making process to make policy detrimental to their own constituents, and reveals what many who have been paying close attention have long known — Wisconsin Republicans want to make it as hard as possible for unemployed Wisconsinites to receive benefits.”

Wisconsin Republicans want to end the $300-per-week federal unemployment supplement, which they said Tuesday hurts businesses that are struggling to fill vacancies as customers return amid a loosening of coronavirus restrictions.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) is waiving the usual surcharge for the Agricultural Chemical Cleanup Program (ACCP). Fertilizer and pesticide businesses normally pay this surcharge when renewing their license, and the resulting fund helps pay to clean up agrichemical spills.

DATCP waives the surcharge when the fund balance remains above $1.5 million, allowing fertilizer dealers, commercial pesticide applicators, and pesticide manufacturers to pass these savings on to their customers.

The surcharge holiday will extend through June 2022 for fertilizer sales, and through the 2021-22 license year for other licensees. The surcharge is based on the level of the ACCP fund on May 1 of each year, when DATCP is required to review the program funds and decide whether to continue the surcharge holiday.

For more information about the ACCP fund and surcharges, visit https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/Programs_Services/ACCPFundSurcharges.aspx.

Wisconsin’s tax season was extended to May 17 this year due to COVID-19. To date, 2.85 million tax filers submitted returns out of an expected 3 million, and the average refund year to date is $793, up from $719 at this point last year.

Taxpayers can file an extension request with the IRS if they won’t make the May 17 deadline.

• Request an extension from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by May 17 to avoid late filing penalties.

• Go to the IRS website at www.irs.gov and search “extension” for more information. Taxpayers who file an extension request with the IRS automatically receive an extension from the state.

• Keep a copy of the IRS federal extension application (Form 4868) for your records. Please keep in mind that even if you have an extension of time to file your return, you will owe interest on any tax not paid by May 17.

• Avoid interest charges during the extension period by paying any estimated amount owed by May 17, using a 2020 Wisconsin Estimated Tax Voucher.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new masking guidelines Thursday that carry welcome words: Fully vaccinated Americans, for the most part, no longer need to wear masks indoors.

Support for small businesses, restaurants and bars will remain a priority for federal COVID-19 stimulus money in Wisconsin despite a $700 million decline in anticipated aid, Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced Monday that Wisconsin will receive $2.5 billion in aid under the latest federal coronavirus bill — $700 million less than Congressional Research Service estimated the state would receive when the bill passed. The department also said it plans to disburse money to some states, including Wisconsin, in two payments staggered 12 months apart, rather than a lump sum. States set to receive staggered payments saw lower unemployment rates increases during the pandemic.

Evers, who controls how federal money directed to the state is spent, had already announced plans to spend $2.5 billion on economic development aid, $500 million on continued pandemic response and $200 million on infrastructure, including statewide broadband expansion.

In his initial plan, Evers said $600 million would be directed to small businesses, including the continuation of a grant program funded by previous federal coronavirus response bills. According to the state Department of Administration, about 53,000 small businesses statewide have already received about $125 million through a state recovery program funded by the first federal coronavirus aid bill and second federal COVID-19 bill, which passed in December.  

A growing number of Republican governors will end state participation in pandemic-era federal unemployment programs amid concerns over a nationwide labor shortage.

The Biden administration extended the federal unemployment benefits to an additional $300 per week through Sept. 6, an effort to ease the transition as the economy slowly reopens.

In early May, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) made Montana the first state to announce their withdrawal from the program, saying the extra federal unemployment benefits were “doing more harm than good” and preventing potential employees from returning to work. Beginning June 27, unemployed workers in the state will no longer receive the $300 in weekly extra benefits. Instead, the state will launch a new program incentivizing unemployed workers who return to work by giving them a one-time $1,200 bonus after they have completed four weeks in their new jobs.

Days after Gianforte’s announcement, South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said the state would make a similar move to leave the federal unemployment programs, citing an “unprecedented” workforce shortage across the state. The state will opt out of the coronavirus pandemic assistance programs beginning June 30.

A startlingly weak jobs report for April, which was released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only served to buoy these concerns.  The jobs report fell far short of the expectations of economists, many of whom predicted the country would add as many as 1 million jobs. But the economy added only 266,000 jobs last month, despite reporting an increase of 916,000 in March and 468,000 in February.

Hours after the report was released, Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson directed the Division of Workforce Services to end the state’s participation in the enhanced unemployment benefits program after June 26.

Just this week, the GOP governors of Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi and Missouri announced they would similarly end their states’ participation in the program, all citing concerns over labor shortages.