Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Tuesday that while the Legislature’s Republican majority is still ironing out its budget priorities, tax cuts are a key part of lawmakers’ developing plans.

With talk of the state budget consuming work at the state Capitol, Vos spoke about GOP budget ideas during a WisPolitics luncheon at the Madison Club in the state’s capital on Tuesday afternoon.

The speaker said that Assembly Republicans were meeting Tuesday afternoon with state Senate leadership to determine the priorities for legislators from both chambers.

He also criticized Gov. Tony Evers, saying that while Republican lawmakers tried to work with him during the last budget cycle to help boost funding for education and health care, he vetoed their tax-cut priorities.

“It was really disappointing that in the last budget, we did our very best to meet the governor’s goals of increasing spending on education and health care,” he said. “And then he took our goals, which were to reduce taxes, and basically threw them out the windows.”

He said that Evers vetoed “95% of our tax reduction” proposals and this is “the basic reason that we have this massive surplus right now in our state budget.”

“So, we’re not going to use that surplus to grow the size of government. We’re going to use it to reduce taxes,” he said.

Vos said that after the tax cuts, any funds left over will be used to invest in certain areas.

He also said he wished the governor had engaged with lawmakers about his budget priorities ahead of his budget address earlier this month.

“I think Gov. Evers is living in a fantasy world if he thinks that a bunch of things put together in secret with his staff only, there’s going to be a way to convince Republicans to work with him,” he said. “He kind of put it out without any consultation and just said, ‘It’s my way or the highway. Now you take the whole plan or it’s not going to probably become law.’”

Vos said that after the Republicans solidify their priorities, he would engage the Legislature’s Democratic minority.

“We’re going to get our own position in the right place first, that I’m happy to engage Democrats and see if there’s areas that we can find bipartisan consensus,” he said.

Stay tuned to Civic Media for continuing coverage.

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