1000 Friends will be following the budget process carefully and also the Legislative session and providing updates on our website. We also have a calendar of committee hearings and listening sessions listed on our website.
How the budget process works:
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau prepares a comprehensive analysis of the Governor's bill for the Joint Finance Committee (JFC). JFC has scheduled committee hearings and will invite selected agency heads to appear and testify before the committee on their agency budgets. In April, public hearings on the bill will be held in Whitewater, Rhinelander, and Menomonie followed by one virtual meeting. After the agency and public hearings, JFC begins meeting several days a week through the end of May to to vote on various aspects of the bill. Legislative leadership has announced that JFC will work from the current budget and not the Governor's budget as its base document for preparing its version of the 2021-2023 state budget.
At the end of the JFC budget process, all JFC changes to the current budget will be introduced as a substitute amendment to AB 68/SB 111 and sent to the full legislature for floor votes in each house. The legislature generally takes the bill up in June and sends its final version to the governor by the end of the month. The governor completes veto review within 30 days of receiving the bill, and then signs it into law.
We hope you'll follow the process, and when possible, let your voice be heard!
