State Building Commission deadlocks on governor’s 2025–27 capital budget recommendations

The State Building Commission convened March 25, 2025, in the Governor’s Conference Room and repeatedly failed to approve the Governor’s recommendations for the 2025–27 capital budget, producing a string of tie votes that left dozens of projects without enumeration or funding allocations. Governor Tony Evers called the meeting to order at 2:32 p.m. and the commission adjourned at 2:58 p.m.

Commission members recorded in the minutes include Governor Tony Evers; Senators Brad Pfaff, Mary Felzkowski and André Jacque; Representatives Jill Billings, Rob Swearingen and Robert Wittke; and Ms. Barb Worcester. The minutes show a consistent pattern: motions to approve option #1 (to enumerate projects or allocate preliminary planning funds as recommended by the Governor) were put before the commission for many line items and, in multiple instances, the motion was recorded as failing first in Subcommittees (2-2-0) and then failing in full commission votes (4-4-0).

A proposed omnibus motion to forward the Governor’s recommendations for the entire 2025–27 Capital Budget to the Joint Committee on Finance pursuant to s. 13.48(7) without a Subcommittee recommendation did not carry. The minutes record the Separate Motion and related motions as failing by split votes, and note the specific vote tallies for movers and opposing members where provided.

Large projects that were considered but not approved at the meeting include Department of Administration requests such as the State Capitol fiber and cable upgrades ($30,994,000 total) and State Capitol elevator modernization ($9,394,000). The Department of Corrections presented major items — for example, a statewide DOC realignment request ($325,000,000 GFSB) and a Dane County Type 1 juvenile facility ($130,749,000) — and motions to enumerate or allocate planning funds for those items likewise failed in recorded votes. The Department of Health Services, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Military Affairs, University of Wisconsin System projects and numerous non-state agency requests appear in the minutes with similar notations that option #1 motions failed in split votes.

The minutes list fund sources, governor recommendations and SBC options for each item; where the document reports a funding recommendation or a planned preliminary planning allocation, the commission either failed to approve that option or the item was deferred according to the recorded motions. The minutes also include totals by agency showing requested amounts and the Governor’s recommendations; for example, the DOA total requested and recommended amounts appear in the document, and the DOC totals are listed as requested $814,476,000 versus recommended $634,041,000.

Other Business items referenced statutory sections and planning funds. Item 115 proposed inflationary increases to State Building Program project thresholds with reference to Wis. Stats. § 16.855(16)(b) and § 16.867; Item 116 proposed that DOA request the release of $32,000,000 from the Joint Committee on Finance supplemental appropriation to the Building Trust Fund and, upon release, allocate $49,734,000 BTF for preliminary planning and design. The minutes record that motions to approve these recommendations failed in the same split-vote pattern.

The meeting minutes state that they are subject to ratification at the next State Building Commission meeting and were respectfully submitted by Naomi De Mers, Secretary. No formal enumeration or allocation action taken at this meeting passed a majority of the full commission for the items recorded as failing in the minutes.

What happens next is not specified in the minutes: the document records the failed motions and the vote tallies as the formal outcome of the March 25 session.