La Crosse state Rep. Billings: Inside the collapsed $1.8 billion surplus deal

About this episode

Wisconsin Assembly Rep. Jill Billings discusses the failed $1.8 billion budget surplus deal and its implications.

Wisconsin Assembly Rep. Jill Billings could have made some big money betting on the prediction markets over the $1.8 billion budget surplus deal that fell through last week. Now, though, that's illegal, after a Gov. Tony Evers executive order banning state employees and their families from making those types of bets. We get into all of it with Billings (D-La Crosse) — specifically how the deal to lower property taxes, send money to schools, give out $300 rebate checks and end taxes on tips and overtime fell through. Billings talks about her process for supporting the deal, but also the specific trade-offs she wasn't happy with. Plus, Billings tells the story about a legislator's joke that hinted to her the deal was not going to pass the state Senate — getting back to how she could have made a big bet on the deal. We also discussed how the Legislature had just three days to vote on this $1.8 billion package, and compared that to the $500 million Milwaukee Brewers stadium funding deal that was hashed out in public for over a month.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: Rick Solem

Guest: Jill Billings

Topics covered

• Wisconsin budget surplus
• property taxes
• education funding
• rebate checks
• legislative process
• political negotiations

Keywords

• budget surplus
• property tax
• rebate checks
• legislative process
• Tony Evers
• Jill Billings
• Wisconsin Assembly
• politics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wisconsin Assembly, Milwaukee Brewers

Places: La Crosse, Wisconsin

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