Historic 2025-2027 Budget Passes and is Signed into Law

By Paul Heinen, WGF Policy Director

As of July 3, 2025, Wisconsin has a new state budget signed into law. As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Evers signed the $111 billion two-year spending plan into law just after 1:30 a.m. Thursday, July 3, less than an hour after the State Assembly sent the Democratic governor the final budget bill.”

• Read the governor’s full veto message and the enacted budget here.

Called a “mixed bag” by members of both parties, here is Motion 90, the complete list of Natural Resources items passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Evers.

In addition to the highlights from this motion below, the budget included a $732 million increase in clean water and safe drinking water funding, a huge increase in funding to clean up pollutants in Wisconsin waters. You can compare the contents of the new 2025-2027 budget with the budget issues that WGF described in January 2025 (read WGF’s Jan. 2025 budget issues PDF here).

Highlights from Motion 90 include:

1. $1 million to fund a forestry industrywide strategic plan.
2. Additional funding for state parks including additional operations funds to run the parks. These would be paid for with a combination of new campsite electricity fees and new non-resident vehicle and campsite fees.
3. Deletion of 20 DNR positions that were vacant at the time of the budget.
4. $4 million in additional funding for dam safety grants.
5. $4 million for urban non-point pollution and municipal flood control grants.
6. $6.5 million for rural non-point pollution abatement grants.
7. A transfer of $15 million from the Forestry Fund (which had that amount in its balance) to help cover the $16 million shortfall in the Fish and Wildlife Account. No new fee increases.

In the governor’s veto message, he vetoed funding for dredging projects in the Deerskin River and Brillion Marsh, as well as a riverbank project in Wisconsin Rapids explaining: “I object to providing an earmark for a natural resources project when the Legislature has abandoned its responsibility to reauthorize and ensure the continuation of the immensely popular Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship program.” This puts the emphasis on funding the systems-level Stewardship program, rather than individual projects.

Not included in the budget were:

1. Stewardship program re-authorization. The GOP majority promised to take this issue up in the fall of 2025.  The current program sunsets in August of 2026.
2. PFAS funding. No additional funds were allocated for PFAS clean-up. The $125 million in the Joint Finance Committee “Trust Fund” were not released. Legislators continue to work on legislation on PFAS that the GOP majority says must pass before it will allow the release of the funds.

Learn More

If you have any questions, feel free to call WGF Policy Director Paul Heinen at 608-692-0279 or email pheinen@wigreenfire.org.