Under a $37 billion state budget approved by the Assembly on Tuesday, motorists and smokers would pay more, workers would get an income tax cut and parents could send their children to any public school.
The Assembly passed it 75-24, and it now goes to the Senate.
The proposal would raise Wisconsin’s 23.8-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax by 1 cent and boost vehicle registration fees $5. The state’s 44-cent-per-pack cigarette tax would rise 15 cents.
The Assembly-approved budget proposal, which includes several compromises between majority Republicans and minority Democrats, also would create statewide public school choice, letting parents select which public school their children attend; it also would reduce individual income tax rates 5 percent by 2002. That would mean an average reduction of $23 next year, rising to $118 by 2002.
Other key proposals in the Assembly plan would require high school students to pass a graduation test, starting in 2002; let the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Area Technical College and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee operate charter schools, which are free of many state rules; and let resort areas impose a 0.5 percent sales tax.
