Senate Republicans force Wisconsin taxpayers to spend a record $76 billion, but fail to address problems with local schools, roads, and student loans.

MADISON - Senate Republicans continued to pick winners and losers this week forcing Wisconsin taxpayers to pay up to $3 billion in cash payments over the next 15 years to a Chinese corporation with a less than stellar record when it comes to the way in which it treats its workers and the environment.

Nowhere was this better reflected than in the state budget where they spent a record $76 billion but failed to adequately address any of the serious issues facing working families and the middle class.

While 47 millionaires get yet another tax cut, Governor Walker and the Republicans failed to fully fund our public schools and continue to give even more taxpayer money to unaccountable private schools.

Despite Wisconsin having some of the worst roads and highways of any state in the nation, the Governor and Republicans decided yet again to kick the can down the road meaning drivers will face longer delays and drive on increasingly worse roads.

The nearly 1 million Wisconsin residents struggling to pay their student loans will have to wait even longer for relief as Republicans continue to oppose a low-cost plan to help them refinance their student loans at lower interest rates.

After voting for the largest taxpayer giveaway to a foreign corporation in our nation’s history, today’s action by Senate Republicans clearly shows whose side they are on. And it’s not the side of working families or the middle class.

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State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) released this statement after the passage of the State Budget Friday.