State budget season is approaching in Wisconsin, which means you’re bound to start hearing words like “surplus” and “rainy day fund.”
Lawmakers craft a new spending plan every two years. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republicans who control the Legislature often disagree on whether to spend the state’s extra funds on programs, or give it back as tax cuts.
Evers touted the state’s current financial standing in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Dec. 28, 2024.
“After 30 years of Wisconsin’s checking account running a deficit, we’ve ended every fiscal year I’ve been governor with a positive balance,” he said.
“Today, we have a $4.5 billion positive balance, and a record-high balance in our state savings account,” Evers added.
While it’s a bit of an oversimplification, Wisconsin’s “checking account” refers to the general fund, while its “savings account” is called the “rainy day” fund. We’ll refer to both in this fact-check.
The general fund is where the state’s tax collections go, including income taxes, sales taxes and corporate taxes.
The “rainy day” fund is home to excess tax revenue. It’s reserved in case the state takes in less revenue one year or spends more than expected. That’s helpful in a mild economic downturn, for example.
With budget season coming up, let’s examine whether each part of Evers’ claim is correct. Along the way, we’ll try our best to explain the state government’s complicated financial accounts.
Did Wisconsin’s general fund end with a positive balance each year under Evers?
PolitiFact Wisconsin reached out to the governor’s office, and communications director Britt Cudaback directed us to several sources, including the state’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
Here’s where things get a little confusing right off the bat. The report is based on fiscal years, which run from the beginning of July to the end of June in Wisconsin.
Cudaback said the claim treats 2020 as the first fiscal year under Evers’ leadership. While Evers introduced his first budget in 2019, he took office halfway through that fiscal year.
And at that time, the 2017-2019 budget signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker was still in place, Cudaback said. So, we’ll start at fiscal year 2020.
Now, let’s see if the general fund had a positive balance at the end of fiscal years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The 2020 report showed a general fund balance of $1.5 million at the end of the year.
In the next years, the balance reached the billions: $1.2 billion in 2021, $4.6 billion in 2022, $6.7 billion in 2023 and $4.5 billion in 2024.
So, the first part of Evers’ claim is correct. There was a positive balance — or a “surplus” — in the state’s general fund for each fiscal year he’s been in office.
Did Wisconsin’s general fund have a deficit for 30 years before Evers?
Let’s look at part two of Evers’ claim: Did the general fund have a negative balance, or “deficit,” for 30 years before he became governor?
For this piece, Cudaback pointed to a 2021 report from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum. The report found the general fund had a surplus for the first time since 1990. That’s 30 years since Evers took office.
“For the first time on record, Wisconsin’s main fund closed the year with a small positive balance, wiping out the longstanding financial gap that was often referred to as a ‘deficit,’” the report says.
That was partly due to federal pandemic aid flowing into Wisconsin. The surplus fell this year because those funds dried up, and the general fund is now spending more than it’s taking in, a December forum report said.
It’s worth noting that those 30 years included both Democratic and Republican administrations. But Evers is still correct that the general fund ran a negative balance for three decades before he became governor.
Does the state have a record-high balance in its “rainy day” fund?
One last look at the numbers, and then we’ll be done. This one is a bit simpler.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has a chart that shows the balance of the “rainy day” fund between 2003-04 and 2021-22. It shows Wisconsin’s “savings account” did reach its highest balance in 2022, at $1.7 billion.
The December Wisconsin Policy Forum report provides more recent numbers and projections: $1.8 billion in 2023, $1.9 billion in 2024 and $2 billion in 2025.
Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, confirmed to PolitiFact Wisconsin that those are state records even if adjusted for inflation.
So yes, Wisconsin’s “rainy day” fund is growing and currently sits at a record balance.
Does Evers deserve credit for these positive balances?
Finally, let’s get into one last piece. While Evers doesn’t directly take credit for the state’s financial health in his tweet, it’s certainly implied.
Cudaback provided several examples of Evers’ actions, like using extra revenue to pay off state debt in 2019 and transferring general fund money to the state’s capital budget in 2023 to prevent new borrowing.
But the full picture is more complicated than that. Republicans have also taken credit for the surplus, pointing out their role in reigning in Evers’ spending proposals.
In 2023, Evers pitched a $104 billion budget, which Republicans mostly tossed and rewrote from scratch. The Wisconsin Policy Forum noted that if approved in full, Evers’ plan would have left the state with a deficit.
On the other hand, Stein pointed out, Evers has vetoed Republican tax cut proposals, keeping the general fund higher than it would have been if he approved the cuts.
“To some degree, both the Legislature and the governor in the last budget did some things that were favorable in terms of boosting the general fund balance,” Stein said.
But each also had “proposals that would have been less favorable (to the general fund) that were blocked by the other side. So in that sense, it was sort of a joint effort.”
Beyond the political element, there’s also the overall state of the economy.
If there was a recession, for example, tax collections from businesses could go down and the state might need to increase spending for people who lose their jobs and enroll in Medicaid, Stein explained.
So, Wisconsin’s financial health can’t really be credited to one person. But again, Evers doesn’t explicitly take responsibility in his tweet.
Our ruling
The three parts of Evers’ claim are correct: Wisconsin’s general fund has ended with a surplus each year he’s been governor, the fund had a deficit before that, and the “rainy day” fund is at a record balance.
The state’s general fund surplus actually went down in the last year, in part because federal pandemic aid that boosted Wisconsin’s finances has dried up.
While Evers doesn’t explicitly take credit for the state’s financial wellbeing, he definitely hints at it. There’s evidence to support his involvement, but the full picture is bigger.
That includes the role of Republicans in paring down Evers’ budget proposal and broader economic conditions that influence how much money the state spends.
For statements that are accurate but need clarification or additional information, we assign a Mostly True rating. That fits here.
Sources
Gov. Tony Evers, X, Dec. 28, 2024.
Legislative Fiscal Bureau, General Fund Tax Collections, January 2023.
Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Budget Stabilization Fund and the General Fund Reserve Requirement, January 2023.
Email exchange, Britt Cudaback, communications director for Gov. Tony Evers, Jan. 8, 2025.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, How much of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ budget will survive the GOP Legislature? (Spoiler: Not much), Feb. 27, 2019.
Wisconsin Department of Administration, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2020.
Wisconsin Department of Administration, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2021.
Wisconsin Department of Administration, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2022.
Wisconsin Department of Administration, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2023.
Wisconsin Department of Administration, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2024.
Wisconsin Policy Forum, State Achieves Important Fiscal Milestone But Will It Last?, January 2021.
Wisconsin Policy Forum, Moving Back to Budget Basics, December 2024.
Phone call, Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, Jan. 9, 2025.
Gov. Tony Evers, Gov. Evers Announces Unprecedented State Debt Payment, May 15, 2019.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin ends the year with a record $4.6 billion in its general fund, Dec. 21, 2022.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed state budget: What’s in it? And what is likely to make it through the Legislature?, March 14, 2023.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s $7 billion surplus does not mean spending opportunities are unlimited, a new report warns, March 8, 2023.
PolitiFact Wisconsin, Has Evers vetoed multiple GOP middle-class tax cut proposals this year? Here’s what we found., Dec. 19, 2023.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Has Wisconsin had a budget surplus each year under Tony Evers?