Highlights of Walker's proposed Wisconsin budget
Republican legislative leaders have been cautious about Walker's biggest spending items, including the K-12 schools funding increase and University of Wisconsin tuition cut.
Democrats said Walker's budget was unrealistic and designed to give his approval ratings a boost as he prepares to run for a third term.
To receive more than $500 million in per-student aid, public schools would have to verify that they are in compliance with the state law known as Act 10.
The Madison school district is one of the few in the state where teachers aren't paying that much for their health insurance.
The governor's administration estimates the freeze would save students about $300 over the two-year budget.
Walker fulfilled his promise not to raise gas taxes or vehicle registration fees to plug a nearly $1 billion roads budget shortfall.
The Legislature in 2015 eliminated the prevailing wage for local government projects, but Walker would do away with it for state projects as well.
[...] the DNR could raise state park admission and camping fees based on demand.
The agency plan, supported by Secretary Cathy Stepp, calls for reducing the number of DNR divisions from seven to five, moves the Bureau of Science Services' 19 researchers into a new Office of Applied Sciences and shifts 33 ranger positions into warden positions.
Walker would pay $1.3 million to hire eight new counselors at the state's troubled Lincoln Hills youth prison that is the subject of two federal lawsuits alleging misconduct by guards and an ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation probe.
The budget also creates nine new nurse positions to distribute inmate medication at the prison and 3.25 positions to expand mental health services for the prison's female wing.
Local school districts, not the state Department of Public Instruction, would be in charge of renewing teacher licenses.
Walker proposed switching to a self-insurance system in 2018 where the state would pay for benefits directly for about 250,000 state workers and family members instead of purchasing insurance from 17 HMOs.
The Group Insurance Board, which oversees the $1.5 billion state employee insurance program, recommended making the change just hours before Walker put it in his budget.
The Department of Natural Resources would have to move its forestry operations out of the agency's Madison headquarters to a facility in northern Wisconsin by the beginning of 2018.
A plan the DNR included in its budget request said a new headquarters in Wausau would cost $5.9 million to build and $10.8 million annually to run.
The budget would lay out $2.7 million for improvements at the state's veterans homes and move 7.3 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs' central office to the veterans home in King to increase care capacity at that facility.