Walker hopes voters will persuade lawmakers to cut tuition

(AP) — Gov. Scott Walker turned to the people on Thursday for support for his priorities that are running into opposition from fellow Republicans in the state Legislature, most notably a 5 percent tuition cut for University of Wisconsin students.

Walker also reiterated his opposition to raising the gas tax or other transportation-related fees to pay for road projects.

Walker's budget would cut income taxes by about $200 million over the next two years, impose a sales tax holiday in August for back-to-school items and eliminate the state portion of the property tax.

Walker's proposal to change the way state employees get their health insurance, moving from choosing from a variety of private insurance companies to a self-insurance model, has also ran into strong opposition.

Walker taps that money to help pay for a $692 million increase in aid to K-12 schools, forcing the Legislature to find some other source if it nixes the self-insurance idea and still wants to give schools as much as the governor proposed.