Republicans have cut off key parts of the budget proposed by Governor Walker. Tony Evers, a Democrat from Wisconsin, has plans for legalizing marijuana and to regulate it.
Changes were made in an hearing of the Joint Finance Committee, in which members removed items from the budget presented by Governor. Other items deleted include the legalization of cannabis, as well as tax reductions for middle-class families, higher taxes for millionaires, and support from state for veterans, children and farmers.
Evers said on social media ahead of the vote that “today, Republican lawmakers are gutting my budget that does what’s best for our kids and the folks, families, and communities that raise them.”
Evers’ budget is reduced by 21 pages in the committee’s report. This includes provisions for marijuana regulation, licensing, taxation and civil and criminal legal adjustments.
This is a repetition of what happened two years earlier, when GOP committee members removed from the Governor’s executive budget for the biennial period proposals that would have legalized marijuana as a recreational drug and for medical purposes.
According to a release by the Governor’s office regarding Thursday’s committee change, the marijuana legalization plan would have been regulated “much the same way the State already regulates alcohol.” The governor said this would enable Wisconsin to compete against other states in attracting talented workers while having more funds available for investing into critical state priorities.
A poll conducted in February showed that “over 60 percent” of Wisconsinites supported the reform.
❌ Wisconsinites can put constitutional amendments and binding referendums on the ballot. They also have the option to expand BadgerCare. Other proposals reflect the wishes of the public, such as legalizing recreational marijuana and taxing it.
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) May 8, 2025
Evers requested that lawmakers approve his latest marijuana legalization proposal in February. He projected at the time “$58.1 million in revenues in fiscal years 2026-2027, and increasing amounts in the future.”
In Wisconsin, marijuana is prohibited for medical and recreational purposes.
It would have been imposed that a wholesale excise of 15 percent and retail excise of 10 percent be imposed on cannabis recreational products. The proposal would also “create a procedure for those serving prison sentences, or who have been convicted for marijuana-related offenses to be able to reduce or repeal their sentences.”
In the companion bills filed with the Governor’s Budget Request, it is stipulated that the revenue generated from cannabis taxation will go into the general state fund.
Evers wanted to add delta-8 and delta-10 THC, as well as other hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoids, to the definition of marijuana, to ensure that “their production, processing, and sale are regulated, and they’re not available to people under 21.”
The governor also called on the Department of Revenue to enter agreements with the tribal territories to “refund to the tribes the estimated marijuana excise tax that will be collected by sales made on tribal land”, similar to the current tobacco policy.
The home cultivation of six plants or less would have also been permitted.
A qualifying patient for medical cannabis is someone who has “been diagnosed or treated by a doctor as suffering from a medical condition that causes debilitation and must be at least 18-years old.”
This legislation also prohibited discrimination in employment based on off-duty cannabis use. It exempted THC from testing under certain government assistance programs, and protected people against being denied an organ transplant due to cannabis usage.
The bill, as it was before the changes made on Thursday, created a system to review criminal convictions. If the individual is serving or has completed probation on a criminal conviction, they can petition the court for the dismissal of the conviction. After completing a probationary period or a term of imprisonment for a certain conviction, the individual may ask a court to remove the record, or if necessary, to redesignate the crime.
The debate about medical marijuana is not going away, despite the Republicans’ decision to remove it from budget legislation. Party leaders have recently stated that this issue will “never go away.” There’s still hope the matter can be settled during the current legislative session.
Tyler August, Assembly Majority Rep. (R), said that in February: “I do not think anyone would be naive to believe marijuana or THC products were absent from Wisconsin. They are available across state borders. I think this is something we should address.” “I hope we can.”
If we are going to label it as medical marijuana, then it must be treated just like any other pharmaceutical. The marijuana debate will not go away, Sen. Dan Feyen said. “The margins of victory are smaller.”
There have been repeated attempts to legalize medical marijuana in the legislature over recent years, including the introduction of legislation from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) that called for a limited program facilitated through state-run dispensaries. This was controversial with his Republican colleagues and ultimately failed last year.
Evers previewed his plan to include marijuana legalization in his budget in January, while also arguing that residents of the state should be allowed to propose new laws by putting binding questions on the ballot—citing the fact that issues such as cannabis reform enjoy sizable bipartisan support while the GOP-controlled legislature has repeatedly refused to act.
Previously, in 2022, the governor signed an executive order to convene a special legislative session with the specific goal of giving people the right to put citizen initiatives on the ballot, raising hopes among advocates that cannabis legalization could eventually be decided by voters. The GOP-controlled legislature, however, did not approve the proposal.
Evers said in December that marijuana reform is one of several key priorities the state should pursue in the 2025 session, as lawmakers work with a budget surplus.
Days after he made the remarks, a survey found the reform would be welcomed by voters in rural parts of the state. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) said that they supported legalizing cannabis.
Last May, the governor said he was “hopeful” that the November 2024 election would lead to Democratic control of the legislature, in part because he argued it would position the state to finally legalize cannabis.
He said, “We have been hard at work for the past five years and several budgets to achieve this.” I know that we are surrounded by other states who have legalized recreational marijuana. We will continue doing it.
A Wisconsin Democratic Assemblymember tried to force a vote on a medical cannabis compromise proposal last year, as an amendment to an unrelated kratom bill, but he told MEDCAN24 he suspects leadership intentionally pulled that legislation from the agenda at the last minute to avoid a showdown on the issue.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Revenue released a fiscal estimate of the economic impact of a legalization bill from then-Sen. Melissa Agard (D) in 2023, projecting that the reform would generate nearly $170 million annually in tax revenue.
A legislative analysis requested by lawmakers estimated that Wisconsin residents spent more than $121 million on cannabis in Illinois alone in 2022, contributing $36 million in tax revenue to the neighboring state.
Evers and other Democrats have since at least last January insisted that they would be willing to enact a modest medical marijuana program, even if they’d prefer more comprehensive reform.
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Side Pocket Images. Photo by Chris Wallis.