Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he is hopeful a bipartisan deal will be reached to bring back WisconsinEye and said he is confident a solution could be in place before the end of the legislative session this spring.
Vos made his comments in an interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-WISCONSIN; the comments were part of a story in the Jan. 15 issue of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. According to the story:
WisEye, also known as Wisconsin’s C-SPAN, went dark on Dec. 15. Since then, Republicans have also begun enforcing a ban on members of the public recording legislative hearings.
WisEye launched a GoFundMe page in January seeking $250,000 to resume its operations in the short term. So far, it has raised $8,000.
Previously, leadership estimated it would need $1 million in operational support to resume programming for one year.
On Jan. 13, Gov. Tony Evers said in a media briefing that he would not support providing WisEye the funding without the matching funds. “I think there has to be some skin in the game,” Evers said.
The 2023-25 state budget provided WisEye the opportunity to receive $10 million in tax dollars if the network matched the amount with private contributions. WisEye had until 2025 to request the funds on a dollar-by-dollar basis, but during that time brought in just $210,000 in private donations.
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer of Racine said in a Jan. 13 news conference before a scheduled floor session that Republicans’ actions and the lack of a plan to replace or bring back WisEye are making the Legislature less transparent.
