Senate throws a wrench into Assembly plan for sustaining nonprofit that covers Legislature’s doings
Until last week, it appeared that legislators from both political parties were on a path to restoring WisconsinEye, an independent channel that has broadcast state government meetings and events since 2007.
But the state Senate on Wednesday swerved in its approach. Senators approved giving $585,631 to the non-profit public affairs channel to operate for another year, but doing it via a bill introduced last week by Republicans that would open the WisconsinEye contract to other bidders.
Senators also set a deadline of June 30 for the nonprofit operator of WisconsinEye and other potential operators to file bids for the broadcast and archiving contract with the state Department of Administration.
The bill surprised some legislators, coming on the heels of a rare bipartisan bill that, even rarer, passed unanimously in the Assembly, creating an endowment fund of $10 million to keep WisconsinEye going. The future of the channel, now operating on stopgap funding, depends on Assembly and Senate agreement.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, co-author of the bipartisan bill, told WisPolitics Wednesday afternoon he couldn’t comment on the Senate proposal because he hadn’t reviewed it.
The Senate bill also surprised Jon Henkes, the founder and president of WisconsinEye. Henkes declined to speculate on the motive for the bill.
He, instead, touted the return on investment to the public: 18,000 unedited hours of the Legislature’s floor sessions, executive hearings Supreme Court arguments, coverage of 2,650 state and 400 campaign events over the past two and a half years, all produced by seven employees on an annual budget set for 2026 of $897,925.
“We’ve done it and done it well for 18 years, having raised $26 million in private funds and having used $1.2 million in state funds,” Henkes told the Badger Institute. “I’d say they’ve had a hell of a deal.”
Publicly, the state senators backing the bill have said opening the contract for bids is simply good fiscal stewardship. None of them have criticized WisconsinEye’s performance, although Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, last week expressed frustration with the amount of information WisconsinEye has provided about its private fundraising efforts.
Henkes said he has been brutally candid with Senate leadership about the atrophy of donor funding, which caused the public affairs network to cease its operations on Dec. 15.
The Badger Institute contacted several Republican senators, some who signed onto the bill and some who did not. Staff for Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, the principal author of the bill, said Bradley was too busy to answer questions. Instead, he issued a statement:
“When WisEye was created, the plan was never for it to be funded by taxpayer dollars. If that is going to change, then we need to make sure taxpayers are getting the best possible deal.”
Late Wednesday, Bradley, told WisPolitics he hoped for Assembly support for the temporary funding and opening the contract for bidding.
None of the other senators responded to Badger Institute inquiries.
Coming out of the pandemic, Henkes said, philanthropy in Wisconsin focused on new community-based projects. In the 18 months prior to the shutdown, Henkes and staff made 50 unsuccessful appeals for private funding.
“An operation like ours doesn’t tug at the heartstrings,” he said.
Potential donors were also spooked by the end of federal funding for public broadcasting, such as at PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio, although the funding arrangement with WisconsinEye relied so little in the past on state funding, Henkes said.
Every state in the country provides its citizens with some kind of live streaming or live video of its government business, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some states fund their broadcasting operations directly with no private support. Some rely on public broadcasting partners. Those who, like WisconsinEye, have depended on private funding have had the most funding trouble, according to NCSL.
TVW in Washington state, for example, was the model Henkes used to launch WisconsinEye. TVW, however, is now a public broadcast and non-profit partnership operating with an annual state allocation of $6 million and three dozen employees.
Only twice prior to 2023 did the Legislature make grants to WisconsinEye. In its 2023-25 budget, the Legislature created a $10 million endowment that allowed the nonprofit to make requests for taxpayer dollars no greater than the amount it raised privately.
The current budget allowed WisconsinEye to draw $250,000 from the endowment without having to match it with private donations.
At the end of last month, Vos and Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, enlisted dozens of representatives from their respective parties to sign on to a bill that would put the $10 million endowment to work, earning interest to support the WisconsinEye budget.
The bill also requires that WisconsinEye add new members to its board recommended by legislative leaders and the governor, a move Henkes said he supports.
In the meantime, the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization approved giving WisconsinEye $50,000 and, on Feb. 2 the channel returned to full operation at the Capitol.
How long it can remain operational depends on the Assembly and Senate agreeing to a way forward. Henkes said he spoke to two major donors this week, encouraged by the state funding plan in the Assembly bill.
In a memo he issued Monday, Henkes thanked the Assembly for its bipartisanship and unanimity. And while the channel “is happy” to essentially bid for the job it is currently doing, the process “will take considerable time.”
“WisconsinEye has funding to carry operations through February,” Henkes said in the memo. “There is the question from what appropriation an eventual contract might be funded. An outstanding question is whether WisconsinEye would be in a position to maintain operations for any time period through which an RFP process might require.”
Very clearly, Henkes hopes it doesn’t come to that. He said he’s optimistic lawmakers will look at WisconsinEye’s track record and work something out.
“This has never been easy,” he said. “We have a dedicated, cross-trained team that bleeds for this mission. I’m a First Amendment guy. I bleed for this mission.”
Mark Lisheron is the managing editor of the Badger Institute.
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