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Assembly Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping spending plan for Wisconsin schools that authors say will put more money into classrooms than what Gov. Scott Walker has proposed in his two-year state budget.

But minutes before it was rolled out, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, rejected the proposal, saying the Senate Republicans are sticking with Walker's proposal to add $649 million in new funding.

Tuesday's tensions signal the two houses may not come to an agreement before Thursday, the day Fitzgerald set for the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee to resume writing a 2017-19 budget or else he'd consider asking Senate Republicans to craft their own.

"The Assembly package that was endorsed today is simply not the direction that this budget is headed," Fitzgerald said Tuesday.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, fired back by saying he didn't understand why Fitzgerald would blast a proposal he hasn't seen and would just be a "rubber stamp" for Walker.

"There is absolutely no reason to make threats," Vos said about the idea of both houses crafting their budgets.

Meanwhile, finance committee co-chairman Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, said budget negotiations likely won't resume until the two caucuses find common ground on education spending.

Walker, speaking to reporters in Wisconsin Dells, said because the Assembly Republicans' plan reduces his new spending and doesn't reduce property taxes below 2014 levels, it "goes at odds with what our top two priorities are."

"So my hope is, in the end well get a budget thats closer to where were at," Walker said.

The Assembly Republicans' plan would lower property taxes about $10 on a median-priced home from today's levels and about $121 under 2010 levels. But it doesn't meet the 2014 level that Walker has required to gain his signature.

Nygren said the most important piece of the plan is giving school districts that spend less per student than the state average the ability to raise property taxes -- about $92.2 million worth of property tax increases.

Such districts would be allowed to raise $9,800 per student under the plan. Nygren said school districts' limits on what they can raise ranges from $9,100 to $15,000.

"This proposal is addressing a significant challenge, and that is equity in school funding," he told reporters.

He said it "levels the playing field" between districts that were spending at a low rate when state lawmakers imposed caps on how much districts could raise property taxes in 1993 and districts that were spending at a higher rate then.

Nygren also said fewer referendums would be sought under the Assembly Republicans' plan. He said 55 percent of low-spending districts went to referendum since 2011.

The plan also adds $30 million more for the state's general funding mechanism for schools than what Walker has proposed. By cutting the state's school levy tax credit, more money will be spent in classrooms than what Walker has proposed, Vos said.

Walker has been touring the state promoting $649 million in new funding and the Assembly Republicans' plan would decrease that amount by about $70 million.

Senate Republicans say any decrease would be tough for public school officials and advocates to support. Minutes after the plan was released Tuesday the Wisconsin Association of School Boards issued a statement citing concerns with the decrease but supported its overall goal.

The Assembly Republicans also proposed getting rid of Walker's requirement in his state budget proposal to tie the new funding to whether a district is requiring its staff to pay at least 12 percent toward health care costs.

The plan also would allow students to enroll in private voucher schools if they were put on waiting lists in the last school year because of enrollments caps, and adds state funding for the statewide program. A new position would be created to administer the state's three voucher programs under the plan, too.

The Department of Public Instruction also would be required to decrease the number of licenses teachers must get to be in classrooms -- a proposal State Superintendent Tony Evers has supported.

The plan's release comes as budget negotiations have deteriorated and a planned Tuesday meeting of the finance committee to settle portions of the budget was canceled.

Disagreement have already led to an impasse among both houses and with Walker over the state's next transportation budget, and Walker's proposal for the state to self-insure state workers has been rejected by leaders of his own party.

Vos said Tuesday that he hopes the Senate will back off from outright rejection.

"I'm willing to negotiate at any time, any place, anywhere, as long as people of good will get together and don't draw hard lines in the sandbefore theyve even heard the other persons ideas," Vos said. He said he isn't concerned about the state's July 1 deadline to get the budget complete. Current spending levels continue if a new state budget is not passed by that date.

"Im not going to check the brain at the door and give up the principles our caucus stands for (for that deadline)," Vos said.

Senate Republicans met Tuesday after Fitzgerald rejected the Assembly's plan.

State Journal reporter Mark Sommerhauser contributed to this report.

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Assembly Republicans unveil sweeping education proposal but impasse continues - Madison.com