Contracts are in the Budget!

Both the state House and Senate released their draft 2026 supplemental budgets on Sunday, and both budgets include the three WPEA contracts that went unfunded last year. These contracts bring WPEA members up to par with other state employees, and include COLAs, targeted pay increases, and back pay for the first year of the biennium. While the final compromise budget won’t be settled for another two weeks, our contracts’ inclusion in both House and Senate budgets means that their presence in the final budget is nearly guaranteed.

WPEA members fought hard for these contracts: we persevered through three rounds of negotiations, rallied at the capitol, spread the word at our workplaces, sent more than 400 postcards to the legislature, and met with lawmakers to insist that our contracts be funded.

Thanks to everyone who helped push this across the finish line.

The House and Senate budgets aren’t perfect: they make cuts to DNR and Running Start reimbursement rates for our colleges, among other things. But the inclusion of our contracts in what is otherwise a bad budget year is a significant win, and shows the power of our members working in solidarity.

Come to Unity this week at noon or 6pm to talk about the budget details and hear the latest updates from legislative session. Join UNITY Zoom