The Joint Finance Committee passed a budget motion that included those changes late at night on July 2, a few hours after the motion was made public. Kooyenga and at least one other lawmaker who voted for it, Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, since acknowledged that they didn’t fully understand the measure when they voted.

Kooyenga, the Assembly vice chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said he’s considering proposals to keep that from happening again. One idea Kooyenga favors is to require budget motions that come before the committee to be made public for a minimum amount of time — at least 24 hours — before the committee votes on them.

Kooyenga also told the Wisconsin State Journal he’s mulling a proposal to permit lawmakers outside of the committee to sponsor budget motions — a step that could help link budget proposals to the lawmakers behind them. Currently, only the 16 members of the Joint Finance Committee may sponsor budget motions, though many more lawmakers are involved in the process behind the scenes.