WisEye streaming service gets $250k to operate for the rest of 2026
A bipartisan committee of Wisconsin legislators has signed off on a $250,000 funding deal for WisconsinEye, the livestream service that covers the state Legislature.
This post has been republished from the Wisconsin Examiner under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
A bipartisan committee of Wisconsin legislators has signed off on a $250,000 funding deal for WisconsinEye, the livestream service that covers the state Legislature.
The Joint Committee on Legislative Organization approved the funds, to be paid out $50,000 per month starting Aug. 1, on a 9-1 vote, the nonpartisan Legislative Council announced Tuesday. The committee is made up of six Republican and four Democratic leaders of both the Senate and the Assembly.
Sen. Dan Feyen (R-Fond du Lac), the assistant Senate majority leader, cast the only vote against the proposal.
The funding is to support WisconsinEye so it can provide livestream coverage of floor sessions in the Legislature as well as public hearings and votes held by Senate and Assembly committees, as it continues to seek long-term funding to operate.
WisEye President Jon Henkes welcomed the vote Tuesday, saying that it provided “a strong statement of support” in both chambers “for unfettered citizen access to state government proceedings,” with both Republicans and Democrats signing on.
“They’ve put action to their words that transparency is essential to our democracy, and we are extremely grateful,” Henkes said in a statement.
Henkes said the sum was sufficient for WisconsinEye to maintain operations through December, including its coverage of events in the 2026 election campaign as well as coverage of the Legislature’s joint study committees, which are discussing a variety of topics with future policy implications.
The vote also provides “an existing foundation of ongoing support” that will be important to charitable donors and WisEye program sponsors, according to the WisconsinEye statement.
The streaming service is counting on the new Legislature that takes office in January 2027 to reach a bipartisan agreement for future partial funding for the service.
WisconsinEye launched as an independent nonprofit in 2007 to livestream and archive government meetings and legislative sessions. The service has operated on donations and runs independently from the state Legislature.
WisconsinEye’s management announced in November 2025 that it needed additional revenue to support the service’s $900,000 annual budget after donations fell behind in the last couple of years. The service went dark for nearly two months at the end of December, resuming in February.
Two separate proposals to fund the service passed earlier this year, one in the Assembly and the other in the Senate, but neither one got a vote in the opposite chamber.
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