A deal to overhaul local government funding cleared a major hurdle Wednesday afternoon, passing the Wisconsin Senate with both Republican and Democratic votes.

The Senate’s action set the stage for the Assembly to take up the bill later today, where its passage would send the plan to the governor’s desk, likely cementing the biggest bipartisan compromise negotiated in Wisconsin state government in years.

Republicans, whose two-thirds supermajority in the Senate is large enough that they can normally pass their agenda with room to spare, needed help from Democrats this time around. A total of seven Republicans voted against the plan, which would have been enough to sink it without Democratic support.

In the end, it passed the Senate comfortably on a 21-12 vote, with six Democrats joining 15 Republicans to support it, an exceedingly rare roll call in an era when the two parties rarely divide their ranks on an issue as big at this one.

The agreement, which was reached between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, would increase state funding for local communities throughout Wisconsin by at least 20 percent and potentially save Milwaukee from a pending financial disaster. At the same time, it also includes provisions that have angered lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, for different reasons.

“It’s not perfect,” said Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma, one the lawmakers who helped negotiate the plan. “But let’s not let perfect get in the way of very, very good.”

At the center of the debate for Republicans were provisions that would let the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County raise local sales taxes with two-thirds votes by the city’s common council and the county board. If successful, the city could levy a 2 percent sales tax and the county could raise its sales tax by 0.4 percent, with revenue going toward paying down old pension debt and preserving police staffing.

Some GOP senators referred to the plan as a “bailout” for the city, and insisted that any tax increases be approved by voters in a referendum. That would have been required under the local government funding bill that passed the Assembly last month, but Republicans dropped the referendum requirement in their latest deal with Evers after the governor agreed to a substantial increase in state funding for the private school choice program.

For Democrats, the list of complaints about the deal was long, and included a variety of new restrictions it would put on local governments. For example, new funding in the bill could only be used for expenses like police, firefighters, emergency medical services and roads. Communities would also be required to maintain police staffing or risk seeing their state funding cut.

The bill would also include a number of restrictions specific to Milwaukee, taking away power from the city’s police and fire commissions and requiring the return of armed police in Milwaukee’s schools. The measure would ban the city from using its sales tax revenue to hire people in charge of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. The city’s streetcar would also be off-limits for the funds.

Democrats were divided on whether those restrictions and others were too much. Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, voted against the plan, but said he understood why some communities would support it.

“They have been starved for revenue so long that they are willing to eat anything that is dropped in front of them on the plate and told that it’s food,” Larson said.

Other Democrats argued the good outweighed the bad in the plan negotiated by Evers, especially the new revenue it promised for communities throughout their districts.

“This is a tough vote,” said Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, who voted for the plan. “There are some tough pills to swallow in this bill. But our local governments literally cannot afford to wait.”

Senators who voted against the plan did not speak during debate Wednesday, but some of them had signaled their intentions for weeks.

In early May, Republican Senate President Chris Kapenga of Delafield wrote in a column that if the state stepped in to “save the day” in Milwaukee, the city wouldn’t learn from its past financial mistakes.

“The local elected officials in Milwaukee have made their own decisions on local matters,” Kapenga wrote in May. “They should bear the fruit of good decisions as well as bear the burden of bad decisions.”

In addition to the shared revenue plan, the Senate and Assembly were poised to pass a bill that would dramatically increase state funding for private voucher schools. Evers agreed to support the plan in the late stages of negotiations.

Other pieces of the deal between Evers and Republicans will be attached to the state budget, including a $1 billion increase in school funding between state and local taxes, an increase in state funds for mental health, a slight increase in the state’s share of special education funding and $50 million for a new literacy program.

Editor’s note: This story will be updated.