>> All right, Devin Remiker, thanks for your time.
>> Thank you. Really appreciate it.
>> Republicans in control of the legislature announced
this week they have continued budget
negotiations with Governor Tony Evers. But just as
quickly, two Senate Republicans announced they
had major concerns, leaving them short of a majority to
pass the bill, possibly shutting down the whole
process. We sat down with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos
to talk about the sticking points in the budget talks.
Mr. Speaker, thanks for your time.
having me on. budget negotiations are very
fluid. Bring us up to date on where we stand between
the Senate, the Assembly and the governor.
>> Yep. So weeks ago, we began talking with Governor
Evers because our goal is to get a budget signed into law
that has guaranteed tax relief for Wisconsin
citizens. We negotiated in earnest at some point. It
felt like the governor really wasn't being flexible
enough for us. So we said, let's just start the finance
process and see where it goes. So we began to go
through the process like we always do, with a goal of
being done by July 1st. And then several weeks ago, we
also decided, look, if there's a way we can stay
engaged with the governor. I'm not opposed to
negotiating. I'd like to get something that we can all
live with. So we began talking again with the
Assembly and the Senate. I feel like we have a very
broad, vague, general get to. So I'm optimistic
that we could actually conclude by the end of July.
Now it's just up to all three parts to we to
continue negotiating. And it sounds like as of today, my
Senate colleagues don't want to do that, which I think is
a real shame, because if Governor Evers vetoes the
relief, no funding for schools, and no one wins. So
that is not our goal. It's to find something that we
could all live with. And I guess I'm still an optimist
that we can do that, but only time will tell.
>> Obviously, the math in the Senate is they can only
lose one vote as a Republican majority before
they need to rely on Democrats. Is there any
point at which you would ask the governor to put pressure
on the Democrats in the Senate, or try and include
some of those Democrats to see if you can secure a vote
that way? learned a long time ago is I
love the assembly, right? That is where I get to work.
If I predicted what was going to happen in the state
Senate, I would have even less hair than I do right
now, right? So I have no idea what they're going to
do over there. Here, I feel very confident that we have
almost all, if not all, Assembly Republicans in
framework. Again, the budget's got to work its way
through. There are still but the idea that we're
going to make investments in special education, that's
something that we support, the idea that we're going to
invest in childcare, we agree with that, too, that
we're going to have significant tax relief,
hopefully focusing on class. That's a winner. So I
think you check a lot of boxes that get Republicans
to want to be a yes. Now we just have to get a bill to
the governor so we can actually be done with our
part of the process. >> In December, you said
that you would have liked to see the tax cuts passed
into negotiations or what we seeing passed out of joint
finance, similar to what the governor has agreed to do.
You kind of get his answer on where he was willing to
go. And that's what's before.
speak for the governor, but I do feel like we're trying
not to do things that would draw veto. That is not our
goal. We want to do things that I think he hopefully
could sign. Look, there are I'm going to not love, but
the whole is better than the parts that I dislike. And
I'm sure he would probably say the same thing. There
are parts that he wished were different, but I hope
in the end he'll be able to look at it and say, in total
it's a better deal than >> When it comes to public
governor's veto from the last budget created the
parameters where school to raise funds on a per
pupil basis that's not funded under the Republican
budget. Is this kind of a standoff of who will take
the blame in the public's eyes for rising property
taxes if the state doesn't fund it?
issued a veto for a 400 year property tax increase. He
did it. He he has to own it. I mean, literally was his
was ratified by his Liberal allies in the state Supreme
to rubberstamp whatever he does. So, I mean, that's not
a surprise. What actually occurred, but where we're
that's decided we're not going to change Governor
Evers mind. He's not going to all of a sudden say, we
shouldn't raise property taxes. He already accepted
that we will forever. So we're focused on where we
can actually find that agreement. I don't want
property taxes to go up. If have been a different
result. I didn't vote for have to accept the reality
of where we are. >> In negotiations. As
Governor Evers asked you to increase, or is he rather
see some of the whatever money is available to go
into other pots that are? >> Again, I don't want to
speak for Governor Evers, but our negotiations have
been mostly focused around the cost of special
education. One of the things that Assembly Republicans
brought to the table is a proposal which would say,
for kids who cost over $30,000 for high cost,
special ed kids. State's going to pay 90% of that.
That's what really is bankrupting or hurting an
awful lot of school districts. You get 1 or 2
kids in a small district that have intense special
needs, and they don't have the ability to fund it, so
they have to cut other programs to put a package
child. So we want to we think that's a great way to
do it. Governor Evers wanted more money in special ed. We
always agreed with that. It's just discussing how
much we're able to afford as a state we need to have. We
have a lot of priorities. Schools are an important
one. But look, I care about how much we spend on health
care. I care about how much we spend on raises for
public employees. I care about how much we're going
to spend on child care. There's a lot of things that
we have to balance out, all while keeping in mind that
we're overtaxing the citizens of Wisconsin. We
got to give some of that back.
>> The most recent news on the UW system funding is $87
million. Cut, potentially, if that stands, would you
expect to see tuition to increase? Would that lead to
closures at some of the two year schools?
>> Well, first of all, our goal is not just to slash
the university, just to slash the university that
does no one any good. We have tried to say for a long
time that there have to be reforms into how they
operate. I mean, here's one statistic that I hope
everybody thinks about that I just read a study this
week that shows from the year 2025, today through
2029, just four years from now, we're going to have 15%
fewer Wisconsin graduates going to college. Now,
that's not because the university is not
accessible. It's because and there are lower numbers
of high school graduates. So if you had one out of seven
fewer customers, the store couldn't operate the same
way. It would go bankrupt. Well, it's the same for the
university system. If we don't figure a different way
to operate. It's not just dumping more money in there.
It's saying, wow, we have a lot less kids going to
college. How are we going to make sure that system is
nimble, that we do it in a way that actually makes
it's not this woke mumbo jumbo that people hate. So
we've asked for some simple reforms. We need faculty
members to teach more. We need to make sure that if
you take a class at Whitewater, it transfers to
superior without a lot of bureaucracy in the middle.
not trying to do things that are radical, but we're
trying to do things that will make it easier for
families to get out of school quicker and hopefully
do it in a way that's more meaningful to them and their
family. profile issues we've
discussed. Give me one thing the budget that's under the
radar that you think deserves more attention.
>> Boy, I feel like we're focusing on so many areas
that people care about. I mean, one thing that I want
to focus on is this retiree tax cut. Look, we all have
moms and dads. We all have people who we love that made
a decision once they retire to go somewhere warmer,
right? I can't fault people for the weather. I mean,
even though I like the winter here, but a lot of
people don't. But they choose to live six months in
a day somewhere else, so they pay their taxes there.
Well, in Florida, Tennessee, Texas, a lot of times you
can live cheaper and have no taxes, so they choose to
domicile somewhere else. Well, that means their
charitable donations, their volunteer hours, seeing
away. So we have a proposal that would say that the
first $35,000 of retirement income tax exempt, that
means for the average couple, two teachers, two
firefighters, a teacher and a firefighter, they'd save
about 1500 bucks a year. I think that's something that
would seriously make a dent in family budgets, to be
able to help them as opposed to, you know, doing
something that only saves them a couple bucks, which
probably doesn't do very much. So I think that's not
gotten anywhere near as much coverage as I hope it would.
And hopefully that'll be And hopefully that'll be