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>> Wisconsin has a new state
budget signed in the dead of

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night last week by Governor
Tony Evers. It's the first

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budget to have bipartisan
support since 2007. Joining

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us now is Governor Evers.
And thanks for your time,

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sir.
>> So this has additional

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funding for special
education child care

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providers and the UW system
in exchange for tax cuts. It

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sounds like it's an actual
compromise budget.

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>> Yeah, I would say it was.
And I'm glad it was that way

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myself. Over the last year
or so, a couple of years, I

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get out and talk to people
all the time. That's what I

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spend most of my time doing.
And all across the state, I

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heard that a lot. You know,
the idea that it'd be great

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that, you know, everybody
knows we're a purple state,

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that we actually do work on
compromise. And so we were

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able to do that. We had some
wins and some things that

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didn't. But I guess that's
kind of the way the politics

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work. If you're if you're a
purple state like Wisconsin.

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>> Now let's go back to the
last budget where you used

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your veto pen to create an
ongoing $325 per pupil

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increase in public
education. But that increase

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isn't funded in this budget.
And property taxes will

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taxpayers will pay for it if
the school districts decide

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to levy that amount that
they can. Was that a

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priority for you to try and
get Republicans to fund

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that, or were there just too
many other places for the

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money?
We wanted both, obviously,

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but at the at the end of the
day, we, you know, we put

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together a package that was
I want to say it's $1.4

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billion in spendable money.
And also as you likely

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remember, part of the
problem in the past was the

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amount of money that school
districts had to backfill

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into special education. And
so now that is less of an

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issue for them. And so we
put we have the largest

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increase ever in, in, in
that arena. And so I think

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it was a good start. Is it
solving all the problems.

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No. And that's the nature of
working with the

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legislature. And you know,
we're a purple state. And so

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we're not going to get
everything. But it was a

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good start. We had good
starts in several areas. But

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education we were we made
some huge increases in, in

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in the money for special
education. That helps out in

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a couple different areas. Is
it solving every problem?

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No, but it was a step
forward. Yes.

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>> Now negotiations with
Republicans stopped and

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started a few times
throughout this process. And

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at one point it looked like
they were going to go their

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own way as they've done the
last few budgets. What were

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out to them? Were you
waiting for them to figure

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out them and come back to
the table?

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>> That it was a ladder?
Clearly the two houses

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weren't on the same page.
And after a while that

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became less of an issue. And
so they came back and we

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ended up solving it. And,
you know, we had some really

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significant wins. Also. I,
you know, I know the

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importance of having, you
know, both sides having some

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wins, having, you know, some
things didn't work. But for

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example, our ability to get
more money for our hospitals

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in the state of Wisconsin,
that was huge. That was a

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win. That was a complete win.
And because, as you likely

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remember, we had two
hospitals in Eau Claire

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closed in one, you know, one
year. And this keeps our

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hospitals all across the
state in a much better

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place.
>> Now, one reason

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Republicans did need to
compromise. You talked about

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the difference in the houses
is the Senate couldn't

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afford to lose any votes in
the Republican Party, and

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that's because Democrats
picked up seats in the last

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election. So how much does
redistricting play into what

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happened in this budget?
>> Absolutely. This budget

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would not have looked
anywhere near as positive if

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it if it wasn't for that,
having good maps that are

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reflective of actually what
happens on the ground, that

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was huge. And so we'll and
we'll, we'll continue to do

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a good job as far as taking
not taking advantage of it,

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but actually reflecting
that. But you know, from my

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side to, from the Democratic
side, just because we are we

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have better maps doesn't
mean that we can run

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roughshod over the other
side either. It just won't

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work. We're we're as purple
as they come in our state as

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compared to other states,
and we recognize that.

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>> Let's talk about the
Donald Trump's b-b-b big,

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beautiful bill. What will be
the impact of that bill in

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Wisconsin?
>> Yeah, I don't think it's

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going to be good. You know,
clearly, issues that they

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feel strongly about is not
necessarily good for

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Wisconsin passing this bill
kind of makes them all

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legal. I think in the past
there was some concern that

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on my part and others that
what was what was happening

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in the new administration
was very difficult and

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frankly, not shouldn't have
been able to do that because

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the Congress has not weighed
in. Well, they've weighed in

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now. And so all those things
that that we were against,

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that were happening,
happened. And so, yes, I

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think it's going to be it's
going to be a really

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difficult time for us. And,
you know, whether it's

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schools, whether it's just
about anything, you know,

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I'm sure we'll have
thousands of people in

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Wisconsin that no longer
have the health care. They

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they had before.
>> One area that's still up

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is your corrections plan. As
far as the prisons, you

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vetoed the deadline to close
the green Bay facility. Can

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you use the experience
negotiating the bill, the

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budget, to figure out how to
negotiate that plan?

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>> Yeah, absolutely. We
should. And we have to. I

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mean, we green Bay is going
to close. I get that whether

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it's in 2029 or whenever it
is closing. But in order to

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allow that to happen,
there's all sorts of steps.

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We put together a plan
several months ago, I think

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it was a rational plan. And,
you know, there are some

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people that want to do
different things. But the

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start. It's like a dance. We
have to do this first and

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then this first and this
first. I'm willing to talk

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to any, any Republican, any
Democrat on this issue. We

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just have to get it done. Do
I think we will? Yes. We

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have to.
>> It's tradition for the

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governor to wait until after
the budget is signed to

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announce whether they'll run
for another term. What is

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the timeline for your
decision, and do you have

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any announcements you'd like
to make today?

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any.
>> Today, but I'll tell you

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it'll happen shortly. I
would say a week or so.