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not see the property
property tax increase.

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Period.
>> With so many candidates

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running for governor, it
can be hard to remember all

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the names, much less where
everyone stands on each

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issue. Last month "Here&
Now", senior political

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reporter Zac Schultz sat
down with nine of the

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leading candidates. You can
find those interviews on

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PBS Wisconsin Organic
Valley. In addition, over

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the next few months, you'll
hear from the candidates on

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individual issues
everything from school

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funding to data centers to
creating more affordable

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housing. Tonight, we kick
things off with their

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highest priorities what
each candidate would work

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on first as governor.
>> For the first time in 16

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years, you can legitimately
say control of the

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Wisconsin legislature is up
for grabs in the next

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election, which means the
incoming governor could

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actually pass their agenda.
So we asked each candidate

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what the first bill would
be that they want to sign

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into law. The most common
answer had to do with

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dealing with the rising
costs of everything.

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>> So the things that I
want to make sure that I'm

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signing into law are things
that are going to reduce

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costs for Wisconsinites,
and that's going to be

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health care costs primarily.
But also looking at child

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care, we've got other
states that we can look at

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for examples where they've
been able to subsidize

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child care. For folks,
treating that as

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infrastructure is going to
be something that's going

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to be a priority for me.
>> Well, the first thing I

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want to sign is about, you
know, how do we really

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tackle this affordability
crisis? You know, I would

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love for us to focus on
affordable and attainable

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housing in every corner of
of the state of Wisconsin.

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I would like for us to
focus on fully funding our

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public schools, making sure
that there are good paying

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jobs, no matter where they
are in our state, and

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making sure that our young
people are ready for the

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jobs of today and tomorrow.
>> No matter what we do,

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the first thing we need to
do is work on affordability.

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I think there are any
number of ways in which we

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need to ensure, whether
it's on the issues of

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stable housing around the
state, or whether it's on

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the issues of health care,
Medicaid expansion, which

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the governor has tried to
do over the course of his

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eight years, hasn't been
able to do. Those are the

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types of things that can be
done under with a

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Democratic majority, and
those are the types of

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things that I'd be eager to
do right away.

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>> Well, I think there's a
laundry list, and that's

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part of our challenge. But
one of the things that I

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want to see first is things
that are focused on

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affordability, property
taxes and income taxes in

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particular. It's
embarrassing to me that our

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top bracket of income tax
is almost double what

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Illinois's is. I'd like to
see it flattened out and

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then slowly eliminated, and
then property taxes. I'd

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like to see us go from 4 or
5 entities on property tax

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bills down to 2 or 3. The
goal of cutting them by 50%.

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You make a moonshot, and if
you hit the stratosphere,

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you've won.
>> Well, the first thing

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that the governor comes in
and does in at any time

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when there's a new governor
is write the budget. And so

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I will be working closely
with whoever's in the

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legislature to make sure
that we have a budget that

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is immediately addressing
challenges that

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Wisconsinites are facing,
things like healthcare and

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child care costs. But also
we have a real challenge

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around public education. We
need to reinvest in our

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teachers and our schools,
and we need to make sure

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that our university and our
tech colleges are funded in

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a way that helps them move
forward. It's all about

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investment.
BadgerCare expansion right

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away. Day one special
session if necessary. I

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refuse to sign a state
budget that does not

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include BadgerCare
expansion. If we have not

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already gotten to that
point. We're one of nine

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states. We are one of nine
states that has yet to

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expand our Medicaid program
under the Affordable Care

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Act. It's it's a travesty
that that is not the case.

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Republicans and legislature
have denied people the care

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that they deserve.
>> Boy, you know, I don't

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think we have any choice at
this point, but we got to

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deal with education. I just
saw some data this week

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where almost half of first
graders cannot read at

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00:04:02,543 --> 00:04:06,146
grade level. We have fallen
behind Mississippi and

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education. That is
unacceptable. I don't care

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00:04:08,215 --> 00:04:10,217
if you're Republican,
Democrat or whatever

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00:04:10,284 --> 00:04:12,619
political persuasion. We
have always had a long,

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00:04:12,686 --> 00:04:15,255
proud tradition of
educating children well,

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and we've got to get that
back. Otherwise our state

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cannot succeed. But I think
next is the cost of living,

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and it is getting the cost
of energy down, reducing

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taxes, things like that
that make Wisconsin more

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affordable.
budget that raises wages

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for people, restores
people's rights, lowers

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00:04:37,778 --> 00:04:41,215
costs on the biggest ticket
items like health care and

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00:04:41,281 --> 00:04:44,284
funds our public school
system. Our kids have been

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00:04:44,351 --> 00:04:46,887
getting shortchanged for a
generation, and it's not

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00:04:46,954 --> 00:04:49,022
fair. And it's actually
terrible for our economy.

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Big signature policy items
that I'm interested in

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passing is opening up the
state health insurance and

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the state pension systems
to any person to be able to

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buy in.
>> Red flag laws and

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background checks and safe
storage. I think gun safety

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00:05:03,937 --> 00:05:08,509
is a universal issue, and
we have to meet we have to

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00:05:09,643 --> 00:05:12,112
ensure that we're
protecting our kids. Then

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public education and
universal child care. I

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00:05:15,415 --> 00:05:18,418
think when we put our kids
first, working class

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families all win.
families all win.