Wisconsin has a new state budget,
signed in the dead of night last
week by Governor Tony Evers.
It's the first budget to have
bipartisan support since 2007.
Joining us now is Governor Evers and
thanks for your time, sir.
Thanks, Zach.
So this has additional funding for
special education, childcare
providers and the UW system in
exchange for tax cuts.
It sounds like it's an actual
compromise budget.
Yeah, I would say it was,
and I'm glad it
was that way myself.
Over the last year
or so, a couple of years, I get
out and talk to people all the time.
That's what I spend most of my time
doing, and all across the state.
I heard that a lot, the idea
that it'd be great,
that everybody knows
we're a purple state, that we
actually do work on compromise.
And so we were able
to do that.
We- We had some wins and some
things that didn't, but I guess
that's kind of the way the
politics work if you're
a purple state like Wisconsin.
Now, let's go back to the last
budget where you used your veto pen
to create an ongoing $325
per pupil increase in public
education.
But that increase isn't funded in
this budget and property
taxpayers will pay
for it if the school districts
decide to levy that amount that they
can. Was that a priority for you
to try and get Republicans to fund
that or were there just too many
other places for the money?
Yes and yes, yes and no.
We wanted both, obviously.
But at the end of the day,
we put together a
package that was, I
want to say it's $1.4 billion
in spendable money.
And also, as you likely
remember, part of the problem
in the past was the amount
of money that school districts had
to backfill into special education.
And so now that is
less of an issue for them.
We put, we have
the largest increase ever
in that arena.
And so I think it was a good start.
Is it solving all the problems?
No, and that's the nature of
working with the legislature and
you know, we're a purple state.
And so we're not gonna get
everything. But it was good start,
good starts in several areas,
but education, we
made some huge increases.
In the money for special
education.
That helps out in a couple of
different areas.
Is it solving every problem?
No, but it was a step forward.
Would you expect to see fewer
operational referenda around the
state?
It's hard to say.
I mean, every school district's
different. They have different needs
and, you know, some of them have
increases in number of children,
some less, and so I think
that's harder to say,
there should be some less but I'm
not gonna bet the house
on it.
Now, negotiations with Republicans
stopped and started a few times
throughout this process.
And at one point, it looked like
they were going to go their own way
as they've done the last few
budgets.
What were you doing? Were you
reaching out to them? Were you
waiting for them to figure out them
and come back to the table?
It was a ladder.
Clearly, the two houses
weren't on the same page.
And after a while, that
became less of an issue and so
they came back and we ended up
solving it.
And we had some really
significant wins also.
I know the importance
of having both
sides having some wins,
some things didn't work.
But for example, our ability
to get more money for our hospitals
in the state of Wisconsin, that was
huge.
That was a win.
That was complete win.
And because as you likely
remember, we had two hospitals in
Eau Claire close in one
year.
And this keeps our hospitals
all across the state in a much
better place.
Now, one reason Republicans did need
to compromise, you talked about the
difference in the House, is the
Senate couldn't afford to lose any
votes in the Republican Party,
and that's because Democrats picked
up seats in the last election.
So how much does redistricting play
into what happened in this budget?
Absolutely. This budget would not
have looked anywhere near as
positive if it
wasn't for that.
Having good maps that
are reflective of actually
what happens on the ground, that
was huge.
And we'll continue
to do a good job as far as
taking, not taking advantage of
it, but actually reflecting that.
But, you know, from my side too,
from the Democratic side, just
because we are.
We have better maps, doesn't mean
that we can run roughshod
over the other side either.
This won't work, we're
as purple as they come in
our state as compared to other
states, and we recognize
that.
So you signed the budget in the
middle of the night, you referenced
the hospital taxing assessment,
and that is required to bring in
more federal funds.
So you were trying to race to beat
the reconciliation bill in
Washington, were you watching C-SPAN
to see what was going out there?
How did you time those?
The answer is yes, we were watching
what was happening there.
We were watching was happening in
both houses here.
Yes, it was
kind of amazing to watch it.
We felt at some point in time that
things were delayed enough that
we would be able to do in Washington
D.C., but yes it was
exciting, but
a little nerve-racking.
Have you ever signed a bill in the
middle of the night before?
Not that I can recall,
not at 1.30 in the morning, no.
Let's talk about the
Donald Trump's BBB, big beautiful
bill. What will be the impact of
that bill in Wisconsin?
Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be
good.
You know, clearly issues
that they
feel strongly about.
Is not necessarily good for
Wisconsin.
When we think about what's happening
right now and what's happened right
now with the administration,
passing this bill kind of
makes them all legal.
I think in the past there was
some concern that on my
part and others, that what
was happening in
the new administration
was very difficult
and frankly not.
Shouldn't have been able to do that
because the
Congress has not weighed in.
Well, they've weighed in now.
And so all those things that we were
against that were happening
happened.
And so, yes, I think it's going to
be a really
difficult time for us.
And whether it's schools, whether it
just about anything, I'm
sure we'll have Thousands of
people in Wisconsin that
no longer have the health care they
they had before
We mentioned the last truly
bipartisan budget was 2007
when Democrats held the Senate,
Republicans the assembly, but that
deal didn't get done in October.
So is it fair to say that racing
that reconciliation deadline forced
everyone to come together now
instead of letting this stretch out?
Yeah, but it wouldn't have been
October. I mean, the real question,
would it have maybe
taken a couple of weeks off
the ability to
finalize?
Yes, but no, we
wouldn't gone to October.
And I know there's some people say,
well, you didn't get all you wanted.
And I understand that, but
the alternative is
not to have a budget at all.
You have what we've gone through
for the last two years.
Things have changed over those two
years.
Having that was not an option.
So we needed to compromise,
both sides did.
We had some big wins.
We have some campuses now that are
gonna have new buildings that
they've been trying to do for
years.
And we wouldn't have got that if we
hadn't compromised.
One area that's still up is your
corrections plan as far as the
prisons, you vetoed the deadline
to close the Green Bay facility.
Can you use the experience
negotiating the bill and the budget
to figure out how to negotiate
that plan?
Yeah, absolutely we should, and we
have to.
I mean, Green Bay is
going to close.
I get that, whether it's in
2029 or whatever,
is closing.
But in order to allow that to
happen, there's all sorts of
steps. We put together a plan
several months ago.
I think it was a rational plan.
And there are some people that want
to do different things.
But the bottom line is we have to
start, it's like a dance.
That's where you have to go. Do this
first, and then this first and this
first. I'm willing to talk to
any Republican, any Democrat
on this issue.
We just have to get it done.
Do I think we will?
Yes, we have to.
So earlier this week, the Wisconsin
Supreme Court released a 4-3
decision that ruled the statutes
that empowered the Joint Committee
for the Review of Administrative
Rules, or JCRAR, are
unconstitutional.
Now, this is the committee that's
halted all sorts of administrative
rules, from DNR rules to building
codes. What do you view as the
overall impact of this decision?
Sanity will reign.
That's what I think.
We've been dealing with this for
all the time I've been in office and
that is this committee,
mainly the leadership, were able
to stop everything dead in their
tracks and then things
just don't happen.
That just can't happen, we can't
have a one-person rule here in
the state of Wisconsin in any part
of it, including things like
administrative rules.
So yes, we will be able to
accomplish some things that we
haven't done before.
That the rule-making process
went to JCRER
and just went into
a hole and it
just disappeared.
We can't have that.
That's one person rule that
we can't allow.
You mentioned the one-person rule,
but Republicans are saying now this
decision by the Supreme Court gives
you one- person rule.
They're saying that this gives you
too much authority or the executive
branch.
We would just be following what
we've been doing forever
before this
happened.
So no, there's no dictatorship
here in the state of Wisconsin.
There's a small one in this arena,
we're going to be able to get things
done.
This isn't the only decision by the
court in this last term to rebalance
the scales of a legislature versus
the executive.
We saw joint finance oversight
over some Knowles-Nelson stewardship
projects be eliminated,
but that meant that that didn't
get funded. Again, do you expect
to see changes in what the
legislation will actually pass in
order to get around or what they're
concerned about in terms of
executive oversight?
Yeah, and that's
a good example. We will get
something done with Nelson.
We have to.
Whether you're Republican or
Democrat, you want to make sure that
our state continues
with the conservation
that those two governors
put forth.
And so I'm not
concerned about that.
We will we will get some done.
Maybe it won't be as
large amount of money available
as it was in the past.
Doesn't make any difference.
We just have to get it done.
It's tradition for the Governor to
wait until after the budget is
signed to announce whether they'll
run for another term.
What is the timeline for your
decision and do you have any
announcements you'd like to make
today?
I'm not going to make any today, but
I'll tell you, it'll happen shortly,
I would say a week or so.
Governor Tony Heavers, thanks for
your time today.
Thanks, Zach.
Appreciate it.