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The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.
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Welcome to Wisconsin Public Media's coverage of Governor Tony Evers 8th and final state of the state address.
We are bringing you live coverage tonight from the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison.
In a few moments, the 46th Governor of Wisconsin will make his way already making his way into the assembly chambers.
Evers will speak tonight before a joint session of the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate, the state Supreme Court, his cabinet and tribal leaders.
Good evening, I'm Sean Johnson from Wisconsin Public Radio.
And I'm Frederica Freiberg from PBS Wisconsin.
Tonight, Democratic Governor Tony Evers lays out his plans for 2026.
He'll be speaking to the 107th session of the Wisconsin legislature.
Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemahue, who represents communities along Lake Michigan, including Sheboygan and Manitowoc, will provide this year's Republican response immediately following the governor's state of the state.
And so the governor is already in the chambers?
I gotta say, as far as governors go, he wanted to get out there fast tonight with this speech is 8th and final.
He's had a few budget addresses thrown in there.
He knows the drill and, you know, see me here they go and take that for what it's worth.
I think you're going to hear a lot of the governor talking about those eight years tonight and what he sees as his legacy and his accomplishments.
We could expect this address to be longer because of that.
He'll be looking back, but also looking ahead.
He wants the legislature to get to work on some of his priorities for the remainder of 2026.
Yeah, we already know he's going to send them a little hint that they should stick around and keep working on priorities that they can all support.
We also know that the state assembly is tentatively a schedule to adjourn for the year this week, so they have different plans on how 2026 is going to go.
But still potential for some big deals on property taxes and school fund.
We'll see if the governor gets it those time.
Let's go to Governor Tony Revers.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
At this time, it is my honor to introduce the governor of the great state of Wisconsin, the honorable Tony Evers.
Thank you.
Hello there, Wisconsin.
Last time around, folks, honorable Supreme Court justices, tribal nation leaders, constitutional officers,
resident general strobe, members of the Wisconsin National Guard, active and retired members of our armed forces, cabinet members, legislators, distinguished guests, and Wisconsin Knights from near and far.
Thank you for taking the time to join us this evening. It's going to be a blast.
So, I'm Tony Evers, and I'm honored to be the 46th governor of the great state of Wisconsin as I deliver my eighth and final state of the state address to you tonight.
It's true.
A lot of happy faces over here.
My daughter, Katie, and my grandson, Keaton, as well as my son, Nick, and his wife, Landa, are here with us tonight, and my former kindergarten classmate and junior prom date is also up in the gallery.
Kathleen Francis, you never wave.
Kathleen Francis, you've never wave through all the ups and downs of my 50 years of public service. You're a saint. Thank you for being a saint.
Before we begin tonight, Wisconsin today is an election day. If you haven't voted yet in the spring primary, there's still time to get registered and vote.
And the good news is, if you go right now to participate in our democracy, you can still catch my full speech afterward on Facebook, YouTube, and probably whatever else kids get their news these days.
Polls are open at 8pm, so go to myvote.wi.gov, find your place of polling, then grab your photo ID and proof of residence if you need to register and get out to vote.
I'm so humbled and thankful for the last seven years and those who helped make it happen. But tonight, Wisconsin, I want to focus on the work we still have left to do, so I'm going to save my long list of gratitude for my farewell address later this year.
And no legislators that doesn't mean my speech got any shorter. In fact, I think it's probably longer. Sorry.
I know many lawmakers are antsy to end the legislative session and pack up to get back on the campaign trail.
By the way, if anybody running that wants advice from someone who won five statewide elections, right here, right here.
Folks, I know many of you are up for the election, but here's the deal.
After years of delivering historic bipartisan wins for our state, Wisconsinites have high expectations for the work we can do together over the next ten months.
And they should. Just look at what we've accomplished over the last seven years.
My vetoes are often the focus of news coverage and even political criticism.
I know Republicans get upset when I use my veto pen to do good things for kids in schools, for example.
But.
But here's the truth.
The truth is I've signed over 800 bills as governor and more than 97% of those bills signed passed with bipartisan support. How about that?
And here are just a few of those bipartisan bills.
We improved our justices and bolstered support for public defenders and DAs and made the largest edition of circuit court branches in over two decades.
We made sure firefighters and law enforcement officers can access workers' compensation for post-traumatic stress.
We created a holiday honoring Mongolau veterans and our kids now learn about among an Asian-American history in new schools.
We fixed gaps in the amber alert system through the print sack so that we could locate missing kids faster.
And folks, this is all barely a fraction of the more than 800 bills I've been proud to sign as governor.
We expanded tax credits to help lower the cost of childcare for working families.
We made it so that the state park passes can be used for 12 full months regardless of when they're purchased.
We provided Medicaid coverage for telehealth services so that folks can access healthcare right from home.
We supported peer-to-peer suicide prevention efforts for kids in schools.
We invested in helping local communities prepare for and prevent flooding before disaster happens.
And we work together to keep Major League Baseball in Milwaukee until 2050 so future generations of Wisconsin's kids will grow up rooting for the brewers like so many of us have.
Good work, good work, good work.
We've also managed to do all of this important work while still saving where we could and paying down our state's debt.
We've saved taxpayers over $600 million by paying off about $3 billion of our state's debt.
After 30 consecutive years of our state's checking account running a deficit, we've ended every full fiscal year.
I've been governor with a positive balance.
And that's a good thing.
Thanks to our bipartisan efforts to cut taxes, Wisconsin taxpayers will see over $2 billion in tax relief annually with most of those cuts going to the middle class.
And I not only kept my campaign promise to Wisconsinites that I deliver a 10% tax cut for middle class families.
In fact, middle class taxpayers have seen an income tax cut of 23% more than double what I promised.
Wisconsinites, you're keeping more of your hard earned money today than at any point in the last 50 years.
How about that?
I'm also grateful to the legislature that they've supported a key part of my affordability plan last year to help lower monthly energy costs for working families.
Because of our bipartisan work, Wisconsinites are no longer paying sales tax on household utility bills, which is expected to save Wisconsinites $178 million over the next two years.
Not only are Wisconsinites keeping more of their hard earned money, Wisconsinites are making more money too.
Average annual wages in Wisconsin went up nearly 26% over my first six years in office and median wages in 2024 reached an all time high, record high.
Some working families, a little more breathing room in their household budgets is something we've worked on together over the last seven years.
I'm hoping we can continue building on those efforts to the session, including reaching bipartisan agreement on a plan to get meaningful resources to our K through 12 schools and provide property tax reliefs at the same time.
And it must balance these important obligations, a heck of a lot better than the plan Republican leaders sent me this week.
Another important priority for us over the last seven years has been addressing the workforce challenges that have plagued our states for generations.
We've been working to build a 21st century workforce in Wisconsin that needs to compete in the 21st century economy.
We've reduced barriers to joining our workforce by investing in childcare slots for working parents and making sure that they can get to and from work.
We're helping over 127,000 Wisconsin workers get career and skills training thanks to investments I directed.
Wisconsin's seen record high employment and record low unemployment and we've had the highest ever enrollment in our registered and apprenticeship programs ever in state history for several years in a row.
And by cracking down worker misclassification, we've made sure over 134,000 workers got the wages and benefits they were owed.
A key part of our work to support working families strengthen our communities and grow our state's workforce has been ensuring folks have the housing they need in the communities they work in.
It's about connecting the dots and expanding access to affordable housing is an issue I hear about almost everywhere I go in Wisconsin.
We work together to pass the largest state investment in workhouse housing in Wisconsin's history and by administration has supported over 30,000 new housing units across the state.
Much like housing having access to affordable high speed internet in the 21st century is a necessity, not a luxury.
It's why no administration has done more to expand access to high speed internet for working families than we have.
I declared 2021 a year of broadband access created a broadband access task force.
We also created new tools to help folks get connected and find affordable internet options.
Thanks to our investments, including federal funding, I directed more than 410,000 homes and businesses across our state will have new or improved internet.
Thank you.
Supporting our farmers and their families and our state's agricultural industries have always been part of our work over the last seven, seven years.
I created the Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity and the Office of Rural Prosperity.
And we work together to create the Wisconsin initiative for agricultural exports to increase dairy meat, crop and other products exports by 25%.
Today, Wisconsin is well on the way to become a top 10 state for agricultural exports after being ranked 13th just a few years ago.
Thanks for the applause I get to drink.
And from our smallest rural towns to our largest cities after a generation of state government asking local partners to do more with less,
we also work together to approve a historic increase in support for our local communities.
Thanks to our bipartisan efforts, Milwaukee is no longer on the brink of bankruptcy and for state support for most municipalities increased over 20% to help them meet basic and unique needs alike.
That's a good thing.
We're also making sure the state helps support local communities by investing in infrastructure needs across Wisconsin that long have been neglected.
When I took over, our transportation fund was on the brink of insolvency.
For years, the state spent money that was meant for to improve our infrastructure on other things leaving our roads and bridges in disrepair.
I made a promise to Wisconsinites that I'd work to fix the darn roads.
I even been out on my annual pothole patrol as governor to fix the roads myself.
We approved the largest investment in local road construction and maintenance in state history.
Next to our bipartisan work, local partners will receive $600 million in funding this year.
Together we also created a new agricultural roads program with bipartisan support to make sure our farmers and producers can get their product
to market safely and efficiently by improving local road infrastructure across our state.
It's already supporting over 90 projects across 48 counties to help improve and repair roads that our farmers, agricultural industries and rural communities depend on.
Folks, all these efforts have played a key role in our work to fix the darn roads across Wisconsin, and we've delivered.
Thanks to our work together, my administration has been able to improve or repair over 9,600 miles of roads and over 2,400 bridges across our state.
And it's a darn good thing we've been fixing the roads because under my administration Wisconsin's been welcoming more visitors than ever before.
Investing in our tourism industry has been an important part of our work over the last seven years and it's paid off.
Wisconsin's travel and tourism industry has been setting records for three years running.
In 2024 we had a hat trick here.
Wisconsin tours and brought in more money, welcomed more visitors and generated a record high $25.8 billion in total economic impact.
A big driver of our tourism industry's success is our Wisconsin's outdoor recreation economy.
Biking and hiking, camping and canoeing, fishing and hunting, snowmobiling and skiing.
You name it, outdoor recreation is part of our DNA as Wisconsinites.
It's also become an $11 billion industry that drives and supports local jobs and economies across our state.
I propose creating our state's ever first office of outdoor recreation and we work together to get it done so Wisconsin now has a dedicated office to support this critical economic industry.
Thanks for good.
Our bipartisan budget last year also improved my request to create new film office at the Department of Tourism and a new film tax credit program.
I'm excited to announce we're launching the new program this week which will help bolster our travel and tourism economies and bring exciting creative endeavors right to Wisconsin's doorstep.
Folks, we've gotten a lot done for Wisconsin over the last seven years.
Our work during the year of the kid is another good example.
From teaching science in bearaboo to getting the scoop from students on smokers corner as principal and to the decade I spent as state superintendent to becoming your governor.
I've devoted most of my life to doing what's best for kids.
After watching Republican, Republican governor, legislature, excuse me, shred my education budgets and state superintendent, I knew we could do more and better for our kids.
Our kids are why I got into this gig in the first place.
So while every year is a year of the kid for me, I declare 2025 the official year of the kid and introduce the most pro kid budget in state history.
And then we want to work.
When it comes to doing what's best for kids, we have to start early.
A top priority for me during the year of the kid was to lower the cost of childcare so more kids and families could access early childhood education.
Getting direct support to childcare providers in our state budget was a bright line issue for me in negotiation with Republican leaders.
I fought hired to make sure our pro kid budget included $360 million to support our childcare industry and working families more than one third of which will go directly to providers to support care for nearly 170,000 kids.
We also created our state's first ever fully state funded childcare program called Get Kids Ready.
Get Kids Ready is a new first of its kind program in Wisconsin to help give four year olds a boost getting ready for kindergarten.
So here's how it works. Qualifying childcare providers will focus on making sure kids have the academic, physical and social emotional skills that kids need to be successful in school.
And in return, the state pays childcare providers directly for the time kids spent and get kids ready programming, making that part of the day free for families.
That's a big deal for Wisconsin kids in our future.
I'm excited to announce tonight that nearly 1,400 providers have signaled that they're ready to be part of this program.
An effort that's been projected to help as many as 24,000 kids across Wisconsin get a head start on their education in just the first year.
Good work.
A key part of our work to do what's best for our kids includes making sure our kids can bring their best and full self to our schools and our classrooms.
A kid who's hungry or facing mental health challenges isn't going to be able to focus on their studies or their coursework at school.
That's why I fought hard to secure $10 million for food security and $30 million to help support mental health resources in school across our state.
When I delivered my state of the state address last year, I said I'd be asking the legislature to make meaningful investments in public education at every level from early childhood to our universities.
And I made sure that's exactly what our bipartisan budget did.
Republican lawmakers who spent the better part of two decades waging war on higher education and the Wisconsin idea planned to cut our UW system by nearly $90 million.
And that was a non-starter for me and many other people.
I fought hard to make sure the final budget I signed included the largest increase for our University of Wisconsin system in nearly 20 years and over $1 billion for UW projects across our state.
Folks, I declare 2025 the year of the kid because I wanted everything we did last year to be focused on doing what's best for our kids at every age and every way and no matter where they live in our state.
But Wisconsin, I've always promised to give you straight information here.
And that's exactly what I'm going to do.
So I want to talk about how our bipartisan budget delivers for our K through 12 kids in schools.
And I also want to talk about the ways that fell short and the work the legislature must do to make good on the bipartisan promise we made to our kids in the last budget.
A decade of Republicans consistently failing to meaningful invest, meaningful to invest in our kids and our K through 12 schools has consequences.
Wisconsinites have been going to referendum at high numbers in years, raising their own property taxes just to keep the school lights on.
It started long before I became governor.
I get Republicans want to blame my 400 year veto for property taxes going up.
Why, of course, it's politics, of course.
Republicans running under the fair maps need someone else to blame for failing to fund our schools at the levels I've asked them to for about two decades of my life.
Here's the truth.
Funding our schools is a responsibility that the state and local partners share.
Local property taxes go up when the state fails to do as part to meet its obligation.
I'll go 10 toes with any lawmaker about school funding.
My 400 year veto isn't an automatic property tax increase because that isn't how school funding works in Wisconsin.
The legislature has rejected over $7 billion for K through 12 schools that I requested over the last four state budgets.
If lawmakers want to have an honest conversation about property taxes, start there.
Thank you.
A decade-plus disinvestment can't be undone overnight, but I've spent the last seven years working to reverse that trend.
We secured an additional over $2.3 billion for K through 12 kids in schools in my budgets.
I fought hard for nearly $1.4 billion in spendable revenue we approved in our bipartisan budget negotiations last year.
That included a net categorical increase that was roughly five times larger than our previous historic budget.
We also fought for and secured the largest increase in special education reimbursement rate in state's history.
We raised the state's commitment to reimburse special education aid at 42% and 45% over two years.
But, and there's a big bite here, but here's the problem.
The legislature refuses to set aside enough state money to actually meet those percentages.
So in reality, DPI estimates the state's only reimbursing at a rate of about 35% instead, well short of the budget we negotiated.
We have a constitutional obligation.
We have a constitutional obligation to fund our schools in the state.
Folks, the legislature must approve the level of funding necessary to meet the percentages.
Our kids and our schools were promised in the last budget.
Thank you.
We can get it done.
With all the successes that we've had over the last seven years, Wisconsinites are eager for us to continue our progress.
We can't afford for lawmakers to lose focus on the future we've been working hard to build together just because it's an election year.
So I know the legislature would rather hit the road and take the rest of the year off when I'm going to ask lawmakers to stick around until our work here is finished.
Thank you.
There's always more work we can do, folks.
Let's start with public safety.
I wish Republican lawmakers would have been willing to do more during the year of the kid to help keep our kids, families, and communities safe.
So we disappointed that for all the rhetoric about who cares about crime and who doesn't care about crime.
Republicans voted against my proposal to make the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention permanent.
We could be doing so much more to address domestic and intimate partner violence, for example.
These statistics drive me nuts.
Domestic violence homicides in Wisconsin jumped by 20% between 2021 and 2022, 20%.
We hit a new record high of Wisconsinites murdered in domestic and intimate partner violence incidents.
The record only lasted until 2024 when 99 Wisconsinites were killed.
They were murdered.
Folks, this trend is headed in the wrong direction, obviously.
The legislature cannot find these statistics acceptable.
And on top of voting not to make the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention permanent last year,
Republican lawmakers also voted against my request to provide $66 million for the victims of crime act programs,
many of which helped survivors of domestic violence and their families get on their feet.
I urge, thank you.
I urge the legislature to send bills to my desk to codify the Office of Violence Prevention and fund victim of crime act programs.
Do this right thing and get it done.
Thank you.
In the meantime, my administration and I will continue our work however we can to reduce crime and violence and help make kids and families safer.
One of the things I am jazzed to announce tonight is that my administration will be partnering with our own Milwaukee Bucks
on a public campaign to help combat domestic violence across Wisconsin.
Go Bucks!
I also want to talk about gun violence, which is why I created the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention.
The very first special session that I ever called as governor was to ask Republicans to pass universal background checks and red flag laws.
Two concepts that 80% of our state support.
I could spend the rest of my speech listing everything I propose to crack down on gun violence,
keeping guns out of the hands of violent people and making our communities safer.
Instead, I've cut to the kicker. All of them went nowhere because in seven years there's no issue Republicans have done less about than guns.
This much is clear.
If Wisconsinites want to get something anything done about gun violence, we must elect legislators who will do the damn thing to change them.
I've also spent years urging Republican lawmakers to approve reasonable common-sense policies to move Wisconsin's corrections,
corrections, courts, and justice systems into the 21st century.
I introduced a sweeping corrections reform plan last year that would close GBCI by 2021, 29, excuse me,
get kids out of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake and turn WAPON into a state-of-the-art vocational facility.
Republicans quickly dismissed it, insisting they'd come up with a better plan and pass that instead.
It's been over a year now, and I haven't seen one either enacting my plan or propose a plan of their own.
I still hope that we can work together to pass a bipartisan bill this year on a comprehensive, comprehensive corrections reform
to set an achievable goal for GBCI to close, convert Lincoln Hills, and refamp WAPON.
We also need to make sure the plan includes evidence-based efforts to stabilize our skyrocketing prison population
and reduce likelihood that people will re-offend making our communities safer and saving taxpayers on correction costs down the road.
We don't need to ask taxpayers to pay for a brand new prison. That won't be done for a decade.
My plan remains the safest, fastest, and cheapest option available. I don't care who gets the credit.
It doesn't make any difference. I'm going to be gone in a few months. Let's just get it done, please.
In the meantime, I will continue to exercise my constitutional powers as governor to do what I can to improve community safety
and change Wisconsin's justice system for the better.
Before I took office, Wisconsin got an F in judicial diversity due to a lack of women and people of color on our bench.
It was important to me to appoint judges who are a reflection of the people of our state.
I'm especially proud that no governor has appointed a more diverse class of judges in state history,
more than a third of the judges I appointed are people of color, and more than half are women.
I
exercise my constitutional powers as governor to grant pardons for the first time in a generation.
A pardon is an official act of forgiveness that signals an individual has paid their debt to society,
worked to make amends and tried to turn their lives around.
I've issued more grants of clemency than any other governor.
This month, I'll hit 2,000 pardons as governor and we're not done yet.
We also have important things to get done this year to clean up our water and protect our natural resources.
We make a promise to our kids and grandkids that will leave them a better state and world than the one we inherited.
That's the future we've promised them, and that's the future they deserve.
My administration has worked to lead the way.
For starters, science and the words climate change have returned to the Department of Natural Resources.
I also created the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy,
and we released the first ever Wisconsin's, first ever clean energy plan to help lower energy bills for working families,
reduce reliance on out-of-state energy sources, and create more than 40,000 jobs by 2030.
We also joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, took the trillion tree pledge and committed to planting 100 million trees by the end of 2030.
We planted over 42 million and saved over 76 acres of forest land in just the first four days, four years.
We created a new wild rice stewardship council to help protect wild rice resources that are culturally significant
and important food source for indigenous communities, and we continue to work and learn from the tribal nations of Wisconsin,
like Menominee and Bad River Band, who are investing in clean and reliable energy sources to become energy independent.
For years, the state has purchased renewable electricity certificates from Wisconsin utilities to power our state agencies.
I want to make sure we continue to work towards our clean energy goals.
Thanks to the steps I'm announcing tonight, we're ensuring the state will continue doing so long after I'm governor.
Tonight, I'm announcing that the state is going to purchase about 225,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy every year for the next 20 years.
Folks, just to put that in perspective, that's enough renewable energy to power more than a half million Wisconsin holes.
We're also continuing to explore new ways for Wisconsin to be a leader in clean energy.
I'm excited to announce that we're going to be partnering with UW Madison's Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics to study nuclear energy opportunities in Wisconsin.
Nuclear energy is the largest source of clean power in our country, and it's a safe, reliable, carbon-free option to power our homes and businesses.
This could be a game changer for our state.
I'm glad this work has received by partisan support this session.
Folks, this partnership on nuclear energy is the Wisconsin idea in action.
Wisconsin idea has always been around harnessing the extraordinary research and innovation that's happening on UW campuses and using it to improve public policy in Wisconsin and beyond.
It's why I'm also excited we're continuing the tradition to support small businesses across our state.
Our newly created Ignite Wisconsin program is going to make strategic investments to advance startups in our state, targeting sectors to boost our home-grown innovation.
This includes connecting the dots to invest in the Wisconsin Fusion Energy Coalition, anchored by UWM Madison's fusion research, so Wisconsin becomes a national hub for commercializing fusion energy.
That would be fun. That would be fun. That's going to be a blast.
Folks, a key part of our work to build more sustainable future is building a 21st century workforce to meet 21st century needs.
Wisconsin wants to continue to compete and be a leader in new and innovative industries we must invest in workforce training to prepare workforce for the future.
It's why my administration worked to secure over $7 million to launch a workforce training program's focus on developing our advanced manufacturing and AI workforce in Wisconsin.
Folks, AI is here to stay. So making sure Wisconsin is prepared to create jobs for the future and meet the rapidly involving needs of a 21st century economy has to be a top priority.
At the same time, we also have to make sure we don't jeopardize the work we have done and are doing to build a more sustainable future for our state.
Wisconsin is ready for bold and urgent solutions that will stop treating these goals as mutually exclusive.
And that's especially true when it comes to data centers.
Ensuring our state is prepared for the 21st century does not mean abandoning all our state's history and traditions.
We aren't and we won't.
Wisconsin must embrace the future where we don't have to choose between mitigating climate change and protecting the environment or creating good paying jobs and having a strong economy.
We must do both.
Simple as well.
We also couldn't reach consensus during the state budget negotiations on a comprehensive plan to reauthorize the Knowles Nelson stewardship program.
The namesake of two Wisconsin conservation heroes.
The stewardship program, which has been a proud part of Wisconsin's heritage for decades, is now set to expire at the end of June.
Let's get a bipartisan bill done to reauthorize the stewardship program that both supports land acquisition and management of Wisconsin's valuable natural resources and public lands.
We have to do this folks.
Thank you.
I also repeatedly ask the legislature to do more to approve water quality and get contaminants out of like lead and PFAS out of our water.
Wisconsinites should be able to trust the water coming out of their tap.
We must find common ground on bipartisan legislation to help Wisconsinites get contaminants like PFAS out of their water and release the $125 million we approved over two years ago.
Now we've gotten a lot done for Wisconsin over the last seven years, but tonight I don't want to just want to reflect on our work together.
I also want to talk about what's next.
Where Wisconsin goes from here?
What worries me about our future and actually keeps me awake at night as governor?
I'm worried about the impacts of reckless decisions being made in Washington and that these decisions will have disastrous consequences for Wisconsinites,
taxpayers, and the state budget going forward.
I'm worried about the tens of thousands of federal employees who are fired for no reason, including thousands of Wisconsin workers.
Many serve veterans and our farmers and agricultural industries.
I'm worried about the people who suddenly found themselves without jobs due to no fault of their own.
And I'm worried about Wisconsinites, especially our veterans and farmers who depend on the services these folks are supposed to provide.
I'm also angry when I think about our neighbors, young kids and families across the state who aren't going to school or work or anyplace else because they're scared leaving their home may mean their family will be torn apart.
I worry about our kids who are being traumatized by violence on social media in the news, on our streets and in our neighborhoods.
And I worry about what all this means for America's Dairyland, which has depended on the hard work of immigrants for generations.
And I'm also worried that even with our successful efforts to help folks make ends meet, Wisconsinites are feeling the squeeze due to tariff taxes and erratic trade wars.
Prices are going up and things like school supplies, groceries, clothes, gas, more.
Americans last year footed the bill for 96% of the costs from tariffs.
I noted earlier that our state has seen historic economic success under my administration with all your help, which has seen a budget surplus and rainy day fund at record high levels.
Based on what's coming, I worry how long that will last.
I'm worried about the impacts President Trump's so-called big beautiful bill.
If Republican lawmakers don't approve resources, the state needs to keep food share payments errors low.
Wisconsin taxpayers could have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalty fees to the Trump administration every year under the BBB.
And let me be clear, on top of the more than $284 million we've already estimating Wisconsin taxpayers will have to pay in future budgets.
The sooner the legislature invests in food share quality control efforts, the more time the state has to keep food share errors down, it's pretty simple.
We can save Wisconsin taxpayers potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in penalty fees a year.
We could have to pay the Trump administration if we don't.
I'm not negotiating with Republicans about a $70 million investment the state must make right now to save Wisconsin taxpayers as much as $200 million in penalty fees later.
We've been asking for this for months and it has to get done.
If the legislature fails to provide the funding that is needed, Republicans will be able to blame the penalty fees at taxpayers who we force to pay.
It's not good. It's pretty simple. Let's get it done.
And that's not all that keeps me awake. Health care costs are skyrocketing. Wisconsinites already don't feel like they're getting a fair shake when it comes to insurance coverage.
And now because of the so-called big beautiful bail, over 270,000 Wisconsinites will lose their health care.
Because Republicans in Congress refuse to extend tax credits under the Affordable Care Act that make health care more affordable for millions of Americans, many are going to be priced out.
I talked to Kim, a small business owner in Green Bay, whose health care coverage went up 500 percent this year.
Kim said she had enough money to pay for one month of health care coverage, and then she's going to go without.
Wisconsinites across our state will be forced to do the same. Congress must fix the health care crisis they've created, or every member of Congress from Wisconsin and beyond who allowed this to happen should be held accountable at the ballot box.
You know this, I'm not a rocket science, but I did teach biology. Maybe if we want to make Americans in Wisconsinites healthy again, making health care affordable and accessible would be a great place this time.
We could also start by trusting the science public health experts and medical professionals who have eradicated diseases and phone cures and kept us healthy and safe for decades.
Folks, public health is not a partisan issue. It isn't up for debate. And real lives are at stake if we fail to listen.
It's why in the coming weeks I'll sign an executive order to have Wisconsin join the World Health Organization's Global Response Network.
We must do what we can to keep our kids, our families, and our communities healthy and safe. It's as simple as that.
Wisconsin is as purple as ever, but we've shown we can put politics aside and work together to get good things done.
Compared to all the chaos dysfunction and recklessness in Washington, D.C., here in Wisconsin, we've worked to lead by example.
And a big part of that is the fact that today lawmakers are elected under fair maps I signed into law.
Here's the problem Wisconsin. New maps are redrawn every 10 years. While we have fair maps today, we still don't have a nonpartisan redistricting process in place.
That means there's no guarantee Wisconsinites still have fair maps after the next census. Wisconsinites and Americans across our country have watched the President of the United States,
pressure on Republican legislators into adopting new maps that will benefit him.
And as a result, Democratic legislators have been put in the unthinkable position to respond by trying to restore balance. It is crazy.
Well, very few people in this country know what it means to live under some of the most politically gerrymended maps in Wisconsin, but Wisconsinites do.
And they know because they lived it, and we are not going back.
I know people here disagree sometimes. Sometimes a lot. Politics could get in the way of creating a nonpartisan redistricting commission that everyone can support.
But there's one thing that we all should be able to do to agree on, which is that politics should stay out of the redistricting from start to finish.
So tonight, I'm announcing that I'll be calling a special session of the legislature this spring to take up a constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering once and for all in Wisconsin.
And let me be clear. I hesitate to bring this legislation a special session later this year in August or September or October.
Heck, I'm old enough to remember when the legislature was willing to meet in December.
I don't know if you remember that. I do.
Folks, Wisconsin has fair, safe, and secure elections. We must continue to fight every effort by any politician to interfere with or make it harder for eligible Wisconsinites to cast their ballots.
And a big part of the reason we have fair, safe, and secure elections is because of the amazing election officials and poll workers across our state.
So next time...
So next time, like Kathy and I did today, you cast your ballot, and I hope you did today. Thank the folks who's making it happen.
Make them...
These folks are friends and neighbors who often volunteer their time to make sure we can exercise our most basic and fundamental rights as Americans.
And they do so out of a sense of duty. They do it because it's the right thing to do. They do it because they're a good neighbor.
That's extraordinary. As governor, I've often declared a theme for a year, a topic or issue I want to focus on.
We had the year of clean drinking water, the years of broadband access, mental health, workers, and of course, the year of the kid.
This year, I want to keep it simple. I want us to focus on our Wisconsin values, the kindness, respect, empathy, compassion, and declaring 2026 the year of the neighbor because we...
Get to know your neighbors because we all could use a good neighbor and we could all be better neighbors.
And we're going to spend the next year celebrating the neighbors who make Wisconsin a great place it is to call home.
The first responders who answer our call in our darkest hour, the librarians who help find our new favorite book, the teachers who comfort, inspire, and educate our kids, the state worker who helped us find and apply for health care or job training.
The veterans who served our country, the farmer who feeds our families, the nurse taking care of our loved ones, the helpers who work every day to make life just a little bit better for everyone who lives here.
Wisconsinites are helpers by nature. It's in our DNA. When things are tough, we roll up our sleeves and get the work.
We shovel a driveway or bake a casserole and we show up for our neighbors because we know that whether it's unpredictable weather or the unpredictable nature of politics, we're all in this together.
And we're going to get through this together, not by alienating our neighbors, but by getting to know them, by looking out for one another and maintaining our Wisconsin values of kindness, empathy, compassion, and respect,
because it's the golden rule and it's the right thing to do because it's who we are as Wisconsinites.
Thank you.
I always promise to be a governor who works for all Wisconsinites and who does the right thing when it matters most.
I'll never stop working to make good on the promise as long as I'm governor.
We have lots of work to do, folks, so let's get back to it.
Thank you, and on Wisconsin UW Marching Band, let her rip.
Thank you.
And so, the University of Wisconsin Marching Band concludes Governor Tony Evers' eighth state of
the state address before a joint session of the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemahue, who was elected to the state Senate in 2014, is making his way back to our location as we speak.
He'll provide this year's Republican response in just a few moments.
So, before the senator arrives, Sean, I just wanted to express that, again, the governor had declared this the year of the neighbor, and yet as we listened to this pretty long speech, you said there's no deal.
What were you talking about?
Yeah, well, I mean, you've heard the governor and Republican leaders for, you know, maybe people haven't been paying attention to this, but there have been actual negotiations going on.
It seemed like at the Capitol over some kind of a plan that would reduce property taxes and increase school funding.
Just listening to the rhetoric between the governor and leaders lately, it seems like they are fairly far apart on that, and with the assembly set to go home in a couple of days, it just makes it difficult to reach an agreement on something so big.
But, you know, you did hear a lot of the governor's accomplishments as he views them.
In a speech that long, you hear sort of the list of what he views as his legacy.
There's also quite a long list of things that he would like to do, but is going to have his work cut out to get accomplished when the legislature's not in his party.
Because the governor has been talking about how one of his priorities is property tax relief, and of course, the Republican majority would also like to see property tax relief.
The plan that they are working on at times with the governor, at times with the majority itself, is something that the governor said is going to have to be a heck of a lot better than what Republican leaders sent him this week.
Yeah, I mean, you've got a couple of factors that have driven up property taxes in Wisconsin a few really, but a couple that they can kind of point to the other side with is that the governor did issue a veto that extended school revenue increases for four centuries, and that's something
400 year veto, and in this last budget, Republicans didn't include any general school aid, which would offset property taxes.
So those factors working together, and you have some of the largest school property taxes we've seen in three decades, just kind of an open question at this point about whether or not they'll be able to address that before they go home for the year.
Good evening, everyone.
The state of our state is strong, but not for the reasons you heard earlier tonight.
The state of our state is strong in spite of the governor, not because of him.
Thanks to strong Republican majorities here in the legislature.
Wisconsin families have only seen the state of our state.
Not because of him.
Thanks to strong Republican majorities here in the legislature.
Wisconsin families have only seen one example of what state government could look like with full Democrat control.
Governor Evers disastrous 400 year veto that is driving property taxes through the roof.
If the Democrats were in charge of Madison, Wisconsin would be a very different place.
Jobs would flee to other states after they repealed the manufacturers and agricultural tax credit.
Our increasingly mobile workforce would leave for states with lower income tax rates.
And popular reforms like voter ID and the Rains Act would have been repealed long time ago.
Thankfully, that's not reality.
And thanks to our state legislature, the state of our state is strong.
Since 2011, we've cut your taxes by a cumulative $42 billion.
That's more than 7,500 for each person in Wisconsin that they have left in their pockets to address rising costs.
Even after these historic tax cuts, the state continues to have strong surpluses.
Right now, Wisconsin has a projected $2.5 billion surplus.
Tax cuts are an important way the state government can do what's best for Wisconsin families,
but we also need to invest in core priorities like health care, education, and transportation.
Earlier this session, the Senate passed two important bills that will increase access to affordable health care.
The first proposal extends Medicaid eligibility for postpartum mothers from 60 days to a full year after giving birth.
The second ensures insurance coverage for supplemental breast cancer screenings for women with heightened cancer risks.
That's on top of the 7.8 billion increase for state budget provided our health care system,
including support for hospitals, long-term care, and mental health facilities.
Those investments won't solve every challenge facing our health care system,
but they'll make a meaningful impact across our state.
For schools, the bipartisan biennial budget provided record-high funding,
including the largest in-state support for special education.
Roads are a critical part of Wisconsin manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism,
so we invest in more than $1 billion in transportation, including $303 million for local roads and bridges.
Tonight, Wisconsin stands at a crossroads.
As families across the state feel the impact of rising costs, the state government has a $2.5 billion surplus.
You know what? Let me repeat that.
As you and your families are struggling to pay for groceries, housing, utilities,
the state government has $2.5 billion of your money just sitting here in Madison.
We want to give that money back to you.
Speaker Voss and I sent a proposal to Governor Evers to return a portion of the surplus to taxpayers through a $1,000 rebate check.
This would come on top of the $1.5 billion in tax cuts for the middle class and retirees we already passed last summer.
Our plan would use the remaining surplus to strengthen our commitment to special education
above what we promised in the budget and dedicate $500 million to limit the property tax impact of the governor's 400-year veto.
You know, I love Wisconsin.
I've chosen to live here most of my life.
I've owned a small business for 20 years.
I want to make Wisconsin even stronger.
We can make our state stronger by lowering property taxes, supporting schools, and returning the surplus to the people who created it.
You, the taxpayers.
The legislature is ready.
It's up to Governor Evers to make this compromise a reality.
God bless you, and may God continue to bless the great state of Wisconsin.
That was Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemahue with the Republican response.
If you'd like to watch tonight's speech from Governor Tony Evers or Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemahue again,
we will have it posted later tonight on our website at pbswisconsin.org.
We will have continuing coverage and reaction to the state of the state address this Friday at 730 on here and now.
Wisconsin Public Radio will also continue to follow developments from the state Capitol both on the air and online at wpr.org.
Thank you for joining us this evening live from the state Capitol in Madison.
I'm Sean Johnson with Wisconsin Public Radio.
And I'm Frederica Freiberg with PBS Wisconsin.
This concludes our coverage of Wisconsin's 2026 state of the state address.
Thanks for watching.
Thank you.