WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:28.840 Of those who voted no, many didn't care for the fact. 00:28.840 --> 00:40.680 The bill saw bipartisan passage in the state assembly with ten dems voting in favor along 00:40.680 --> 00:47.000 with all Republicans, among them Republican Rep. Tony Kurtz of Wannewalk, Vice Chair 00:47.000 --> 00:54.240 of the Joint Finance Committee. 00:54.240 --> 00:59.480 I was surprised for you that this blew up and failed. 00:59.480 --> 01:08.720 I was incredibly shocked, or how many days after the fact, and I'm still a little shocked 01:08.720 --> 01:14.560 and dismayed to be very frank with you. 01:14.560 --> 01:19.400 I just think it's a good package, I understand there's people on those sides of the aisle 01:19.400 --> 01:26.680 that have their differences with it, and I know you just talked about a lame duck governor 01:26.680 --> 01:33.080 and a new speaker and a new majority leader, but really since January, we've been working 01:33.080 --> 01:38.640 with the governor in good faith on this, so for those that say this was done out of the 01:38.640 --> 01:40.720 blue, that is not true. 01:40.720 --> 01:46.200 This is something that we've been working on, and anybody inside the Madison bubble know 01:46.200 --> 01:51.600 we've been working on that, we've taken votes on no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. 01:51.600 --> 01:55.360 The special ed is something that we all know, our school districts know, that they need 01:55.360 --> 02:01.400 that, and so that's what kind of shocks me the most, that we couldn't get this across 02:01.400 --> 02:05.880 the finish line, even though people knew we were working on this. 02:05.880 --> 02:12.840 As to the day in question of the vote, the assembly sat on this for hours before it finally 02:12.840 --> 02:13.840 passed. 02:13.840 --> 02:19.000 Were you negotiating with Senate Republicans or Democrats during that time? 02:19.000 --> 02:25.480 To be very frank with you, folks, we were trying to get a deal, I mean, I'm in the 02:25.480 --> 02:31.240 estate assembly and I'm trying to whip votes over in the state senate, yeah, we were trying 02:31.240 --> 02:32.240 to get this done. 02:32.240 --> 02:35.880 This is something that we truly wanted to get done. 02:35.880 --> 02:42.840 I think personally, and I'm just speaking for me, I hope the governor calls this back 02:42.840 --> 02:47.840 in for a special session, I really do, because we have some unfinished business to do. 02:47.840 --> 02:50.680 On this or other matters? 02:50.680 --> 02:57.440 On this particular matter, I mean, what bothers me the most about this entire package is, 02:57.440 --> 03:02.120 you have some of my Republican colleagues that obviously, they want to save the money 03:02.120 --> 03:05.720 for a large tax cut next year, okay, that's fine. 03:05.720 --> 03:09.960 And then you have my Democrat colleagues that obviously want to save all this money for 03:09.960 --> 03:15.160 next session, because they have their various programs that they want to do. 03:15.160 --> 03:18.880 The problem is, people are hurting right now. 03:18.880 --> 03:20.840 The economy is suffering. 03:20.840 --> 03:24.560 Our school districts could use the money for special education. 03:24.560 --> 03:31.520 And the further we keep pushing this down the road is we're another year behind, because 03:31.520 --> 03:39.920 let's say, January, and you know this, you've been around this longer than I, with your 03:39.920 --> 03:40.920 experience. 03:40.920 --> 03:44.160 In January, everything's now focused on the state budget. 03:44.160 --> 03:49.240 And historically, the state budget gets signed into, you know, late, or, you know, July. 03:49.240 --> 03:51.880 And then once again, those programs have to get implemented. 03:51.880 --> 03:59.720 So we are, we are another 14 to 15 minutes, months further down the road to try to get 03:59.720 --> 04:02.440 tax relief for those folks that need it. 04:02.440 --> 04:06.840 And also the special education funding that our schools so desperately need. 04:06.840 --> 04:13.240 And so that's, if you want to know the truth, that's what frustrates me the most is we had 04:13.240 --> 04:14.440 a really good deal now. 04:14.440 --> 04:19.080 I mean, yeah, it had its issues, but now we're just kicking the can down the road, honestly, 04:19.080 --> 04:25.680 probably 15 to 16 months before we get something else that's going to help Wisconsinites. 04:25.680 --> 04:30.760 Why would coming back in be any different? 04:30.760 --> 04:36.080 Maybe it would give time for people to possibly reflect, see if there's something that we 04:36.080 --> 04:37.080 can tweak. 04:37.080 --> 04:44.240 It's just like, just like you even mentioned, you know, we were truly trying to find something 04:44.240 --> 04:50.120 that would get some of our Democrat colleagues or some of the Republican colleagues on board. 04:50.120 --> 04:53.520 Maybe it gives us more time to do that now. 04:53.520 --> 05:00.120 I thought we were doing a lot of that before, but that's, that's my hope. 05:00.120 --> 05:04.840 Because once again, the longer we wait, I don't see a, I don't see a point in waiting. 05:04.840 --> 05:06.320 You know, I'll put it that way. 05:06.320 --> 05:11.440 What were some of the pot sweeteners that were going back and forth? 05:11.440 --> 05:19.760 Obviously talking about the different things, you know, we saw that at the end, we did put 05:19.760 --> 05:21.360 the veterans tax credit. 05:21.360 --> 05:22.360 I'm a veteran. 05:22.360 --> 05:27.520 I know, you know, it's funny last week, the week before, excuse me, the VA secretary, Dave 05:27.520 --> 05:30.600 Collins, was actually in the state of Wisconsin. 05:30.600 --> 05:36.280 I got to talk to the VFW state commander there, the American Legion state commander 05:36.280 --> 05:40.640 and the property tax exemption for disabled veterans. 05:40.640 --> 05:42.760 That was part of a sweetener. 05:42.760 --> 05:46.520 That is something incredibly important to those in organizations. 05:46.520 --> 05:49.680 We thought that was going to help disaster relief. 05:49.680 --> 05:54.760 That is something, and that's had broad bipartisan support as well. 05:54.760 --> 05:58.040 You know, in my area, we had just had some tornadoes a couple of weeks ago, you know, 05:58.040 --> 06:01.920 up there, like the Walsaw area in the Milwaukee area, the flooding last year. 06:01.920 --> 06:07.200 So we thought that was a way to sweeten the pot. 06:07.200 --> 06:13.160 But once again, this is, this is an opportunity for them to come back to us and say, hey, 06:13.160 --> 06:17.200 we'd like to maybe see this or like to say that they wouldn't even entertain that. 06:17.200 --> 06:21.200 That's what's kind of frustrating about the whole thing you got to the point where, you 06:21.200 --> 06:25.760 know, they didn't even want to sit down and talk in a reasonable way. 06:25.760 --> 06:29.640 And Republican candidate for Governor Tom Tiffany blasted the measure. 06:29.640 --> 06:32.080 Did that give you any pause? 06:32.080 --> 06:40.120 No, because, and because what I just mentioned earlier, I mean, I understand and I respect 06:40.120 --> 06:46.720 Tom and I understand what he wants to do, but the fact of the matter is, it's today. 06:46.720 --> 06:48.640 I mean, we have the surplus. 06:48.640 --> 06:55.000 The state is very, we are in a great financial position to get some of this money back to 06:55.000 --> 06:58.840 taxpayers, but also help our schools with special education. 06:58.840 --> 07:00.160 And I'm sympathetic to that. 07:00.160 --> 07:03.920 I know that's an incredibly costly program. 07:03.920 --> 07:06.200 So no, that does not give me pause. 07:06.200 --> 07:10.520 I mean, I understand why he did what he did and I respect that. 07:10.520 --> 07:14.200 But you know, let's be honest, I mean, you know, the Democrats on the Senate side did 07:14.200 --> 07:15.200 the same thing. 07:15.200 --> 07:19.520 You know, they dug their hills into for various reasons and I respect that as well. 07:19.520 --> 07:24.800 It's just the time and places now, why do we want to wait? 07:24.800 --> 07:31.720 Because like I mentioned before, the timeline is not why do something that we all collectively 07:31.720 --> 07:34.000 know we should do. 07:34.000 --> 07:39.000 Why are we going to wait 15 to 16 months next year to do that? 07:39.000 --> 07:44.760 The rebate checks per the bill was supposed to go out no later than the 15th of September 07:44.760 --> 07:46.560 2026. 07:46.560 --> 07:51.360 Property tax relief, people would see that immediately on their taxes in December when 07:51.360 --> 07:53.080 they get their property tax bills. 07:53.080 --> 07:58.360 The interesting about the no tax on overtime, that would have took effect immediately with 07:58.360 --> 08:00.480 holding tables being affected. 08:00.480 --> 08:02.920 So people would have seen that relief immediately. 08:02.920 --> 08:06.360 And then once again, the schools, I talked to one of my superintendents yesterday. 08:06.360 --> 08:09.680 I'm not going to say names because he's a wonderful person and I don't want to, you 08:09.680 --> 08:14.680 know, put words in his mouth, but he was just in disbelief that this failed. 08:14.680 --> 08:18.640 And that would have been a million dollars for this one particular school district that 08:18.640 --> 08:23.040 would help them immediately to help that on the special ed. 08:23.040 --> 08:27.560 So the other money they could pull or they wouldn't have to spend on special ed. 08:27.560 --> 08:29.400 So there's a lot of frustration out there. 08:29.400 --> 08:32.800 I hope you hear it in my voice. 08:32.800 --> 08:36.560 It's just, I guess I go back to the thing, why wait? 08:36.560 --> 08:40.520 We know we have need to, people are hurting because of the economy and prices. 08:40.520 --> 08:42.760 So let's try to give some of that back. 08:42.760 --> 08:48.600 Just coming back around on this a bit, Tom Tiffany also called the measures in this temporary 08:48.600 --> 08:49.600 gimmicks. 08:49.600 --> 08:51.560 What about that? 08:51.560 --> 08:56.560 I don't know tax on tips and no tax on overtime as a gimmick. 08:56.560 --> 09:00.840 I respectfully disagree with that. 09:00.840 --> 09:06.880 You know, the special education funding, once again, that is, and if you want anybody 09:06.880 --> 09:11.880 to blame and like the state legislature on who really is a hawk on the special ed, it's 09:11.880 --> 09:18.040 me because, as you know, from your experience, once we put money into special education funding, 09:18.040 --> 09:22.760 regardless of what the economy does, that is money we as a state can never pull back 09:22.760 --> 09:25.760 because we have a federal requirement. 09:25.760 --> 09:29.200 Once we put a dollar amount in special education, it has to stay there. 09:29.200 --> 09:32.680 We can never call that back if we have another horrible economy. 09:32.680 --> 09:35.960 So I am a little careful on what we do for special ed. 09:35.960 --> 09:37.040 Do we need to do it? 09:37.040 --> 09:38.040 Absolutely. 09:38.040 --> 09:41.680 And so to say that's a gimmick, once again, I respectfully disagree with that. 09:41.680 --> 09:46.320 That's permanent funding for our schools, you know, like the Regents of the world, like 09:46.320 --> 09:51.800 the Westons of the world, like the, you know, Richland School Districts of the world can 09:51.800 --> 09:55.880 count on for months and years ahead. 09:55.880 --> 09:59.800 So I don't, I don't, I'm going to respectfully disagree. 09:59.800 --> 10:01.560 I don't think it's a gimmick at all. 10:01.560 --> 10:04.040 Now let's be fair, both sides have said that. 10:04.040 --> 10:08.320 You know, I know, I know someone, Republican colleagues, that you pointed out, but also 10:08.320 --> 10:11.200 some of my Democrat colleagues pointed that the same thing out. 10:11.200 --> 10:16.000 So I just agree on the premise on both of those. 10:16.000 --> 10:22.200 So as to the economy, some people wanted to be prudent, hold on to any projected surplus 10:22.200 --> 10:27.960 in case it sours, you know, potentially more than it has. 10:27.960 --> 10:30.840 What about that persuasion? 10:30.840 --> 10:34.720 You know, I've heard that that's an argument some have tried to make. 10:34.720 --> 10:41.320 The fact of the matter is we had a really good state budget coming out of the state 10:41.320 --> 10:43.240 budget late fall. 10:43.240 --> 10:47.880 We saw our projection numbers higher than anticipated. 10:47.880 --> 10:53.280 Just in January, you know, the numbers really like our economy is doing better than we anticipate. 10:53.280 --> 10:58.200 Even on Monday, you know, Monday, the fiscal Bureau and wonderful Bob Lang and his incredible 10:58.200 --> 11:02.600 team over there came out with another is going to be a hundred million dollars that we are 11:02.600 --> 11:04.520 above projections. 11:04.520 --> 11:11.280 So I would never, and let me repeat this, I would never sign or vote on a bill. 11:11.280 --> 11:14.960 If I knew that was going to put us in financial peril, that's not the way we've done doing 11:14.960 --> 11:18.840 budgeting over the last four or five budgets. 11:18.840 --> 11:24.400 We live within our means and this budget and the proposal that unfortunately failed Wednesday 11:24.400 --> 11:25.800 night lives within our means. 11:25.800 --> 11:30.840 Once again, people think about if this was all said and done, we'd still probably well 11:30.840 --> 11:37.840 well over have probably 900 to 900 million dollars in our checking account. 11:37.840 --> 11:41.480 But then a lot of people don't forget about the rainy day fund, the rainy day fund is 11:41.480 --> 11:46.560 like our savings account and that's well over two billion dollars and that's earning interest. 11:46.560 --> 11:50.200 It's almost seven and a half a million dollars a month, just an interest. 11:50.200 --> 11:56.360 So financially, the state is doing very well and I would never once again, I'd never would 11:56.360 --> 12:02.000 put any of that jeopardy if there is a question about if we could not afford this or not. 12:02.000 --> 12:09.080 So finally, in your mind, how tough might it be for people who voted no at the doors 12:09.080 --> 12:15.360 in their campaigns for their elections? 12:15.360 --> 12:19.360 I personally think it's going to be pretty tough. 12:19.360 --> 12:22.960 I cannot tell you, I honestly can make a phone calls. 12:22.960 --> 12:29.040 I have gotten over the last two days about like what in the world happened? 12:29.040 --> 12:31.480 How did this fall apart? 12:32.480 --> 12:38.600 I mean, being inside the bubble, I know it's failed and that's what frustrates me the most. 12:38.600 --> 12:44.120 So I couldn't imagine going into campaign season and walking to a door and talking to 12:44.640 --> 12:51.280 a wonderful young lady, well, a server just in my area, Allison and how to tell her, oh, 12:51.280 --> 12:58.360 by the way, you're not going to get the no tax on tips like we like we want it to or Brad, 12:58.440 --> 13:03.640 which is a good friend of mine who is a factory worker who was just ecstatic about the no tax 13:03.640 --> 13:05.640 on overtime. 13:05.640 --> 13:12.640 How do you tell him that, oh, by the way, I voted no against that or even more importantly, 13:13.640 --> 13:17.320 you know, how do you tell a superintendent or school board member, oh, by the way, you 13:17.320 --> 13:22.760 know, we had this other $300 million we were going to help with special education funding 13:22.760 --> 13:24.480 and I voted no on that. 13:24.480 --> 13:27.560 It's a hard sell in my very humble opinion. 13:27.560 --> 13:30.560 Representative Tony Kurt, thank you very much for joining us. 13:31.560 --> 13:32.640 Hey, thank you for your time. 13:32.640 --> 13:34.160 I hope you have a good, good weekend. 13:34.160 --> 13:34.520 Thank you. 13:34.520 --> 13:35.040 Thank you. 13:39.320 --> 13:40.560 That was so good. 13:40.680 --> 13:41.320 Thank you. 13:42.520 --> 13:44.040 I don't know about that. 13:44.040 --> 13:46.200 I'm probably going to get blasted by yourself. 13:46.600 --> 13:47.240 I don't know. 13:47.240 --> 13:47.720 But that's OK. 13:47.720 --> 13:52.400 Aren't we all all the time, you know, but you do the work. 13:52.720 --> 13:53.360 So we are. 13:53.360 --> 13:55.360 And it's, I'll tell you, it is.