not see the property property tax increase.
Period. >> With so many candidates
running for governor, it can be hard to remember all
the names, much less where everyone stands on each
issue. Last month "Here& Now", senior political
reporter Zac Schultz sat down with nine of the
leading candidates. You can find those interviews on
PBS Wisconsin Organic Valley. In addition, over
the next few months, you'll hear from the candidates on
individual issues everything from school
funding to data centers to creating more affordable
housing. Tonight, we kick things off with their
highest priorities what each candidate would work
on first as governor. >> For the first time in 16
years, you can legitimately say control of the
Wisconsin legislature is up for grabs in the next
election, which means the incoming governor could
actually pass their agenda. So we asked each candidate
what the first bill would be that they want to sign
into law. The most common answer had to do with
dealing with the rising costs of everything.
>> So the things that I want to make sure that I'm
signing into law are things that are going to reduce
costs for Wisconsinites, and that's going to be
health care costs primarily. But also looking at child
care, we've got other states that we can look at
for examples where they've been able to subsidize
child care. For folks, treating that as
infrastructure is going to be something that's going
to be a priority for me. >> Well, the first thing I
want to sign is about, you know, how do we really
tackle this affordability crisis? You know, I would
love for us to focus on affordable and attainable
housing in every corner of of the state of Wisconsin.
I would like for us to focus on fully funding our
public schools, making sure that there are good paying
jobs, no matter where they are in our state, and
making sure that our young people are ready for the
jobs of today and tomorrow. >> No matter what we do,
the first thing we need to do is work on affordability.
I think there are any number of ways in which we
need to ensure, whether it's on the issues of
stable housing around the state, or whether it's on
the issues of health care, Medicaid expansion, which
the governor has tried to do over the course of his
eight years, hasn't been able to do. Those are the
types of things that can be done under with a
Democratic majority, and those are the types of
things that I'd be eager to do right away.
>> Well, I think there's a laundry list, and that's
part of our challenge. But one of the things that I
want to see first is things that are focused on
affordability, property taxes and income taxes in
particular. It's embarrassing to me that our
top bracket of income tax is almost double what
Illinois's is. I'd like to see it flattened out and
then slowly eliminated, and then property taxes. I'd
like to see us go from 4 or 5 entities on property tax
bills down to 2 or 3. The goal of cutting them by 50%.
You make a moonshot, and if you hit the stratosphere,
you've won. >> Well, the first thing
that the governor comes in and does in at any time
when there's a new governor is write the budget. And so
I will be working closely with whoever's in the
legislature to make sure that we have a budget that
is immediately addressing challenges that
Wisconsinites are facing, things like healthcare and
child care costs. But also we have a real challenge
around public education. We need to reinvest in our
teachers and our schools, and we need to make sure
that our university and our tech colleges are funded in
a way that helps them move forward. It's all about
investment. BadgerCare expansion right
away. Day one special session if necessary. I
refuse to sign a state budget that does not
include BadgerCare expansion. If we have not
already gotten to that point. We're one of nine
states. We are one of nine states that has yet to
expand our Medicaid program under the Affordable Care
Act. It's it's a travesty that that is not the case.
Republicans and legislature have denied people the care
that they deserve. >> Boy, you know, I don't
think we have any choice at this point, but we got to
deal with education. I just saw some data this week
where almost half of first graders cannot read at
grade level. We have fallen behind Mississippi and
education. That is unacceptable. I don't care
if you're Republican, Democrat or whatever
political persuasion. We have always had a long,
proud tradition of educating children well,
and we've got to get that back. Otherwise our state
cannot succeed. But I think next is the cost of living,
and it is getting the cost of energy down, reducing
taxes, things like that that make Wisconsin more
affordable. budget that raises wages
for people, restores people's rights, lowers
costs on the biggest ticket items like health care and
funds our public school system. Our kids have been
getting shortchanged for a generation, and it's not
fair. And it's actually terrible for our economy.
Big signature policy items that I'm interested in
passing is opening up the state health insurance and
the state pension systems to any person to be able to
buy in. >> Red flag laws and
background checks and safe storage. I think gun safety
is a universal issue, and we have to meet we have to
ensure that we're protecting our kids. Then
public education and universal child care. I
think when we put our kids first, working class
families all win. families all win.