for joining us. >> Hey, thank you for your
time. I hope you have a good, good weekend.
help us better understand the broader motivations and
implications of this deal, we turn to our reporters at
Inside Wisconsin Politics Zac Schultz of PBS
Wisconsin and Shawn Johnson and Rich Kremer from
Wisconsin Public Radio. >> To me, this is a
political Rorschach test. How you view this
particular deal kind of matches your view on
politics for some people and for a lot of ordinary
people around the state, this was the epitome of a
compromise. And as we're about to run for election,
those are things that normally you'd want to see
politicians pass. The other side of that test is
political purity. And there are a lot of people looking
at this deal saying, this isn't as good as I would
like it to be, and I think we can do better when we
have more power next year. >> We had a very unusual
scene kind of play out. The assembly met after waiting
all day to see what the Senate was going to do.
They passed this bill in short order. The Senate is
meeting at the same time, and it's clear that things
are not going well there. And this bill actually
fails on a vote of 15 to 18. And I know people probably
think big deal things pass, things fail. Bills don't
actually get to the point of failure hardly ever in
the state legislature. If it doesn't have the votes,
it does not come to the floor, especially something
as big and dramatic as this. And for the governor to
negotiate this and his Senate Democrats stand
unified against it to help kill it with a few
Republicans is something we do not see every day. Zac,
what do you think was motivating Senate Democrats
here? >> There's two factors. I
think. First is they were insulted. They were left
out of the loop. >> That is huge, actually.
>> That everyone knows they need at least a couple
Democratic votes and probably more so. The fact
that they were not consulted did not have any
input on this bill, and made it clear from the very
first time it was announced that they were unhappy with
it, showed the second part of why Senate Democrats
were not in line with this comes next fall. And that's
what the reelection there. They are not quite certain,
but very confident that they're going to flip the
majority in that chamber and that when they come to
power in the next session, they will not only have a
say, they will be the deciding factors in how any
bills are passed and how budgets are passed, and so
they can direct where that money goes. And if they
think they get lucky and there's a Democratic
assembly, then they're going to say, all this
money will be available for us to spend in ways that we
prefer instead of having to compromise.
clear cut case where circumstances matter
completely. You know, if if Tony Evers were running for
election in November and he said, this is my big bill,
Democrats, this is what I want to run on. I mean,
they would have voted. They would have voted yes. No.
Republicans probably wouldn't have brought it up
in that case. So, you know, it's a it's a theoretical
exercise. But but Senate Democrats, I'm confident,
would have been with him. He is not on the ballot,
though, this November, as Diane Hesselbein noted, and
Senate Democrats are poised to. They think, take that
majority. She has essentially been a co
majority leader on some of the big bills that have
come through the Senate this year, from the budget
to gambling. And so to freeze them out of talks
like this, which is the way they viewed it, certainly,
and to end up with a bill that was pretty Republican
in nature, about a billion and a half in tax cuts, was
not something that they enjoyed, you know.
>> Well. And don't forget, there is another factor
when it comes to everyone looking at the next budget
and the next year. And that is there's a lot of people
who think we may be looking into a recession. Yeah. So
most of this surplus is a projection of what the
economy is going to bring in for tax revenues. If
there's an economic downturn in the next six
months, that money disappears all by itself
without having been sent out. So you send it out.
Even though most of this is one time spending, it may
not be there next year. Now, they say even in the worst
of circumstances, at least the state will have a
little bit money to start the next year with. So that
is a legitimate concern considering where gas
prices and grocery prices are right now. And with no
end to a war in Iran, that the economy could shift and
go down and these tax revenues may not
materialize. >> Rich, one question I had
for you that we kind of traded notes on throughout
the night was, will voters actually remember this?
Like, will anybody be rewarded or punished?
>> You know, it's it's a huge question. You all of
what you're saying makes sense to me, someone who's
been really following this. But, you know, I also
remember being at a Supreme Court election night event
and a fellow at the hotel not knowing there was an
election that day. So there's a part of me I'm
always skeptical that this sort of thing will stick in
voters mind. It's different, I guess, if you're getting
your door knocked consistently and people are
reminding you of that, or if you see a lot of
commercials. But, you know, in the grand scheme of
things, a $300, $600 check, that's a big deal. But, you
know, all the political infighting and everything