Frederica Freyberg:
Despite the unanimous consensus to approve funding for this initial planning phase, it was not without friction between Republican members of the commission and its chair, Democratic Governor Tony Evers, over how these funds will be used and who will have input in this forthcoming planning process.

Andre Jacque:
And again, I think the $15 million was put forward with the idea that there could be a collaborative process. That’s not in what was brought forward to the Building Commission.

Tony Evers:
We never got to this point because we never had a vote like this. This is important for the state of Wisconsin to understand that we are serious about this project. We will continue. You know, you have my word. I’m here for another year and several months. And you have my, my — my promise to you is that this is one step of many, and that step will include all the legislators that want to be involved. We’ve tried to do that in the past. What we have thus far didn’t come just from us. It came from other legislators. And so we’re hoping for that to happen going forward.