Gov. Tony Evers on Signing Wisconsin's 2025-27 State Budget

Zac Schultz:
Wisconsin has a new state budget signed in the dead of night last week by Governor Tony Evers. It’s the first budget to have bipartisan support since 2007. Joining us now is Governor Evers. And thanks for your time, sir.

Tony Evers:
Thanks Zac.

Zac Schultz:
So this has additional funding for special education, child care providers and the UW system in exchange for tax cuts. It sounds like it’s an actual compromise budget.

Tony Evers:
Yeah, I would say it was and I’m glad it was that way myself. Over the last year or so, a couple of years, I get out and talk to people all the time. That’s what I spend most of my time doing. And all across the state, I heard that a lot. You know, the idea that it’d be great that, you know, everybody knows we’re a purple state, that we actually do work on compromise. And so we were able to do that. We had some wins and some things that didn’t. But I guess that’s kind of the way the politics work if you’re, if you’re a purple state like Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:
Now let’s go back to the last budget where you used your veto pen to create an ongoing $325 per pupil increase in public education. But that increase isn’t funded in this budget. And property taxes — taxpayers will pay for it if the school districts decide to levy that amount that they can. Was that a priority for you to try and get Republicans to fund that, or were there just too many other places for the money?

Tony Evers:
Yes and yes. Yes and no. We wanted both, obviously, but at the, at the end of the day, we, you know, we put together a package that was — I want to say it’s $1.4 billion in spendable money. And also as you likely remember, part of the problem in the past was the amount of money that school districts had to backfill into special education. And so now that is less of an issue for them. And so we put, we have the largest increase ever in, in, in that arena. And so I think it was a good start. Is it solving all the problems? No. And that’s the nature of working with the legislature. And you know, we’re a purple state. And so we’re not going to get everything but it was a good start. We had good starts in several areas. But education, we were — we made some huge increases in, in in the money for special education. That helps out in a couple different areas. Is it solving every problem? No, but it was a step forward, yes.

Zac Schultz:
Now negotiations with Republicans stopped and started a few times throughout this process and at one point it looked like they were going to go their own way as they’ve done the last few budgets. What were you doing? Were you reaching out to them? Were you waiting for them to figure out them and come back to the table?

Tony Evers:
That — it was a latter. Clearly the two houses weren’t on the same page. And after a while that became less of an issue. And so they came back and we ended up solving it. And, you know, we had some really significant wins also. I, you know, I know the importance of having, you know, both sides having some wins, having, you know, some things didn’t work. But for example, our ability to get more money for our hospitals in the state of Wisconsin, that was huge. That was a win. That was a complete win. And because, as you likely remember, we had two hospitals in Eau Claire close in one, you know, one year. And this keeps our hospitals all across the state in a much better place.

Zac Schultz:
Now, one reason Republicans did need to compromise. You talked about the difference in the houses is the Senate couldn’t afford to lose any votes in the Republican Party, and that’s because Democrats picked up seats in the last election. So how much does redistricting play into what happened in this budget?

Tony Evers:
Absolutely. This budget would not have looked anywhere near as positive if it, if it wasn’t for that. Having good maps that are reflective of actually what happens on the ground, that was huge. And so we’ll — and we’ll, we’ll continue to do a good job as far as taking, not taking advantage of it, but actually reflecting that. But you know, from my side too, from the Democratic side, just because we are, we have better maps doesn’t mean that we can run roughshod over the other side either. It just won’t work. We’re, we’re as purple as they come in our state as compared to other states, and we recognize that.

Zac Schultz:
Let’s talk about Donald Trump’s BBB – big, beautiful bill. What will be the impact of that bill in Wisconsin?

Tony Evers:
Yeah, I don’t think it’s going to be good. You know, clearly, issues that they feel strongly about is not necessarily good for Wisconsin. Passing this bill kind of makes them all legal. I think in the past there was some concern that on my part and others that what was, what was happening in the new administration was very difficult and frankly, not — shouldn’t have been able to do that because the Congress has not weighed in. Well, they’ve weighed in now. And so all those things that, that we were against, that were happening, happened. And so, yes, I think it’s going to be — it’s going to be a really difficult time for us. And, you know, whether it’s schools, whether it’s just about anything, you know. I’m sure we’ll have thousands of people in Wisconsin that no longer have the health care they had before.

Zac Schultz:
One area that’s still up is your corrections plan. As far as the prisons, you vetoed the deadline to close the Green Bay facility. Can you use the experience negotiating the bill, the budget, to figure out how to negotiate that plan?

Tony Evers:
Yeah, absolutely. We should and we have to. I mean, we – Green Bay is going to close. I get that. Whether it’s in 2029 or whenever, it is closing. But in order to allow that to happen, there’s all sorts of steps. We put together a plan several months ago. I think it was a rational plan. And, you know, there are some people that want to do different things. But the bottom line is we have to start. It’s like a dance. We have to do this first and then this first and this first. I’m willing to talk to any, any Republican, any Democrat on this issue. We just have to get it done. Do I think we will? Yes. We have to.

Zac Schultz:
It’s tradition for the governor to wait until after the budget is signed to announce whether they’ll run for another term. What is the timeline for your decision, and do you have any announcements you’d like to make today?

Tony Evers:
I’m not going to make any today, but I’ll tell you, it’ll happen shortly. I would say a week or so.

Zac Schultz:
All right, Governor Tony Evers, thanks for your time today.

Tony Evers:
Thanks Zac. Appreciate it.