Here & Now

COVID Legislation Appears DOA

Frederica Freyberg:

We check in with Senior Political Reporter Zac Schultz now for more. Hi, Zac.

Zac Schultz:

Hello, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

So are the sides standing on principle here or power politics?

Zac Schultz:

Both. I think it depends on which side you’re supporting. Republicans say this is about stopping what they’re interpreting as illegal or unconstitutional orders and putting their proper place in government there. Of course, Governor Evers is saying he’s on behalf of the people and stopping the pandemic and it’s fully within his legal rights. It just depends on which side you’re playing for.

Frederica Freyberg:

Could this mask mandate just become like a ping pong back and forth, eliminate it, reissue it and repeat?

Zac Schultz:

That is until the Wisconsin Supreme Court finally issues their decision. If you remember this isn’t the first time the governor has reissued his emergency and the mask order. He did it a couple times last year. At that time Republicans voiced some concern but they decided not to do anything except go to court and then they hoped the Supreme Court would do their dirty work of killing the mask mandate because they were obviously worried about what it would look like to voters right in front of the election. The court still has not ruled. And so this time Republicans are feeling that urge they need to assert themselves especially to some of their conservative donors and conservative voters who feel like you’re just getting pushed all over by Evers on this.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile now would be about the time for the court to rule, right, after that failed in the Legislature?

Zac Schultz:

Yeah. The court kind of decides on their own on which case on when they’re going to issue that decision. When they take this long, usually there’s a sign they don’t see anything majorly wrong at the moment they need to fix. If you think back to last year when the court shot down the governor’s shutdown orders, they did that immediately and issued their written decision weeks later because they felt it was urgent so step in. They didn’t do that with this order. So that may give us some insight or it could just be it’s taking this long for them to figure out back and forth about what their decision will be but this may be the moment that spurs them in the next week or so to say, no, we really need to step in and issue our choice here.

Frederica Freyberg:

And on this, what are the implications of Governor Evers vetoing the Legislature’s COVID relief bill, which basically Republicans knew he would do?

Zac Schultz:

The biggest issue right now is for those who are about to become unemployed whether they know it or not and that’s because the first week of unemployment under Wisconsin law passed by Scott Walker more than a decade ago says you don’t get paid for that first week. But the federal government under the CARES Act last year said we’ll pay for the first week of unemployment. You just have to instate it. That expired at the end of the year and it expires February 6 for Wisconsin. This bill would have extended that match program from federal dollars. It’s now been reduced to 50% match. But basically that first week of unemployment, about $1.3 million a week for people who are just about to become unemployed. That’s going to be the major pressure point on this decision and how soon something may actually get signed in the future.

Frederica Freyberg:

But both sides were willing to jeopardize that funding.

Zac Schultz:

I think at this point both sides think they can pin the blame on the other pretty reliably according to the people that people them. Republicans say all Governor Evers has to do is sign the bill and he saves all that money and he saves the people. Governor Evers is saying just send me a clean bill like the one that the Senate originally amended and the Assembly was this close to passing and then we can save the people that way. So who knows how long this may play out and at what point it gets really hot for politicians of both stripes.

Frederica Freyberg:

You just mentioned this but the Legislature and the governor had reached agreement on COVID relief legislation with a bill out of the Senate. Then that went out of the door. How does all of this in your mind bode for state budget negotiations?

Zac Schultz:

It doesn’t look good at all. We’ve known for a while that there’s going to be a pressure point here. The last budget before a gubernatorial election is always really touchy and this one is going to be very difficult to get through. Who knows how long it will take. We’ve already seen the new Joint Finance leaders check in and say don’t be pushing anything new, Governor Evers. We’re the reason that the state is in good fiscal shape. Governor Evers has been issuing press releases with all the new ideas he has on how he needs to go big at this moment in the economy for all the people who are suffering.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, you’re rolling up your sleeves to cover that one, too. Zac Schultz, thanks a lot.

Zac Schultz:

Thank you.