Here & Now

Evers Explains Budget Priorities, Bipartisan Possibilities

Zac Schultz:
Our first look tonight is at Governor Tony Evers’ budget proposal. The governor has spent the last week on the road promoting his ideas around the state and he joins us now in the studio. Thanks for being here.

Tony Evers:
Thanks, Zac. Appreciate it.

Zac Schultz:
It’s been a week. You’ve heard from Republicans. You’ve been on the road. How do you feel about your budget?

Tony Evers:
I feel good. I mean this budget is a reflection of not only the campaign for governor, high priority issues around education, transportation, health care. But Lieutenant Governor Barnes and myself, we went all across the state after the election and holding listening sessions and, again, I feel confident that this truly is the people’s budget and it’s reflective of their expectations of us.

Zac Schultz:
Now you hadn’t even delivered the speech before some Republicans starting calling it extreme and liberal spending and too much. Since then have any of the conversations started in terms of working forward as opposed to talking around?

Tony Evers:
That’s a great question. I would say I’m spending my time out-state encouraging people to be actively involved in this dialogue, too. I think that’s important. It can’t just be closed session between — among myself and the leadership. So — but yes. I think at the end of the day, we will find common ground on those issues. Republicans want good schools, good roads and good health care as much as anybody else. So, you know, there’s always going to be the huffing and puffing going on around this. That doesn’t concern me. It’s moving it forward in a proactive way.

Zac Schultz:
Now your budget increases state spending by $2.7 billion over the biennium and spends down the surplus. Is that fiscally responsible?

Tony Evers:
Absolutely it is. I mean I — I think people should wait for the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to come up with their analysis. I think they’ll find that it’s in good shape. I think we will have a surplus left and we will be putting money into the rainy day fund, I believe, if not very close to it. So I think it is a fiscally sound one. And it’s also making up for some issues that we’ve left behind in the past, roads and schools and health care certainly some of those issues.

Zac Schultz:
Governor Walker and Republicans struggled with transportation for eight years. Are you expecting to try to make up that ground in the first two or how long do you think it takes to catch up?

Tony Evers:
We absolutely have to have a sustainable funding system for that and we’ve laid one out for the people and we’re hopeful that it will get adopted. And yes. Will we be able to make this up in two years? Absolutely not. There’s enough pent-up demand for filling potholes, for gosh’s sake, not only our roads. So yes. It’s going to be off to a good start and itll get us in a better place and give us a sustainable fund that we won’t have to raid the general fund in order to pay for our roads going forward. I think that’s critically important.

Zac Schultz:
You released your capital budget yesterday, $2 billion in borrowing for that, half of that for the UW system. At what point does debt service start to threaten the general fund when it comes to all the borrowing?

Tony Evers:
We’re at a pretty low point. After this budget — this budget will have us at a pretty low point as far as borrowing. I feel good about it. There is across especially the University of Wisconsin System, there is critical needs in addition to building new buildings. We have some extraordinarily long list of maintenance projects that have been completely, not completely but almost completely ignored going forward. There are needs there. This is a good time to bond and it’s a good time to rectify those situations.

Zac Schultz:
Now there are a number of items in your budget that Republicans have said for years are non-starters. Political observers say that there’s no way these will pass, so why put them in there? Why promote them? Are you speaking to your supporters or what’s the point of addressing some of these?

Tony Evers:
Well certainly — I’ll use Medicaid expansion as an example. Whether you’re looking at polls or anything else, people understand how important that is not only for those 82,000 people that we can now provide affordable and adequate health care about, but it brings in over $300 million that we can use for infant mortality issues and making sure that women have the best health care possible and making sure we have a good, solid health system in the state of Wisconsin. So I think — and I know the other side has already said that’s a non-starter. Well at the end of the day, somehow we need to reflect the needs of the people of Wisconsin and they have spoken on this issue. Certainly part of the campaign and certainly part of polling that we’ve seen. So I’m looking forward to having a good discussion around that and we’re going to have lots of support around this. Whether it’s people that are part of the hospital world or the practitioners of the state. They understand how important this step is. So we’ll continue to fight and dialogue about this and I think at the end of the day, we will get some common ground.

Zac Schultz:
Speaking about Medicaid expansion, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said that it would actually damage the private insurance market and there’s a conservative study from UW System that says the same thing, in the long run, it’ll save government money but cost the overall system.

Tony Evers:
I don’t agree with that at all. I think it’ll help stabilize the private marketplace. It’ll help because it’ll be taking people that are heavy users of health care, you know, possibly being helped by Medicaid money. So I think it’s going to stabilize the private marketplace and make us all stronger.

Zac Schultz:
You mentioned the polling support and in your speech, you talked about the polling support and even called out individual Republicans in your speech and said people in your district support this.

Tony Evers:
Right.

Zac Schultz:
Do you expect public pressure to change the mind of legislators who got elected as part of a party who have a philosophy?

Tony Evers:
Yes. Yes. If I was a local official and somebody called up and said, “Hey, think about this Medicaid expansion. This is what can do for me personally.” Do I expect that they would listen and say, “Yes,” or at least consider it? Yes. That’s why we’re doing exactly what we’re doing. This budget is in my opinion, the people’s budget. And all politics are local. And I’ve seen that before and I’ve actually seen it in this last election. So we’re expecting to have organizations and individuals across the state making sure that their elected officials understand what’s at stake here.

Zac Schultz:
It’s been more than a decade since we’ve had divided government and most of the legislature has come into term since that. They’ve never experienced that. So is it natural to expect some loss of institutional muscle memory, so to speak? It’ll take a while for people to remember how to work across the aisle?

Tony Evers:
Possibly. But I think it will happen. Of all the things that I learned on this campaign, there’s three major issues and I mentioned them before. But the most important one is people want civility and they want us to accomplish something. And I don’t think I’m the only one that hears that message. I’m sure every one of the legislators also hear it, Republicans and Democrats. So, yes, we are a divided government. But I think Republicans want good schools, good health care and good roads as much as Democrats do. And the people of Wisconsin expect it. So I think at the end of the day after the huffing and puffing of this part of it, once we get into the budget time, I think we’ll have some good successes.

Zac Schultz:
Now, some of the ideas in your budget that Republicans like they’ve talked about splitting out into separate legislation, sending them to committee. We’ve already seen that with some of the homelessness bills that have been proposed. Are you okay with that or do you think it works better if they’re in the budget?

Tony Evers:
Well I think it’s far superior to have as part of the budget and the middle class income tax is a good example. That I vetoed. I vetoed it because it wasn’t sustainable going forward. But as part of a budget deliberation, I think the Democrats and Republicans will be on the same side. They want to give middle class taxpayers a tax cut. It’s figuring out how. And I think together we can do that. So I think the budget is a good place to make sure that we’re able to connect the dots in a way that’s important.

Zac Schultz:
Now, Republicans are scared of your veto pen. It is a very powerful veto pen. Are you expecting to give them assurances throughout this process on what you will and won’t touch as part of the negotiation?

Tony Evers:
Maybe at some point in time. Not now. What I want to avoid is having to veto an entire budget. That would seem to be counterproductive, period. But if a budget comes to me that’s almost exclusively unsustainable or not what I ran on or what the people of Wisconsin voted for, then I would. But I suppose at some point in time we will be at the time of a horse training run, what’s vetoed or not. But not at this point in time.

Zac Schultz:
Since it’s been so long since we’ve had divided government, in that timespan there’s so many outside, external pressures on lawmakers to avoid compromise, to avoid making a deal, social media, third-party interest groups, national groups that don’t really care about good policy in Wisconsin. How do you cut through that noise to keep people together?

Tony Evers:
Well, it’s about doing what the people of Wisconsin want and, by golly, if we do that, I’ll be glad to share the limelight with any Republican to allow that to happen, to make that happen. It is — you know, I know being reelected is real important to people that are in my position or others. But at the end of the day, if we don’t deliver for the people of Wisconsin, no one’s going to win. And that is bad politically and frankly it’s bad for the state of Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:
Now, during Governor Doyle and Governor Scott Walker’s time, we heard them use the phrase “we’ll see when it comes to my desk” quite a bit when talking about potential legislation. Do you expect to be using that same phrase in terms of not wanting to publically negotiate yes or no on a bill?

Tony Evers:
That depends. I wouldn’t stake out a negotiating protocol at this point in time. But yes. I mean, at the end of the day, especially because of recent times and this includes both sides of the aisle, what is sort of what you think is a last step in the process isn’t and then at the last moment a bunch of things are thrown in that are really egregious. So Im guessing I will say that at some point in time. But if we’re able to reach agreement on a lot of things ahead of time, hopefully there’s not a lot to do at the last minute.

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

Tony Evers:
Thanks Zac.