Frederica Freyberg:

What a year it’s been. And what will the New Year bring? The world of politics and policy in 2020 became inextricably linked to the health and welfare of people stricken by COVID-19. Wisconsin has weathered perhaps more than its share of hardship and contention. Tonight we speak with Governor Tony Evers to look ahead to 2021 and take a look back. And, governor, thanks once again for joining us.

Tony Evers:

Thanks, Frederica. Good to be back.

Frederica Freyberg:

At the helm of state response to COVID-19 over the last year, how would you describe what that’s been like as chief executive to be responsible for the people of Wisconsin?

Tony Evers:

Yeah. It’s been an honor and, frankly, given the circumstances that we dealt with, the pandemic itself and then the political atmosphere around it and the defeats we had in the Supreme Court, I am really proud of the people of Wisconsin. You know, it wasn’t easy. It showed the resilience of the people. You know, I’m so pleased that our administration worked 24/7 to get federal money out to people that were struggling all across the state: small business owners, farmers. National Guard worked — you know, they became just invaluable partners. And you think about your friends and neighbors from the guard and from your neighborhood. Those people deserve our — always our thanks. And so it was an extraordinary year. I was proud of the resilience that we’ve seen. And our ability under really difficult situations as a government, as a state government, to move beyond, frankly, the mistakes that the Supreme Court made in our inability to mitigate like other governors could do to get the contact tracing done, get the things in the field around testing, PPE, all those things. We did an amazing job and I’m so thankful for all the people in the state and in state government that did that great work.

Frederica Freyberg:

Anything you would have done differently?

Tony Evers:

Certainly this last year as it relates to the pandemic, you know, like I said, I wish we had more ability to mitigate like other governors had. And frankly I think that inability actually did cost us lives and numbers of people that got the disease. But I’m disappointed that we were unable to convince the Legislature to come in and talk about policing and accountability and transparency in that special session. That was really needed. It was needed to send a message to the state that this is important work. And, frankly, even before the pandemic, on the Ag special session we got no help there. Those are disappointments and hopefully we can correct those going forward.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, direct aid to state and local governments was left out of the latest COVID stimulus package out of Washington. You’ve talked a lot about that need over the months. How important is that direct aid to governments?

Tony Evers:

It’s critical. And I’ll pinch hit here for our local governments. Obviously at the state government, the revenues that we would normally get are not there. But at the local level, it’s extremely important. I don’t care if you’re the smallest county or the most populated county. They had costs that they never expected to have. Federal government’s the only way that they can be made whole. So I know president-elect Biden knows these things and he’ll be pushing for that in the next stimulus package.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, any new funds from the feds for things like COVID vaccines presumably will help buffer what’s been described as “the toughest state budget since 2011.” How accurate is that description of the next state budget?

Tony Evers:

It’ll be difficult but I’m still confident we can work on some really important priorities that were always my priorities and frankly the people of Wisconsin. That’s making sure health care is as buoyant as possible, making sure we have a great education system, make sure we have good roads and other infrastructure including broadband. The world didn’t end with COVID-19. We still have lots of needs in this state and we will — we’ll push hard to address those in a really fiscally responsible way.

Frederica Freyberg:

Can you and Republican leaders possibly find a way to work together on a difficult budget and COVID response?

Tony Evers:

I hope so. But at the end of the day, we have to come to some agreement. Last time, it took the — we put our proposal out there, they had their proposal, and eventually it ended up someplace in between because they knew that they had to agree to some of the things we were talking about in the education and so on. So regardless, we’re going to have to have a budget and we will have a budget no matter how we negotiate or, frankly, don’t negotiate. And I’m hopeful. We will get there. I’m an optimist about these things and both the leader — both leaders in the Senate and the Assembly understand that we have to have good government in order to move forward and we have to meet the needs of the people to move forward. So we’ll — there will be battles. There will be shots shot across the bow all the time. I understand the politics of it. But at the end of the day, we have to have a budget.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Governor Tony Evers, thank you very much.

Tony Evers:

Thanks so much, Frederica.