Here & Now

Gov. Evers Gives a Recap of 2019, Plus A Look Ahead

Zac Schultz:

2019 was the first time with divided government at the state Capitol in more than a decade and that division seemed to show up in just about every way possible. Joining us now is Governor Tony Evers. Thanks for your time here today.

Tony Evers:

Hi, Zac.

Zac Schultz:

We’ll get to last year and next year in a second. But off the top, with the U.S. military strikes against the top Iranian military official and the possibility of Iranian or terrorist response around the world and here in Wisconsin, have you provided any guidance to Wisconsin National Guard?

Tony Evers:

Well, certainly the National Guard is always prepared. The men and women of the National Guard train on a regular basis. They’re ready to be called up by the president in minute’s notice, so I feel very, very confident that they’ll be ready to take on any challenges put before them. Extraordinary group of people.

Zac Schultz:

Looking back to 2019, should we judge things based on the times you and legislative Republicans disagreed or the times you were able to work together?

Tony Evers:

Oh I’d say either way to look back is a good way to do it because we accomplished things even without us working together. And the budget’s actually a good example of that.

Zac Schultz:

I mean, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in his end of the year message they passed a conservative budget. Did you sign a conservative budget?

Tony Evers:

I signed a budget that we set a high bar for them and we made sure we had more resources for our schools and more resources for our roads and actually improved health care in the state of Wisconsin. So we set a very high bar. The Republicans didn’t get quite that far. But I don’t believe that a conservative budget, liberal budget is a good way to frame it. Did we provide some resources and some work that takes our state forward? Yes. And I feel good about that.

Zac Schultz:

The signs of a rocky relationship started back before you even took office, with the passage of the lame duck laws that took away some of your powers. Two of those lawsuits are still pending. How has that impacted you as governor and are they still impacting your ability?

Tony Evers:

Well, it certainly set the wrong stage to get us off to a good start. If that was the goal, that failed miserably. If these lame duck bills were so darn important, they could have done it in the first year of the Walker administration. They decided to do it as he was walking out the door. So clearly it was aimed at Josh Kaul and myself. I think that’s a bad way to start a relationship. But we continue to work hard to make sure that we get as much collaboration and common ground as we can. But I can tell you that was not a good start.

Zac Schultz:

In an election year, the Legislature typically shuts it down sometime in spring. What do you hope to get accomplished yet this year?

Tony Evers:

Well, certainly we have several — there’s several bills that have passed one House or the other that we’re interested in having signed. But overall, we still have to focus on some really important things, like the agricultural crisis in the state. Criminal justice reform, things like that that frankly weren’t addressed appropriately in the last session. So we’re hopeful it will be active. There’s no reason why several months out from an election that suddenly people disappear from Madison. They need to be here working.

Zac Schultz:

In the last few weeks, homeowners around the state have been getting property tax bills, which a lot of them have seen an increase. Your predecessor, Scott Walker, had a very high focus and priority on keeping property tax bills low or stagnant. Do you think people will blame you or your administration for the increases they’re seeing after eight years of no rise?

Tony Evers:

Well, they shouldn’t because the reason that the bills went up, to some extent, a good portion of that is for the last eight years, the Republicans have been starving the public schools and as a result, they had to pass referendum and those referendums are coming due. And essentially that state — it became a state tax instead of a local tax because the locals had to put more money into schools because the Republicans didn’t. So we made an effort this time to make sure there was more resources. But it wasn’t a surprise to me that there was a slight increase, 4, 4.5%. But that primarily came from referendums that were passed.

Zac Schultz:

Republicans are talking about passing a property tax cut this spring. Are you interested in seeing that?

Tony Evers:

Well, they’re looking at using money they don’t know is there. So that’s a problem. I guess from that point of view I’m a fiscal conservative. Doesn’t make much sense to spend money if you don’t have it. So once we get to a point where we know there might be some money available for that purpose. We need to take a look at whether we should put that in a rainy day fund because the rest of state government during a recession will need some help too.

Zac Schultz:

Now the person pushing that the most is Senator Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald who is also running for Congress. Does a race for another office impact what politicians might do while they’re in their old office?

Tony Evers:

Of course. You try to get as many votes as you can in the present situation so you can move on to greener pastures. But that in and of itself isn’t a good reason to say, well, we’re going to spend money we don’t know we have.

Zac Schultz:

You’ve already seen the legislature shut down one special session you’ve called on gun control but you haven’t ruled out doing it again. What would that accomplish?

Tony Evers:

Well, 70% of the people say these are common sense issues so I’m hopeful that we can make some headway here. But I’m not saying that we are or aren’t going to have a special session on gun safety. But it’s still an issue in the state of Wisconsin. People feel strongly about it. Clearly they feel strongly one way or the other. For me, I find it amazing that we just don’t have a vote. Why, why — call them in. Have a vote. It will take half a day at the most and we’ll see where people stand and then people can run for re-election based on that stance. To me, that’s the most fair way of doing it. But the control of the leadership certainly doesn’t allow us to do that.

Zac Schultz:

In that case a special session on gun control would about political pressure, applying pressure to someone before they are about to face the ballot.

Tony Evers:

Yeah, that’s how the system works. If individual legislators can’t stand up and say this is what I believe, whether it’s around gun safety or any other thing, why be there. You know, you need to represent the people that elected you to office and if the people don’t know what you’re running on, and what your stances are, how do they make that decision.

Zac Schultz:

Then in that case, would you consider a special session on Medicaid expansion?

Tony Evers:

That’d be — I would love to do that because I think it could pass. There are several things I think could pass if people were allowed to vote. That’s an issue.

Zac Schultz:

You declared 2019 to be the year of clean drinking water in Wisconsin. Do you need to declare that again 2020 or do you think the legislature is taking PFAS and groundwater contamination seriously?

Tony Evers:

Certainly it’s not done. We’ve made some good headway there, providing some funds in various ways, but this is going to be an ongoing thing. You know our fore — the people that were on this land before we were, our native tribes certainly, have made this an issue for hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s going to take more than one year. But I am not convinced that we are in a good place on this. We need to make sure that we balance business interests and the interests of the water. But at the end of the day, no one wants to drink crappy water. And so if we want to make sure that that doesn’t happen, we need to work together. I’m not sure that that’s happened yet.

Zac Schultz:

You’ve used executive orders extensively your first year in office. Is that a way to get around the Legislature that may not be working with you on the floor?

Tony Evers:

Well, certainly one way to get some things accomplished that I don’t need legislation to do. And so we will continue to do that. There’s no question about that. But at the end of the day, I think the people of Wisconsin expect us to work together, so hopefully we can do that better

Zac Schultz:

Foxconn just announced that their facility is weather-tight and while they’re going to continue construction on the inside, they could be operational maybe by the end of the year. Do they need to renegotiate the contract with the state before they should start operations there?

Tony Evers:

Well, they can continue on, but the bottom line is I continue to believe that the people of Wisconsin expect us, the politicians, to be transparent and have them be — Foxconn be accountable. It’s difficult to do that if the deal that was cut is based on something that doesn’t exist now. It’s just common sense. We need to take a look at that. I believe that at the end of the day we will be able to solve this. But it takes people to come together and seek common ground.

Zac Schultz:

In your campaign for governor you talked about cutting Wisconsin’s prison population. You pledged to close the juvenile correction facility at Lincoln Hills. How close are we to either one of those goals?

Tony Evers:

Well, Lincoln Hills is a ways because we still have things in front of Joint Finance Committee we’re waiting for approval on. And until that happens, it’s difficult to close that, if we don’t have — Lincoln Hills — if we don’t have a place for those kids to go. I think we can get there, but it’s maybe not as soon as we want. Criminal justice reform is a big issue and we need some legislative help to make things happen. We’re doing some things in the Department of Corrections that I think are more fair. We’re working with people that — organizations, lots of faith-based groups that are helping people transition to, out of corrections into the real world. So we’re making some headway. But at the end of the day, we’re going to need some legislative help.

Zac Schultz:

Wisconsin is expected to be a focal point in the presidential election this year. Do you expect to make any endorsements in the democratic primary?

Tony Evers:

No. My goal is to make sure every single one of how many are left at that time are coming through Wisconsin and making their issues known, let people of Wisconsin know who they are.

Zac Schultz:

We could expect to see some increased turnout this fall. Do you expect any of the presidential race to impact down-ballot races for State Senate or Assembly, races that could impact your ability to lead next year?

Tony Evers:

Sure. Absolutely. They’re all connected. We have to make sure we have the ability to have a robust discussion about lots of things in the state of Wisconsin and, frankly, one of those things we’re going to be talking about this year, a lot, is the issue of fair maps and making sure we don’t get to the point where gerrymandering is the — for another ten years. We need fair maps now. Some of the solution to that is to make sure some of those down-ballot issues, those competitions between Republicans and Democrats, are happening in a way that give me the veto power to make fair maps happen.

Zac Schultz:

All right. Governor Evers, thanks for your time today.

Tony Evers:

Thanks a lot, Zac.