Frederica Freyberg:
Capitol wonks spent months worrying over the new two-year state budget with fights back and forth over partisan matters and spending. But just what will the $82 billion spending plan mean for Wisconsin residents? We sat down with Governor Tony Evers this week to hear his take. We started by asking how he thinks the plan will affect people over the next two years.

Tony Evers:
I believe in a positive way or I wouldn’t have signed it. We, lieutenant governor and I, went across the state before we developed the budget and subsequent to submitting it and getting people’s reaction to it. And so, the priorities are around health care, transportation, education, were clearly a top priority. But also a top priority was let’s get something done. And so we — I believe that at the end of the day, this budget does move us in the right direction in all three of those areas. And so I think people of Wisconsin will see a better transportation system, will see education system that’s funded somewhat better and health care, you know, even though the Medicaid expansion didn’t happen, there’s additional resources in that area, too. So I think the people of Wisconsin will be pleased that those three categories that we ran on, frankly, and listened to, we’ve made steps in the right direction. That’s not to say that this budget’s an end-all and be-all. It’s something that I considered vetoing the entire budget, but at the end of the day, we were able to make enough changes to make it happen.

Frederica Freyberg:
Speaking of those changes, how was it in the veto process that you were able to increase funding to schools over the Republican plan?

Tony Evers:
Well, it’s creative budget vetoing. I will say that. But it’s not creative in that it’s never been done before, that particular type of veto. And so we felt it was something that had, you know, been done before by Republican and Democratic governors, so we felt it was the right thing to do. And it allowed us to increase funding for our schools, which a tremendously important piece of our budget.

Frederica Freyberg:
In response to that particular veto, two Republican lawmakers are circulating a proposed constitutional amendment to limit a governor’s veto authority. What’s your reaction to that?

Tony Evers:
Well, I heard about it. I haven’t seen it. So that’s a little bit of disadvantage there. But, you know, the thing that concerns me is that it’s one more let’s deal with — let’s take power away from the administration. We started with the lame duck session and now we’re morphing into this. I just — I think people of Wisconsin are satisfied that this budget process is over and we need to move on. But clearly there’s at least a couple state reps that feel that that’s important to lay down a marker. I don’t believe that’s necessary. We had far fewer budget vetoes than the previous governor. So I think it’s just kind of more of the same that is an outgrowth of the results of the last election.

Frederica Freyberg:
In reducing spending on the administration of FoodShare work requirements for people with children through your vetoes, you effectively killed that requirement. Why did you go ahead and do that?

Tony Evers:
Well, certainly poor people need assistance, and any additional requirements put on them I think is unfair. And I opposed those requirements when they were passed in the legislature in the past. When families and individuals are struggling financially and they need help from — in this case it’s federal money. Most of it’s federal money. I don’t see there’s a real need to punish them further. Just doesn’t make any sense to me. And so we had the opportunity to save some money by doing those vetoes and actually make a statement around what we feel is important and what isn’t important.

Frederica Freyberg:
And the veto did not eliminate the drug testing provision. Would you get rid of that if you could?

Tony Evers:
If I could, sure. I mean, there’s this notion that somehow there’s all this rampant abuse of the system and that just isn’t true. And to tighten up that something isn’t a major issue just costs more money that could be used elsewhere.

Frederica Freyberg:
Going forward, you have said that you are intent on expanding Medicaid. How do you expect to do that with the legislature dead set against it?

Tony Evers:
Well, we have legislative leaders that are dead set against it. I know that there are Republicans that if given the opportunity would support it. I believe that if we take this to the people of Wisconsin and continue to put it out in front of people, you think about it. I’ve said that a million times. 70% of the people in the Marquette Poll support it. We heard it consistently across the state when we did our listening sessions. And it’s financially prudent. Right now we’re spending a couple billion of our tax money helping New Jersey and Illinois expand Medicaid. So I think always it makes sense. Our goal is to make sure that people when they’re running for office next time around, that that’s part of a discussion and get people on the record on this one way or the other. You know, all politics are local, and if local people want this, and clearly they do, we’re going to be encouraging people to take stances on this when they’re running for reelection.

Frederica Freyberg:
Why did you veto the part of the transportation budget that would have spent $2.5 million on a mileage-based fee study?

Tony Evers:
Well, because first of all, that’s a very — first of all, we didn’t get rid of the money. We got rid of the study. So the money is still there. But at the end of the day, we’ve had lots of studies on the issue of the tolling, which is part of it. And, you know, am I against tolling or for tolling? It doesn’t make any difference. We just had a lot of studies on it. So if indeed there needs to be money at some point in time to take a look at the mileage-based piece, we can take a look at that. But to me it was just too restrictive as it was, so we kept the money and got rid of the requirement.

Frederica Freyberg:
Will you persist on the gas tax increase?

Tony Evers:
I think it’s still the most sensible way to do that. But if there’s better alternatives than the one we have right now, which is essentially doubling fees, which we can’t do every four years, we have to come up with a solution sometime between now and the next budget. I believe a gas tax that’s indexed to inflation is the most logical way. But there may be other ways, too. Four years is a long way off. Or two years is a long way off. But I can’t believe that things are going to change that much since then, or in that period of time, so I still think it’s the best alternative.

Frederica Freyberg:
In your veto message, you said you’re going to bring the fight for a nonpartisan redistricting process to the legislature? How will you bring it to the legislature?

Tony Evers:
Well again, it’ll be either through legislation that is proposed and we’ll work hard to make that happen. But at the end of the day we will bring it to the people of Wisconsin. And as I said before, all politics are local. This is one that all across the state people feel very strongly about. It’s not just Dems. We have to make sure that people, that legislators and governors aren’t selecting their voters, that voters select them. And that’s a pretty simple concept and I know we can win on that. It’s just a matter of getting it out there.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do Republican-drawn maps have to do with the state budget?

Tony Evers:
Well, a lot. First of all, we have a legislature that is mostly Republican. And it’s one side or the other, they’re both Republican. One less, one more. A lot of it has to do with the fact that their lines — we’ve been gerrymandered. So in order to make sure that we are not selecting the voters, that the voters are selecting us, we need to have fair maps. And I said this during the campaign and I’ll say it now. This can’t be retribution by Democrats and creating Democratic maps. We just have to have them drawn fairly. I think there’s lots of ways we can do that.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you expect you might be able to work with the legislature to pass legislation on medical marijuana?

Tony Evers:
Possibly. There seems to be some interest in doing it in the budget. People that were against recreational marijuana felt there was too much tied to the medicinal use of marijuana. So I think it’s possible. But at the minimum, we’re going to have a good conversation around it. In the past in the budget we proposed it and it was yanked out right away, so there was no chance to talk about that. If there’s legislation that’s proposed, and I’m sure there will be, you know, Speaker Vos has indicated interest and others in the Republican side have talked about it, too. So I feel good that we’re actually going to have a conversation around it.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, members of your cabinet will have spent the week touring the state talking about this budget. What is their message?

Tony Evers:
Their message is we have delivered on our promises to make a great start in areas that we focused on and also talk about — really, it’s important for people of Wisconsin to understand that administration isn’t just Evers and Mandela Barnes. It’s the people that are doing the hard work in the agencies. And so getting them out interacting with people across the state I think is really important. But I think it’s also important for them to talk about what difference this budget is going to make to the people of Wisconsin and in our areas. For example, it seems small on the surface, but in the area of tourism, it’s in the budget. The Republicans agreed to it. We now have a department of — or a Division of Outdoor Recreation, which is really important to the state of Wisconsin. We need to be talking that and how that’s going to be implemented.

Frederica Freyberg:
I spoke with Governor Evers earlier this week.