Here & Now

Here & Now for June 18, 2021

Announcer:

The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Kamala Harris:

Juneteenth has been known by many names. Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Liberation Day, Emancipation Day and today a national holiday.

Zac Schultz:

Vice President Kamala Harris declares Juneteenth to be a national holiday, just in time for federal employees to get today off work. State officials observed Juneteenth traditions at the Capitol this morning. Black Americans celebrate this weekend even as many pause to look ahead to next week and the sentencing of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd.

I’m Zac Schultz sitting in for Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” Governor Tony Evers talks about his candidacy for re-election and considers the state budget in the making at the Capitol. Murv Seymour travels the state to see what people are saying about the Derek Chauvin sentencing and Marisa Wojcik reports on a barber shop that helps get people to the doctor’s office. It’s “Here & Now” for June 18.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:

Last night the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee wrapped up their work on the state budget by inserting income and property tax cuts that add up to $3.4 billion. The budget heads to the Assembly and Senate next week and then it will head to the desk of Governor Tony Evers who announced earlier this month he is running for a second term in office. He joins us now from Madison. Governor, thanks for your time today.

Tony Evers:

Thanks, Zac, how are you today?

Zac Schultz:

Good. In the past, incumbent governors have waited until after the budget was signed to announce re-election plans. Why did you decide the time was right in early June?

Tony Evers:

It was pretty much around the issue of the budget. Clearly there are some things going on with the budget that I felt and frankly people that support me felt that weren’t particularly good for our schools or our healthcare or frankly even our infrastructure. So I just wanted to make sure people knew that I am in for the long haul and I’m all in and my goal is to make this budget as good a budget as possible. So it was around the direction of the budget primarily.

Zac Schultz:

Speaking of the budget, Joint Finance wrapped up last night and while the Legislature could make some changes on the floor next week, in general their work appears to be done. We invited Republican leadership to join us today and they declined. Joint Finance co-chair Howard Marklein said this about the proposed tax cuts in a release. “This year has been incredibly difficult for individuals, families and businesses and this money will result in significant income, property and personal property tax cuts to provide much-needed relief.” Now governor, considering what Republicans have done with taxes and education spending are you still considering a veto of the entire document?

Tony Evers:

It’s always a possibility. I mean even though Joint Finance Committee is done with their work, first of all, we have to get through it and take a look at it. It’s very important to understand the details of it. But on the floor there’s always changes. There’s always important changes that are made and so I’m reluctant to say whether I’m going to sign it or veto it or veto parts of it. But — and that decision making frankly takes a lot of time. We have to have the exact language in order to figure that out. Clearly I’m not excited about what they’ve done for several areas. I’d say our education system in particular is pretty weak. Their response to folks that work in K-12 or higher education institution, I don’t think are very happy about what they’ve done. They have shouldered a great deal of the burden during this pandemic also.

Zac Schultz:

If you were to veto the whole budget, Republicans have indicated they’re not likely to come back and try again. Would the state be better off under the current budget for the next two years and would that impact our schools’ abilities to capture some of the federal COVID relief funds?

Tony Evers:

All that is on the table. Clearly I will never do anything to jeopardize the education system period. It is so important for our state. And so if need be, we will sign and do the best we can with partial vetoes but again, it is a work in progress and I am waiting to see a final document. There will be changes on the floor. There always is. People looking to get their pet project across the finish line. So I’m really reluctant to even capsulize what the budget will look like at the end of the day.

Zac Schultz:

The way the Republicans made the budget met federal requirements on education spending was to send more money to schools but require them to lower their levy reducing property taxes but it doesn’t create new funding for education. I know in the past you’ve said that is something you wanted to get away from. Can your line item veto authority impact some of those levy limits in the way education funding is allocated?

Tony Evers:

You hit the nail on the head. That’s one of the major complaints I have as an educator when I was in the field and the present educators have. The money — where they put the money doesn’t come directly to the school districts. It is done through lower property taxes. In order for schools actually to capture some money they have to raise taxes and that doesn’t always work well. That money is going to schools. I understand technically that money is not going directly to schools. I understand technically it’s viewed as school aid but it is a property tax relief plain and simple. That does not help our schools that have more money for special education, behavioral and mental health issues, either.

Zac Schultz:

When you first ran for governor you laid out a number of priorities like expanding Medicaid that Republicans have refused to consider. Do you think voters will understand why you haven’t achieved those goals?

Tony Evers:

They — yes, they will. They know darn well Speaker Vos says right from the beginning he believes it makes people more reliant and dependent on government and he doesn’t understand apparently that people really do need to have affordable and accessible healthcare. I will — if there is anybody that has any questions why we don’t have Medicaid expansion, I’ll be glad to tell them and I’ll be telling them that over the next several years. We will eventually get Medicaid expansion in this state, but we need fair maps for sure. But it’s not something I’m going to give up on and the people of Wisconsin talk about it with 70% of the people supporting it. Regardless of his individual beliefs, I know there are Republicans out there that will support Medicaid expansion.

Zac Schultz:

We’ve already seen a preview of what Republicans view as your weaknesses in this next election. One of those issues is the delay in handling unemployment claims during the pandemic. Your administration talked about the antiquated computer system. Does the budget properly address updating that system?

Tony Evers:

Well, we had some money in the budget to update that system and clearly we’ll be — they shut down most of that so we’ll be looking to federal funds and other mechanisms to make sure we update that. Yes, attacking that — attacking me on that issue when they are the ones that were in office. I wasn’t in office when the Audit Bureau said you have to fix this thing. This is big trouble. But regardless, we need to move forward. We will get this thing fixed in the very near future. We are putting RFPs out as we speak for different parts of the improvement.

Zac Schultz:

The last time Wisconsin voters elected a governor of the same party as the president was 1990. That trend includes your election in 2018. Does the mid-term environment concern you heading into 2022?

Tony Evers:

Not at all. I know things are going well in Washington, D.C. President Biden is doing a great job. I believe more than ever that that doesn’t hold true anymore. There are so many issues that face Wisconsin directly and I believe that we will be immune to some of that. But I believe my chances of winning re-election are very, very strong. We have a good record. We had a good response to the pandemic with the Legislature out of town for 300 days. We actually had changes made and made sure we got shots in arms and got lots of federal money. It was really important to get out to people in our tourism industry and farmers and small businesses. I think my record is a good one and I know I will get re-elected.

Zac Schultz:

Governor, we’ll have to leave it there. Thanks for your time.

Tony Evers:

Thanks, take care.

Zac Schultz:

Just yesterday President Joe Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth a national holiday. Officially Juneteenth is celebrated tomorrow June 19th which in 1865 was the date when federal troops arrived in Texas and let African-American slaves know the Emancipation Proclamation had freed all the slaves in Confederate States two years earlier. However slavery everywhere in the U.S. was not abolished until later that year when the 13th Amendment was ratified as a part of our Constitution. In Wisconsin this morning Governor Tony Evers gathered with other state officials to celebrate the new holiday and kick off weekend activities in Wisconsin. The Juneteenth flag was raised over the state Capitol. Juneteenth is typically celebrated with parades, performances, picnics and other festivities. Ruben Hopkins, founder and CEO of the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce says it’s time to bring a new layer to the holiday. An emphasis on Black-owned business and economic development. In this week’s “Noon Wednesday,” Marisa Wojcik spoke with Hopkins about what Juneteenth means to him.

Ruben Hopkins:

I think we’ve gotten to the point where Juneteenth should be celebrated differently. So right now we do a parade and we do basically a day of festivities in Milwaukee and around the country. And so I think that Juneteenth has gotten to the point now that Congress has voted to make it a federal holiday, I just think it should be more of a Black economic and business development, you know, should be built around what are the real progresses that we’re making in this country. Because believe it or not, we are making some amazing progress in this country but we don’t always talk about it. We don’t always see it. People don’t always know how to frame it. In some cases people are scared to frame it because again, somehow it seems like when we show that Black people are doing well, there is a group of white people that feel like they are only doing well because they’re taking it from us. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Marisa Wojcik:

Prior to the pandemic and now more than a year out, how are Black businesses, Black-owned businesses faring?

Ruben Hopkins:

We’re struggling because most of the money that was for PPP and all of these different projects that were created with the Recovery Act, most of that money never made it to the Black community.

Marisa Wojcik:

Wisconsin Republicans are saying that an additional $300 in unemployment assistance from COVID-19 relief dollars are disincentivizing people from working and hurting local businesses. Do you agree with that? And is that what you’ve been hearing from your members of the chamber?

Ruben Hopkins:

No, I don’t agree with it. You gotta pay people. You gotta take care of people. I run a chamber of commerce and I understand that businesses want to make money and people want to make money and sometimes they want to pay out the least amount of money they have to pay out. You know. But I think that you have to pay people. And I think people realize that you’ve got to pay people, right? And I think so the pandemic woke up people in a lot of different ways and a lot of people who sacrificed by going to work during the pandemic, now that this pandemic is over or we see a light at the end of the tunnel, there are people who are saying, you know what? I’m worth more than what this job is willing to pay me.

Zac Schultz:

One week from today Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd will receive his prison sentence for the crime that set off a worldwide social justice movement. “Here & Now” special project journalist Murv Seymour took his camera to different parts of Wisconsin to listen to why so many people are bracing for the upcoming sentencing.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

The Urban League is one of the oldest civil right organizations in the nation. Been around since 1910, here in Madison we’ve been around since 1968. People have been wronged in our community. We fight for our citizens when injustice happens in one place, you know, we know that there is the probability that it can happen across the land. So we’re watching closely what is happening with the sentencing.

David Bowen:

Much of the anxiety, I believe, that we felt in our community was around if he’d be charged at all. If he would be convicted at all. We know we can’t always stop all these situations from happening but what we do know is that actual law changes actually do make a shift.

Jeffrey Butler:

I’m here with my grandsons. I don’t want the same type of things to keep going on that has been going on for years and years and years. I wanted to document this because right now, you know, they can’t grasp it right now but in the future they will be able to grasp it. Stop biting me.

Desmond Leidich:

We don’t always get justice. We’ve gone so many years now where it just feels like something happens to one of our people, you know, police brutality and we haven’t gotten — it seems we haven’t gotten accountability for it. We need to keep going. This isn’t the finish line. This one case isn’t the end of it.

Lateria Garrett:

I know there is good and bad in everything. We definitely have endured and seen enough that we’re very hesitant to trust. I have had encounters with good police. I also know living in this community that if I need the police, I have a fear of which one is showing up. You know? You just hope it’s the right one. The one that is there to truly protect and serve no matter what color you are, no matter your financial situation.

Jeffrey Butler:

The verdict has already been handed in and he has been found guilty.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

People are concerned that a law enforcement officer will be given a break.

Desmond Leidich:

It’s always a feeling of yeah, but.

Jeffrey Butler:

You have to feel for people that are frustrated with the system.

David Bowen:

So many times in the past we kept putting our trust in the system that essentially was rigged against us and would not allow the chance for true justice to be shown in charging, in sentencing, in holding officers accountable.

Desmond Leidich:

What we got on April 20th was the correct thing to be guilty on all three counts. I think a just sentence would be the maximum sentence they could give.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

He was blatant and irresponsible.

Jeffrey Butler:

I think the sentencing should be a harsher sentence simply because he is a figure of authority, a man that was given power not to abuse it.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

If the sentencing is different than anyone else who has committed those same crimes, that’s unjust.

Lateria Garrett:

There is a life that’s taken that I feel wasn’t necessary.

Jeffrey Butler:

He literally murdered a human being.

Desmond Leidich:

I want to make sure we can set a precedent that this can’t keep happening.

Jeffrey Butler:

He should be sentenced to the full extent of the law, to not just send a message, but to give assurance to the Black community, to all the community, to everyone, that this type of stuff cannot continue to happen and go on.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

It could be one of those moments where, you know, people might be totally disappointed, you know, if the sentence is light.

Lateria Garrett:

We need to set the stage for what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable and I think it will defer people from doing something like that ever again.

Jeffrey Butler:

We’ve been going through this for years and years. And as you can see I’m here with my grandchildren, and I don’t want them to be a victim and they should never be a victim of police.

Lateria Garrett:

I’m raising three African-American boys and it hits home quite naturally with me that yeah, I want them — if they go out and make a mistake, I want them to be held accountable in the court of law, not held accountable in the streets.

Desmond Leidich:

It will convey that this can’t keep happening anymore. And that George Floyd’s life mattered.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

Just when we think we’ve got justice and we start to heal, we get set back and then we’re back where we were Ruben Anthony, Jr before. I’m not trusting the system and I’m feeling like justice hasn’t been served.

Lateria Garrett:

It is not going to be something that we are just open arms to trust overnight but I think the more that people do the right thing, right? And by people I mean our leaders, do the right thing that will grow.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

The country is at a very delicate place.

Desmond Leidich:

It is important for the people of Wisconsin because —

Lateria Garrett:

Minnesota is not very far away.

Jeffrey Butler:

We’re neighbors to Minnesota and these type of things have happened in Wisconsin lately.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

Those things that happen across the nation have local impacts.

Lateria Garrett:

To me I felt like I needed to hug my children tighter. I needed to have conversations that I didn’t necessarily want to have.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

I do have sympathy for him because his life is going to be changed. He was a police officer. He was a public servant, but he just went wrong on this day. He committed the crimes and he should serve the time. People make mistakes. He’s obviously made a mistake in this situation but he still has to pay.

Jeffrey Butler:

I don’t think it’ll ever be over. We’ve had a Black president. We have a Black vice president as of now but we are still considered way down the totem pole as a people.

Desmond Leidich:

We still have a lot of work to do to make sure this sort of stuff doesn’t keep happening and our little — our kids in our community don’t have to grow up fearing police.

Lateria Garrett:

We’ll know when there is a lot more leaders, people that are in service positions that look like us.

David Bowen:

We’re already over a big hurdle.

Lateria Garrett:

I feel hopeful it is going to be justice served.

Ruben Anthony, Jr.:

We’re headed in the right direction. We just hope again that justice continues to be rendered as we wait for the sentencing.

Lateria Garrett:

I know there is a term of being “woke” and I do feel like there has been an awakening where people are sitting up and taking notice and I feel like African-Americans, Asians, LGBTQ, they’re some alliances that are being formed and we have allies and that’s what we need to be able to move forward.

Jeffrey Butler:

Let’s pray that everything goes as it should.

Zac Schultz:

We turn now to a new and unconventional way of thinking about where we might go for preventive healthcare, a barber shop. Marisa Wojcik brings us this story about an innovative model of healthcare that’s on the cutting edge.

Aaron Perry:

I had this idea when I used to come and get my hair cut of course when I had hair. I would come over to the barber shop and I would hear guys just talking about all types of health problems. They would get that beautiful haircut and walk right out the door and just over a period of years hearing this and then hearing what the medical community was saying about we can’t reach Black men.

Marisa Wojcik:

Having made his own health a priority after finding out he was diabetic, Aaron Perry was familiar with the stats. Even with today’s medical advancements one question resounded in his mind.

Aaron Perry:

Why can’t we figure out how to keep Black men alive longer than 51 years of age?

Jasmine Zapata:

We’re seeing Black men with increasingly higher rates of cancer, lung disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and other things that threaten their quality and their length of life.

Marisa Wojcik:

Dr. Jasmine Zapata is the chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for community health promotion at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, a long title for what she calls…

Jasmine Zapata:

A disease detective.

Marisa Wojcik:

When it comes to impacting long-term health issues…

Jasmine Zapata:

Prevention is key. Instead of waiting until after a problem comes up and then going to the doctor to work on fixing it, we need to do everything that we can to reach people where they’re at.

Marisa Wojcik:

Aaron had an idea about that.

Aaron Perry:

Why don’t we bring the medical community to the barber shop? It just made sense.

Marisa Wojcik:

This simple solution to address a complex problem had never been done before.

Aaron Perry:

So I pitched that idea to Jeff Patterson, the owner.

Marisa Wojcik:

His barber when he had hair.

Jeff Patterson:

He was a customer here so he knew what kind of business we ran and his presentation was outstanding. It was a no-brainer.

Marisa Wojcik:

Within months the Rebalanced-Life Wellness Association, the first ever men’s health center of its kind opened attached to the JP Hair Design barber shop in Madison.

Aaron Perry:

We do blood pressure screenings. We do flu shots. We do diabetes testing. We do glucose testing. We do cholesterol testing and it’s always going to be free as long as I’m alive, you know? When we started we had to convince the guys to do this. Now it’s just like second nature.

Marisa Wojcik:

But there is something else the barber shop provides that makes this model so successful.

Jeff Patterson:

It’s a trust thing. I think barbers have a good persuasion over their clients cuz there’s trust between the client and barber.

Jasmine Zapata:

When we talk about trust, it is not just credentials. Building trust in relationships when you are making important healthcare decisions for yourself and your family members, you need to know that person is reliable. You need to be in a safe space.

Marisa Wojcik:

The barbers take that responsibility seriously especially when it comes to the pandemic and helping distribute the COVID-19 vaccine.

Jeff Patterson:

I always tell the barbers here we need to be careful what we say because our clients believe in us.

Jasmine Zapata:

Social connectivity is so important and also in many of these spaces you’re not alone.

Aaron Perry:

The barbers, you know, they just know everything about all of their clientele.

Man # 1:

Marriage, kids, work problems, working out, everything.

Man # 2:

There’s just always a place of peace when you come here.

Marisa Wojcik:

For people of color trust in health outcomes are rooted in factors beyond the medical field.

Jasmine Zapata:

Structural racism contributes directly to unequal access to wealth, housing, food and healthcare. All these things have a profound impact on how long people live and how healthy they are.

Marisa Wojcik:

They span generations.

Jasmine Zapata:

We’re still feeling the ripple effects of many things that happened hundreds of years ago in our communities. In that setting that has had an impact on people’s actual biology.

Marisa Wojcik:

Setting an example for the next generation is embedded in this family setting.

Jeff Patterson:

The crazy thing is they start off in booster chairs and then the parents bring them. And they get a little older and then they start coming in themselves.

Marisa Wojcik:

The health education centers have expanded to two more barber shops in Dane County: Resilient Hair Design and The Be Right Barber Shop in Sun Prairie, which had its grand opening Thursday and included student nurses from Edgewood College to do health screenings.

Man # 3:

I come in usually every two weeks, every other week, me and my son to get our hair cut.

Man # 4:

I’ve always wanted to see my blood pressure, to get my blood pressure to make sure my health is good.

Barber:

I know a lot of things about people nobody else knows. Now if I learn something here, I can just quietly tell them go back there and check it out.

Marisa Wojcik:

Aaron is still setting his sights higher hoping to open centers in other states and become the nation’s first federally-qualified health center in a barber shop.

Aaron Perry:

We’re making this a priority because we don’t have the luxury of waiting.

Marisa Wojcik:

For “Here & Now,” I’m Marisa Wojcik in Madison.

Zac Schultz:

That’s our program for tonight. Next week, I’ll have a special report on property taxes and how the Legislature’s focus on them impacts every level of government in the state. Frederica Freyberg will return next Friday night. I’m Zac Schultz. Have a great weekend.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.