Here & Now

Here & Now for Nov. 23, 2018

Frederica Freyberg:
I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” a conversation with Governor-elect Tony Evers. U.S. Representative Mark Pocan on his party’s new majority in Congress. And a Wisconsin health care navigator gives us an inside look at the fall ACA enrollment period. It’s “Here & Now” for November 23.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

Frederica Freyberg:
Governor-elect Tony Evers, and his running mate, Mandela Barnes, are in a busy transition time on their way to Inauguration Day, January 7. The Democrats enter a State Capitol won by Republican majorities in the Assembly and Senate. Nonetheless devoted to the priorities made on the campaign trail. Governor-elect Evers joins us now to talk about those priorities. Thanks very much for being here.

Tony Evers:
Thanks. Good to be back.

Frederica Freyberg:
You haven’t been on our set since the election, so congratulations.

Tony Evers:
Thank very much. Appreciate that.

Frederica Freyberg:
What is happening with your transition to the office right now?

Tony Evers:
We’re spending a lot of time, lots of important positions to fill. We’re dead set making sure that we are going to have a diverse cabinet and people that are working with us to create a new government. And it just takes time. We have a lot of people interested in positions, and we’re reaching out to different people. And then, of course, preparing for the budget, all at the same time. The transition is extraordinarily complex time. They say it’s like drinking out of a fire hose. I’ve never done that so I can’t say that it is exactly the same, but it’s an exciting time. We’ve having lots of good–got lots of good support.

Frederica Freyberg:
What is your first order of policy business once you’re sworn in?

Tony Evers:
Well, certainly getting ready for the budget. But as I said on the campaign trail, I would love to be able to work together with the Republican majority to make sure that we accomplish something in a bipartisan fashion. And clearly transportation is one area that I think is a possibility, just because of watching it unfold over the last couple years. Republicans and Democrats together want good roads and want good infrastructure. And so hopefully we can begin some discussions even prior to inauguration and maybe reach some conclusions before.

Frederica Freyberg:
The Walker Administration came out with its revenue projections for the next biennium saying new agency spending requests are a billion dollars over the expected revenue growth. Where would you hold the line and where would you prioritize?

Tony Evers:
Certainly, we’ve always been in this position. Agency requests always exceed what the revenue projections are. There’s nothing new there. Budget’s always been around priorities. But I will say the issues that I talked about on the campaign, whether it’s education, health care, making sure we have a good transportation system, those will continue to be priorities for me going forward in this budget.

Frederica Freyberg:
You talk about compromise, but do you expect to be able to get your budget priorities through given the Republican Legislature?

Tony Evers:
Well, certainly I’ve reached out to various leaders and we’ve had–I’ve had discussions with some. And I’ll continue to do that. And, you know, they’re going to be–they’re not going to fold under the new administration coming in. I hope to reach good compromises, if necessary. But they will continue to advocate for what they think is important and I’ll do the same. It’s a governor’s budget, so my budget will be robust and it will focus on our priorities.

Frederica Freyberg:
And again, where do you think the compromise might come on budget matters?

Tony Evers:
Well certainly–I’m hopeful in all areas, to be honest with you. So, I — but I do — this budget is going to be reflective of what I talked about on the campaign. So therefore there may be disagreements. But we will always look for common ground where we can reach it. As I mentioned before, I think transportation is one area that there is some possibilities because under the present administration, there seem to be Republicans in the Legislature, seem to be in a different place than the governor was. And I believe there’s some opportunities there going forward.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, Scott Walker in his first public appearance said, “We will not retreat,” meaning that the Republicans will not go backwards on changes made during his tenure. What’s your response to that kind of language?

Tony Evers:
Well, it’s — you know, he’s still governor. He can make whatever statements he wants. My goal as the next governor is to reach agreement on as many things as possible, common ground. I believe there are some issues that, frankly, do need address, that Governor Walker could not address or did not address in his eight years as governor. We have to make sure that we have a robust transportation system. We need to have a good education system. And that includes resources. And so we’ll advocate for what we think is important and what the people of Wisconsin voted for, frankly.

Frederica Freyberg:
Meanwhile, Speaker Robin Vos is talking about kind of trying to get rid of some of the powers of the executive now that Scott Walker will not be that executive, including things like codifying administrative code on voter ID and on giving the majority Legislature more appointments to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. You came out pretty strong on that. Are you still?

Tony Evers:
On the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation?

Frederica Freyberg:
The idea of stripping you of some of your authority.

Tony Evers:
Yeah, it just seems–I think there are important things to do in this transition time. I’m not sure that a Republican Legislature or the governor want to have a legacy left for them that indicates that they’re going against the will of the people. But, again, we haven’t seen what the proposals are going to be so it’s hard to comment on those, but just the optics of that I think, is not particularly helpful going forward. I don’t view it as, you know, we’re drawing a line in the sand against the next governor or anything. But I just–I think–I’m hopeful people want to think about what their legacy is going to be going forward as they wrap up this special session.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you expect to disband the Economic Development board even as Speaker Vos seeks to beef up his appointments to it?

Tony Evers:
Well I’ve always been concerned about the board because of its lack of accountability. It’s not a state agency per se. I think it should be a state agency. I think there’s more accountability there. In the campaign I made the pledge to change that. And at some point I will. We’re right now working with business leaders and others across the state to kind of weigh what that would look like if it was changed. So, yes, I still believe that it should be a state agency. Whether that’s part of my budget or as a subsequent piece of legislation. We’re trying to work through that right now. And finding out what the business community actually wants from that agency. But what we do want as governor is making sure that economic development in the state should be a 72-county event, not just, you know, pitting one part of the state against another part of the state. And that, regardless of what agencies exist, that is going to be part of my economic development policy.

Frederica Freyberg:
On Foxconn there’s reporting today that says it has to cut $3 billion in corporate expenses next year because they expect it to be a very difficult year. Does this news concern you?

Tony Evers:
Certainly, the Foxconn piece has been concerning to me right from the get-go. First of all, I think it was a bad deal, as I said during the campaign. Lots of money put into it. And what Foxconn is going to be seems to be morphing over time. It’s going to be this and then it’s that. We can work through that. And I have begun conversations actually with people that are–that represent Foxconn just to make sure that I know as governor coming in what exactly their plans are.

Frederica Freyberg:
And have those plans changed, have you learned, through these discussions? I mean, is there reason for concern on your part, more concern?

Tony Evers:
Not more concern, no. I believe that what their ultimate goals are pretty much the same. My goal right now is to establish relationships with them so that I can be the best governor possible and they can be the best corporate citizen possible.

Frederica Freyberg:
This state, as you know, is used to division. How do you build trust and unity, especially when the Legislature is the other party?

Tony Evers:
Yeah, that’s me. I am what I am and I’ve always tried to find common ground. I was in a nonpartisan office. Even though there was partisan bickering around what we did and the Legislature and the governor did, I’m an educator at heart and an educator tries to find common ground and bring people to a reasonable conclusion. So that’s me. That’s why people voted for me for governor.

Frederica Freyberg:
What are some of the good changes that Republicans have made over the past eight years?

Tony Evers:
That’s a great question. I’d say there have been things that, frankly, Governor Walker and I and the Republican Legislature have embraced and has worked well. In the grand scheme of things, it may seem small, but the issue of dual enrollment, when young people can get high school credit, college credit simultaneously. That’s been — it’s good for kids, but the most important thing, it begins to make seamless those transitions between high school and postsecondary. I think that’s going to pay off long-term. It’s a different mindset. I think our work together on that was extraordinary.

Frederica Freyberg:
One of the things that Scott Walker never did was pardon people. Do you expect to pardon people?

Tony Evers:
Yes, we’ll bring back that pardon board. If people can make a good case to the board that they should be pardoned, then we should give them that opportunity.

Frederica Freyberg:
How will people describe your term in office in four years?

Tony Evers:
Well, here’s what I believe they will say, that they will re-elect me, for starters, but most importantly, after four years I’m hopeful that we have made some serious and substantive changes around education, health care, transportation, but it has been accomplished by bringing people together, kind of mitigating the political in-fighting that always happens. I know that people listening might say, “Oh, my gosh, how can that happen? We’re in such a polarized society.” People in Wisconsin want bipartisan solutions to problems. That’s why I ran for governor and that’s what we’re going to accomplish. So I believe at the end of the day, people will say, “Yes, Republicans and Democrats can actually do something to improve our lives and that happened over the last four years.”

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Governor-elect Tony Evers, thanks very much.

Tony Evers:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
The Wisconsin governor has powers beyond that of many other states and it comes in the form of the veto. This is the most powerful tool governor-elect Tony Evers will have at his disposal. Marisa Wojcik tells us what this veto power entails.

Marisa Wojcik:
With governor-elect Tony Evers working on his transition into Wisconsin’s executive office, there’s speculation as to how the newest governor will use one of the strongest tools in his arsenal, the power to veto. The Wisconsin governor’s veto power is amongst the strongest in the nation. It includes the ability to strike individual words and digits. The governor can partially veto bills that authorize spending money. This started in 1930, when Wisconsin amended its constitution to allow the authority. Before then, the governor could pass or veto a bill only in its entirety. So when lawmakers sometimes jumbled unrelated and controversial items into a spending or budget bill, the governor didn’t have the power to root them out. According to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the partial veto power is meant to make it easier for the governor to have a quasi-legislative role and is allowed if the changes lead to a workable law. So historically, what does this power look like? One form the veto took was dubbed the Vanna White Veto, when a single letter inside a word could be crossed out to create a whole new word. In the 1987-89 budget bill, former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson used this power 290 times, leading members of the state Senate to sue the governor. After that, the Frankenstein veto came to life, which instead of striking letters to form new words, the governor could strike parts of sentences to form new sentences. In 2005, former Democratic Governor Jim Doyle used this power to scrub 752 words from a single budget bill. What remained were 20 words that moved $427 million from transportation to education. Voters eventually decided in statewide referendums to end both the Vanna White and Frankenstein vetoes. But Wisconsin’s governor can still be productive with their pen. Governor Scott Walker used the power of the partial veto to remove the word “not” from a budget bill. So when the Legislature intended for something not to happen, all of a sudden it was a requirement. With a Republican-controlled Assembly and Senate, Governor Walker didn’t have to rely on the veto so much to push an agenda. But Democrat Tony Evers might get creative with his veto pen. For these and other fast facts, visit wpt.org.

Frederica Freyberg:
That was Marisa Wojcik reporting. Early this week, Republican Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel conceded the election to his Democratic challenger, Josh Kaul. Schimel had considered a recall, having lost by 17,000 votes. Following the concession, Governor Scott Walker appointed Schimel to a Waukesha County judgeship.
In Washington, the House of Representatives flipped majority. In tonight’s closer look, we check in with a member of that new majority, Congressman Mark Pocan representing the 2nd district of Wisconsin. Congressman, thanks very much for being here.

Mark Pocan:
Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
We wanted to ask you, are you supporting Nancy Pelosi to be speaker?

Mark Pocan:
We’re having our election next week and sitting down with the leader. I think I just found out today between noon and two on Tuesday and we’ll be making final decisions then.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what can you tell us now?

Mark Pocan:
I expect Nancy will be the next speaker of the House of Representatives.

Frederica Freyberg:
We spoke with Congressman Mike Gallagher of Green Bay last week. He bemoans a broken Congress, saying how leadership runs the whole show, leaving very little room for members to actually legislate. What would you like to see from Nancy Pelosi in terms of giving the ranks more power?

Mark Pocan:
That’s kind of an insider view. People inside the beltway care about. Big view of what’s wrong with Congress and there’s plenty. Let’s start with campaign finance reform. Let’s get rid of dark money. Let’s make surely half my colleagues aren’t millionaires. No offense to a millionaire, but that’s hardly representative of the country and that’s the makeup of Congress. There’s a lot of things we need to do. I think I’m heartened by the first bill that we’ll introduce as Democrats, HR-1, cause it gets the first number as bill, will be one that deals with campaign finance, elections and ethics reform. So dealing with some of the problems we’ve seen with this administration and some of the cabinet heads and things that need to happen. Dealing with some of the election law changes that we saw many states where they dropped people off the voter list. And dealing with things like disclosure of dark money, anonymous money into campaigns. We want to lead with that and I think that’s a good way to start a session.

Frederica Freyberg:
Will the House then kind of “go after Donald Trump?”

Mark Pocan:
So we’re going to have two things that you do, right? In Congress, part of it is you’re going to advance policy legislation and pass bills. You’re going to have a Republican Senate, Republican president so you’re going to have to negotiate, so that’s a good thing. But also is oversight, what’s been missing the last two years, is Congress has had no oversight over this White House. So there’s a committee called Oversight and Government Reform. Their job is oversight. Clearly they’ll be doing that. Judiciary will do that and Intelligence. Those are the main three. Every committee will do certain oversight. Sometimes it’s around the administration. Sometimes, for example, I’m on Appropriations, the Labor, Human Services Education subcommittee. I assume we’ll have a lot of pharmaceutical company executives in to talk about why the cost of drugs is so expensive when it doesn’t seem to make sense to most anyone else. So that is a responsibility. We’ll do a lot of that along with putting proactive pieces of legislation forward.

Frederica Freyberg:
And you specifically for your district here in Wisconsin, what will you be looking to kind of get done?

Mark Pocan:
Yeah. So a number of things that we’ve had out there. Higher education is something I think with this district especially, the two subcommittees that I serve on in Appropriations, account for 77% of the money that comes to UW-Madison. Clearly, that’s very important to me. Financial aid. I’ve been the lead sponsor of a Perkins Loan Reauthorization Bill. It’s lapsed for now for over a year. It’s a bipartisan bill. We have 245 sponsors. It’s one of the 20 most sponsored bills in Congress that hasn’t seen a vote. Like to get that done. And we have to do the Reauthorization of Higher Education Act. That’s just one area. Also I have a lot under my subcommittee purview in agriculture, in human services and in labor issues. So we’ll probably lead with issues in those areas.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, you’ve been talking with Speaker Vos, I understand, back here at home over his ideas to limit Tony Evers’ authority. What is your comment on that?

Mark Pocan:
Yeah, you know, so the people of Wisconsin voted for Tony Evers. They voted for, in fact, all the constitutional offices happen to be Democrats this time. 54% of the people or 53% of the people voted for Democrats for the state legislative seats, yet they have 36% of the seats because of gerrymandering. So I think what we have to realize is people wanted a change in the direction of the state. You don’t out of sour grapes or because you lost then change the rules and that’s what they’re trying to do. I expect that from a banana republic. I don’t expect that from a Wisconsin Legislature. Robin’s better than that. He and I may disagree on issues but he’s a very smart person. I think he should be better than trying to take away the powers of an incoming governor because you’re unhappy that he won. I think that just looks bad. It is bad policy. And I’m hoping that he’ll come to a better place.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, you have said that you believe that what that is about is redistricting. How so?

Mark Pocan:
Yeah, so my concern is just that stat I gave, 53% or 54% of the people voted for Democrats for the legislature, and you only have 36% of the seats. Clearly they’re concerned about redistricting. I think if there is a way, if they really are going to try this North Carolina-coup attempt on the governor’s power, they will try to find a back door way to go after redistricting. So I just want people to be very ready for it. It’s nice to worry about the DNR board composition or the WEDC board composition, but if you’re busy looking at a couple trees and miss the entire forest, that’s the kind of stuff that could happen. I think even they could go after the attorney general’s office. There’s a lot of things they could do that they shouldn’t. And again, I’m trying to go to their better selves. They have some good ideas, we have some good ideas, but you don’t just after an election get so mad you take all the marbles and then huff and puff and go home crying. That’s what they’re doing by trying to take away the powers of the governor.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you think about the idea of moving the presidential primary to ostensibly protect a conservative justice?

Mark Pocan:
Yeah, that’s another pathetic thing they could do. We used to be very proud that it was Wisconsin, Minnesota and Maine that had the top three turnouts nationally, especially when it came to presidential races. Now we’re going to move elections around because, again, the people might decide they want to elect someone other than the Republican leadership thinks? That would be a really bad move. It’s very expensive. It’s hard to administer but it’s also just the wrong thing. You know, make your case. You have some good ideas. We have some good ideas. Let’s negotiate. We now have split government. But you don’t just change the rules after you lost. That’s not right. That’s not the Wisconsin way. Again, I’m hoping they’ll reconsider that.

Frederica Freyberg:
Congressman Mark Pocan, thanks very much for joining us.

Mark Pocan:
Sure, thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
Health coverage of pre-existing conditions became a clarion call in the midterm elections. Now we’re in the midst of sign-ups for 2019 plans in the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The deadline to enroll at healthcare.gov is December 15. Tonight we hear from Adam Van Spankeren with Covering Wisconsin. Adam, thanks for being here.

Adam Van Spankeren:
Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
Despite funding cuts for navigators like yourselves, what’s the pace of people signing up for coverage?

Adam Van Spankeren:
It’s pretty frantic. We actually — to get away today, to do this, it was tough just because we have people coming in all the time. Like our navigators are very busy. We’re working six days a week, seven this last week. We’re signing people up all day. It’s hectic.

Frederica Freyberg:
How do you think it compares to years past?

Adam Van Spankeren:
So for us it’s very much–the energy is the same in terms of enrollments. The energy above us at the political level we can’t really pay attention to as navigators. We’re on the ground. We’re doing the work.

Frederica Freyberg:
Right. So how much have premiums jumped since last year when you’re taking a look at these different plans that people can choose from?

Adam Van Spankeren:
Not much, actually. This is the first year that I get to really say that. There have been different trends in the past where they fluctuated but then different market factors have controlled them. This year they didn’t jump that much. We’ve had Molina come back into the market. It’s been pretty competitive. People have seen some jumps but once we get in there and look at their income versus their tax credits, we find that people have affordable coverage and it didn’t go up that much.

Frederica Freyberg:
What has changed for consumers?

Adam Van Spankeren:
For consumers for the areas I’ve been working in, seeing, not a ton. We’ve had some people returning to us obviously and returning to the marketplace year after year and some things are very constant. And I think that actually is a pleasant surprise for them when they come in and things are the same.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what’s the number one question you hear, though, from people looking to enroll?

Adam Van Spankeren:
That’s a great question. How much is this going to cost me is a very frequent question.

Frederica Freyberg:
Yeah.

Adam Van Spankeren:
People who are new are surprised actually that they can get affordable coverage. That’s great. We’re really trying to bring in new faces and new people. People’s situations have changed coming into the marketplace for the first time and can be, again, pleasantly surprised by the coverage they’re getting.

Frederica Freyberg:
What are you hearing from people about their concerns over coverage of pre-existing conditions because that was so out there for so many months?

Adam Van Spankeren:
It’s a question that comes up but it’s easily answered. Your pre-existing conditions are covered. Nothing will change for next year. If you enroll today. You enroll during open enrollment until December 15th, nothing will change with your plan throughout next year.

Frederica Freyberg:
Incoming Governor Tony Evers, as you know, expects to be able to accept expanded Medicaid, at least during his four years. How would that change the landscape of all this?

Adam Van Spankeren:
It would be interesting. I was at the state a few years ago when they didn’t expand Medicaid and you adjust some things and people ended up in the marketplace that could have otherwise with the Medicaid expansion be on BadgerCare. We’ll see those people go and be on BadgerCare now. That will draw some people away from the marketplace, but they’ll be covered. That’s the most important thing. They’re going to have coverage for themselves. This is mostly childless adults or adults without dependent children now and they’ll be covered. And that is a very critical income gap. It’s 1 to 133% of the poverty level, which doesn’t mean a lot to regular folk but when you’re making that amount to money and trying to get by, not having to worry about coverage is huge.

Frederica Freyberg:
So if someone is looking to enroll in the marketplace, what would they need to have? How would they find you?

Adam Van Spankeren:
Sure.

Frederica Freyberg:
Some of the people you work with.

Adam Van Spankeren:
One of the easiest ways is just pick up your phone and dial 211 because 211, the United Way, they can help you connect to a local assistor like us in your area or to us directly. You can go to our website – CoveringWi.org/enroll – will take you right to our “find local help.” You put in your zip code and you can find a navigator near you, get an appointment with us. In terms of what to bring to that appointment, income, just have an idea of your income, because you’re projecting for 2019. So if you’ve got your taxes, great. W-2, great. Pay stubs, great. Or just a general idea. The most important thing is that you know your social security number so we can start the application and get it going. If you have log-in information from the past, make sure to bring that because it will go so much faster.

Frederica Freyberg:
How long does it take?

Adam Van Spankeren:
For somebody brand new, I would say we want to go through everything. We want to educate them and help them understand, not just enroll. Navigators help people understand their coverage and feel good about it. That could be an hour to an hour and a half. Somebody who’s coming back and wants to stay on the same plan, they’re super happy with it, then that could take half an hour to 40 minutes. Just to make sure we got all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Thanks very much, Adam Van Spankeren. Good luck with it.

Adam Van Spankeren:
Thank so much. Appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. That is our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good holiday weekend.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided, in part, by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.