Tony Evers:

Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t afford to make health care more accessible while saving your hard-earned tax dollars. Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t afford to fully fund our public schools while cutting taxes at the same time. Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t afford to support our farmers, our rural communities and our small businesses while protecting our natural resources and investing in new, clean jobs.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Tony Evers delivered his budget address this week. The $91 billion two-year plan represents an increase in overall spending by nearly 10%, with education leading the way. In his plan, K-12 schools would see a boost of more than $1.6 billion and the UW System would see the largest increase in 20 years at $192 million. To help fund these increases, Evers’ budget calls for a nearly $1 billion tax increase by way of limits on manufacturers’ tax credits and increasing the capital gains tax for high-income people. Tax cuts of nearly $600 million would go to caregivers, parents and low-income individuals. Republicans say the governor’s budget includes what they call poison pills, like expanding Medicaid, rolling back Act 10 and legalizing recreational marijuana. We get republican reaction now from co-chair of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, Representative Mark Born of Beaver Dam. Thanks very much for being here.

Mark Born:

Thanks for having me. Great to be with you.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your overall reaction to the governor’s budget?

Mark Born:

Well, I mean, overall it’s really just a giant liberal wish list. I mean it has a ton of policy in it, trying to repeal a lot of things that have gone into law in the last probably ten years in Wisconsin. You mentioned some of it on your lead-in there, with the Act 10 things, and trying to just go backwards. Also massive tax increases, huge spending increase and just not something that’s a realistic budget document moving forward for the state of Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

So with all of that said, do you expect to throw it out and start anew?

Mark Born:

Well, we’ll certainly look I think in the coming weeks. Co-chair Marklein and I will sit down, but I will imagine we’ll certainly remove all those policy items like we did last time. That’s just not the place to decide those things. They should have a legislative process, go through the public hearings and let stakeholders weigh in and have big discussions on those type of issues. And certainly I think where we are is probably some of where we were last time, where we did work from a base budget. It’s just going to be hard to work with all the massive spending and tax increases in there. I think a lot of that is going to be nonstarters.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what will Republican priorities be for the budget?

Mark Born:

I think it will be in some ways a lot of the stuff you’ve seen from us in the past, focus on making investments in important areas like K-12 education, broadband, roads, especially local roads, our transportation system and making sure we’ve got access to our high-quality health care systems here in Wisconsin. Those are things we have done the last couple budgets. Some of things are in Governor Evers’ budget too. So for all the bad things that are in there, you talked in the lead-in too about the education spending. I don’t think we’ll spend at the same level and maybe in the exact same way, but there’s room for compromise there. Broadband is another one. We’ve invested as a Legislature in the broadband the last two budgets. The governor says it’s a priority this time. So again, might not do it the exact same way but there’s room to work there and at least focus on the issue together I think.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Will you approve the executive budget’s call for $95 million to upgrade the unemployment insurance system?

Mark Born:

I think that we took action this week in the Joint Committee on a bill that the Senate passed yesterday and we’re going to pass next week in the Assembly hopefully, to get that process started. And I think that process as we outlined in that bill will give us a better idea on the cost. After the RFP comes back, if we need to appropriate some funds for a good plan to fix the system, I think the Legislature will be open to talking about that, definitely.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s take a listen now to what the governor had to say directly to you and your colleagues.

Tony Evers:

To my friends in the Legislature, our opportunity to bounce back from this crisis calls for you to summon the will to get this done. There’s no time for false promises of hope and prosperity with empty words that you know full well won’t match your actions. You can disagree with me if you want but don’t punish the people we serve so you can settle a score no one but you is keeping. Each time a bill fails to pass, each time a compromise ends up in flames, each time legislators lose sight of the people who sent you whoever, the disappointment, the resentment and the disparities grow.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what’s your response to that message from the governor to you?

Mark Born:

Yeah. Well, I don’t think that myself or any of my colleagues have lost sight of the people that have sent us to Madison to represent them. I think it’s quite the opposite. When we’re pushing back on the governor’s budget that’s going to take this state backwards and repeal a lot of things we put into place in the last decade, when he’s looking to tax Wisconsin residents at a time when we’re coming out of a national pandemic and getting our businesses and families back on our feet, we’re definitely remembering who sent us there and working together is a two-way street. So we’re going to continue to represent our constituents and we’re hoping that the governor will work with us on this budget and we can accomplish a budget like we did two years ago. But it’s definitely a two-way street and I don’t accept at all any idea that — I believe that I have a lot of hope in this state and my constituents and I’m there to represent them just like my colleagues in the Legislature are and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.

Frederica Freyberg:

You spoke earlier to this about you believe there are definitely things that you can agree on with the Evers’ budget, like maybe this isn’t the number, but $200 million for broadband. But he also has in there a $200 million for businesses to try to recover from the pandemic. I trust that that would be something that you’d be looking at as well?

Mark Born:

Yeah. Again, until we have caucus discussions and things and see how all the different things fit together, we can’t commit to a number but definitely we will want to invest in broadband. I’m sure we will invest in businesses both to help them come out of the pandemic as well as I think another important thing that isn’t talked about enough in the governor’s budget is the needs of our workforce. We have a lot of people retiring. Families aren’t as large as they used to be. We need to have, continue to have the high-quality workforce we’ve always had in Wisconsin. We need to attract more talent to our workforce.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Representative Mark Born, time to roll up your sleeves. Thanks for joining us.

Mark Born:

Thanks for having me.