Frederica Freyberg:

Democratic Governor Tony Evers says he’s had enough and so this week he filed a suit against the state legislature saying Republicans are holding hostage pay raises for tens of thousands of UW state employees. We should note PBS Wisconsin is part of UW-Madison. Senior political reporter Zac Schultz has more.

Zac Schultz:

Earlier this month, the Republican-led Joint Committee on Employment Relations, cochaired by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, signed off on raises for all state workers except employees of the Universities of Wisconsin. It was the last straw for Democratic Governor Tony Evers.

Tony Evers:

The Republicans decided that 35,000 people that work for the UW System shouldn’t get a raise without having any legislation that gives them that authority. That’s just bull-[bleep], and so that was the defining moment right there.

Zac Schultz:

The raises were already approved in the state’s biennial budget. The lawsuit, brought by Attorney General Josh Kaul on behalf of the governor alleges this and other actions by GOP-led committees are violating the Wisconsin Constitution and intruding into executive powers. Evers further says Republican legislators are unconstitutionally obstructing basic functions of government.

Other alleged violations from Republican-controlled committees include the Joint Committee on Finance has repeatedly blocked conservation projects, selected under the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program and the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules is blocking updates to the state’s commercial building standards and ethics standards for licensed professionals.

Tony Evers:

There’s nothing in law or the budget that was passed, which is law, to say that the speaker or the Republicans in general, leadership can say, “Well, that 4%, you’re not going to get it or you might get it if you do x, y and z.” None of that is in law and so that is an illegal act and so that pushed me over the edge. I mean, the other issues, I do believe it’s just a further effort that started before I became governor with the lame duck law and all the things that they’ve done about not approving my appointees or not — you know, all of that. It’s all part of it. But when you mess with 35,000 people at one time, that’s enough.

Zac Schultz:

Are you looking for the Supreme Court, if they take this case, to make a broad ruling? Or would you be satisfied if they issued a narrow ruling, specifically on UW employees or JCRAR or any of the other committees?

Tony Evers:

I think the legislature — it would be helpful for the legislature to have a broad idea of what their authority is and what’s mine. That would be the best of all the alternatives, but we have — at the end of the day, we have to make sure that we pay people what they should be paid. So I think the best alternative would be a broad sweeping of things saying this is what your job is, this is what the governor’s job is. Start behaving.

Zac Schultz:

You mentioned the lame duck laws and some of these actions you’re referring to came out of the lame duck laws. So is this in effect another lawsuit attempt to re-litigate some of those issues that were passed into law under the previous administration?

Tony Evers:

Yeah. I mean, because of that actions, we’ve always felt that they are wrong-headed and so if we have to make some changes, that’s fine. I think, broadly speaking, the way the Republicans have essentially taken more and more power over time from the executive branch, we have to stop that and we have to understand that they’re coequal parts of government, the judicial, executive and legislative, and that’s the way it’s supposed to work. It’s not working that way now.

Zac Schultz:

Would you have filed this lawsuit under a different makeup of the Supreme Court?

Tony Evers:

Yes. Oh, gosh, yes. Oh gosh, yes. I think we’re going to get more than four votes on this one. I mean, people should be able to understand that is there is broad authority in all three branches. So absolutely. This recent thing, whether new judges or not, that’s irrelevant to this. We would have filed that regardless.

Zac Schultz:

Speaker Vos said in a statement, today’s lawsuit by Governor Evers and Attorney General Kaul is an attempt to eliminate the 4% raises given to all state employees by the legislature and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said the governor is working to diminish the voice of Wisconsinites by limiting the authority of the legislature and unduly strengthening his own administration. You have dealt with the legislature rules even as your time as superintendent of public instruction. How longstanding are some of these issues when it comes to the balance of power between the executive and the legislature?

Tony Evers:

I’d say it accelerated with my election. I think it’s always a little bit of an issue going forward, but because it’s just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, it became a thing and we have to deal with it. So I’m glad we filed this suit and we anticipate winning this suit.

Zac Schultz:

A year ago, you were talking about a reset with Republicans in the legislature. Since then, they have voted down your appointees and you filed this lawsuit. Was a reset ever realistic? Was it always going to be limited, or is it just the current state of politics?

Tony Evers:

It’s the current state of politics, but we passed the budget. I signed the budget. We brought shared revenue to Milwaukee and other places across the state, every municipality. So we’ve had some successes. But we can’t stand for is people not following the law and following what we’ve agreed to, and we did not agree to what the speaker is doing now.

Zac Schultz:

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

Tony Evers:

Thank you. Appreciate it.