Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Tony Evers made a statewide sweep of visits to childcare centers this week as he announced a special session of the legislature to address worker shortages. Evers wants to use $1 billion of a $4 billion budget surplus to shore up childcare centers, expand paid family leave, give more to higher education, and put money towards supporting high-demand jobs in healthcare and education.

Tony Evers:

Truly addressing these longstanding challenges must include efforts to ensure workers who are already working and are part of the workforce can remain in the workforce.

Frederica Freyberg:

The special session called for September 20 was met with predicted derision from legislative leaders with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos calling it a stunt, “nothing more than a rehash of Tony Evers’ tax and spend budget. Democrats at the federal level, he says, tried extending recklessly to help the workforce and all we got for it was crushing inflation. We are not going to do that in Wisconsin.”