Here & Now

Wisconsin’s State of the State and 2022 Politics

Tony Evers:

Indifference in this building is getting expensive, folks, and let me be frank. The people who bear the burden of inaction are almost certainly not the people sitting in this chamber tonight. So don’t sit here in a white marble building with state coffers that are full and tell Wisconsinites who are working hard every day, we can’t afford to do more.

Devin LeMahieu:

We’ve created an environment in which individuals and businesses can both thrive. But despite being in better financial shape than many other states, Wisconsin is nowhere near where we want to be. Nearly every other aspect of our lives has declined in quality because of Joe Biden’s disastrous policies and Tony Evers’ weak leadership.

Frederica Freyberg:

Ouch. Can you tell it’s an election year? In his State of the State address this week, Governor Tony Evers challenged Republican leaders to take up his plan to give checks from the state surplus to every tax filer. His call for a special session, March 8, to do that is so far not being met with enthusiasm by Republican leaders who slammed his idea in favor of their own. It seems like a nice election year problem to have, a $3.8 billion state budget surplus, but leave to folks under the dome to make it a political fight. Senior political reporter Zac Schultz is at the Capitol now, where we check in with him. Hey, Zac.

Zac Schultz:

Hello, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is this tax refund fight over?

Zac Schultz:

Well, it’s really what to do with the surplus in an election year. Obviously Governor Evers has laid out his plan. He’d like to send some of it back. You may recall four years ago, Governor Scott Walker did nearly the same thing. He sent $100 per child home to taxpayers in an election year. At the time, Democrats called it a gimmick. Well, he had the Republican Legislature to advance it so it actually happened. This time around Republicans are calling it an election year gimmick. Governor Evers doesn’t have a legislature that’s going to let him pass this. Republicans would much rather see that surplus stay there in the hopes that they have a Republican governor who will sign a much more tax cut-friendly bill in the budget next year.

Frederica Freyberg:

So here’s what Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu had to say.

Devin LeMahieu:

Ultimately, Governor Evers abandoned his own unrealistic budgets and followed our lead by signing our responsible budgets.

Frederica Freyberg:

Budgets that included tax cuts, which they say that Evers is taking credit for. But here’s what Evers says about why he wants to cut these checks now and not wait for a tax cut later.

Tony Evers:

It won’t help Wisconsinites pay for child care, heating their homes or putting food on their table today. Wisconsinites cannot wait.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the governor not only wants to give the surplus refund to families but beef up education funding by $750 million, which he says preserves this federal funding to Wisconsin schools, which is at risk if the state doesn’t spend enough on education. Does this put the opposing party, Republicans, in a bind?

Zac Schultz:

Not from their perspective. They’re perfectly content to let the chips fall where they may. If there’s any issue between the state and the federal government over any of these funds down the road, they will blame Governor Evers. They will blame Joe Biden in Washington. They will blame the Department of Public Instruction in Madison. They are just looking to get through this unscathed and get into the next election cycle.

Frederica Freyberg:

As part of the plan to boost employment, the governor would increase child care tax credits. Meanwhile, the Assembly just this week passed these measures to get at the need for workers, including moving rules to get more people off government programs. So what does this say about kind of the divergence in approach here?

Zac Schultz:

Well, it’s a pretty classic look of where we are with the perspective of the different parties and how to handle the economy and jobs. Republicans have for years said well, we need to get everyone off unemployment. We need to get them into the workforce. Doesn’t matter what job, just get them there as fast as possible. Any incentive for people to possibly stay on unemployment longer, to look for a job more suited to their field or their particular family situation, that’s not to their liking. Whereas Democrats are much more comfortable trying to create incentives for people to build careers off unemployment, and they point to actually a very small number of people in the workforce that are on unemployment right now, and the fact that we don’t have enough workers, period. So it’s a different perspective that goes back a long way on how to approach jobs and the economy.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, Republicans chide Evers for giving out federal COVID funds, calling the money “federal tax dollars borrowed against our kids’ futures” but then they also complain he hasn’t given it out fast enough. It’s like he can’t win for trying here?

Zac Schultz:

It’s more politics, Frederica. I mean, you have to look at the history of this money. It wasn’t too long ago that Republicans were trying to make every dollar the governor wanted to give out through the federal money have to go through the Joint Finance Committee, which they controlled. And in that scenario, it seems much more likely that that money would have been slowed down, if not stopped all together because at the time, Republicans were still hoping they could have a Republican governor spending those funds because the funds are still good for a couple more years. They’ve been frustrated at the governor’s choices at every step along the process. They passed a lot of bills directing him to do this or that, and he’s vetoed all of them because he’s maintained sole authority on where to put these dollars and he’s still dolling them out right up through the election season into areas that he thinks are critical for Wisconsin’s economy.

Frederica Freyberg:

So overall, as an election year address, how did this one fare?

Zac Schultz:

It’s pretty standard. You’re going to see the incumbent governor cheerlead and talk about what’s going great. That’s what the State of the State address is. And you’re always going to see the opposite party say you didn’t talk about all the things that really matter, all the things we’re trying to hype up. Election years don’t have much meat on the bone at the Capitol when it comes to legislation. The session’s almost done. We’re not going to see much done in that sense. So this State of the State is really all about the next election.

Frederica Freyberg:

And we’re coming in to the next election. So Zac Schultz, thanks very much. Thanks for being with us from the Capitol.

Zac Schultz:

Thanks, Fred.