Speaker Robin Vos on a 2026 Agenda for Wisconsin Republicans

Zac Schultz:
Speaker Vos, thanks for your time again.

Robin Vos:
Thanks for having me on, Zac.

Zac Schultz:
So, walk me through what do you think were the biggest accomplishments of the Assembly Republicans this year?

Robin Vos:
Well, first of all, we all know that the biggest thing that people are talking about as we go through the holidays, but really for the whole year, has been affordability. To me, it’s really five different areas, but the ones we’ve been focusing most on: health care, utility costs, the cost of property taxes, and how do you stay in your home, and then ultimately making sure that we have more money in your pocket to pay all your bills. So, when I think about what we’ve done, number one, we had a good bipartisan budget. It seems like forever ago, but really we addressed a lot of those things more money for health care, more money for schools, more money to try to make sure that we keep it in your pocket by having that exemption for seniors to be able to have the first $48,000 tax-free. And, also making sure we have no sales tax on electricity, and ultimately a small tax cut. So, I think overall pretty good.

Zac Schultz:
One of the things you mentioned there, we talked about property taxes Gov. Evers’ 400-year veto…

Robin Vos:
Yeah.

Zac Schultz:
…first hit the property tax bills now. Some of this seems like it’s going to be a messaging war of who takes the blame for this, because Democrats are saying, well, Republicans could have funded it in the budget, and obviously Gov. Evers fought for other priorities in the budget. So, do you think taxpayers know where this comes from?

Robin Vos:
Well, number one, we had a bipartisan budget where we all got what we wanted, right? Gov. Evers and the advocates who came to the testify at our Joint Finance hearing said, “Put more money in special ed.” We had the largest increase in funding for special ed in literally 30 years so, exactly what they wanted. But Gov. Evers also used his creative veto to make sure he had this 400-year guaranteed property tax increase. Well, he got his wish. My own property tax is 24% higher, and I think if you ask most Wisconsinites, that is not sustainable or affordable. But under Gov. Evers’ plan, that’s the foreseeable future. So, if we want to care about making sure people can stay in their homes and afford to live in Wisconsin, we’ve got to have better controls on property taxes than we currently do. One of our ideas is to come back this spring we’ll have a constitutional amendment to address the 400-year veto. You cannot have a governor increasing spending like that forever without at least the willing discussion and debate in the Legislature.

Zac Schultz:
One of the more recent headlines out of the Assembly had to do with expanding health care for women through Medicaid. That’s got a lot of support in the Senate. There are Republican co-sponsors. Walk me through your process for your caucus of when there are Republicans that support it, but it doesn’t come to the floor.

Robin Vos:
Sure. So, we have a rule that, by and large, things get to the floor as long as they have 50 Republican votes. We work really hard to get there. The vast majority of things do. Sometimes it takes a little longer to find out what changes have to be made or how do we address the issues that people have concerns with. One of the concerns that I have is putting more people onto welfare is not something that is sustainable for taxpayers in the long run. We have done a very good job over the course of the past decade, as other states have seen increases in their welfare spending, we’ve kept ours flat. We found other ways to address health care challenges. Remember, in the budget we had a bipartisan agreement on a hospital assessment that actually brings in almost a billion dollars into Wisconsin to help lower health care costs. I would much rather focus on lowering health care costs for everyone as opposed to putting a few more people onto welfare that all of us are going to pay for.

Zac Schultz:
There are Democrats saying, well, it’s you personally: “It was Speaker of Vos alone that stopped this from happening.” Is there truth to that? Is it simply you opposed it? And so, you convinced others not to support it? Or is it really there wasn’t enough support in the caucus?

Robin Vos:
Well, I have opposed it because I’ve always said we’re not going to expand welfare as long as Republicans have a seat at the table, because we already have one of the most robust social safety net programs in the country. If someone decides to have a child, right now about half of the births in Wisconsin are unwed mothers, and they’re on Medicaid. We’re already taking care of them and their babies for the entire nine months of the pregnancy, and now up to three months afterward. Some people want to go a year afterward. It just seems like at some point the taxpayers have to say, “It’s your responsibility to care for the child that you decided to have. We’ve already done our part. Now, it’s up to you to go and get your own insurance, so that you can make sure that that child is well cared for, and so are you as the mother” all the way until hopefully they get out of the house.

Zac Schultz:
Over the last year, we’ve seen the Wisconsin Supreme Court strip a lot of legislative oversight of the rulemaking process away. There was talks of trying to find some sort of compromise to reinstate some oversight. Any progress, any hope that something might happen next year?

Robin Vos:
Remember we created a Speaker’s Task Force on the rulemaking process headed up by Brent Jacobson from Wausau, a very bright and talented freshman. I know he is working with others to see if there are ways we can bring it back together. But it’s really an example of how the Supreme Court has really gone rogue. We have had 50 or more years of the administrative rule processes under liberal supreme courts, under conservative supreme courts, under liberal governors and Republican governors. It’s really been a consensus to say we want co-equal branches of government, only under this radical, liberal supreme court have they taken away the ability for us to just have a check on the executive. And, as I’ve said to my Democratic colleagues, someday there’s gonna be a Democrat Legislature, God forbid, but there will be and a Republican governor, and you are going to forget how much power you gave away and you’re going to regret it. So, hopefully we can find that bipartisan consensus to say co-equal should be good for everybody.

Zac Schultz:
There has been some success over the last few years of actually working with Gov. Evers to pass some bigger…

Robin Vos:
Yeah.

Zac Schultz:
…bills. Do you think there’s room for one more?

Robin Vos:
I’m always open to compromise and finding an answer. I mean, we’re working together on this idea of SNAP benefits right now. We believe that, kind of like what’s happened in almost a dozen other states around the country, it’s crazy to have taxpayers paying for junk food when you’re on food stamps. We think we should be able to restrict those to healthier options. He’d like to have more money going into helping administer the program under the Big Beautiful Bill. There were some changes in how we administered it. We like the work requirements in the bill. So, if we can do that in a way that reduces fraud, hopefully that’s an area we can find consensus. My hope is we can do that in the spring, but you’re right, there are other areas that we are more than willing to sit at the table and find that consensus, but we’re not going to give up our principles. And I respect the fact he doesn’t want to either.

Zac Schultz:
So, a lot of other people have already shifted to looking at the election next year. What’s the recruitment process look like when you’ve got a lot of competitive seats out there?

Robin Vos:
Yeah, I mean, it’s really no different than it’s been for the past 30 or 40 years. We’ve always had a competitive map in Wisconsin. We’ve been successful ’cause we recruit good candidates who are locally based, and they focus on the issues that matter to Wisconsinites. As I look at what’s happening in the governor’s race, I watch the Democrats go farther and farther to the left. Their entire campaign is focused on one person, not the average mom or dad in Wausau or Rhinelander or Eau Claire, but they’re focused on Donald Trump. And I think most people are sick and tired of having an argument about one person. They want to see results. So, I think our candidates are going to talk about affordability. How do we make things better for the average family? We’re going to bring up a bill this spring that focuses on putting more money back into the pockets of Wisconsinites. We’re going to focus on property taxes because they’re way too high. And ultimately we’re going to try to make sure we have good programs that can build a social safety net, but in a way that encourages people to get off of it and doesn’t become a hammock.

Zac Schultz:
Do you plan on running again?

Robin Vos:
I haven’t gone through that process. My wife and I talked about it already, so I’ll make a decision sometime like I normally do in January, February.

Zac Schultz:
Do you plan on getting involved in the governor’s primary at all on the Republican side?

Robin Vos:
No, we have two good candidates at this point. There certainly could be more that enter in. I feel like either one of the two candidates that we already have are exceptionally good leaders. They both have to focus on what matters to Wisconsinites and that is affordability, cost of housing, making sure that we have reasonable taxes and ultimately deliver services that people need. The Democrats are kind of running to the far left, the candidates that they have, a bunch of people who’ve run before and lost. I don’t know if that’s the most successful way for them to win, but I guess only time will tell.

Zac Schultz:
When it comes to next fall, do you think that the average voter will be focused more on what’s happening in Washington and the federal impacts, or do you think they will be focused on what the state Legislature can do for them?

Robin Vos:
Well, it’s one of the rare times where the only race on the ballot are state races, besides our Congressional seats which are up every two years. A lot of times, you’ll have a Congressional race, a Senate race and a gubernatorial at the same time so, federal issues really overwhelm us. This time around, we get to talk about more of Wisconsin issues, and I think we have done a really good job of addressing issues that people in Wisconsin care about. We had a bipartisan housing package. We are going to be bringing up some issues dealing with utility costs in the spring, which I know are a big hassle for people. We’re going to focus on property taxes. We’ve dealt with crime in many ways. So, I think we’ve done a good job, but there’s always more work to do.

Zac Schultz:
All right, Speaker Vos, thanks for your time.

Robin Vos:
Thanks. Appreciate your time, Zac.