MILWAUKEE, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) – Several weeks of traveling the state came to an end Thursday night for Governor Tony Evers and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes as they made the final stop on their statewide budget listening tour at Journey House in Milwaukee. 

Evers and Barnes traveled the state late last year before they took office to hear what people wanted in a state budget. Thursday night they wrapped up a similar tour, hoping they can use the stories they heard to support the budget Evers proposed back in February.

“During our previous get-togethers we had across the state, prior to the budget, it did absolutely inform us of what the budget should look like,” Evers said.

Similar to the first budget tour, people who attended were divided into groups based on the issues they care about, which included transportation, healthcare, the environment, education, criminal justice reform, and jobs and tax fairness.

“We've been on this budget listening tour, this is our second round, we did the first round before we took office because we wanted to do something different than the previous administration,” Barnes said. “We wanted to listen.”

The second round was just as much about listening, but this time the administration hopes those stories will convince a divided government to agree on a spending plan.

“We know there's a little bit of resistance in the legislature,” Barnes said. “However, the only way we overcome that is when we take more personal stories from you all. We hear more of what you have to say about how we make Wisconsin a more fair, a more equitable and a more sustainable state for everybody.”

Several cabinet members and state lawmakers also attended to get direct input from the public as a vote nears in the coming months.

“The reason these people are here, certainly they want to be part of the solution to the problems that this state faces,” Evers said.

While the governor and his cabinet were holding their own budget listening sessions the legislature's Joint Finance Committee was also gathering input from people across the state at separate listening sessions.

That committee will ultimately draft its own spending plan which has to be approved by the governor and both houses of the legislature. 

The next budget cycle begins July 1, but if no budget is passed by then the current spending levels continue with no shutdown.