MADISON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) – As we head into 2020, Gov. Tony Evers is laying out his agenda for the coming year.
Spectrum News 1 Political Reporter Anthony DaBruzzi recently sat down with the governor for a one-on-one interview.
Looking back on 2019, what would you say is your biggest accomplishment?
Well, even though we set a high bar, I think the budget was probably our best accomplishment. We set a high bar, you know, I ran on issues around education and healthcare and roads and transportation issues and we set a high bar for the legislature. They didn't quite get there, but we provided $600 million worth of additional resources for schools and actually got to a place where we're now having the lowest bond rating or lowest bonding for transportation projects, and really getting some good projects completed that were kind of left for the last eight years, and made some headway in healthcare also. So, I feel good that we reached a good place.
Would you say there were any missed opportunities for you?
Well, certainly Medicaid expansion is one of those. When we have, you know, a large number of people, I think 70% of the people in the state of Wisconsin, understand how important expanding that was, and it continues to be an option for us, but $1.6 billion that the state doesn't receive because of, I think, ideological reasons, and so that never made much sense so that's a missed opportunity. There's no question.
We haven't had divided government for eight years. What would you say your rapport is like with Republicans in both houses?
The thing that continues to bother me is that their leadership prevents, frankly, some votes from happening, so take a vote, and let people vote their conscience. How do people back home know how people stand on certain issues when there's never any votes on things that we ask about? You know, certainly, gun safety is one of them, but other things that I think actually would pass the legislature. The leadership constrains it, so that doesn't make sense for me.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) has expressed some frustration about the working relationship and communication with your administration. In 2020, is there a way to bridge the gap?
You know, at the end of the day, it takes two to tango. And there seems to be a reluctance to do that but we'll continue to do that. I was elected by the people of Wisconsin to accomplish certain things and I'm gonna continue to focus on those things and hopefully get their support. We have, you know, of the bills I signed, we signed many, they were bipartisan and we can continue to do that.
A lot of your cabinet members that you appointed still haven't been confirmed by the Senate. The Senate will be convening in January and February, but Sen. Fitzgerald has also said some of those nominees still might not get confirmed. What are your thoughts?
Yeah, that seems problematic to me. They've been in office now and they're doing their job for a year and are doing a good job. Just approve [of] them. I mean if there [are] some issues that come up that they don't like they'll challenge us and we can deal with that and hopefully reach some conclusion, but to kind of have that hanging over individuals heads, that doesn't make any sense to me.
One of the critiques Sen. Fitzgerald had was some of these appointees don't have enough legislative experience. You know, he applauded someone like former State Rep. Peter Barca but said he wished there were more picks with an understanding of the legislative process. What do you make of a comment like that?
I think that to say that people that run agencies and have to be experts in certain areas have to be legislators before they get approval by the Senate, [which] seems odd to me. I mean, there [were] a number of people in [Scott] Walker's time that were never in the legislature. So, each of the agencies [has] legislative people that know the legislature or they know how it works. That seems to be a pretty lame excuse.
Now that we are in 2020, and we have a couple to a few months remaining of the legislative session, what are the priorities for your administration?
We hope to engage the legislature and, frankly, our own agencies, around the issue of criminal justice reform. We think that's a huge issue that we know we can do better, and our state is not in a good position there compared to other states. We need to make sure that our system is fair, and there [are] good reasons to believe it's not, so we're doing some things internally with the Department of Corrections around that, but I think there's legislation that we could look at that might be helpful in that arena. The other thing that's really important, as you know 2020 is a presidential election, but it's also a time when the census is done, and the census and its results drive whether we continue to have gerrymandered districts or not.
What do you want voters to know, the people of Wisconsin, going into 2020? Is there a simple message for them looking ahead?
I'm bullish on 2020. I think it's going to be a good year. I'm a little concerned about the economy slowing down at the national level, but we have lots of good things going on in the state and it's an exciting time. We're going to be in the spotlight nationally, so we have a chance to put our best foot forward, and I'll continue as governor to make sure that the things that people care about; whether it's education, whether it's healthcare or transportation or those issues that they elected me on, I'm not giving up on it. We're going to be moving those things forward in a good, positive, appropriate way.