Evers deploys flattery on the Legislature, hoping for a final bipartisan act

The governor’s final State of the State address highlights two terms of bipartisan progress, hoping for one more deal to support public schools and provide property tax relief.

Gov. Tony Evers is taking the high road one final time against a hostile Wisconsin Legislature, as he uses his final State of the State address to push for a deal that would increase state general aid to public schools while giving Republicans the tax cut plans they consider a higher priority.

Evers is stepping down next year after eight years as governor and nine years prior as state Superintendent of Public Instruction.

In excerpts released ahead of the speech, Evers leans heavily on flattery, telling the Republican-controlled Legislature how “we” accomplished an impressive list of achievements before asking them to not end this year’s session until a school and tax relief package is negotiated and passed.

“Just look at what we’ve accomplished over the last seven years,” Evers wrote. “My vetoes are often the focus of news coverage and even political criticism. […] But here’s the truth: I’ve signed over 800 bills as governor, and more than 97 percent of the bills I’ve signed passed with bipartisan support.” 

“We expanded tax credits to help lower the cost of child care for working families. We made sure firefighters and law enforcement officers can access workers’ compensation for post-traumatic stress. We provided Medicaid coverage for telehealth services so folks can access healthcare right at home. We supported peer-to-peer suicide prevention efforts for kids in schools. We invested in helping local communities prepare for and prevent flooding before disaster happens. And we worked together to keep Major League Baseball in Milwaukee until 2050.”

Describing Wisconsin to be “as purple as ever, but we’ve shown we can put politics aside and work together,” Evers wants to put an additional $450 million in state general school aid. In last year’s state budget bill, Republicans added no new general aid dollars, marking 16 years of state aid not keeping up with inflation and causing a record number of school referendums that raised local property taxes. 

To attract Republican support for the school help, Evers also proposed tax relief measures, according to WisPolitics: $550 million for the school levy tax credit, which offsets some of what homeowners would otherwise pay in property taxes for schools. Also: $97.3 million that would allow cash tips to be made exempt from taxes.

Republicans have countered with the levy credit plus $1.5 billion in income tax rebates and other provisions, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but did not mention anything about Evers’ original demand for boosting general state aid to public schools.

New estimates put the state’s budget surplus at around $2.5 billion.

While Senate Republicans could stay in session until sometime next month, Assembly Republicans have indicated they may wrap up their floor session this week, adding a sense of urgency to a final fiscal package.

“I know many lawmakers are antsy to end the legislative session and pack up to get back on the campaign trail, […]  but here’s the deal: after years of delivering historic, bipartisan wins for our state, Wisconsinites have high expectations for the work we can do together over the next ten months—and they should.”