Wisconsin Legislature: hist114335

Senator Fitzgerald, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate recess and proceed is a body to the Assembly Chamber to meet in Joint Convention to receive the Governor’s State of the State Address, and further, that the Senate stand adjourned pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1, upon the rising of the Joint Convention.

6:30 P.M.

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Recess

The Senate proceeded in a body to the Assembly Chamber to meet in Joint Convention to receive the State of the State Message.

6:45 P.M.

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In Assembly Chamber

In Joint Convention

7:00 P.M.

Senate President Roth in the chair.

The Committee to wait upon the Governor appeared with his Excellency, the Honorable Governor Tony Evers, who delivered his message as follows:

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State of the State Address

“Honorable Supreme Court Justices, tribal nation leaders, Constitutional Officers, members of the Wisconsin National Guard and active and retired members of our armed forces, cabinet members, Senate President Roth, Majority Leader Fitzgerald, Minority Leader Shilling, Speaker Vos, and Minority Leader Hintz, legislators, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, people of Wisconsin, welcome, and thank you for being here.

My partner in mischief, Kathy, is up in the gallery tonight along with our daughter, Katie, our son-in-law Collin, our son, Nick, and our daughter-in-law Landa. Thank you for your love and support—I love you all.

I’m Tony Evers, and I’m incredibly proud to be here as the 46th governor of the great state of Wisconsin to deliver my second State of the State Address.

As I reflect on my first year in office, although there were setbacks and occasional political posturing—what I call ‘huffing and puffing’—we also had a lot of success, and I am proud of everything we accomplished in just a year’s time.

One of the best parts of my job is getting out of the Capitol and visiting with people all across our state. And holy mackerel, that’s what we did. Lieutenant Governor Barnes and I both visited all 72 Wisconsin counties this past year. Actually, the bad news is that Lieutenant Governor Barnes and I raced to see who could be the first to visit all 72 counties. He beat me by about five days. But the good news is that we’re just a few weeks into 2020, and I’ve already got a head start on him this year.

This past year we also brought science back to the state of Wisconsin. And we acknowledged that climate change exists, and it’s a threat we need to start taking seriously. Lieutenant Governor Barnes is the chair of the Climate Change Task Force, working with local governments, industry and business leaders, and people from across our state on our environment, stewardship, and sustainability—thanks, Lieutenant Governor Barnes, for your good work.

I was also proud to sign executive orders affirming equity, inclusion, respect, and dignity for state workers in Wisconsin. Last year, I visited every single one of our agencies to thank our employees and hear about the good work they’re doing for our state. We should be proud of the folks who serve Wisconsinites every day, and I look forward to continuing to listen and elevating their voices and work.

I also promised that criminal justice reform would be a central focus of my administration. Although we have a lot of work to do on this issue, we made some important progress this year. For the first time in more than eight years, a governor stepped foot inside of one of our correctional facilities—and actually, not just one, I visited 6. And the Wisconsin Parole Commission is working to make sure we get our parole system back on track. Our Parole Commission chair, John Tate II, is here with us in the gallery tonight, and has been doing a great job. Thanks for all your work on this important issue, John.

Part of reforming our criminal justice system is believing in forgiveness and the power of redemption—things that I think speak to the character of our state. This past year, I also made good on my campaign promise to reinstate the pardon review board. We granted the first pardons in our state in nine years, offering forgiveness and a second chance to folks who’ve made amends in their lives and communities. Congratulations to Katie and Annette who are two of the folks we’ve pardoned since taking office and they are up in the gallery—thank you for being here tonight.

In my last State of the State Address, I asked the legislature to set politics aside so we could work together on the issues facing our state. I said I expected bills to be passed with broad support and in the spirit of bipartisanship. So, one of the things I’m most proud of is that more than 95 percent of the bills I signed my first year in office had bipartisan support. And, by golly, folks worked together on some important issues.

Representative Loudenbeck, Representative Kolste, Senator Kooyenga, and Senator Bewley came together to work on expanding access to healthcare in rural areas by making sure that Medicaid covers telehealth services in Wisconsin. And thanks to Senator Bernier, Senator Schachtner, Representative Zimmerman, and Representative Brostoff, voters will not be denied their right to vote because they have a disability. Because of Representative Thiesfeldt, Representative Bowen, Senator Johnson, and Senator Darling’s good work, we signed a bill to train commercial drivers on recognizing and preventing human trafficking in Wisconsin. These bills exemplify what we can accomplish when we’re focused on what unites us rather than what divides us, so thank you all for your good work.

I believe, as I’ve often said, that there’s more to an economy than just counting job creation. Ask job creators across our state, and they’ll tell you that investing in the foundation of a good quality of life and a diverse workforce is critical to a growing economy. We have to connect the dots and focus on the fundamentals of economic development. It’s pretty simple stuff, folks: good roads, good schools, and good healthcare. And this year, we got back to the basics and we made a down payment on these important priorities.

Economic development starts with education—you know, what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state. Although the budget I signed did not include my proposed $1.4-billion for our kids, we still provided the largest increase in general aid to Wisconsin schools in more than a decade. Working together, we were able to invest more than $500 million in K-12 education, including the first increase in special education in 10 years. I also used my veto authority to add nearly $100 million more in per pupil aid than the budget passed by the legislature.

But when we talk about education, we can’t continue to ignore the elephant in the room of student debt. So tonight I’m excited to announce that I will be signing an executive order creating a Task Force on Student Debt in Wisconsin.

We have to work on making higher education available to more folks in our state. We have to understand how education-related debt affects not just our students, but their families, too. And we have to address the fact that student debt is preventing folks from buying a car, starting a business, saving for retirement, and starting a family. Thank you to our Department of Financial Institutions Secretary Kathy Blumenfeld, who is going to be leading this effort—I’m excited for the task force to get to work.

In addition to investing in our kids, this year we got back to the basics of economic development by investing in our transportation system. The budget I proposed provided a sustainable, long-term solution to our transportation funding crisis—and, by the way, it didn’t include raising the gas tax by a dollar. The budget I did sign, however, provided more than $465 million in new funding for our highways, local roads, and transit aids—$320 million of which will go to fixing highways across our state. And we did all of that while still keeping bonding at the lowest level in 20 years.

We were also able to do some important work in making healthcare more affordable and accessible. We weren’t able to expand Medicaid, which would have allowed us to bring in $1.6 billion in new federal investment into our healthcare system. But The People’s Budget still made some important investments in lead testing and abatement, stabilizing the individual healthcare market and lowering health insurance premiums, and expanding access to rural healthcare.

Finally, I delivered on my campaign promise for a 10-percent tax cut for Wisconsin families. The People’s Budget, together with Assembly Bill 251, provided more than $500 million in tax relief for working, middle-class families. That’s money back in your pockets, folks.

I know the budget I signed didn’t include everything that everybody wanted—I know it didn’t include everything I wanted—but because of the budget we proposed, we were able to move the needle on critically important issues, some for the first time in a generation.

Now, as 2019 came to a close, we also began a new decade. And while there is time to contemplate ten years’ worth of successes and failures, we must fight the temptation to cling to the nostalgia of yesterday—there is too much work to do to find comfort in complacency. We must set out into the new decade with a renewed sense of purpose. We must be resolved to confront the challenges we face today, and we must be eager to embrace what may come tomorrow.