Gov. Tony Evers says he is “hopeful sanity will prevail” as lawmakers are set to vote on the state budget this week, while declining to say whether he will veto the state budget if it comes to him as is.
“There’s a lot of moving parts, and so I’m not going to get into whether I’m going to veto something or not veto something because I believe at the end of the day we’ll be in a good position,” Evers said on WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.
Evers, though, also said he isn’t backing down on previous veto threats. The governor has said he would likely veto the budget if Wisconsin’s top income tax bracket was lowered or if $32 million were removed from the University of Wisconsin System budget meant for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, both of which Republicans approved.
“I want a middle-class tax cut,” Evers said. “I don’t want a tax cut that is primarily for the wealthy in the state of Wisconsin, and I believe the University of Wisconsin System should be well-funded, and now we have a situation where at least that $32 million is retained.”
An amendment would allow the UW System to recoup the money if lawmakers approved a plan to focus the spending on workforce initiatives instead of DEI.
“I’m not backing off where my belief system is,” Evers said. “But we’ll see what happens.”
Beyond that, the governor said a full budget veto would complicate the sweeping shared revenue agreement he signed this past week.
“I think it would mess it up,” Evers said. “The fact of the matter is we passed the legislation making that happen, but the money is obviously part of the budget so we will see. As you know, I also have partial veto authority, and that is always something we are going to be looking at.”
See more budget news below from WisBusiness.com.
The Republican National Committee will officially announce this week Tom Schreibel, Maripat Krueger and Brian Schimming will serve as Wisconsin’s members of the group responsible for organizing the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“Really this is the member committee charged with putting on the convention, doing all the planning, all the arranging,” Anne Hathaway said, chairwoman of the Committee on Arrangements, told “UpFront.”
The committee will hold its first official in-person meeting during the RNC’s summer meeting in Milwaukee, alongside the first GOP presidential primary debate Aug. 23 at Fiserv Forum.
Hathaway said RNC officials anticipate 5,000 to 10,000 people in Milwaukee the week of the debate.
Candidates must meet several polling and fundraising criteria to participate, including signing a pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee.
This past week, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized the pledge, and former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd said on CNN he wouldn’t sign it.
“This is a beat Biden pledge,” Hathaway said. “We believe any of the Republican candidates are a better choice than Joe Biden, so if you want to be on the Republican stage, you need to sign the pledge.”
Former President Donald Trump, polling as the current Republican front-runner, has also criticized the pledge and indicated he may not appear at the first and or second debate.
“It’s up to his campaign strategy,” Hathaway said. “We hope he’ll be here.”
Evers met with John Ridley in Milwaukee this past week, the screenwriter and director who is pushing to have more movies filmed in Wisconsin.
“This is not a lefty liberal issue, this is not a conservative issue,” Ridley told “UpFront.” “This is a jobs issue.”
Ridley, a Milwaukee native, is the founder and CEO of No Studios and is beginning the conversations with policymakers to encourage better tax incentives targeting movie studios and networks to bring production to Wisconsin. It is modeled after other states like Georgia and Ohio.
“It really isn’t even about the Legislature,” Ridley said. “It’s going to come down to that, but it’s about going to people who are part of the hotel industry and saying here’s how this benefits you. It’s about going to farmers, who unfortunately they’re struggling right now, to say to them look there’s an opportunity. And there really is an opportunity.”
Ridley said his goal is to work with lawmakers to have a serious piece of legislation in the next several years.
See more from the show:
https://www.wisn.com/upfront
