Madison, WI –In his State of the State speech last night, Gov. Evers took credit for much of the GOP agenda he signed into law last session – while at the same time slamming Republican lawmakers for the very policies that have made the state of our state so strong, a freshman lawmaker from Southeast Wisconsin said today.
State Representative Nik Rettinger (R-Mukwonago), said it was time for Gov. Evers, a former teacher, to “keep his eyes on his own paper.”
“It is ridiculous to me that Gov. Evers failed to propose any original solutions for the most significant issues affecting our state like violent crime, workforce shortages, inflation, and failing test scores. Evers offered up nothing but a spending spree of surplus tax dollars to cover-up his own failures while taking credit for the successes of the Republican-led legislature such as bragging about OUR tax cut when he wanted to raise taxes on Wisconsinites by $1 billion in the previous budget.”
Gov. Evers’ proposed 2021-2023 budget proposal would have increased taxes by over $1 billion during that biennium.
Rettinger further said, “It is laughable that Evers tried to paint himself as a hero rebuilding our state after his administration destroyed our economy by deeming businesses ‘non-essential’ during COVID-19. He may try to claim that he is Wisconsin’s ‘education governor,’ but test scores continue to plummet from years of remote education learning loss. I also couldn’t help but notice that the governor briefly mentioned keeping communities safe but nothing about Milwaukee’s staggering increase in homicides and other violent crime spilling out into neighboring communities. I hope Governor Evers truly wants to work WITH us during his second term but last night’s State of the Status Quo and continued approach of spending our way out of problems has me less than optimistic.”
In 2022, the Milwaukee Police Department investigated 214 homicides, which is a 120 percent increase over the past three years.
