Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Was Gov. Evers serious about fighting for the progressive agenda items in his budget? Or did he just toss them in to check a box with the base?
Maybe we shouldn’t blame Tony Evers. Maybe he’s been a captive of Robin Vos for so long that he’s started to identify with him.
That would explain why Evers signed Vos’ budget last week and claimed that it was just what he had in mind.
But let’s provide some inconvenient context. Here’s what Evers sent Vos in February and here’s what he got back in June.
Evers wanted $1.6 billion more for K-12 public education. Vos gave him $128 million. The Republicans sent back a lot more to school districts, but that was just a shell game to make sure that districts got $2.3 billion in federal COVID money. The added money goes to property tax reductions, not education. Evers says he’ll add another $100 million in federal money that he has discretion over. That makes about one-eighth of what he proposed.
Evers asked for $192 million for the UW System. Vos granted him $8 million.
Evers wanted almost $90 million to increase the state’s support for special education programs from 28 percent of costs to 50 percent. The Republicans nudged it up to only 30 percent.
Evers asked Vos to extend the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, to protect land for public outdoor recreation and habitat protection, for another 10 years at $70 million a year. Vos rubbed his nose in it by extending it for only four years and at $32 million a year, one million less than the current $33 million. The million a year is insignificant except as a way for Vos to make a point about who’s really in charge.
Evers presumed to impose on the speaker to require the Legislature to at least take up the work of his nonpartisan commission working on fair redistricting maps. Vos declined.
Evers wanted to legalize marijuana and reap some significant tax benefits, as about half the states have done now. Vos dismissed it with a chuckle.
Evers wanted to reverse Act 10. Vos asked him if he was serious.
Evers wanted to spend some money to improve the state’s outdated unemployment insurance computer system. Vos said no, but he reserves the right to beat the bejesus out of Evers over the system’s failures to deal with mass unemployment during the pandemic.
I could go on like this for some time. But here’s the question for progressives. Do you honestly think that Evers was serious about any of this? Or do you think that maybe he just tossed in every progressive agenda item with the knowledge that Vos would reject it, just to check a box with the base?
The bottom line is that Evers fought for nothing. The Republicans, led by Vos, dismissed his budget with a wave of the hand — just as they’ve dismissed Evers’ special session calls. And then they passed a purely Republican budget.
It contains, as its centerpiece, a massive tax cut, almost three-quarters of which will go to those making over $100,000 a year. Evers now embraces that as if it were his idea to begin with. That’s both silly and embarrassing.
It’s all bad, but the worst of it is redistricting. That is existential to democracy. Democrats have won all but one of the last 11 statewide elections, yet Republicans control just under two-thirds of each house of the Legislature. Democrats have been reduced to pleading with donors, not to take back control, but to avoid a veto-proof Republican majority. That’s just pathetic.
Evers’ only leverage was his two state budgets. It was clear. What he had to do was firmly threaten to veto either budget if one of them did not provide for a nonpartisan redistricting commission. Yeah, it would have been ugly. Vos would have held out. But Evers would have had public opinion (to the tune of about 70 percent), every editorial board in the state, and former Obama AG Eric Holder behind him. He could have gone hoarse barnstorming the state and Holder would have backed him up with national money for a TV and social media ad onslaught.
It would have been inspiring. He would have won in the end and he would have shown Vos that he was a man to be reckoned with. I’m a moderate Democrat, but man, this would have been positively “Fighting Bob.”
But we don’t have Fighting Bob. We have Stockholm Tony.
One final thought on “bipartisanship.” Evers devalued that term when he made the incredible claim that this budget was just that. Seriously, man? Bipartisan is when one party negotiates with the other in a spirit of mutual respect. Nothing like that happened here. Evers introduced a budget that the Republicans dispensed with with a shrug and then passed their own plan. Seven legislative Democrats voted for it because they’re from swing districts where they want to take credit for the tax cuts. Fair enough, but that is not bipartisanship.
Democrats need a primary in August 2022. They need a choice between a weak Democrat and one who will take the fight to Robin Vos.
A version of this blog appeared on Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos.
