(The Center Square) – The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says Republicans will once again set the agenda at the Capitol.
Speaker Robin Vos told reporters Republicans maintained their majorities in both the Assembly and the Senate on Election Day, and that means Gov. Tony Evers will need to work with them in order to get things done this year.
“We have a great agenda. We are going to focus on making sure that people who are retired get to keep more of the money that they earn. We are going to make sure that we have adequately funded schools and services in the state. But the highest priority is not growing the size of government, but making sure the money can go back into the hands of the people so that they can use it to deal with the inflationary pressures that we’re seeing in every part of our state,” Vos said. “Democrats really had agendas all about expanding the size of government, and spending more.”
Vos said Republicans will meet in the next couple of weeks to decide what their top priority for 2025 will be. But he has said in the past he wants to give Wisconsin’s $4.6 billion surplus back to the taxpayers.
Legislative Republicans did lose some seats on Tuesday. Vos blamed that on Evers’ new legislative maps and a flood of out-of-state money.
“The only way the Democrats picked up seats was by having a map that was clearly gerrymandered,” Vos said. “We were able to win maps drawn by a federal court, a state court, by the legislature, and by the Democrats. So we have one under every scenario that’s possible. Democrats have only made gains when they have gerrymander districts which are very hard for anybody to win. They also had a gargantuan amount of money to lie. We’re going to figure out how we can make sure we compete with that.”
Vos said he expects to have as many as 54 Republicans in the Assembly come January, and Republicans will continue to have a majority in the State Senate.
Democrats were able to flip two senate seats and pick up a third district that didn’t have an incumbent Republican.
Lawmakers are due to craft a new state budget in 2025.
Evers has already said he expects to have the same battles with Republicans over state spending as he’s had in the past.
