(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ sixth State of the State speech was not all that different from his previous five.
The governor late Tuesday night again asked lawmakers to spend more on cleaning the state’s lakes and rivers, to focus more on LGBTWQ mental health and to expand the state’s Medicaid program.
Again, Republicans said no.
The governor also used his annual speech to the legislature to focus on abortion and contraception.
“I will veto any bill that takes away your reproductive freedom or makes reproductive health care any less accessible in Wisconsin than it is today, period. Every Wisconsinite should be able to access the health care they need when they need it. And, yes, that includes contraception,” Evers said. “BadgerCare Plus currently covers over-the-counter emergency contraception and daily contraception with a prescription from a provider. Tonight, I’m announcing I’m directing the Department of Health Services to issue a standing order for BadgerCare Plus to serve as that prescription to cover over-the-counter contraception, including emergency contraception.”
Evers also said he wants to do more for mental health treatment for young people, particularly LGBTQ youth.
The governor pushed for more PFAS funding, and for an end to the Republican-friendly legislative maps in the state.
Evers also declared 2024 the “Year of the Worker.”
“I, again, am calling on this Legislature to address what I believe are the two greatest challenges facing our state: the first, our decade-long struggle to retain, attract and train talented workers to address our state’s workforce shortages; and the second, the Republican majority’s disinterest in working toward a meaningful, bipartisan plan to do something about it,” Evers said. “‘No’ isn’t a workforce plan. Asking more kids to work isn’t a workforce plan. Giving more big breaks to millionaires and billionaires isn’t a workforce plan. These are not serious proposals to address generational, statewide issues.”
Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, said lawmakers have heard the same ideas from the governor for years, and have said no to those ideas for years as well.
“Tony Evers is a broken record. Every year, his speech is nothing more than asking for blank checks to expand government without guiderails. More money for public schools. More money for bureaucrats. Virtue signaling over problem solving. Subsidize child care companies rather help people pay for child care. Partisan attacks cloaked in a mild-mannered, soft voice. Not a single word of returning the record budget surplus to taxpayers,” Wanggaard said. “He’s almost plagiarizing his speech from last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and before that, and before that. While the words in the speech may change every January, the message doesn’t. He’s devoid of new ideas, a bystander in his own administration.”
