A local Republican senator says Governor Tony Evers’ State of the State Speech credits their victories.
1st District State Senator Andre Jacque tells Seehafernews.com that while some things he agreed with, he feels some items need to be tailored more bipartisanly. An issue he did agree with Evers on was funding for mental health.
“There’s a lot of receptivity to continuing to engage on that issue,” he stated. “But there was really no detail at all given for what was a rather large investment.”
Jacque is talking about Evers calling for $300 million from the state toward mental health for schools.
The De Pere native felt that the governor was a bit disingenuous about tax relief.
He says Evers repeatedly vetoed the retirement income tax exemption and a middle-class tax cut proposed by Republicans last year. Jacque also disagreed with the comment about the state’s budget gap.
“That’s something that I’ve really focused on in the legislature,” he explained.
“Each one of his budget proposals would have exploded the gap deficit. And it was really only because the legislature gave him budgets that no matter how he would have worked them, no partial vetoes would have done anything but move it in a positive direction.”
Jacque says that, overall, the speech was “performance art” but was still well crafted.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu also commented after the address.
He said, “Governor Evers spent this evening (January 22nd) touting the legislature’s tax cuts while he remains the only roadblock to meaningful tax reform in Wisconsin.”
The Oostburg Republican continues by saying, “The Governor hiked taxes on food stamp recipients so he could spend their money on a wish list of liberal policy initiatives. Wisconsin voters reject his tax and spend agenda in November, and Senate Republicans will reject it this session.”
Evers will present his 2025-27 budget proposal on February 18th.
