GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Governor-elect Tony Evers kicked off his informal community-based budget tour at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on Tuesday.
The initial 90-minute session of the “Building the People’s Budget” Tour featured a collection of students, community members, and elected officials coming together in small groups to voice their values and priorities for the state.
Governor-elect Evers noted that the goal of the tour is less about final numbers and more about hearing directly from the people of Wisconsin.
“No expectations about the bottom line, our hope obviously is to keep taxes at a reasonable level and hopefully not raise them at all,” he says.
He highlighted one of the topics brought up.
“E-cigarettes are now causing people to use more tobacco than ever before when just the opposite was expected to happen,” he explains. “As a result, we have more costs when it comes to tobacco use.”
While many of the other things brought up were some of the same topics Evers stressed throughout his campaign.
“We believe that what we ran on, the issues of transportation, the issues of health care, the issues to make sure that we have a strong education system, still are partial to what folks are talking about,” explains Governor-elect Evers.
For the Governor-elect, it’s also an opportunity to move on from last weeks legislative session in Madison.
“The difference between this type of input and what we had a week or so ago in the capital is stark,” he says. “So we feel very good about the results.”
He went on to further address the extraordinary session, saying last weeks events never would have even taken place had November’s election gone differently.
“I know we’ve had special sessions before, but nothing like this,” explains Governor-elect Evers. “We wouldn’t be here talking about it had Scott Walker won this race.”
Governor-elect Evers says all the legislation passed last week was unfair, not just particular items.
“It’s my belief that it should be repealed completely,” he says. “I’m not going to negotiate with him [Walker] over various issues because, frankly, it’s all bad.”
Evers remains hopeful that Governor Walker will veto the lame-duck legislation.
“It was 141-pages of hot mess,” he says. “And to say ‘Oh gosh, this one is more important than that,’ I can not say it.”
Next up on the tour is a stop in Wausau at the Wausau Labor Temple on Wednesday starting at Noon.
The tour wraps up next week with stops Tuesday in La Crosse and Wednesday in Milwaukee.
