Tony Evers releases sweeping plan to help Wisconsin's struggling dairy farmers, draw new legislative maps
MADISON - Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called on lawmakers Wednesday to return to the Capitol as soon as next week to expand exports for Wisconsin dairy farmers struggling with low milk prices and suffocating tariffs.
Evers, in his second State of the State address, announced a sweeping plan to help the state's signature industry, which has been decimated in recent years. He rejected President Donald Trump's administration's attitude toward the crisis.
"We’ve endured the consequences of unnecessary and unproductive tariffs and trade wars. And we’ve heard people who’ve said there’s no place for small farms anymore —they ought to go big or bust," Evers said, referring to comments made by Trump's agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, in an October visit to Madison.
"Well, they’re wrong. They don’t know Wisconsin," Evers continued. "We have not forgotten those who have shared the harvest and bounty, feeding our families, our communities, our state, and our country for more than a century. And tonight, we say that we are ready to be a partner in the promise of prosperity."
Evers said he's calling a special legislative session next week and asking lawmakers to take up a package of bills set to be released Thursday that would create a new program that aims to increase U.S. dairy exports to 20% of the nation's milk supply by 2024.
(Editor's note: This story has been changed to reflect new information received by the Journal Sentinel following the 2020 State of the State Address. Gov. Tony Evers mischaracterized the goal of the package during his address. A spokeswoman for Evers on Thursday clarified the plan is to increase U.S. dairy exports to 20% of the nation's milk supply by 2024, not Wisconsin's dairy exports as Evers said during his address.)
The governor also plans to create Thursday a nonpartisan redistricting commission —- similar to one that was jettisoned by GOP lawmakers in Evers' proposed budget last year — that will draw new legislative maps after the next U.S. Census.
The commission won't include elected officials, lobbyists or consultants, Evers said, and will turn new maps over to lawmakers in the hopes of getting their approval.
To the lawmakers in the Capitol, Evers said: “The people who work in this building, who sit in these seats, and who drive the policies for our state, should not be able to ignore the people who sent us here. The will of the people is the law of the land and, by golly, the people should not take no for an answer.”
But Republican legislative leaders interpreted Evers' proposal as a way to skirt the Legislature's involvement.
"I think the governor just proposed something that's completely unconstitutional," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau said after Evers' speech. "It's still the responsibility of the Legislature to draw the maps every 10 years based on the census ... the Legislature has to draw the maps whether he likes it or not."
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester also rejected Evers’ call for nonpartisan redistricting, saying Republicans would use their own process to draw maps. Last time, they hired outside lawyers at taxpayer expense to draw maps in secret.
“He will go through some kind of Rube Goldberg process,” Vos said. “He doesn’t get to draw them. That’s not in the (state) constitution. He can form whatever kind of fake, phony, partisan process he wants to create, but I have no doubt in the end we will do it the way we always have, which is to follow the constitution.”
'We have to start somewhere'
Republican leaders of the Senate all but praised the governor for his proposals to aid the dairy industry, but Vos was leery.
"We're all looking for ways to do better when it comes to ag and there's been a number of proposals from the Legislature, but I'm all ears on what the governor has to offer," said Fitzgerald, who said he is "absolutely" open to taking up the bills in a special session.
"I like the dairy farmer package — absolutely," said Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, who leads the Legislature's finance committee. "Small farmers are important to us."
But Vos was skeptical of the special session on the dairy industry, saying he was worried it might consist of “a bunch more government programs and handouts.”
“Certainly, if he has finally turned his attention to rural Wisconsin, that basically shows that he’s ignored that part of the state for most of the last year since he’s been elected governor,” Vos said.
He said he didn’t know if he could support the special session.
“We have no details,” he said. “It’s really just an awful lot of empty rhetoric tonight. Hopefully we’ll see more details tomorrow and perhaps there are things we can support. We just don’t know at this time.”
Evers also said his administration plans to expand state services for farmers, including access to mental health help, and will create a new program akin to a K-12 school program, which connects farmers with universities, technical colleges, hospitals and local businesses.
The governor also said he will create a statewide Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity and will work with the state's jobs agency to create an Office of Rural Prosperity, which could help farmers navigate state programs and aid.
"Here’s the bottom line, folks: We’re losing more than two dairy farms a day. And for each day we delay, the challenges will get harder and harder," Evers said. "I am not under the misguided belief that what I’m proposing today is the silver bullet. ... But we have to start somewhere, and we have to start today."
Evers also said he will create a task force to address ways to reduce college students' debt and is calling on lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at reducing vaping use among children and capping the cost on insulin.
Evers also said he wants lawmakers to close what's known as a "dark store loophole," which allows retailers to pay lower property taxes, and take more action on removing dangerous chemicals from the state's groundwater and soil.
'This didn't all just happen'
But most of Evers' plans hinge on the Legislature controlled by Republicans who haven't worked with him. Just hours before Evers delivered his address, Republican leaders said they were the ones who deserved credit for the state's sunny fortunes.
"As the governor, he has the bully pulpit tonight, but we wanted to ensure that we remind people that the state is in a great position right now thanks to Republican leadership over the past eight years," Vos told reporters before the speech.
"This didn't all just happen over the course of the last few months or even the past year."
During Evers' first year as governor, virtually none of the major proposals he promised the state one year ago has been accomplished, like spending increases for public schools to help black children and students with disabilities and a massive expansion of Medicaid.
Even before Evers was sworn in as governor, the GOP legislative leaders and Evers have been at loggerheads beginning with legislation passed just after the 2018 election that curbed the governor's powers.
Since then, the two sides have been mired in nonstop litigation and bickering over big and small issues. Top Republicans also plan to end the legislative session as soon as next month, giving Evers a small window for getting major legislation approved in 2020.
Evers ended his speech by calling for better days for the GOP-controlled Legislature and his administration.
"We can choose to re-litigate past political tussles, or we can choose to transcend animosity to rise and greet the problems before us," he said. "We can choose to resent the hand that helps another, or we can choose to celebrate our neighbor’s prosperity because therein lies our prosperity, too."
And the largest cheers Wednesday came for someone else: Duaa Ahmad, a 17-year-old student at Oshkosh West High School who helped lead her classmates to safety when shots rang out in their hallways in December.
"Thank you, Duaa, for your courage and bravery," Evers said as lawmakers and state officials gave the teenager a standing ovation.
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