Did Tony Evers keep his campaign promises? Here's PolitiFact's tally as the Wisconsin governor's first term winds down.

As Gov. Tony Evers heads into the November midterm elections, here at PolitiFact Wisconsin we’re taking a look at how he fared in keeping the promises he made in the 2018 campaign.

Aiming for a second term, Evers faces Republican Tim Michels in the Nov. 8, 2022 election.

A look at the Evers-O-Meter, where we track those promises, shows a mixed bag of results. Of 27 promises, nine were rated Promise Kept (33%), while nine were rated Promise Broken (33%). Another five were rated Compromise (18%). The remaining four were Stalled (14%). 

As we did with Republican Gov. Scott Walker over two terms, we have tracked the promises made by Evers based on outcome, not intent. And, to be sure, Walker had an easier go of it, with Republican control of the Legislature allowing him to notch numerous victories.

Evers, meanwhile, faced the same GOP control, but the party used it to stymie many of his initiatives.

“Through a combination of gerrymandered legislative maps and the geographic concentration of Democratic voters in urban areas, Republicans possess secure majorities in both chambers of the Wisconsin State Legislature,” said Anthony Chergosky, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, in an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin. “This has emboldened Republicans to stand in the way of Governor Evers' key campaign pledges.” 

Chergosky also noted that Evers' efforts to do things via executive action, or by calling the Legislature into special session had limited effect and that historic levels of polarization have reduced the chances of bipartisan cooperation. 

“The moderate dealmakers in Wisconsin government are on the path to extinction, leaving behind fierce political divides and lawmakers who are intent on taking the fight to the opposing party,” he said.

One example: An unusual compromise

Indeed, Evers owes action on one of his campaign promises to a quirk of timing on state budget forecasts, that prompted Republicans to put a significant tax cut in front of him.

On the campaign trail in 2018, Evers promised to cut middle-class income taxes by 10% in his first budget for individuals making up to $100,000 and families making up to $150,000.

He did not achieve that in his first budget.

Here’s how we described what happened in his second budget, in an earlier fact check:

When Evers released his two-year spending plan for the state Feb. 16, 2021, it included a net increase of $1 billion in taxes over the biennium. He aimed to give tax breaks to the lower and middle classes and raise taxes on businesses and the wealthy. 

Republicans didn’t care for it. They removed his tax increases and breaks and, after learning the state would receive more than $4 billion extra in tax collections over the next three years, proposed a plan to cut more than $2 billion in taxes in their own budget. 

Ultimately, when Evers signed the budget into law on July 8, 2021, he left intact the GOP plan, which would reduce the state’s third tax bracket to 5.3%. That tax bracket includes individual Wisconsinites making as much as $263,000 a year and married residents making as much as $351,000. 

While the cut didn’t happen until his second budget, and isn’t as targeted at people in the manner he originally proposed — about three-quarters of the tax cuts would go to those making $100,000 or more a year — it still accomplishes his end goal. 

We rated that promise a Compromise. 

Tony Evers' wins, losses and criticism

In an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin, Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback acknowledged that the governor has had some wins as well as some losses: 

“Gov. Evers is proud of his record to cut taxes by 15% for working families, make historic investments in our schools, ensure over 370,000 homes and businesses have reliable, high-speed internet, support more than 6,000 small businesses and over 20,000 farmers, and improve more than 4,600 miles of highways and local roads.”

Michels, meanwhile, has been hitting Evers as being soft on crime, criticizing the number of prison paroles on Evers’ watch and slamming his response to violent protests in Kenosha two years ago that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer.

"You can fix buildings, you can rebuild businesses, but the fear that I still heard in people's voices today — the concern that they have that this could happen again because they see no change in Madison. That's what November is all about," Michels told the media following a roundtable discussion with law enforcement, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.  

Here is a look at how Evers fared on some of his main promises:

Promises' kept by Evers during first-term as Wisconsin governor

Increase spending on childhood education: In his budgets, Republicans blocked most of Evers' initiatives, including his Child Care Strong initiative, which would have put about $106 million toward child care quality improvement programs that would have provided monthly payments to providers that are certified, licensed or established by a school board. 

Nevertheless, Evers was able to direct more than $130 million in money from the coronavirus relief CARES Act to childcare and early childhood education last fall, including $50 million for Child Care Counts, a program to distribute federal relief money to child care providers. 

On Oct. 12, 2022, Evers and the state Department of Health Services announced a $16 million, statewide investment to improve maternal and infant health, especially among people of color.

Restore state funding for schools to two-thirds level: The two-thirds level was standard in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but hadn’t been met since 2004. State Republicans opted to include the provision in their version of the 2021-23 budget — with a twist. Noting that school districts were receiving $2 billion in pandemic aid, much of that state funding came in the form of a property tax cut, so it is not money that can be spent in the classroom. 

That said, Evers was vague in his promise on how the goal would be met. And, remember, we rate these based on outcomes — not whatever winding road it takes to get there.

Increase spending on road maintenance: In his first budget, Evers tried for long-term transportation funding methods like raising the gas tax, which he campaigned on and Republicans rejected. He didn’t try that in his second budget.

But when he signed the Republican-written version of the budget, it included $100 million for a one-time local road improvement program. It also included a 2% increase in each year for the general transportation aids program that helps municipalities offset the costs of road construction and maintenance. 

Create ‘blue-ribbon’ panel on agriculture, rural issues: Evers created the commission in a January 2020 executive order and filled it five months later with 12 people from around the state, including a teacher, a banker, farmers and a high school student. The panel released a 49-page report in December 2020. 

The report included 10 recommendations on topics such as recognizing the needs of Native Americans, eliminating local bureaucracy and expanding rural infrastructure and grant programs.

Increase spending on public transit: Evers tackled this in the first budget, with several provisions making it through the Republican-controlled Legislature. For instance, the Department of Transportation reported a total of $6.9 million in public transit increases in 2020-21 compared to the previous two years. That included an increase of $2.8 million in operating aids — a 2% increase — for municipalities around the state.

Compromises on Evers' agendas during his first four years: 

Bolster preventive health programs that have been defunded: In both of his two-year budgets, Evers proposed funding for a variety of programs aimed at keeping this promise. But Republicans rejected the vast majority of the governor's proposals to expand preventive healthcare and women's healthcare and address racial disparities. 

Nevertheless, Evers was able to direct some federal COVID relief money to such programs. For example, two grant programs announced March 30, 2022, funded at $5 million each, are intended to expand access to mental health services for children and making telehealth appointments easier to access for people without reliable internet at home.

Assure high-speed broadband access to all homes, businesses: From 2019, the year Evers took office, to early 2022, Wisconsin had allocated nearly $60 million for broadband, also known as high-speed internet, aimed at tens of thousands of households and businesses. On June 24, 2022, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission awarded an additional $125 million in broadband expansion grants for 71 projects aimed at reaching around 83,000 homes and 4,600 businesses. 

The PSC says about 650,000 people in the state lack home internet access of 25 megabit-per-second downloads and 3 Mbps uploads, which is adequate for streaming a video or taking an online class. And, officials say, another 650,000 people just can't afford the service that's available to them. 

So, progress is being made on getting high-speed broadband access to homes, but there are still hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without access. So, while there has been progress — it’s not enough to meet the original goal.

Evers' promises that were broken 

Raise minimum wage to $15 an hour, with automatic inflationary increases: Wisconsin's minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. Evers first budget took steps — albeit relatively small ones — to meet the goal, by proposing an increase to $8.25 in 2020, then 75 cents per year for three years after that and then growing at the rate of inflation. That failed in the GOP-controlled Legislature.

In his 2021-23 budget, Evers wanted to immediately raise the minimum wage to $8.60. The proposal called for it to go up to $10.15 by 2024 and increase by the rate of inflation annually after that. Again, the matter failed in the Legislature.

Expand background checks and put in place gun restrictions: In his first budget, Evers tried to expand background checks and put in place gun restrictions, but the Republican-led Legislature blocked the change. The governor's 2021-23 budget proposal put the matter back on the table, calling for a universal background check requirement for all firearm sales. Same result.

Repeal changes made to prevailing wage laws: In 2015 and 2017, then-Gov. Walker and the Republican-run Legislature repealed prevailing wage laws, which had required the state to pay a minimum level of wages for each trade in different areas of Wisconsin. In both of his two budgets, Evers tried do just that, but each time Republicans rejected it. 

This is a good point for a reminder: We rate promises based on outcomes, not intent or effort. None of these are in place. If Evers is reelected, we’ll review them again next year.

Support ending solitary confinement: In 2018, Evers said he supported banning the practice of keeping inmates in solitary confinement as a way to manage behavior. In April 2019, PolitiFact Wisconsin noted that Evers could make such a move to ban solitary confinement unilaterally through an executive order, but he had not yet taken any action. 

In Evers’ 2021-23 budget, no reference was made to ending solitary confinement under the Justice and Reform heading. In addition, we found no mention of ending solitary confinement in the listing of the governor’s Executive Orders for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Create an Office of Inspector General to serve as an independent watchdog: When Evers ran for governor, his campaign website said he would create the office "to ensure families have an independent, nonpartisan watchdog keeping an eye on our Wisconsin government." It could have been created with an executive order, but nine months into his term, we rated it Stalled. Evers still hasn’t created the office.

Read all the promise ratings

To see how Evers fared on all of his 2018 campaign promises, go to: www.politifact.com/wisconsin/promises/evers-o-meter/