Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) delivered the Republican response to Gov. Tony Evers’s first State of the State address. Vos said the state of the state is strong, highlighting successes including Wisconsin’s strong economy and business climate, low taxes, and investments in education.
Following a letter from Assembly Republicans to Evers earlier this month, Vos laid out several areas where the legislature could work with the Democratic governor in the 2019-20 session. Vos expressed Republicans’ support for Evers’s two-thirds K-12 funding proposal but noted they will not raise income or sales taxes. Vos also hopes for Evers’s support on the pre-existing conditions bill passed by the Assembly this week and the middle class tax cut, which Republicans will fund via the budget surplus.
Other notable policy items in Vos’s remarks were that the Republican legislature will not support red flag gun laws that have been proposed by Attorney General Kaul, nor will they support the expansion of government-run health care proposed by Evers.
In response to Evers’s request that the legislature take up his budget, Vos said they will consider Evers’s ideas but the legislature would not approve a “tax-and-spend wish list.”
Overall, Vos expressed hope for bipartisanship and said Republicans plan to “move Wisconsin forward.”
Full text:
Evers State of the State (video)
Vos Republican response (video)