Last night, Governor Tony Evers addressed the legislature and the people of Wisconsin with his 2023 State of the State Address.
He began by touting the work being done on state roads, which is an issue he ran on against Scott Walker, even coining the term “Scott-Holes”.
Gov. Evers told Wisconsinites, “We have worked together to repair and improve over 5,800 miles of roads, and nearly 1,600 bridges across our state.”
He went on to praise the work being done on getting high-speed internet to every corner of the state, noting that more than $340 million has been spent on that project.
He also said that $10 million has been spent on addressing the issue of veterans’ mental health before talking about the fiscal situation in Wisconsin.
“Just because we are in the greatest fiscal position in the state’s history doesn’t mean we can afford to be careless,” he said. “Wisconsinites have worked to hard and gone through too much for us to return to austerity. Now is the time to be prudent, to save smart, and be bold with reasonable investments to keep building a lasting legacy of prosperity.”
And part of that, he said, would be cutting taxes. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu responded to the speech with mixed emotions.
He said “We are pleased to see the Governor recognized the fact that Wisconsin is in a great fiscal position, due to the responsible budgets the Legislature has put forward. We also like the statement that we need to stay prudent and invest taxpayer dollars reasonably,”
However, Sen. LeMahieu also noted that “The Governor seems intent to spend people’s money to massively expand government. The projected surplus is not a slush fund, we need to work together to return these funds to provide tax relief to all of Wisconsin’s hard-working families!”
