Evers puts focus on jobless, broadband
Governor gives address as COVID deal unravels
MADISON - Gov. Tony Evers in a State of the State address Tuesday called on Wisconsin lawmakers to upgrade the state’s unemployment system that under his administration has struggled to deliver an income to thousands of people who lost work because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The governor blamed previous administrations and state lawmakers for the failure, saying the system is outdated and has been ignored by both parties for years. He asked lawmakers to quickly take up a plan “to modernize our unemployment system and help ensure nothing like this happens to the people of Wisconsin again.”
“This past year brought to bear the inaction of my predecessors and members of this and previous legislatures who avoided their responsibility and duty for far too long,” Evers said in a prime-time speech. “Well, I’ll tell you this: It’s gone on long enough. It ends tonight.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester, said Evers in his address didn’t take responsibility for the massive delay in paying pandemic unemployment benefits under his watch.
“He seemed to cast blame on others and accept very little fault for himself,” Vos said after the governor’s address.
Evers’ call for lawmakers to tackle the issue in a special session comes after he fired his workforce development secretary the same day an audit revealed the agency answered fewer than 1% of calls for help during the height of joblessness.
The Democratic governor in his annual statewide address on the condition of Wisconsin focused on the
effects of the pandemic and paid tribute to the more than 5,000 Wisconsinites who have died of the virus.
“We found courage in hospital rooms and hallways — in the doctors and nurses and health care workers who’ve braced themselves on the way to work and walked through the door anyway, who’ve comforted our loved ones when we couldn’t, who, even today, have never stopped showing up for us,” Evers said.
Evers dubbed 2021 the “Year of Broadband Access” as a way to address inequalities between students’ educational experiences during the pandemic.
The governor said he would propose nearly $200 million in broadband funding in his 2021-23 state budget — “five times the amount invested in the 2013, 2015 and 2017 budgets combined.”
The speech came just hours after a bipartisan deal on new COVID-19 legislation between Evers and Senate Republicans emerged but quickly faded after Assembly Republicans came out against it.
Vos, in a rebuttal delivered in the Assembly chamber, took aim at his Republican colleagues for compromising with Evers to pass legislation on Tuesday.
“It seems some would think the only way to find common ground is to cave in to the governor’s demands,” Vos said of new Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.
In response, LeMahieu issued a statement that said the Senate was protecting schools, churches and employers.
Vos in his rebuttal also accused Evers of missteps in dealing with COVID-19, saying Wisconsin’s vaccine distribution plan “is an embarrassment compared to other states” because the state ranks low among Midwestern states in getting shots to residents.
Once Vos was finished, Republican lawmakers passed a resolution praising Vos for becoming the longest-serving speaker in state history.
Elusive COVID-19 deal
Evers and Senate Republicans struck a deal on a bill passed Tuesday just before the speech, but leaders of the state Assembly signaled their house was not on board — saying it fails to limit local health officials’ power to manage the coronavirus pandemic and doesn’t bar employers from requiring employees be vaccinated against the virus.
The bipartisan agreement was a fresh but short-lived dynamic in a state Capitol defined by its inaction in the face of once-in-a-generation crises.
The bill would put $100 million toward fighting COVID-19 and give businesses, health care facilities, schools and other groups protection from lawsuits during the pandemic.
In his address, Evers also pushed Republicans who control the Legislature to redraw new congressional and legislative maps using a commission he created last year. States must draw new district lines every 10 years to account for population changes, and those lines help determine which party has the upper hand.
Evers said he wanted to make sure the maps are nonpartisan and said legislators should put them together in public, instead of drawing them behind closed doors to maximize their advantage, as they did a decade ago.
“Wisconsinites don’t want maps that favor any political candidate or party — we just want maps where either candidate can win,” Evers said.