Evers’ budget results mixed

Many of the promises Gov. Tony Evers made on the campaign trail connected to the state budget he either promised budget changes or had the opportunity to keep the promise through the budget.

But Republicans, in many cases, had other ideas.

Here’s how some of his key promises fared now that we’ve completed the first budget under Evers’ watch.

Medicaid expansion a no go in final budget

Evers said while seeking the state’s highest office he would “take immediate action to accept the federal Medicaid expansion dollars.”

His draft of the budget did that, tapping into $1 billion-plus in federal funding as a foundational piece of the funding puzzle.

But the Republican Legislature rebuilt the budget without the Medicaid expansion, and that’s what Evers eventually signed into law.

Evers will have other chances to push for Medicaid expansion during his term, but he promised “immediate action,” and that hasn’t happened. And Republicans show no signs of allowing that to change in the near future.

We rate outcomes and not intent, which puts this at Promise Broken.

Evers fails to hit promised school funding mark

While running for governor, Evers promised to restore the former standard of two-thirds state funding for schools. He introduced a budget that did that, both as state school superintendent and later as governor.

He was calling for a throwback to the 1996-2003 era when the state had a commitment to fund two-thirds of K-12 costs through the state budget.

The 2003-’05 budget, under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, eliminated that commitment and state funding hasn’t reached that level since. In 2018-’19, the most recent budget, the state share covered 65.4% of K-12 costs, according to the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Evers promised to push support across the two-thirds barrier, but Republicans weren’t on board.

The final budget — written by the Republican Legislature and tweaked through Evers’ vetoes — will actually lower the percentage slightly to 65.3% in 2019-’20, according to the fiscal bureau. The percentage is then expected to rise slightly to 65.5% in 2020-’21.

Evers doesn’t get credit for effort since we assess outcomes and not intent. But his promise didn’t narrow the time frame to his first budget, so he’ll get another crack at this in his second budget.

For now, we rate this Stalled.

Increase spending on local road maintenance

As governor, Evers said he would invest funding into fixing local roads across Wisconsin.

Under the budget signed by the governor, nearly $400 million in new money will be collected toward road maintenance.

The money would come from a GOPbacked plan to increase title fees people pay when they buy vehicles. The fees would increase by $95 going, from $69.50 to 164.50.

Republicans also sought to raise the annual registration fee by $10 for cars, which will rise from $75 to $85. For light trucks, the fee will increase by $25 going from $75 to $100.

Evers originally campaigned on raising the gas tax by 8 cents over two years as well as increase fees on semitrucks by 27%, but Republicans rejected the proposals in the budget.

Regardless, Evers did not give a specific amount of funding or promise a particular way of funding roads in his campaign promise to invest more in local roads.

We rate this Promise Kept.