The Birth of a Peoples’ Government
It is About Time
In stark contrast to previous state budgets that were crafted behind closed doors to favor the interests of wealthy business owners and corporations, Governor-elect Tony Evers has begun to prepare a “Peoples Budget” for the upcoming two-year cycle by holding listening sessions around Wisconsin to hear from people from all walks of life on how the state should spend their money.
Evers has made it clear that the sessions are not going to be used to tell the citizenry what his administration will include in the next budget, but to solicit what the people believe are the important priorities for state spending.
The first session was held in Green Bay earlier this week. It was followed by a session in Wausau with another planned for Superior early next week. Subsequent sessions will be held in Milwaukee and Madison with others still being planned. All the ideas mentioned will be considered as the Evers administration puts together a spending plan to submit to the legislature.
For those who cannot make any of the sessions, the Governor-elect has provided an on-line form anyone can fill out to submit ideas for budget consideration. You can find it at
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has already labeled the Evers’ budget proposals “the most liberal budget you have ever seen” before the first item is put on the list. This is not unexpected from the GOP legislature, given its recent moves to sharply curtail the authority of the new governor and attorney general before they take their oaths of office.
If we are to have a functional government that addresses Wisconsin citizens’ needs and problems over the next four years, the GOP is going to have to stop the barrage of attacks and demonization of the new administration. We want the GOP controlled legislature to find common ground with the new administration in order to keep Wisconsin moving forward
We do not want a gridlocked government that does nothing. Wisconsin highways and local roads need money and a plan to make the necessary improvements we all want. Wisconsin public schools and universities need adequate funding to prepare our children for what lies ahead. We need strong environmental protections to ensure clean air and water, especially in light of the Trump administration roll backs of Federal environmental protections. We need accountability for the state tax dollars spent with Foxconn to build its plant and for the incentive package Governor Walker just proposed for Kimberly-Clark. We need criminal justice reform that minimizes mass incarceration and provides mental health and addiction treatment services to truly make our communities safer. We need a renewable energy policy that helps move us away from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming and climate change.
To help move Wisconsin in this new direction, Governor-elect Evers is also bringing back the “Wisconsin Idea” of blue-ribbon advisory panels made up of experts in their fields whose purpose will be to examine the problems in their areas of expertise and propose bi-partisan ideas to solve them.
Panels have been named to study prisons and the justice system, science, energy and agriculture, health policy and economic development just for starters. The people named to these panels are charged with identifying policy changes that need to be made and funding priorities that will help in the budget writing process. All are open for public input and none are beholden to special interest groups who stand to profit from the suggestions the panels produce.
All of these efforts to bring a diverse population of ideas into governmental planning and policy development are a far cry from the closed-door actions of the current Wisconsin government that appeared to act solely for the benefit of the wealthy donors who funded GOP campaigns. The bills recently passed in the early morning hours of the lame-duck legislative session are hopefully the last example of their kind now that the new administration is set to take over.
All these changes should bring a new openness to our government. We will need to be vigilant and hold them to their promises through continued advocacy and participation. They cannot do it without our input and support. Keep the emails, calls and letters coming so we truly have a “Peoples’ Government” in 2019. This is what Democracy looks like.
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