Reactions fell along party lines after Governor Tony Evers gave his State of the State address Tuesday.
Evers says the state needs to see a bipartisan approach to conducting its business. With Republicans holding big majorities in the Senate and Assembly, the new Democratic governor is hoping lawmakers will work with him on education funding and health care.
Two Northwoods State Senators from different political parties saw different things in the speech.
Tom Tiffany of Hazelhurst said there were some points he thought would work for both parties...
"..There were a couple of things I think where we're going to see some bipartisan agreemebnt. He talked about expanding broadband which is really important in the Northwoods. I'm certainly in favor of that. He's talking about a middle class tgx cut.(Republicans) are preparing a bill to do exactly that and I hope we'll have a bill on Gov. Evers bill in the next month..."
But Tiffany also felt there were some points that were non-starters for the Republicans, namely trying to change a Wisconsin economy that Tiffany says is surging, including people's wages...
"..To me, that is the most important statistic that I see about the success in Wisconsin is seeing people's wages rising. A lot of good things happening there. If he's going to reverse course and wants to go back to the "(Gov. Jim) Doyle days with more regulation, tax increases, stuff like that. He's going to get some stiff resistance in the legislature. The bes t thing he can do is keep his hands off the economy at this point..."
Democrat Janet Bewley of the Ashland area, whose district includes parts of Vilas and Price counties. She says Evers set a course as he said in his campaign...
"..I think it is extremely reassuring that the Governor is going to do exactly what he said when he was campaigning. He made very clear what his priorities were and people voted for him. So now he's going to follow through and do he very things he said...."
Bewley says Evers' pledge to fund local schools is important..
"If we can fund education appropriately from state resources, from general purpose revenue, and get the tax contributions from corporations in a reasonable and fair way, we're going to be able to fund our schools...."
The governor says he wants the legislature to take up his version of the state's two-year budget, rather than creating their own.
