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Evers Formally Launches Gubernatorial Bid
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | August 24, 2017
From WisPolitics.com …
State Superintendent Tony Evers, formally launching his bid for governor, tells WisPolitics.com he’d be open to raising the gas tax to address Wisconsin’s long-term transportation needs while pulling back on some credits for businesses to ensure the state can invest in priorities like education.
Evers said unlike Scott Walker, who has rejected an increase in the gas tax or registration fees as part of budget negotiations, he would not be the kind of chief executive to pull any solutions off the table. Instead, he would seek bipartisan solutions to issues like transportation.
He also rejected the notion that makes him a tax-and-spend liberal, especially if it’s coming from those now pushing a $3 billion deal for electronics manufacturer Foxconn to locate in Wisconsin.
“Tax and spend, that’s just baloney, quite frankly,” Evers said in an interview ahead of this morning’s formal announcement. “Who’s just passing a $3 billion bill and not consider themselves a tax and spend person? I mean, clearly, we’re spending money.”
Evers has been critical of the Foxconn bill, particularly the projection from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau that Wisconsin would not break even for 25 years on the increased tax revenue it may see from the project compared to the incentives it would provide the Taiwanese manufacturer.
Evers said if elected, he would look to renegotiate with the company, including on family-supporting wages and how much of its workforce is comprised of Wisconsin workers vs. those from out of state.
Walker has suggested he needs to be re-elected in 2018 to ensure the company completes the deal with Wisconsin. But Evers said the company “won’t be thrown out of the state by anyone” elected next year and he believes Wisconsin can “balance the books as far as taxes and credits and making sure we have tax fairness.”
“I see the Walker administration talking about, well, some details are going to be worked out after the budget. Well, some of these details can be worked out after the next election,” Evers said.
Walker answered Evers via Twitter today, “Pushing to renegotiate Foxconn deal will please 49 other Governors w/ a renewed chance to land thousands of family-supporting jobs from WI.”
State GOP spokesman Alec Zimmerman said Wednesday Evers has failed to lead when children needed him.
The party is already going after Evers with a digital ad that knocks him over the DPI’s decision to allow a Middleton teacher to keep his license after he was fired for looking at sexually explicit images at school. Arbitrators ruled the district wrongly fired the teacher, and DPI found while his conduct was highly inappropriate, it did not meet the legal definition of immoral conduct as the law was then written.
“While Governor Walker has fought for hard-working Wisconsin families and delivered results, Tony Evers has repeatedly failed to stand up — even allowing a teacher to remain in the classroom while spreading pornographic material in school.”
Evers rejected the accusation and turned it around on Walker, saying that case is not hurting kids “as much as Gov. Walker has done with Lincoln Hills,” referencing the state’s troubled youth prison in northern Wisconsin.
Evers said the agency followed the law in determining the teacher should keep his license. But it then worked with the Legislature to have the law changed with bipartisan support.
Lincoln Hills, has been under criminal investigation over allegations of inmate abuse.
“It’s hurting kids. It’s hurting a significant number of kids,” Evers said.
Zimmerman also knocked Evers for DPI being unable to accurately report the graduation rate for 2015-16 after a data-reporting error.
At his campaign kick off today in Fitchburg, Evers said it’s a “foolish comment” for the guv or anyone else to suggest he has not competently run DPI or doesn’t know the graduation rate.
He acknowledged errors in the reporting this year, but said DPI has a “close approximation” of the rate, which he said continues to be high.
“If he wants to dispute high graduation rates, he has a problem there,” Evers said.
See Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Coverage here.
See Appleton Post Crescent Coverage here.
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