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Hey, good morning.
It is 7 0 6.
Nice to have you here up north on this Wednesday morning, May 28th.
Coming up later this hour, we're going to be talking about a coalition of groups busy at the state capital yesterday.
Trying to get a message to Governor Tony Evers that the next state budget needs to be To a certain level shall we say and that if Republicans who run the legislature Don't bring that budget to a certain level of support for education and health care and workers and the environment Then instead of a whole bunch of line item vetoes
Maybe just trash the whole thing veto it all and make the lawmakers start over So we'll talk to a couple of guests about that coming up Then in our eight o'clock hour We'll be talking to Earl Ingram about the lead crisis in Milwaukee led paint chips and some schools led water pipes And how health and human services secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.
Says they're on it except that they're not
We'll talk to Dan Schaefer from the Reconbobulation Area and Civic Media Political Editor, and we'll talk to James Kelly, Civic Media reporter here in Chippewa Falls, about a story out of Hayward that reminds us that during summer vacation from schools, some kids are missing out on the one good meal that they might get each day and some of the programs that are meant to alleviate that.
Melissa Kay is here as well, hanging over from WFHR.
97.5 WFHR, I should say, and 105.5 WIRI because we spent so much time teasing her about getting a pigeon that we never asked her what is exactly happening in Wisconsin Rapids for, you know, radio and events and news
and things
like that.
So we'll talk to her about that.
But first, meteorologist Brittany Merlot is here to tell us one more day of this cloudy, cool stuff.
and then things get really nice after that.
Oh, before I forget, Parker Olson is in Madison, Greg Bach is at Radio Park in Racine, and Brittany, for all of us, wherever we are in Wisconsin, a little gray out there this morning.
I don't know, is it that way statewide?
Yeah, pretty much is.
There's a little bit of spots of sunshine far northeast.
Lucky you.
Hang on to it while you have it because it is going to be replaced by those clouds very, very soon.
Mostly cloudy throughout the day today.
We are looking at light rain already rolling into the western areas of the state.
far south as well that is going to lift north as we go through the rest of the morning and into the afternoon and it's going to scatter out too.
So on and off light rain is expected through most of the day today.
We could hear some claps of thunder by this afternoon, especially into north central areas.
No severe storms are expected, but of course just some rumbles of thunder out there and some more moderate rainfall in those smaller storms.
Otherwise that all dies out later after sunset.
High temperatures today will hit the mid sixties far south.
We are looking at about 70 degrees far north.
Then tomorrow we're going to start a little bit of a warm up.
The sunshine will return.
We will be we will be in those upper sixties to mid seventies.
And then some humidity starts to sneak in for Friday, especially into western areas of the state.
Temperatures will soar to the upper seventies to near 80 degrees.
We'll get a little cooler on Saturday, but the heat comes right back for Sunday.
And let me tell you those summer heat humidity like mid eighties dew points in the seventies.
They're going to be here next week.
All right, and now one thing that we didn't mention along with the temperatures and the conditions is the extended daytime hours and Alicia writes in on YouTube the downside for me with the extended sunlight is I have a very hard time falling asleep before 10 p.m.
When I need to wake up for work at 2 45 a.m.
I believe I believe Greg would like to give this an amen.
I do not miss those
days.
I know what you mean.
I gotta fall asleep now.
during the Sun-Times.
Yes.
Blackout
curtains.
He's
rubbing his eyes so hard.
He's stressed right now.
Yes.
2.45 a.m.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's, that's a, yeah, for a lot of morning.
radio and TV folks, you know, they, they get our truck drivers or a whole host of other things.
I used to really dread going to bed, you know, when the sun was still up for these early morning shifts.
And now we're just like, now it's practically a game.
It's like, can we get blackout curtains dark enough?
Can we close the doors enough?
Can we just, we just basically a seller, you know, fall
asleep before the sun goes down.
Because and why because we're old and tired now.
It's like no, we're going to sleep in no sunshine is stopping me yet Yeah, that's that is really how it is which is by the way how we missed that Christian Yelich walk off Grand Slam last night as the Brewers beat the Red Sox five to one Good morning from Tigerton says Rob cloudy and 54 degrees.
I've
Got some lawns to mow in Tigerton and a doctor's appointment in Shawno.
Yesterday I mowed some yards in Wittenberg, had lunch at Rachel's Roadside in Wittenberg, a bowl of spaghetti soup.
It was very good, a must stop when you're heading.
toward Green Bay off Highway 29 at Highway 45, South Exit 198.
Rob says, Greg, I have a CPAP machine and it helps me sleep and using it since 2019.
We mentioned John Fogarty's birthday today and that he loves CCR and have you ever seen the rain is his favorite song from them.
And honestly, we need more rain.
He says, seeing Melissa and Brittany together reminds me to buy them another drink soon and the rest
of you as well and reminds us that he has a birthday coming up and it's a lot different in the winter he writes when you have to get up at 2am in the winter to plow snow.
And Alicia notes, yes, sanitation people also have to get up super early.
And Shiju has the solution, blackout curtains and lavender sleep masks.
Oh, fancy.
So I stopped listening to everything once I heard spaghetti soup and I was very, very curious.
So I
googled spaghetti soup, Rachel's roast and what comes up.
Rob from Tigerton's post on Instagram.
A lovely display.
There's a cheeseburger.
It looks like a hearty chili.
The
internet has come full circle.
There's no need for anything else.
Thanks to Rob.
And a bottle of Sundrop.
Of course, Sundrop.
You're in Tigerton.
You have to do that.
That's exactly it.
All right, Brittany, thank you so much.
Appreciate
it.
Let's find out from Melissa now what's happening on Wisconsin Rapids radio out there because again, it was all about pigeon quest, you know, before the before the news break, which you guys were going to add to the stations that up there.
We got a couple live remotes coming up this weekend.
We're excited about Beth and Seth are going to be at Dairy Fest in Marshfield and they will be broadcasting live on, I believe on our WRI station.
And then they then we're also doing a live broadcast at Rapids transmission in Wisconsin.
and Rapids.
Ashley and I will be there.
It's the grand reopening of another thing coming full circle because it was a family-owned business way back when called Rapids Transmission.
Then it was R&R Transmission.
Now they're changing it back to Rapids Transmission with the nephew and his wife of the original owners reopening it again.
Okay, and Dairy Fest.
Tell folks about that in Marshall.
That's a big deal.
You know, I believe there's going to be lots of pancakes.
Yes, it is a huge breakfast.
But honestly, beyond that, I don't know a ton about it because it wasn't, I wasn't assigned to it.
Okay.
But, you know, you can't go wrong with a dairy breakfast.
Oh, no.
I still need to do
one of those.
Yes, you absolutely do.
They have the best like sausages, especially around here where they make them.
You'll get some just I had some last year in Pittsville that were they had like cranberries in it.
They had blueberries.
They were so good.
Here we go.
Thanks to the folks at Channel 7 in Wausau.
Beginning Friday at Marshfield Dairy Fest begins on May 30th at 5 a.m.
with the annual Mayor's Breakfast.
More than 200 volunteers will serve up more than 1200 pancakes, 450 pounds of eggs and 24 gallons of maple syrup.
The events will continue into Saturday, attracting thousands to the fairgrounds.
This year, the Marshall Chamber has partnered with the Ronald McDonald House to bring back the cheese chase.
Well, now I got to know more about this.
Is that
like the one they do overseas where they throw a wheel of cheese down the hill
and
then you run after
it?
I don't.
Think the kid one is quite like that, but, um, there's not
a lot of hills in Marshfield.
Yeah.
There, there is the picnic in the park Friday at Columbia park from five to eight PM.
There's a craft show Saturday, a downtown parade Saturday at 11 AM starts at second street and goes south on central avenue.
There's a family fun day on Saturday and a softball tournament and, and more.
I mean, it's a big
deal.
Beth and Seth
will be at the Mayor's Breakfast on Friday, but then they're live broadcasting on Saturday.
Okay.
And yeah, I mean, I feel like I hit every dairy breakfast, you know, at some point or another, either as a state senator or a candidate for Congress.
And people are, I mean,
Everybody's happy to get out of the house.
Somebody else is cooking and breakfast.
There's these other things for the kids to do.
So,
yeah.
And at the Rapids transmission, if you're in Rapids and you want to come to that, there's going to be free tacos and ice cream and face painting.
Free tacos.
Free
tacos.
Where's this happening?
I'm
sorry, where?
11 to 1.
11 to 2.
Rapids transmission on A Street South.
That's right
by
Kenosha, right?
That's right by
Kenosha.
No, no, dear, you'd need to drive.
Yeah,
you got
it.
You got it.
Come on.
But it's free tacos.
Free
tacos.
Why are there
never free tacos by me?
She's you, Ritz.
Now, if only I could get some decent black pudding with these breakfasts, I'd be showing up in a heartbeat.
What?
You'd have to make it for us.
Yeah, I don't really think that.
Yeah.
Watch as a radio show, Google's live.
You don't know what black pudding is.
Oh,
yeah, it's it's not it's not it's not it's
not sweet
It's not sweet.
It's a sausage
a kind of sausage made from pigs blood pork fat or beef suet and cereal usually oatmeal or barley and various spices
It's like we're saying like oh,
you want some head cheese.
Oh, what's that cheese?
I'm
out
walk away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you know
what head she does Parker?
I
don't
You don't know what head cheese is?
It's
googling and then I'll see if you have an appetite for
the next four to ten
hours.
Meanwhile, talking about the Stanley Tucci series, the new one on Nat Geo and Hulu and Disney, where he's going all through Italy, the first two shows focused primarily on tripe and making Italian dishes with tripe.
And again,
you get that here in Wisconsin.
There are some of us who are like, what's that?
And had to look and realize that the time now this particular delicacy is made by
the fourth stomach of a cow, whereas this delicacy is made from the second stomach of a cow because it's got more of a honeycomb, you know, thing going for it or heart and tongue or all these other things.
Every part gets used.
I
had some tripe in a in a fa soup up in Duluth.
It was really good.
I
surprised.
I asked Parker to Google head cheese
because I just wanted to see his
I want to see his
look.
Parker, tell the world what head cheese is.
I was physically
image.
It was
very visceral for Parker.
It's a meat jelly dish made from the flesh and gelatinous parts of an animal's head, typically a pig's head, but sometimes a calf or a cow.
It's not actually cheese, but rather a meat terrine or aspic.
With a smooth and creamy texture and a savory pork
It's on the internet, so it must be true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, Aspect has
a very
interesting history there.
There's a bunch of.
Tri Palson is awful and she's you gets up back on Wednesday.
Don't waste good awful.
Oh my God.
I
think it's awful.
I do too, but if that's how it's pronounced.
Well done.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'll be here till nine, maybe waiting for the phone to ring.
It was great to catch up, Melissa.
I feel like once again, we've really undersold everything in Wisconsin Rapids just so we could have some fun with you.
But thanks for letting us have some fun with you.
Oh, it's always great fun with you guys.
All right.
Have a wonderful day.
You too.
Still ahead, we'll be talking to Dan Schaefer from the Reconbobulation Area, Earl Ingram, Heather Dubois-Bornan, and Robert Craig all ahead.
As part of our mornings here live from Lake Wissoda, thanks for making this place a spend part of your Wednesday.
He has a double check.
Yep, Wednesday.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
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Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
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Laurie and Hayward.
My mother used to make head cheese from scratch at home.
She loved it, but no one else in the family would eat it, including Parker, if he was given the option.
From
around?
Yeah, you just, you know, boil a pig's head and, you know, the scraps and everything
become...
I see.
Greg,
for folks that missed during the break, Greg was giving him some historical perspective.
There was once upon a time when we did not have superstores on every corner, Greg.
No.
There was this thing called the depression.
Yeah.
And, you know, you used every part of whatever animal you had.
Yeah.
And that's, you know, that's still the case in many parts of the world.
We sometimes forget just how gosh darn lucky we are.
you know, to live in, live in this time and place.
However, he said, making the transition to James Kelly appearing here later on, they, in Hayward, they're reminding us that not every kid gets a great meal all the time.
And so we'll talk about a program that's happening up there soon.
I got the Marshall Dairy Breakfast info from the WSAW Channel 7 was site up in Warsaw.
And I wanted to take note of two other stories I see there in Auburn Dale.
they have a problem with buckthorn.
And I haven't talked about buckthorn for a long time, but do you remember what I considered getting and what Auburn Dale went and got?
Anybody?
Goats.
Auburn
Dale
got the goats.
The environment.
Uh-oh.
What happened?
You probably couldn't hear that, but I went to click on the story and of course a commercial came blasting into my ear here.
So the goats are back on the scene in another Wisconsin community, according to the group Friends of the Mississippi River.
Buckthorn is a group of shrubs or trees that the animals prefer, even though it's bad for the soil, because buckthorn is an invasive species here in Wisconsin.
And goats are literally the only animal that can eat this and survive because they have an enzyme in their liver that neutralizes the toxins that would otherwise be bad for the soil.
And so we, we did finally uproot a lot of our buckthorn, but we still have some growing in another part of the lot.
And so Sherry's going to see this and only once again say, Hey, maybe we, we got to get a goat.
And if we get a goat, that also means later on, you can get goats do and maybe some head cheese from the goat.
You know, it's
all
you two
at
a time.
Again.
That's the
cycle of life thing.
Well, yeah, that's kind of how this
is
supposed to work.
I might go vegan again.
Meanwhile, have you been following this outage by cellcom after a ransomware attack?
and that all kinds of folks have had trouble making calls.
Rob from Tiger10 has been sending text messages about that, and it was happening during like the peak of bad storms too, and people didn't have the ability to get weather updates and couldn't send and receive text messages.
Again, from channel seven, five calls were made to 911 after a camper went up in flames early Tuesday morning in Door County, but none of them connected because all the calls were made from phones with cell-com as a provider.
The owner saw flames from their home in this camper, tried multiple times, but could not reach the fire department, and obviously the camper was burned and appears to be destroyed by things here.
And again, it comes back to this whole notion of ransomware attacks, where we all try to stay ahead of technology as best we can, but what's the right phrase there, but for the grace of God, that I've not been subject to something like that, but how many clinics and other workplaces have been?
And again, this goes way, way back to my being in the legislature.
So I can only imagine the number is worse, but they shared with me as on one committee, the number of cyber attacks that state computer systems get every day.
that they have to defend against.
And I'm sure that that number has just grown exponentially since then.
And, you know, it's like a missile defense system is like, you can have the best one in the world, but it only takes one to get through, you know, and these ransomware attacks are just awful.
And there's, you know, there's no easy answer to it.
You don't want to pay the ransom necessarily, but
These are the things that happen.
I worked at a TV station once that basically lost their entire video archives going back decades to a ransomware attack.
So I wish I had an easy answer.
But when I hear this about a cell come and remember what else has happened around the state here, I mean, my heart goes out to them.
It's not good.
No.
I had no easy answer.
No, no natural follow up to that.
So you say, this is where you go, boy, I don't know.
Right.
Boy, crime.
I don't know.
That's a West Wing reference.
I was going to give the whole West Wing one.
Yep.
Quick one from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The potential for a commercial development, a Brewer's district around American family field is going to be getting studied now according to the ballpark's public owner.
The Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District is requesting proposals from consultants to look for a potential project instead of all of that parking lot space, which when the game is sold out,
You know, it looks wonderful seeing all those tailgaters, but might it be time now to consider less parking area, more commercial development area, like the Titletown district around Lambeau Field?
And I think that's an honest debate to have.
Do you keep it as is or is there potential in putting some other businesses in
there?
It has more parking spaces than Disney World.
We can get rid of some.
I think
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is.
I mean, and it's what all of them used to have once upon a time, but more, more places discovered that, yeah, we could actually, we can probably make more money instead of you bringing in your grill and your own brats and hot dogs.
If we got it somewhere else where you got to go buy it, pretty, pretty good deal.
People
will lose their mind, but they'll adjust.
Uh, they, they always do.
Yep.
We will talk about the next state budget that the legislature is working on and what should be in it in order for Governor Tony Evers to sign it.
We'll talk to our guests about that coming up after the Midwest Farm Report live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Rightlow.
Welcome back live from Chippewa Falls on the Civic Media Radio Network.
If you were to go to the Capitol right now, you would see that hundreds of bills have been introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature so far this session from Assembly Bill 1 to, at last check, Assembly Bill 273.
And over in the other chamber, you can go all the way up to Senate Bill 280.
But one bill is missing from all those.
Senate Bill
one.
Republicans reserved Senate Bill one for their version of a state budget and tax plan, but it is still missing in action nearly five months into the session.
So what does it Republicans actually want to do?
When are we going to see what they propose and what will Governor Tony Evers do with it once it comes to him?
Now in the past he has used his line item veto as partial veto powers repeatedly to try to mold and shape the bill but is is that good enough or does he have to consider vetoing the whole bill?
and making the legislature start over and if so what are the pros and cons of that?
A coalition of groups was in the capital yesterday talking about the things that really need to be in the state budget in terms of schools and health care and families and you know what those standards should be.
And we are very happy to have two friends of the program here to talk more about it.
Robert Craig from Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Heather Dubois, born on from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Robert and Heather, good morning.
Thanks for being here.
How you doing?
Good.
Good.
You're doing great.
Thanks, Pat.
Nice to see you.
Yeah.
Heather, I saw a Facebook post.
You guys had a very busy day around the Capitol and you said you carried around a particular visual aid the whole day to try to make your point about what needs to be in the budget or where previous budgets have failed and what people want to see in this budget.
So what was your core message to lawmakers yesterday?
Well, first of all, Pat, we were thrilled that over 200 people were able to join us on the day after a holiday weekend to share their concerns about the state budget with lawmakers and to call on the governor to pass a better, put his name on a better budget this time around.
And I carried this poster with me to remind folks that we have been to every single one of the budget hearings taking notes and
If you look at what things people cared about the most, what's best for kids tops that chart.
Public education, K through college, childcare, higher ed, Medicaid expansion, and holding the line on prisons and criminal justice reform were the lion's share of the testimony over half of the people who spoke spoke on one of those three subject areas.
And so the people who were at the Capitol today were a critical mass, but they didn't speak for themselves.
They represent the majority of concerns that were heard around the state at every single one of those budget hearings.
And those are the concerns that the members of the Joint Finance Committee on the Republican side disregarded when they threw the governor's budget proposal away and went back to base.
And so our concern
is that the people were not heard when they raised their voices in these democratic processes and we want to call on all of our lawmakers and the governor to listen this time around and to pass a budget that actually meets the needs of our kids and our communities and stop playing political games with the money that we
trust the state to use effectively and according to our needs.
That is a, it's a very telling pie chart that you were showing me with, again, the topics that were brought up most in the Joint Finance Committee hearings.
And Robert, as somebody who's been active on the healthcare part of it, especially expanding badger care through citizen action, I'm sure that pie chart didn't surprise you either, even if it still seems to be a surprise to some of the lawmakers.
Well,
I don't know if it's a surprise, but they entirely ignored it, Pat.
So they've turned these budget hearings, which are supposed to be the legislature actually hearing from people who take the time to go and speak to them about the budget, into just a sham where they pretend to listen and then they do what they're going to do, which is this is an example of the decay of our democracy.
And so Heather showed with that chart.
just where the public is that actually came to Joint Finance Committee and testified.
It's overwhelming that the top issues are education funding, healthcare, especially expanding badger care, which is a huge common sense step we can still take.
And that's not going to be that opportunity is not being eliminated at the federal level.
They took that off the table and common sense criminal justice reform.
And so since the legislature pad is ignoring the people in the hearings, we brought the people to the Capitol.
And this is extraordinary, Pat.
You've been doing this a long time.
I've never seen such a list of groups, and it was CIS, National Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Education Network, Wisdom, WEAC, which is a major power in democratic politics at its major urban affiliates, AFT, Wisconsin, number of others, and the childcare advocates who really got a lot of attention this cycle.
Coming in, I've never seen a group of
groups like this come and ask a Democrat governor to change his tactics.
You see in the last three budgets, he's essentially with some line item vetoes signed the Republican budget in a situation where we have divided rule in a situation where only one person was elected by the whole the whole people and that is Governor Evers.
Since they, Pat, use every ounce of their power they can.
A lot of illegitimate use, like not confirming the governor's appointments on a regular basis as a strategy.
Just for one example, the governor needs to use all of his legitimate power and that is his veto power.
That is to make it clear, set a bottom line, say that this is my bottom line, include badger care expansion and sufficient funding for public schools, child care, and common sense criminal justice reform does not build any more prisons, and say I will not sign a budget, it doesn't do that, that he has to do that, otherwise he's allowing them to get a Republican budget where this should be a compromised act.
That's where we are as organizers.
This is about power.
So we're saying we'll be with the governor and stand behind him, all these people pat, but the governor needs to leave.
So if the governor were to threaten to or actually veto the whole bill, there are a couple of different ways you could go.
Robert, I'll start with you and then Heather.
And there is this notion that if the governor were to veto the whole thing, Republicans would just say,
Oh, yeah.
Well, then we just won't pass a budget at all.
Everything will continue at the same level.
It's not like government shuts down.
And there won't be any improvements in anything either.
So does that, is that the tactic that would keep Governor Evers and others from vetoing a bill in its entirety?
And what's your answer to that potential?
It's very similar to what Chuck Schumer said when he
across most other Democrats and voted for a Republican bill to keep the government open, which also put in place a whole lot of the changes doge and Trump are illegitimately and illegally making.
What we've seen from the Democratic grassroots, which is everyone is for democracy, not just Democrats, is that they expect leaders now to fight and to use all their leverage.
I think it's a sign of weakness to say, oh, I couldn't veto the budget because it could put in place a worse budget.
It has to be used as leverage to force a negotiation to force public attention on these popular issues that the legislature is against and is trying to block because then they face much more consequences at the ballot box, the only real democratic accountability.
The other thing Pat is,
What I heard the Capitol yesterday, they're talking about putting most of their budget in separate appropriations bills with no line on a veto and putting forward only a base budget so they can avoid the governor's line on a veto powers in a budget.
So we're in a situation where they're playing hardball anyway and are acting against all previous norms.
The governor's got to be willing to stand and fight, but part of this pad is that he lays this bottom line.
The public will know who is blocking, fair funding for public schools who is blocking.
healthcare for 90,000 more people and getting more money for doing that, childcare, which everyone needs, and so I think that that's the only thing that can work in a democracy, that signing a Republican budget and then declaring it some kind of victory actually harms the public understanding of what is really going on.
Heather, I feel like the sentiment for this really increased after this last go round where the governor agreed to an increase in local aid and in funding for local schools, public schools.
but the amount of money that went to the voucher program was immense and to some people didn't look like a compromise at all and really has led to this notion of, you know, better to veto a bad budget than to try to fix it with partial vetoes.
What are your
thoughts on that, Heather?
Sorry.
It's getting ready for school time here.
Sorry for the background
noise.
That's all right.
Yeah, you're totally right, Pat.
People were really confused by the budget deal that the governor worked out last time because while he did arrange a deal that exchanged a much needed increase to the low revenue limit ceiling, he did so.
in in return for what turned out to be the largest expansion to privatization programs that we've ever seen in in one swoop.
And so this massive increase to vouchers and independent charters was not matched by a massive increase to public school funding.
We saw a little lift to the low revenue limit ceiling, which though welcome did not even get our low spending districts up to the state average.
And we saw a
budget ultimately passed that didn't even provide an inflationary increase to our public schools.
In fact, about 40% of school districts received less state aid in the first year of that biennial budget than they had the previous year anyway.
That's why we have seen a record number of districts have to go to referenda in the course of the past two years.
419 questions, I believe, is the final count.
Keep in mind that we have 421 total districts.
We've had districts that have had to go again and again to voters to ask to raise taxes on themselves because the state is not paying a share.
And it's just an unsustainable cycle.
And this cycle of going back to base, fighting for crumbs, not getting enough.
going back to base, fighting for crumbs, not getting enough, just has to stop.
That cycle is not going to stop itself.
And as Robert said, now we're hearing about this other layer of political games playing on top of it.
And we were just headed to the Capitol yesterday to say enough, enough is enough, do your job.
Your job is to make sure that our public schools have the resources they need so that every kid's needs can be met and you are not meeting
that obligation right now, do better.
On YouTube, but Tony writes, I saw so many photos on Facebook from the Capitol yesterday.
It was amazing.
And I mentioned seeing, you know, Heather in photos along with some of the folks there.
Robert, you mentioned all the all the people that were there as well, that this really has much more of a grassroots feel than, you know, so much of the
the astroturf stuff we saw from, you know, back in the days of, you know, the Tea Party and things like that.
Between that and the pie chart, Robert, I mean, you completely feel the public sentiment shifting and with fairer maps, non-jerrymandered maps, you've got to feel better about taking this kind of a message into the 2026 election cycle, not meaning to get ahead of myself.
I hope we can get a budget, right?
Pat, so if the Republicans do the right thing, then they are in a better stance in the 2026 elections.
But if they're going to do what they did before, we at least want to make it crystal clear that they did it and exactly what they did so they can be held accountable.
That's the only way democracy works.
Softening the edges doesn't work, Pat.
But what our hope is, is that the governor will create a very difficult environment for them politically that will actually make them do the right thing and
find common ground with Governor Evers on these issues, because as Heather says, we cannot continue this cycle over and over again.
And in fact, Pat...
with what the House did, the House of Representatives and their tax on Medicaid, they left the extra money for Medicaid expansion, but it sunsets the full amount, giving 95% of it paid for by the federal government two years.
Sunsets on January 1st, 2026, this is the last budget we can get the full Medicaid expansion amount,
but
education, school districts at the breaking point with the referendum.
Heather, we talk about this all the time.
Without a doubt, head to the comment sections on Facebook and YouTube to see the links that they provided us where you can sign your name to a letter of support.
Robert Craig from Citizen Action, Heather Dubois-Bornan from Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Thanks so much, you guys.
Appreciate all that you're doing.
Earl Ingram
coming up.
Thanks for having us.
You bet.
Earl Ingram coming up in our next hour along with Dan Schaeffer on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
We are about 15 minutes away from Earl Ingram joining us to talk about what's happening in Milwaukee with the lead situation and
Robert Kennedy Jr.'
's comments slash fibs.
But in the meantime, we've got Todd Alba here right before the eight o'clock news to talk about things that he's working on for his midday show, two to four p.m.
across the civic media radio network.
But Mr. Alba, since I worked in the Capitol, you worked in the Capitol, let's pick up where that last conversation left off.
And this notion of asking Governor Evers if the budget is is bad.
in his view and other people's views to veto the whole budget until the legislature start over again rather than trying to fix it through partial vetoes.
And you know, again, I'm not trying to be a wet blanket on this, but I feel like it would be too easy for Robin Voss and Devin.
Let me hear you to go.
All right, fine.
We just won't pass anything because this isn't the federal government.
There won't be a shutdown.
You just continue with the past budget.
I lived through this in 2007 when it took until November to pass a budget because some folks in my party were so attached to the Healthy Wisconsin Initiative that we knew the assembly wasn't going to pass because it's run by Republicans.
So it's a game of chicken that you play with risks.
Good morning, gentlemen.
First of all, a small look correction.
I was a flack in the Capitol.
That was a state senator.
There's a difference of working in the
Capitol.
I said working.
And as staff, you were probably working harder.
This
is what I'm trying to say about that.
I appreciate it.
I pretty much tend to agree with you, Pat.
I understand the sentiment of trying to force Republicans to
to do more, maybe use the power to force them to the table to negotiate a better budget.
So I kind of agree with your last guess in a way that had that threat out there to use it for leverage, probably not a bad thing.
But you and I both know Pat that the way that the state government is set up is dramatically different than the federal because if there is no budget, either the legislature or the governor's fault, I use that word to be simplistic.
The budget just continues on in its current state for another two years.
And I think that the, my form of party would probably be okay with that because they would go around the state and say, especially if the governor Evers wants to run for reelection, which we don't know whether he does or not, there might be a chance he does.
They'll just go around and say, look, this isn't what you want for four more years.
A guy that can't even come to the table and pass a budget.
Now, that's an overly simplistic answer.
It takes two to tango.
But I think that's what the message would be.
I think it's more interesting.
I think it's just interesting.
And these were off-record conversations.
So I'm going to talk very generally.
I happen to find myself in a place within the last month where some Democrats were gathered.
And I don't think I'm talking out of school.
when I say that even amongst his own party, legislators and the Democratic Party find it difficult to get appointments with the governor, find it difficult to get in and talk with him.
And again, it goes back to some of the people the governor puts in charge of his office.
And I think that is a lot more consistent.
Is it really Tony Evers who we've heard that he is trying to meet with legislators?
I just don't understand maybe things have changed in 10 years since I've been in the building back.
But you know this, whether it was, whether it was Tommy Thompson or Jim Doyle to a certain degree, Scott Walker, but he had basically the Republican legislature, they make a big deal about this.
All the other parties coming over in the governor's conference room, we're going to have all these, you never hear that kind of stuff with Evers and this legislature.
And I'm not sure why that is.
Well, and Greg raised an interesting point during the break that if they don't pass something, Greg, what's the talking point?
Yeah, we got paid to do nothing.
Yeah.
Once again in the
legislature.
I just could come in and just sit and do nothing.
Bro, love it.
Healthcare.
And Tony says, yeah, they could go around the state saying, yeah, we shut down those pesky daycares because, you know, daycare centers will be shutting down if no budget is passed.
So, I mean, there are very definitely risks both ways.
But don't you think, guys, that
Again, I'm not defending them.
I just know how these guys operate.
They're going to, they'll have something in the budget that it might be, it might be window dressing, but it'll be something for childcare.
And, and Robin Boss and Devin Lummi Hewan and their caucus will go around the state and say, look, we, we, we put something for the governor for childcare.
We put this, he was the one that refused to sign it.
What can we
do?
Well, and the other thing to keep in mind is that Wisconsin is probably still the most unique state in the country when it comes to the powers of the partial veto.
You know, there are governors that could only dream of being able to shape legislation after it passes just by removing some lines in a budget.
which, by the way, gets back to why there's this mistrust between Republicans and the governor is, you know, the budget comes to the governor.
He could keep in all the daycare stuff, and he could red pan all the tax breaks that might be in there for higher income brackets.
And so it really does need to be done at the negotiating table with two parties, literally and figuratively, that really don't trust each other, but they really got to get the work done, Todd.
Another thing I think you guys brought up the last segment, I forget who it was, I apologize, but whoever it was about this point that Republicans now are thinking about doing part of the spending a standalone bill instead of including in the actual omnibus budget bill, that's very interesting.
I don't know that that's ever been attempted before, Pat, do you?
No, and it's funny that it meanwhile in Congress They're going the other way instead of like 13 different bills are trying to put it one big beautiful bill with all of the you know The headaches that come with that so it's what I'm saying is Republicans are not being consistent.
They're
doing
whatever it takes to be consistent.
Yes to to get
their way
Rather than to actually you know negotiate
and compromise as the case may be.
So
I think they're a tough spot.
They want to appease the the Margaret Trump caucus much like they're trying to do up DC, but they also know that I think maybe in a small way they don't want to budget.
I don't know.
I know.
Todd's got this and more weekdays, two to four o'clock across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Thank you, Mr. Alba.
Talk
to you later.
Appreciate y'all.
And Greg Bach is back in one hour for Matinair on air.
Yes, indeed.
And
then one more day with me.
Well, and then one more day.
Well,
folks, I got to get rolling
because I'm
singing show tunes.
Earl Ingram and Dan Schaefer in our next hour and the updated forecast from meteorologist Brittany Merleau.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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