Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought to you by Crockett Sceptic
for this July 18th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here and welcoming to, I'm the WFHR phone line, our good friend
Senator Patrick Tesson joins us once a month.
Sir, how you doing?
I'm doing great, James.
Oh, doing good.
Enjoying this weather.
I'll tell you that.
I really enjoyed this weather as long as we've got it.
A lot of good baseball.
We'll be talking more about that in a little bit as well.
But I'm glad to hear you're doing good and I appreciate you being able to make the
time.
We always appreciate you joining us.
There's really one big headline we got to touch on right away, and that is of course
the passing of the state budget.
By now, most of our listeners have had a chance to, I'm sure, read every single word in
that document.
No, but by now, I bring that up as a point, sir, because I think that this budget, one
of the things that stood out to me when I talk to people, and I have friends and family
that are on both sides of the aisle, and it's certainly a key part of this job to cover
information on both sides of the aisle.
This feels like on the surface, like a lot of debates do, like a lot of negotiations do.
Both parties leave a little happy, a little unhappy.
That's kind of how negotiating works.
Yeah, I mean, this budget process was a very unique one, probably the most unique one
that I've been a part of, and especially as the co-vice chair of the finance committee.
So there's a lot of back and forth, a lot of negotiations, and I was really happy with
the end result, and I think you kind of hit the nail on the head where not everyone was
100% happy with the final product, because this is the art of compromise.
We have to buy the government, but I think we landed in a good spot.
We were able to deliver over $1.5 billion in tax relief.
We were able to invest significant resources into infrastructure.
Our ARIP program, our LRIP program, we got a number of new bills enumerated for the UW
system, including Century Hall at UWSP.
So there were a lot of wins, and there were some things I wasn't necessarily thrilled
about, but given the fact that we had to negotiate with the governor, and even some of our Senate
Democratic colleagues, I think we came up with a budget that puts us on the right track,
moves the needle forward.
It was really unique.
What was unique about this is that as we negotiated our state budget, it was on a parallel
track with the federal spending bill that was signed in the law by President Trump, and
what was unique about that is that we had not asked the budget in time before he signed
what he dubbed the big, beautiful bill.
We would have lost out on significant resources as it relates to our hospital assessment.
When you take a look at some of the challenges that we face in this budget, our costs continue
and our Medicaid budget was roughly $1.6 billion.
Had we not passed this budget for the President signed the federal spending bill in the law,
Wisconsin would have lost significant resources, and thankfully we were able to get that done.
It was a lot of given take, in fact, even from a process standpoint, typically after we
vote on the budget also, out of the joint finance committee, usually there's about three to
four days where our legislative fiscal bureau and our reference bureau, they put the budget
in the legalese.
Well, the polar curtain back, we were basically still working in real time and delivering
the language, piecemeal to the governor so he could go through a line item by line item,
and be able to sign that bill at 132 in the morning.
We got it done, it's over, it's behind us, but there's a lot of things that they will
hand our hat on, and the big one is tax relief, infrastructure investments, and just happy
that we got the budget signed, sealed and delivered, and the governor signed it.
When it comes to what your constituents are saying or what you're hearing, what are they giving
you as far as a positive and a negative as far as this bill?
I mean, I've had the opportunity now after we voted, voted on the budget and the governor signed
it to be back in district, you know, during the fourth July parades, last couple weeks, and
and you know, the big takeaway, I think, from what I've heard from my constituents is that
people are just glad that while we have divided government, we are able to come up with a compromise
and put aside some more differences, and I think that's what people are looking for.
And, you know, there are some areas that, you know, certainly I think, depending on who you ask,
folks on on the right will tell you they're not happy with the overall increase, you know,
that our budget is now, it's going to spend 111 billion dollars over the course next two years,
but what I would counter with is that, you know, there's a lot more federal money coming
in the state, but when you take a look at our general purpose revenue, you know, it was only
about a five to six percent increase compared to the last eight budget. And so, you know,
from my standpoint, while some may criticize us for the overall spend, a lot of this is federal
funds that are coming in for programs like Medicaid and other federal administrative programs, so
I guess that's where I will leave it at. When it comes to child care, we did see some positives
regarding that with the budget, but I'm also hearing from people that we feel like they're still
some room to grow there and some concern there. Certainly, you know, I'm not touching on
necessarily the, the, the, the bill that was passed by, you know, the, I'm talking about the state
budget mainly and focusing on that. And when it comes to that, there, there was some concern,
Matt Lippert, UW Extension's Agg agent, and yesterday, and there were some concerns about how
this budget might affect our ag industry and some of the funds going towards that are there,
you guys focusing on what you can do to kind of, kind of ease that for our ag industry and helping
them out. Yeah, I mean, there's certainly, there's a lot of uncertainty. In fact, just earlier
this week, I was on a, a healthcare panel with a lot of different policy experts as it relates
to things like Medicaid and, you know, the potential implications of the big vehicle bill. And,
you know, we're going to see how that shakes out. I think we are well positioned here in the state
to whether any potential changes, healthcare. That was one area that there were a lot of
negotiations between legislative leadership in the governor's office and using some of the federal
money that the governor had at his disposal to continue programs like childcare accounts for another
year. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done in that front. You know, personally,
I think we have to think outside the box, you know, it's great that, you know, we're going to
continue this for the next year, but from a long-term sustainable side of things, we have to find
a better solution to prop up this industry. And, you know, I think we made some strides on that
front, but there's still plenty more, plenty of more work that needs to be done to addressing
childcare shortages here in the state. And really, what I think we really need to be
creative on is how do we get more providers into underserved areas? And, you know, I think that's
one area where a number of my colleagues, I think of individuals like Representative Pat Snyder,
and he's been a leader on this front. Senator Romain Quinn has some innovative ideas that
while they didn't get incorporated in the state budget, I do think you're going to see stand-alone
bills that get worked on over the course of this fall and into early next year that hopefully
go to help deal with the affordability issue, but also making sure that we're doing
what we can to get more providers, especially in our underserved childcare deserts.
You mentioned earlier how important it was to get this budget done, especially before the,
you know, the union guy, Bill kind of went through and everything. When it comes to that,
this, another thing I think that we need to keep in mind is this was holding back other work
getting done. Now, this is done, other work is able to get done, and hopefully some of that is
addressing some of the concerns out there that people have. Yeah, I mean, obviously, this
budget process was unique just from a process standpoint, because, you know, we'd be in co-chairs
the myself, Senator Mark Lyne, Representative Kurtz, Representative Warren, we'd be negotiating,
you know, various parts of the budget, and oftentimes we would have to hit the pause button,
because there would be negotiations ongoing that were a broader discussion between the governor
of the speaker and leader Lemmehue, and, you know, and on top of that, with everything that was
going on at the federal level, with the federal spending bill, you know, the victim for us was
making sure that we could leverage the, the hospital assessment. So there was language in the
federal bill that Wisconsin's unique that for years, most states are able to, on the hospital
assessment tax, go up to 6 percent. Wisconsin was at about 1.8 percent of that hospital assessment
and there was language within that bill that had we not had that our state budget passed
and signed into law that we would have been basically, basically iced out, and that would have
cost the state roughly a billion dollars. And essentially, we would have been punished,
and thankfully, we were able to get that done, and now we're going to be able to leverage the
6 percent, and it's going to go a long way to fill in some of our costs to continue in our
Medicaid budget. And, you know, it was really, I think that was the real jettison that got us
to where we were because, you know, up until about three weeks ago, I didn't think any of us thought
for sure that the feds were going to, you know, get the, the big, beautiful bill to the president's
desk, and that's what really takes start the negotiations up again, and we moved that lightning
quick speed to get this budget through both houses in an extraordinary session. And, you know,
as a bipartisan bill, and we had to rely on, on Democrat votes within the state Senate,
and that meant there was a little bit more give and take and a lot of negotiations. And, you know,
I think it's a credit to the leadership in both houses, as well as the governor's office,
and even the minority leader in the state Senate that we came up with a, what I think is a
workable budget that delivers a lot of wins for a lot of Wisconsinites, and makes critical investments
on things that we've done in previous budgets. And most importantly, again, it's a tax relief,
it's the investments that we made into things like our agricultural road agreement program,
making sure that, you know, we're investing our, in our farm-to-market roads. And, you know,
there's a lot to be thankful for in this budget, and I'm just, I'm thankful it's over.
I can imagine, when it comes to the concern that I'm sure whether it's, you know, directly
referred from constituents or it's just in, you know, the masses and media or what have you,
there's all the, all we're hearing, it feels like every morning we're waking up and we're hearing
the word cuts. And it's to this program, it's to that program, and different people are concerned
for different reasons. How are you and your colleagues empathizing with that and addressing that?
Well, I would say, you know, when you take a look at the, the budget document that the governor submitted
to the legislature and his budget address, it is a night and day difference compared to the one
that he signed into law. Now, you know, certainly, you know, when you take a look at like the UW
system budget, you know, they were asking for an additional, just shy of $900 million in
Greece. That was probably not in the realm of reality. And instead, they got roughly, we invested
nearly a quarter billion dollars in UW system. It was the largest increase in the last 20 years.
And so, well, it may not go as far as everyone likes. We have to understand, though, that the pie
is only so big and making sure that at the end of the day that we have a budget that balances that
were seven future legislatures up for success. And at the same time, we were still able to make
huge investments and infrastructure UW health care, record tax cuts. So, and not only that,
the investments that we made in the casual education, you know, probably the biggest issue that we
heard as we went around the state was the need for the increase in special education,
reimbursement, and, you know, record investments. We're going to 45% within the second year of the
biennium. This is going to free up a lot of resources for schools, general funds, and so for a lot
of our cash draft, cash draft districts, especially in rural communities, this is going to go a long
way to freeing up resources for them while at the same time providing the support for those students
that need at most in special education. I think one of the concerns that I have and I know that I
hear from people is this idea of, so I think on a ground level, you know, when it comes to like
representative Krueger or somebody like yourself, we're pretty fortunate in this area. We see you
guys, we interact with you guys quite a bit, and we see you guys interacting in the communities
quite a bit. On a national level, whether we're talking the highest of positions or Congress or
what have you, there is a growing concern of, you know, how can you relate to us, you know, with all
with all these cuts with all these different things happening, how can you in your position relate
to your constituents, and that divide happening, getting bigger and bigger for a lot of people,
that's becoming a more and more of a concern, you know, and especially when we get thrown at us,
well, you just got to tough it up, or hey, just tough it out. Well, how are you toughening out?
Are the people saying this? I think that that's something that I'm hoping, I should say at least,
that not only yourself, like your colleagues are paying attention to, because that is,
chickens come home the roost, they always do, and whether it's at the election, you know, during
an election or something like that, these things are going to come to head. People are freaked out,
they're scared, and that's a time when we need politicians to step up and do their job the most,
is to address that, and I'm hoping that that is something that is on everybody's radar over in
Madison, as much as in Washington. Yeah, I mean, I certainly, I can't speak to, you know, the dynamics
help, could you speak to them? I don't mean for you to try to speak for everybody, I didn't
mean it like that, sorry, if I was setting up that way. But I mean, I think when you take a look at,
you know, what we were able to accomplish was in this budget, and again, you know, the budget
that the governor introduced vastly different to the one that he signed into law, and I think that's
a credit to the fact that we recognize that in the Biden government, yeah, there is going to be
a lot of give and take, and this budget was a prime example of that, and you know, I think from our
standpoint, for those of us who voted down the budget, who negotiated the budget, you know, that is
the most important thing that we have to do as legislators every two years is to pass the state
budget, that is our number one responsibility. And I think for the vast majority of my colleagues,
myself included, we understood the gravitas of what that meant, and you know, well,
you know, maybe it didn't go as far as someone liked, maybe I certainly would have liked to see
a change and gone in a different direction, but you know, understanding the reality that we're in,
you know, we had to make some concessions, we had to work with governor Ebers, and as a result,
to a lot of give and take, and a lot of healthy discussions, you know, we came up with a document that
one could pass out of both houses, and one that he could sign in as long. So, you know, I think we're
in a good spot. In fact, you know, one of the things I was really proud of were the investments that
we made into areas like our free and charitable health clinics, and our community health centers.
We just had noble community health clinic open up their new facilities, Davis Point, where
myself, state representative Vinnie Marassi, the governor, and DOA Secretary of Kathy Buman
called were there, and recognizing that, you know, things like these, these types of investments
that help deliver results for underserved communities. And so, again, there's a lot to beat
the ankle floor in the spudget, and you know, now that it's past, the governor signed it, you know,
we've got a lot of work outstanding that we're going to be working on standalone bills going in
the spall, you know, myself and the representatives working on things like the stewardship program,
while that they could enumerate in the spudget, we're working on a standalone bill,
and getting stakeholders at the table, I suspect, actually, I don't suspect that. I know for
fact in a couple of weeks, we're going to be introducing a medical marijuana bill that I'm hoping
we can get support for. And so, there's going to be a lot of big bills that we're working on for the
Speaking with State Senator Patrick Teston right now, and appreciate the transparency,
the conversation has always certain, that latter part thing that you mentioned there,
we'll probably be talking about next month or in the coming weeks, the upcoming months, I imagine.
Last month, we were winding a little bit, the Senate Transportation and Local Government Committee,
and the Assembly Jobs and Economic Committee had separate public hearings on your bipartisan
bill that attempts to attract more workers and families to relocate to Wisconsin. Can you tell us
a little more about how that went and what the specifically that bill is that you're working to
get more and more attention to? Yeah, so this legislation is called Make My Move, so we are
able to allocate $5 million into the state budget, and again, this is pending approval and
passage of legislation that is going to be aimed at providing our Wisconsin Economic Development
Development Commission another tool and toolbox to attract talent from outside of the state,
so allowing communities to receive grant dollars to attract professionals and move in, and
as I've often said on the show and others, we are in a competition with 49 other states,
and we need to take a look at our demographic challenges, our age and population continues
to increase exponentially. We need to do more if we want to grow as a state. We have seen
basically stagnation in growth for the last 10 to 15 years, and so we need to do a better
story of attracting people to come into this state, and so by trading legislation like this,
I think it's going to provide communities the opportunity to go out there and make the case as
why there are places of whether some Wisconsin rapids or Steve's point or all the way up to
superior or down to the loy that Wisconsin is the best place to live working raised families.
Look forward to hearing more about that and seeing how that develops. Another thing we'll be
touching on probably next month. One of the getting to this one with you as well. The importance
of the agricultural roads improvement program, the ARIP program here, why is that so important?
You've noticed that you brought some attention to it in your most recent newsletter and
encouraged people to sign up for that. Why do you want to bring some attention to that one, sir?
Well, I think it's critically important when we talk about our role infrastructure.
I think one of the biggest criticisms that I've heard from constituents over the years is that
oftentimes when we talk about how we fund our infrastructure system, oftentimes people get
critical of the fact that they see all of our money going to the Southeast,
Southeast and part of the state, which obviously have major, major corners of
arteries of commerce, but they feel like we've been falling behind. And so last budget,
we allocated $150 million for a new program that is dedicated to improving our rural agricultural
infrastructure. And it was widely popular. In fact, of $150 million that we said
aside in the last biennium, there was over half a billion dollars in grant requests.
So we reallocated that funding to go around on this budget, approved another 150 million,
and then dedicated a portion of that 150 million to help with our small bridges and culverts,
which oftentimes you'll see headlines of trucks that basically they collapse because they're too
heavy. And so making sure that and understanding that our rural economy is one of the backbones of
our state and making those investments go a long way. And so I think this next round 150 million,
I suspect we're going to see probably again in excess of over half a billion dollars in request,
just goes the show that we've got a lot more work that needs to be done on that front. But again,
making the investment now is going to set us up for our future success.
Yeah, it's not always the most sexy of topics, but boy, do we need good roads? And is
important as it is for us in day to day use. Our truckers, our trucking industry, our farming
industry so badly need those things. It's a good one to hear on and another thing that we'll be
keeping an eye on, sir. I can't imagine, you know, I think you and I have a handful of things
in common, but probably not too many, but I found a new one that you and I share. You recently got
to throw out the first pitch at a Wisconsin's rabbit's rafters game. I have gotten to do that as well.
That is a that is a joy that you don't forget anytime soon. Did you have fun? It was a blast.
So the UWSP Alumni Association, they had a basically a telegate party at one of the recent
rafters games. And I got to throw out the first pitch with Stevie the pointer and I'll be on
a shame. I did not play baseball as a kid. It was terrifying. I can get up and talk
at part of anyone or any group of people, but I turned up that first pitch was a little intimidating,
but thankfully, I got over the plate and it made myself look like a fool too bad.
That's the whole thing. I'm not worried about how fast it's going. I just want to, I just don't
want, don't make me, don't be, let me become viral. Don't let me do something that is going to,
just a carol Lewis type situation or something like that. That's a win right there.
They're good to hear you out of the over the plate. More importantly, just as importantly,
good on you for doing it. There's a lot of people that get offered to do that that just don't
do it. I think it's worth doing no matter what. That's cool to hear. As we're wrapping up,
sir, any future on the job visits coming up? Yeah, we're actually now that the budget's behind us.
We're going to be kicking up the on the job series again here. And I think our next one,
I'm going to be working at the central Wisconsin airport. So looking forward to that,
hoping to keep the planes on time. And well, not sure exactly what they're going to be having me
doing, but it should be fun. We'll be looking out for you. And we'll be looking forward to talking
again next month. If people have follow up questions, we'd like to reach out to you, sir. How can
they do that? Yeah, if anything in touch with my office, feel free to give me a call at 608-266-3123.
Shoot me an email at scn.testin.leggs.wi.gov. Follows on social media. Sign up for my newsletter.
And if you see me out and about, feel free to pull me aside and have a chat.
Safe travels out there and thanks for the time. Appreciate it, James.
And thank you for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report,
proudly brought to you by Crockett Sceptic here at WFHR.com.
