What Matters To Wisconsin with Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez (Hour 1)

Transcript

What Matters To Wisconsin with Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez (Hour 1)

The Todd Allbaugh Show · Thu May 29, 2025

Kathryn Lake

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Todd Allbaugh

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albaugh, along with our producer and engineer, the fantastic Mr. Aaron Zommerer is back on the board.

It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, May 29th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along from the world headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison, Wisconsin on State Street.

Zommerer is welcome back.

Glad you're here.

It's a little overcast today, but...

All in all, not too bad.

Nice day out here in Madison.

Yeah, and if we take a quick look at the Sam Davison street cam.

Todd Allbaugh

Look at that.

You can

Todd Allbaugh

see

it's a little more bustling than it sometimes is at this hour.

Todd Allbaugh

Yes, yesterday we looked out there and it was like a desert.

But yeah, people are moving around on bikes, walking around downtown Madison here, not too bad at all.

I'm glad to have you back.

Speaking of Sam Davison, we had him on the show, fill it in for you yesterday.

And it was great because we got to thank him.

He's...

leaving the company tomorrow.

And so, I'm sure he's not listening now, so it doesn't matter.

But we talked about Great Sam's yesterday.

And I said Hot Sam.

And he had never heard of Hot Sam before.

Have you heard of that?

I have no idea what you're talking

Todd Allbaugh

about.

So I'm not sure if it's an existence anymore.

But back in the day, it was one of my favorite, maybe my favorite part of going to West Town Mall.

or many malls in the state of Wisconsin, because they had a hot Sam shop, and a hot Sam was a pretzel.

And it kind of the precursor to the

anti-Ams, which you see today.

Wikipedia, the article on hot Sam's, or hot Sam starts out, hot Sam pretzels was an American restaurant chain.

Yep, they closed in 2005.

I'm

Todd Allbaugh

telling you, the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

It's all because of hot Sam.

Todd Allbaugh

It's all because hot Sam's a lot of business.

It was great.

They had fresh hot pretzels, mustard, cheese sauce, the works.

And it was a great meal when he went to the mall.

And so I asked, then I explained this to Sam Davis yesterday.

I said, would you wear a hot Sam t-shirt if I got you one?

He said, absolutely.

So I've ordered it.

We'll figure that.

Oh, you found one.

I found one.

I ordered it on Amazon, of course, right after the show.

Beautiful.

Savvy is not going to arrive until Saturday.

We'll figure it out.

But I thought I'll I'll pack you.

I'll give him a little card tomorrow.

And so we will send him off with a hot Sam t-shirt.

That is that is excellent.

I'm not sure if I use I'm you can hear it in my voice.

My voice is starting to go.

And I got to fill in tomorrow morning for for quite low.

on the mornings of Pat Critello program.

It'll be tomorrow, the mornings of Pat Critello with Todd Albaugh.

Mornings with Pat Critello with Todd Albaugh with help, Pat Critello.

Todd Allbaugh

Right.

And so I'm happy to do it after he hosted us up there at Lake Resoda last week, but I gotta go to bed early and I gotta do five hours tomorrow.

I gotta drink some tea with honey or something like that.

My allergies are just bogging me down.

And then of course, yesterday, I found out I have a fatty liver.

So I'm falling apart.

What an excellent

day.

Todd Allbaugh

All right.

But you, you, uh, you were off yesterday and you had a little eye thing and you're fine.

Yeah.

I had my, my eye checkup after last year.

Uh, they had some concerns last year, but like I had a lot of floaters, which means

Todd Allbaugh

that

it is possible that my retina could become detached.

Yeah.

Um, that's not good, but I have not had more floaters since last year and my prescription has remained stable.

Basically no change in the right eye, slightly worse in the left eye.

And so I don't need new glasses and they said I can come back in two years instead of one.

Look

Todd Allbaugh

at that.

See, another reminder, particularly to us men who too often don't take care of ourselves, go and get your checkup, get yourself, because you can, you could address things when you know about it early.

I found out, apparently I have, I'm at stage zero.

of fatty liver disease.

And I found out last, it's reversible, or nearly reversible, with a good diet and exercise.

So it'll take some work, but you can fix it.

Yeah, so that's my new project, taking care of my liver.

But it's gonna be a great show today, coming up at hour two, what's worse today, too busy, or nothing to do.

To me this is an easy one, but we'll talk about that that our two and also our two be ready Think about I'm not sure about you somers.

I've had these kind of relationships where you get into a relationship It burns fast and bright and then it's over and then you're broken up and so there is a big breakup in Washington DC Elon Musk has announced He's leaving Donald Trump

Or at least stepping down as he calls it from heading doggy Doge the the made-up agency of department of government and Energy or whatever efficiency

efficiency.

Todd Allbaugh

Yeah, that's it I'm on a lot of sinus meds today folks.

It could be a very interesting show So anyway musk is leaving Trump and so I thought it'd be a good day

to talk about, have you got a good breakup story?

Did you meet someone?

It was hot and heavy, and then it was over.

And also, we'll take a look, according to Billboard Magazine, the top 100 breakup songs.

We're going to listen to the entirety of all 100.

No, we're

Todd Allbaugh

not.

But would that be something?

No, we're still going to talk about breakup songs and breaking up.

Breaking up is hard to do.

But not for Elon Musk, who is...

leaving saying this too much.

And I find it interesting, maybe the nail in Musk's coffin it is dabbling into US government was the fact that he lost a big rate.

He put 20 million to help Brad Shimmel win the Supreme Court race here in Wisconsin and got his posterior kicked by Susan Crawford.

Trump doesn't like losers.

Todd Allbaugh

Suckers and losers, as he says.

So anyway, that we're gonna talk about breakups and breakup songs in hour two as well.

Coming up though, in about five minutes or 10 minutes or less, Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor, Sarah Rodriguez, she is traveling around the state.

Gonna talk about some of her travels, what Wisconsinites are telling her all across the state of Wisconsin.

And also,

the joint finance committee expected to go into executive session here this week and some of the things she's hearing.

And also from the Evers Rodriguez point of view, what do they want to see in this budget?

And is there a way to reach a compromise so that we don't get in a position where there is no state budget because of Wisconsin, of course, unlike in Washington, DC, if the legislature and governor cannot decide on a budget, it's simply the government does not shut down.

it just continues on at the last budget levels.

So we'll talk to Governor, Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez about all of that coming up in just a minute as well.

Jeff Perry, our friend and ongoing contributor on Facebook, says, unfortunately, Todd, I have a fat head, which is not reversible.

Isn't that a company that does those pictures that you can put up on a wall?

Or which company?

Fathead.

I don't know that sounds familiar.

Todd Allbaugh

Yeah, I think like you can get like sports figures You can set in your own picture that it goes up on the wall David new Berlin texting in on the civic media apps is Todd.

I've got a 54th birthday I have 54 birthdays behind me too.

I've never heard of hot Sam's really Well, I don't know Dave.

Did you grow up in Wisconsin?

Did you go to the mall back in the 70s and 80s?

It was a big thing for us.

We come in from Richland Center and get to have a hot Sam Anyway, so we'll we'll talk about all that but also I want to point this out somers today marks the 177th birthday of the state of Wisconsin Happy birthday to us.

Whoo Exactly.

There you go.

Uh, but yeah, we turn 177 today

Of course, the first territorial capital of the state of Wisconsin, down in Belmont, Wisconsin, as my former professor at UW-Platteville, Jack O'Neill, was fond of saying, the crossroads of the nation.

And I looked this up today because I thought, is Belmont really the crossroads of the nation?

Apparently not now now I believe the crossroads technically meeting the exact halfway point between the west and east coast of the country is now I believe in Kansas a town in Kansas, but for a brief time in I've got it written down just hang on I gotta go over here my bag Sorry, it was a ought to reach because I wrote this down.

I thought I'm gonna be accurate

So it was for a brief time in 1836, for all of you history buffs out there, in 1836, Belmont, Wisconsin was indeed the crossroads of the nation.

Huh.

Well, there you go.

You'll learn

Todd Allbaugh

something

every day.

Todd Allbaugh

So Jack was right.

Not that I thought he was wrong, but he was right.

But one time Belmont, Wisconsin, the first territorial capital of Wisconsin was indeed the crossroads of the nation.

And so they were gonna have the state capital down there and then they were meeting in the dead of winter.

This is a true story.

Meeting the dead of winter and a guy who owned a bunch of swamp land in a place called Madison went down there.

He was a, all the swamp, he had a bunch of beavers and stuff.

He was a trapper.

And so he took all these furs in a horse and cart or wagon, went down to Belmont,

went in where the territorial state legislature was meeting.

And he said, gentlemen, all men at that point.

Gentlemen, I know you have an important vote coming up here the next couple of days on where the permanent capital of Wisconsin should be, this great state of ours.

And I would hope that you would consider Madison.

And by the way,

I happen to bring you all a gift of furs, the fur coats first, to keep you warm in this, again, there's just a little clapboard on the insulated house down, it's still there.

If you go to Belmont, Wisconsin, you can visit the first territorial state capital.

And so he said, I'm going to give you this gift of furs and leave you to your work.

Oh, and also as a side note, if you were to relocate the capital of Wisconsin from Belmont to Madison,

I would be so gracious that I would give you each a plot of land on which to build a home.

So bribery.

Yes.

Is why Madison's the capital.

Todd Allbaugh

A hundred percent.

And a couple of days later, they took a vote.

Let's move to Madison.

Unanimous,

Todd Allbaugh

I'm sure.

Unanimous, but that's a true story.

That is how Madison, Wisconsin, ended up being the capital.

Because they're where we know that where we sit right now It's there, you know, it's it's there's a little you go up State Street here and the capital sits I don't want to call it a hill, but it's it's elevated

elevated slightly Yeah,

Todd Allbaugh

and and that was that's all Phil they brought in all that dirt satani Phil He's brought in dirt and rocks everything and filled it in and built the capital on that

So there you go, as my former history teacher Ken Lewis is fond of saying, hitherto unknown

facts.

It all comes down as Jack O'Neill said.

It all comes down to the dollar sign.

Todd Allbaugh

Exactly right.

Maybe that's what we, so we're going through this thing, they want us to do merch, which is great.

But I'm trying to, and so what should we have on our teacher?

Maybe we should just have a dollar sign.

Maybe you need a contact.

And it says, it all comes down to that.

Maybe you need to pay royalties to your past teachers and professors.

Todd Allbaugh

I'm sure they would appreciate that.

I'm sure they would appreciate that.

But first, we got to sell something.

I think a dollar sign with it all comes down to that.

That's pretty good, Summer.

That could work.

I think that could absolutely work.

All right, welcome back here in a second and talk to Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor, Sara Rodriguez, who is on this state of Wisconsin birthday.

Find out what's on her mind, find out what she's hearing from people all across the state of Wisconsin, and also talk about the state budget.

There was a $4 billion plus state surplus.

How should your, our tax money be used?

Talk about all that next with Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez.

Stay with us.

It's the all ball show across Wisconsin.

Lake Gichigumi here on a Thursday, May 29th on the Civic Media.

Already know.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

Todd Allbaugh

started.

As I fight my allergies here, I apologize for the voice today, but we'll, we'll get through it.

Pleased to have our next guest here joining us via StreamYard.

Welcome her back to the show.

She is Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor, Sarah Rodriguez is here with us and Lieutenant Governor, first and foremost, happy 177th birthday to the state of Wisconsin.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us once again.

I was telling this story.

before the last segment there, before he came on.

And it's only because my former boss, Dale Schultz, represented Belmond for many, many years.

And now the late, great state legislator, Steve Freese, who represented that area as well.

He was a great historian and told, he told it much better than I did, but how Belmond was, of course, the first territorial capital.

And it was a fur trader and landowner in Madison, who went down and basically bribed the legislature in the middle of winter with furs and plots.

of land to move from Belmont to was to Madison.

And so, you know, Wisconsin kicked off, you know, our statehood with a bribe not too much different than what we're seeing today, right?

It was in Washington.

That's pretty funny.

Todd Allbaugh

Yeah, I I always enjoyed that story.

But on this birthday of Wisconsin, as our Lieutenant Governor, just personally speaking, what are some of your kind of you've been traveling around the state a lot?

What are some of your favorite parts?

about this state in which we live.

You know, it's funny.

love all the different parts of the state.

I particularly love the drift list region.

That is a gorgeous part of the state with all of the different rock formations.

It's fantastic.

But we have so many lakes here in Wisconsin too.

And my family, every summer, we pick a different place to go.

We rent a house, we rent a boat, and we do nothing for a week.

And it is amazing.

We get a thousand piece puzzle.

We make food at the house and we

just do absolutely nothing.

And Wisconsin I think is becoming more known for all of these outdoor activities that you can do, whether that's hiking, biking, fishing.

Boating all of these things that we can do.

We've got the Ice Age trail now that you could do the entire state if you wanted to go backpacking That is my favorite part about Wisconsin and that it's all four seasons that we can do something in the winter the fall the spring the summer As long as you have the right clothes on you are you are good to go to do anything you want outside

Todd Allbaugh

I couldn't agree more and you know, I know a lot of people that travel more than me

But I've been outside the country and traveled quite a bit inside the country.

And I tell people I love to travel.

But whether I'm driving back or flying back, I'm never sorry to be coming back to Wisconsin.

Just for all the reasons that you just said, I truly do feel it is one of the best places to live in the United States.

I do.

I mean, of course it is.

Todd Allbaugh

Right.

Of course.

What's our Lieutenant Governor going to

say, right?

Is the best place.

But I mean, honestly, you know, I grew up here.

I ran away a little bit for school.

But when I had my two kids, this is where I knew I wanted to raise them.

And so when they were little and small, we moved back to make sure that we could raise our kids in Wisconsin near family, really good school districts here, safe community kind of experience.

We wanted to raise them in the middle.

West.

And that is because Wisconsin is so fantastic.

It's so beautiful here.

The people are kind and generous.

And it's a great place to raise a family.

Todd Allbaugh

that really is.

We're going to come back after the break here, get more into the nitty gritty of the policy and things going on right now in the state of Wisconsin.

But we got about three and a half minutes here before we're going to break Lieutenant Governor.

And you've traveled around here lately around the state of Wisconsin.

Give us two or three of the top issues right now you're hearing from Wisconsinites that are on their mind.

Well, yeah, I've been I go to every all 72 counties every year.

I've done that every year I've been lieutenant governor and I'm well on my way this year to complete 72 counties and the last couple of weeks I've been really talking about the budget and talking to folks who are out there in the community in different parts of the state talking about our administration's budget and having that conversation as well about the federal budget and the federal cuts that may be coming and things that have already been cut that they've

had their grants frozen or they're unable to submit receipts to get reimbursement.

And what I'm hearing from folks is whether you're a not-for-profit who's trying to take care of vulnerable people, vulnerable kids, older adults, or you're a small business owner, this chaos at the federal level makes it so difficult to plan.

So people are just hunkering down, trying to figure out and read the tea leaves about what's happened on the federal level.

And what they're asking from me and from the administration is we need some stability in Wisconsin.

We need us to make sure

that we are investing in Wisconsinites because we cannot rely on the federal government to be able to plan for our business, for our organization, for our kids and our families.

And that's really hard for people to be able to figure out what they're going to be doing moving forward if they can't rely on what's happening at the federal government.

Todd Allbaugh

I'd be interested to get your take on this because what I hear is we travel with our show around the state.

very similar to what you just said, but people are telling me, Todd, I just get overwhelmed.

I can't listen to the news all day because it gets depressing.

But I think you just said it so well that while I get it, it does get depressing with this fire hose of bad news every day out in D.C.

What you just said, we as Wisconsinites are going to feel the effects of those

decisions.

We absolutely are.

You talk about some of these federal cuts.

We are already feeling the effects of some of these federal cuts.

My dad, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in his 60s.

We use the Aging Disability and Resource Center to be able to find him resources.

A lot of that funding comes from Medicaid.

So Medicaid helps people with disabilities, helps aging adults, and those services that they provide are funded through Medicaid in some way.

So if we're talking about cuts to Medicaid, that's going to affect so many different services across the state.

Todd Allbaugh

Yeah, it absolutely is.

My dad was diagnosed with dementia about a year ago, so we're looking at the same types of things and nursing homes, obviously, as well.

We're going to talk more about the effects of federal cuts to Wisconsinites and also what's happening at the state capitol in regards to the state budget.

Don't go anywhere.

It's Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez on the All Balls show right here across Wisconsin on the civic media.

Already pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it Welcome back to the town of all show across Wisconsin on the civic media network Glad to have you along with us 35 minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday, May 29th the Zombers on the board

Glad to have him back.

And also right now, joining us for this next segment, once again, Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor, Sara Rodriguez joins us via StreamYard.

On this, the state of Wisconsin's 177th birthday, Sean in Richland Center, listening on WRCE says, I believe it was James Doty who bribed people to vote for Madison.

Also think Madison beat out Cassville by one vote for being the state capital.

Thank you, Sean.

I think you're right about that was James Doty who did that.

But I did not know that Casville lost by one vote.

As they say in the movie, just to bed outside.

How about that, Lieutenant Governor?

Had it not been for a bribe, you'd be, you know, meeting down in Belmont.

You and I are one of our favorite places, Southwest Wisconsin.

There you go.

Absolutely.

Again, you've been traveling around the state.

And before the break there, just talking about that you were hearing from people the anxiety of what's happening in Washington and how this lands back here at home in Wisconsin.

And for some people, that's for the Medicaid cuts, Medicare, explain just again how this works because I know we've had, and I guess not just that, but another issue that I think is really important you can talk about if you'd like.

We had people on this show here a couple weeks ago from Barron County that ran a childcare center there.

And they were down here lobbying the legislature for money because as it turns out, childcare in this state was already kind of in danger in terms of not being able to make it financially.

Then the pandemic comes along.

We get federal funding through for the pandemic, COVID money from the feds.

That is running out.

And what we're hearing, and I'd be interested to hear what you've heard, Lieutenant Governor, is that a lot of places, particularly in rural Wisconsin, say, look, we can't charge what childcare centers in Madison and Milwaukee do because our clients don't have that kind of income.

And without some sort of state help, we're going to go out of business.

Yeah, I'm hearing that as well and the governor had included has included We've included in our budget child care counts which are dollars that can go towards these child care agencies that would be helpful and to be able to subsidize some of kind of middle income folks so When I speak to some of the child care agencies, you know the lower income folks who qualify for a hundred percent subsidies, they're probably gonna still be okay The wealthier people they could probably take a little

bit of an increase in their childcare costs.

It's people like me, right?

I'm a nurse.

You know, I'm not a super well, wasn't a super wealthy person and not a super wealthy person now.

those are the kind of people who are going to suffer because they're not getting any subsidies from the state for their childcare.

And to be able to absorb that into a family budget, it is so expensive.

Oh my gosh.

So expensive to be able to put your kids in childcare.

And that is what I'm hearing from people and that the spots just aren't available.

And so some people have wanted to go back to work, but couldn't find a spot for their child.

And so ended up staying at home until their child.

with six months, nine months a year until they could get a childcare slot.

It is a crisis in Wisconsin.

Governor Evers and I, we have some really good pieces of in the budget to be able to address this.

We are working with the Republican Joy Finance Committee and

they have to know it's a crisis as well within their communities.

So wanting to make sure that we keep that in the budget moving forward.

Todd Allbaugh

Before we get into the budget specifically, another program that I want to just highlight and get your take on as you've traveled around the state, Lieutenant Governor, is this issue of what's commonly known as food stamps.

Now they're called SNAP benefits here in the state of Wisconsin.

What are you hearing about this and these implications of what's happening in Washington, D.C.

and how that transcends down to Wisconsin?

Well, and I will tell you that we had to put our budget together here in Wisconsin before we knew what type of cuts that the Republicans in Washington were going to be proposing.

And so now we're having to play a little bit of catch up, just like businesses can't prepare and plan.

You know, state governments can't prepare and plan if we have this level of chaos going on at the federal government.

If the bill goes through as written,

through the house right now.

That's an extra $350 million that is going to be hitting

our taxpayers here in Wisconsin that we would have been able to get from the federal government that we didn't have time to prepare for.

So that is something that we're going to have to figure out.

Either we have to put in an additional $350 million into SNAP benefits, which is food, by the way.

It is food for people.

We don't want kids to go hungry.

We don't want older adults to go hungry in Wisconsin.

I know my neighbors don't want that, Republicans, Democrats.

Um.

And we did not have a chance.

We have to restrict benefits.

Those are the two choices that we have.

Either we have to be able to put those dollars in or we have to restrict benefits.

And we certainly don't want to do either of those things.

We want the federal government to continue to do what they've said they were gonna do and match it at the same percentage.

Todd Allbaugh

Yeah, and just one more quick note on this because my former party now, they like to spend a lot of time on, oh geez, maybe we should decide

What people are on snap are gonna eat like we don't want to get candy bars or so I just I mean

I really sure there's always going to be a case or two or three and then those are just blown up as well.

Everybody's doing it, right?

I mean, I remember when I was working for the state Senate and you know, I don't care anymore because I've long left politics, but in a closed Senate Republican caucus, then state Senator Glenn growthman, now United States Congressman Glenn growthman spent 10 minutes talking about how he didn't think that people on snap should be able to buy.

Skittles.

Skittles.

This is, I mean, it got down.

Well, you know, if they want to do what they should do, but not on taxpayer, but this is just a fallacy.

Is it not, Lieutenant Governor?

It is.

It

is.

And that's the thing that bothers me.

I'm a nurse by background and often work with vulnerable communities.

What do the numbers say?

What does the data say?

The vast majority of food that is purchased is regular, healthy food.

I mean, that's what they're purchasing.

They're not purchasing Skittles.

They could rarely do that.

But here's what you're telling people.

You can't get a birthday cake for your child.

You can't throw a party and maybe get some cupcakes for the school.

Like, are you kidding me?

That's the level of micromanagement that we're going to do to families who are just trying to get by and survive.

I mean, come on.

It's just absolutely silly.

Todd Allbaugh

It really is.

Let's move on to the budget at large here.

Of course, Wisconsin has a biennial budget, meaning every two years.

And unlike Washington, DC, if

The legislature and the governor can't come to an agreement.

We continue on on current levels for another two years.

People hope that it doesn't come to that.

Help us sort this out, Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez.

You know, you hear all kinds of different things.

The Republican legislature, Speaker Voss and majority leader Lemahue.

Well, you know, the governor doesn't want to negotiate or sit down.

The governor says he's waiting for Republicans to talk to him.

Help real Wisconsin.

I mean, I think most people not.

Political nerds like me just say look you guys are elected to work this out.

We have a four billion dollar surplus What gives give us the inside scoop lieutenant governor?

Well, you know, it is frustrating and they have been talking to each other.

They've absolutely been talking to each other.

So this narrative that the governor is not willing to come and discuss anything, it's simply not true.

They've been having conversations and, you know, they want to make sure that they're having some of these lower level conversations before they bring in some of the decision makers on what they're going to do for some compromises on the budget.

But the reality is, is that the Joint Finance Committee

basically stripped down.

the governor's budget to what they call base budget.

And then they're kind of adding pieces in here and there.

But they have control in that joint finance committee that Republicans do.

But at the end of the day, they know that there are really important priorities for the governor, whether that's education.

We know he's the education governor, whether that's health care, trying to bring in some additional revenue into the state, making sure we can have appropriate funds for child care.

And I am hopeful that they are going to continue to have conversations in good faith that they are going to produce a budget that the governor can sign.

Because at the end of the day, he does have that line item veto power.

He can do some of those pieces, but he also has the power to veto the entire budget.

if he chooses to.

So these are the kind of things that we want to make sure doesn't happen.

We want to have a budget on July 1st when it is required to be completed.

July, I said July 1st, right?

Todd Allbaugh

July 1st.

When it's required to be completed, that's what

We want.

I imagine that's what the Republicans want as well.

So let's just get to work.

I think you're right.

When I talk to people all over the state, they're just like, we don't care.

We just want you to work for the betterment of Wisconsinites.

That's what we want, to retire to the partisanship.

Todd Allbaugh

Is there anything to this that Republicans now are considering instead of doing?

what we call an omnibus budget bill that's political talk for putting everything in the same pot and passing it like we usually do, kind of breaking this out into individual bills to try to usurp the governs veto pen or do you think that's just hyperbole and hype?

I, you know, there's all sorts of rumors out there about what they're going to do.

But they have to be able to be responsive to their voters in 2026 about why they didn't want to invest in childcare, why they didn't want to invest in health care, why they wanted to leave people hungry in schools.

You know, so I would, I would very much hope that they are going to be working in good faith and that we can come to a compromise for July 1st.

Todd Allbaugh

One of those things in the.

budget, of course, is our state university system.

There's a story of Channel 3000 this morning, a CBS affiliate here in Madison.

UW-Madison campus leaders said today that they were ready to support students after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the government would begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students.

And then later on it says, quote, we are deeply concerned about the impact of such a policy on our Chinese student community, unquote, according to a UW statement.

Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez, break this down for us a little bit because our university system, whether people like to know it or admit it or not, there is a business side to this.

And foreign students pay more than Wisconsin in resident students.

And if this were to go through, not only do I think it would degrade the university experience by not having another view in your colleagues or your classmates, but there's a real financial burden for the state of Wisconsin that this goes through as

well.

I mean, that's the thing.

So if you think about it in state out of state tuition, right, you know, I mean, we all know about that, that if you go to a different state, you're going to pay out of state tuition.

And we know that that's more expensive.

So when we have students from overseas who come into the UW system, which is a significant portion of our student body, I mean, I'm worried about those Chinese students as well and the community there and all international students.

But the reality is, is the vast majority of them pay full fare.

Correct.

They pay.

you know, 100% of the tuition.

And so what happens is if we lose those students, if we lose those international students, guess what?

Wisconsinites in state tuition is going to go up.

because they're going to have to be able to still continue to provide the services that they have within the UW system with less money.

So that is going to impact Wisconsin students as well.

So even though you may think, I always say this, you may think these decisions that are happening in Washington DC has nothing to do with what's happening in Madison or what's happening in Verroqua, Wisconsin.

It is.

It is.

There's all sorts of effects from these cuts and from these political decisions that are being made with no thought to what all the consequences might be on the ground.

Todd Allbaugh

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, always appreciate your time.

You are part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Come back soon and we will talk more.

We thank you very much for being here today.

Thank you so much.

Todd Allbaugh

All right, bye-bye.

Our pleasure.

Lieutenant Governor Sarah

Kathryn Lake

Rodriguez, when we come back, the 14 best places to live in Wisconsin, stay with us.

Todd Allbaugh

or a three o'clock coming up in hour two.

Another thrilling addition of what's worse.

Well, we hope it's thrilling.

Are you too busy or nothing to do?

What's worse?

We'll talk about that in hour two.

Also, be thinking.

Put your thinking caps on.

We want you to call or text in with your worst breakups.

Have you had a relationship where you went out with someone, it was fast, it was hot, and then it was over, like a comet?

They just need to break up.

And what do you have a favorite breakup song?

Because Elon Musk and Donald Trump are breaking up.

Elon Musk announced what they'll do.

They're still going to be friends.

It's not you.

It's me.

Neither of them would say that.

No, absolutely not.

Well, we played it yesterday.

This cut.

It's an interview coming up on CBS's Sunday morning.

They're interviewing Elon Musk.

The interview was going to play on Sunday.

And Musk said that basically called out Trump, because Trump calls it the reconciliation bill as quote unquote big beautiful bill, which is nice marketing, I guess.

But Elon Musk says, well, you can either have a big bill or a beautiful bill, but I don't think you could have both.

He's

not wrong.

Todd Allbaugh

He's not wrong about that.

So, you know, now Musk announces last night or this morning that he's leaving Doge, his made up.

Department of government efficiency doggy.

I like to call it leaving that tomorrow his last day Just like Sam Davidson is his last day tomorrow We're not gonna send Musk a hot Sam t-shirt But for Sam though anything anything for Sam So anyway, we're now we're to talk about breakup songs.

What's your best breakup song?

Article in the Milwaukee Journal said by the way, thank you to lieutenant governor You knew that was gonna happen I apologize these darn sinuses Many thanks to lieutenant governor Sarah Rodriguez for making time for us.

I mean they're Zabers.

That's somebody that She's a real person if you can have a real conversation.

She doesn't give you a spinner talking points She just tells you what she knows and what she's hearing

I appreciate about her.

And it's clear that she is talking to Wisconsinites.

Yes.

And more importantly, listening

Todd Allbaugh

to Wisconsinites.

Listening, exactly.

Listening to Wisconsinites.

So there's a story in the Milwaukee Journal set till today.

This is from USA Today Today, which I love saying.

According to US News, yes, US News and World Report, they have listed the 14 best places to live in Wisconsin.

Now what why is it 14?

Why not 15?

Just round it off like that.

I'm guessing that That there could be a few reasons number one AI generated a list.

I hope it's not that I hope that's one reason number two the 15th was a place that the person has a personal VIN data against

Todd Allbaugh

Well, I don't think this is a I mean, it's a well-written article I just thought it was interesting that chose 14.

Yeah, or maybe

now we're talking about

Todd Allbaugh

it now.

We're not we're talking about it exactly

Maybe that's it.

It's like well everybody does 15.

So let's do four make it a little quirky Uh, let's see if we get through these according to us news of world report today Number 14 Milwaukee all the way down at 14.

Oh Milwaukee and would disagree.

I'm sure number 13 Racine a lot of people say we're seen but if you're from there Racine number 12 fondu lack number 11

According to US News or World Report, the city in which Xamarin's liar in the state capital, Madison, Wisconsin.

Number 10, La Crosse.

Number nine, Kenosha.

Number eight, Janesville.

Number seven, a stone's throw from Xamarin's hometown, Sheboygan.

Sheboygan, the number seven best place to live at Wisconsin, according to US News and World Report.

Number six,

Home of your Green Bay Packers and WGPW in civic media Green Bay, Wisconsin Number five Our own Chad Holmes bus of stuff the ballot box was on was on WXCO coming at five on number four Oshkosh Bagash home of the ISS on civic media Now we're into the top three places best places to live in Wisconsin according to US News and World Report number three

Home of W. A. U. K. Waukesha Milwaukee Waukesha Waukesha at number three number two Some of our great callers Appleton, Wisconsin home of Harry Houdini Appleton, Wisconsin and The number one place to live in the state of Wisconsin according to US News and World Report Can you guess numbers?

What what places I have I not named yet?

Uh, Yuba.

Todd Allbaugh

That is a great guess.

It is a place you haven't listed.

It is a place Yuba, Wisconsin, in Richland County.

Great place.

Lots of chuckless of occupants there.

But no, that is not incorrect.

And it's not Richland Center either.

Number one place to live in the state of Wisconsin is home of WCFW The Tap.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

That's cool.

Todd Allbaugh

How about that?

How about that?

That makes sense, especially, you know, the arts are really continuing to build steam there.

Todd Allbaugh

Yeah.

My sister lives there, brother-in-law, nieces, was just up there last weekend.

I think they've got the Pablo Center, the Conflict, a great performing arts building.

They've got a lot of cool shops.

They're downtown.

It's pretty vibrant.

Home of UW Eau Claire.

Which is a great school great school the the the alma mater of our very own Pat Crite low and trig v. Olson And it's just it's a it's a cool city.

They have lots of things to do there good quality of life Shopping all that kind of stuff.

So congratulations to Eau Claire, Wisconsin for being named the number one place to live in the state of Wisconsin by us news and world report Congrats.

I think that's pretty cool

get some recognition there.

So there you go.

That's the entire list.

According to US News World Report, we're going to do a little news weather and sports.

Come on back in hour number two, once worse, and breaking up is hard to do.

But Trump and Musk have done it.

It's the all-ball show in civic media.

Kathryn Lake

The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.

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