What Makes Racine Great – Kringle and Tip McGuire (Hour 1)

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pursuing truth wherever it may lead.

Here's your host,

Todd

Albault.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Albault along with Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

Welcome in.

It is the 15th day of July, 2025, a Tuesday.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

We are on location

Not at the World Headquarters of Madsen, but at Radio City Rockette Park in beautiful Racine, Wisconsin, the home of WAUK Milwaukee from Racine and Zomers already.

And Zomers is with me.

I'm very excited about this.

Usually when we go on the road, he has to stay back at the World Headquarters, but he was allowed to come on the road with me.

And already Zomers, the board here not functioning like back at home.

Yeah.

I want to do over on that

one look on his face if we had been recording he would have just had a right cut We're gonna do this again, but this is the beautiful thing about live radio.

There ain't no going back.

It's fine.

It's fine I feel like I'm visiting you in a prison cell by the way because the window it just it's like a slit in a

Very much feels like visiting a prison cell, but we'd be a little closer and talking on handset like you

know But it's it's funny just to see like your face and your head to the window

But it's fantastic.

I see a little more of Todd because he's farther away from the window.

Because if you're watching on the stream.

Down here in Racine, there's a camera that follows you around to watch watch this like over here and follow look it follows me over here There is a window for the lot those watching the stream fantastic a big show today here in Racine It's the our first leg of our what makes Wisconsin great tour here in July our friends Jane Matt Nair and Greg Bach are going to be joining us from the Matt Nair on air program You can hear it every morning from 9 until 11

Always a great show.

They are going to be hopping on the van with me after this show and we're heading up to Oshkosh by gosh.

We're going to be there in Oshkosh at the EAA museum because next week the big EAA show takes over town.

People come in from all over the world.

It becomes the busiest airport in the world.

next week in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

So we're going to preview that tomorrow in Oshkosh, and then we're heading back up and getting in the van.

And from there, we're going up to Butternut, Wisconsin, talking local artisans from beautiful Butternut.

And then from there, it's over to Hayward on Friday.

We're going to be outside at the lot.

the lot, not big lots, but the lot of unspecified size.

Yes.

It's a beautiful place.

There's a pavilion there.

It's right across outside from our Studio Muskie 101, the Muskie up there in Hayward.

We're going to be outside.

Stop by.

Join Jane and Greg from 9 until 11.

And then join us outside from two until four on Friday afternoon.

Beautiful.

Hey, word.

The World Lumberjack Championships happening.

A powwow is going on from our Native American community and lots more to talk about.

Might go musky fishing.

Who knows?

It's going to be a big show all week long.

So she'll keep it here, both to Jane and Greg show, Matt and Aaron air in the morning and our show in the afternoon.

Going to be a great, great week and many thanks to all of our great staff.

here at WRJN, W-A-U-K Studios.

Is there another?

No, it's just those two stations here.

Chris Morrow, our sales director, also the GM down here.

Many thanks to him for letting us plant our story behinds in his station here for a couple of hours.

We appreciate that.

Thanks to Luke Mathers, our very own Luke Mathers.

Here's the deal on the vehicle.

I no longer have a company card.

So God love Luke, he came down into Wauwatosa.

Our bus van is from Wauwatosa, and he came down this morning and brought the company card with him, but as George Costanza once said on Seinfeld, didn't take, so poor Luke had to put this thing on his personal card.

Thank goodness there was room on his because there was room on mine.

Yes.

And we appreciate Luke making the trip and then he was here today.

So like the gang's all in receding, it was fantastic.

So I appreciate everything Luke's done to get this trip going.

Many thanks to Todd Michaels in Oshkosh for his work leading up to that.

And many thanks to Darla, our great station manager up in Park Falls and Hayward for all of her work up there.

There's a lot of other people behind the scenes making all this happen.

And then we couldn't do these things without them, and certainly not without you, Zomers.

So thanks to everybody for making this great week of what makes Wisconsin great happen.

We appreciate

it.

Absolutely.

Thanks to all those people.

For me, whatever.

But no, everybody else is doing all the great work of scouting out locations, getting people to come on the show, all that great stuff.

Yes, we appreciate it very much.

Yeah, absolutely.

Other things, they're different.

in Racine versus the World Headquarters of Madison in the men's room.

Did you see this in the men's room?

There's a sign in the mirror that says, no grooming.

No grooming over the sink.

I did not see that.

I'm like, what are people grooming in there?

I don't want to know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

But I will not.

I groomed this morning.

I groomed the beard this morning before I left Madison.

So I'm freshly groomed.

So be no grooming.

Big show today.

Coming up at the bottom of the hour, I'm very, very excited about this.

State Representative Tip McGuire, Democrat of right here in Racine, represents the 64th district.

He's a member of the powerful Joint Finance Committee.

Will be along, he's gonna be joining, because he, we're in his district, but we picked a bad day because he's outside the district, but he's kind enough to call in via phone.

So Representative McGuire will be on the show talking about the budget.

talking about what's next in the state legislature, and talking about Racine, his hometown, and how cool is that he grew up here, and now he gets to represent it in the state legislature.

And Tip and I go back a ways, my last stint in the Capitol, 2010 to 2014, and Tip was working for former state rep Peter Barker.

and we used to go for walks around the Capitol and chat in a bipartisan way.

So anyway, now that he's a representative, he's gonna be on the show and we're looking forward to that.

And we're also in hour two, a little What's Worst For You, Zombers, and CP, our writer and co-executive producer of this program, has done a great job on the What's Worsts this week because they are location-specific.

Yes, they're very topical.

I love it.

And we're here and one of our great sponsors, by the way, here in Racine on Civic Media is O&H Kringle.

And here now, if you're watching on the stream, I went this, when I got into town, look at that.

There it is.

Look at that beautiful packaging, O&H Kringle.

And I got ourselves a raspberry Kringle already.

Luke stir has been in well-deserved.

He got a piece Zomers has a piece over there and oh and H great sponsors of civic media We appreciate their sponsorship their partnership and here in my hot little hands a piece of oh and H Kringle How is it Zomers?

It's it's excellent as as you will know I'm about to take a bite.

I just did before he did

mm-hmm The raspberry filling it's a perfect a proportion

It's just it's beautiful as tender.

It's sweet as Andy Griffith once said about another project

Good crinkle it also something I like about it kind of the middle is kind of a pocket Yes, I've had crinkle before where

the

filling is kind of another you know solid layer and it's very thin not so with these

no crinkle is a

Kringle rules and Racine many things to own H for being a sponsor and our two we're gonna ask you the question There's really only one right answer But well acceptable What's worse coffee cake or Kringle?

That's an in our two and our very own Greg Bach co-host of matinee on air every morning from 9 until 11 Greg's gonna be here in studio and we're gonna talk about we go the last segment

about getting on the road.

Jane, I thought we'd bring Jane on as well, but Jane, she has people and her people are getting her ready.

Before we had a no, not really.

I'm just making it.

She's going to leave her car at her place.

We're going to pick her up on the way out of town.

Seems like a good move.

Yeah, absolutely.

My, my truck is sitting in a lot in Wabatosa.

We'll be there when I get back.

We'll find out.

I hope so.

We'll find out.

Oh, also from from O and H. Look at this.

I got this for Jane and Greg and I.

It was a lemon loaf, a lemon pound cake loaf.

It looks amazing.

I'm a sucker for lemon.

Me

too.

So I got that there and so it's gonna be a great trip, gonna be a great few days here and really looking forward to that.

So a big show today and hope you stay with us.

We'll take your phone calls as well.

Can we take phone calls here?

To my knowledge.

Okay, eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two.

4842 I thought I want to start here.

I want because speaking of going around the state and and doing things like that We ran into all we can did domers.

Give me the phone the thumbs up.

We can take calls.

That's fantastic on Friday of last week We were at the northern Wisconsin State Fair with our friend and colleague Pat Crite low of mornings with Pat Crite low from six until nine Every day Monday through Friday here at civic media

And my sister and I, who is our on-site producer, we do these things, we ran into Republican gubernatorial candidate Josh Shulman in one of the barns.

And we said, we struck up a conversation, and I said, well, hey, I'm doing my show here over in Building Seed.

We don't have a large segment available, but I got about a seven-minute segment if you want to stop over.

He said, great, because the Republican Party booth is right across the aisle.

I was going there anyway.

and he couldn't have been nicer.

And Pat and I had him on the program and we asked him, some generally, we didn't have a lot of time to get into specifics, but you know what?

He answered the questions that we asked and he said he'd come back on for a longer segment.

Now, he happens to be a Republican, like most Republicans these days, who is all, seems to be in on Donald Trump, had nothing but good words to say about him, which to me, in my mind, makes it somewhat, I would not

want to vote for, but he was willing to have a discussion.

And I think that's really important.

So last night, I'm getting ready for the show, going through some of my, you know, social media stuff that I go through to develop the show.

And I came across on Twitter X, Twix, Devon Remaker, Devon Remaker.

Now, here's a guy who just got himself elected to the chairmanship.

of the state of Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Never met him.

I hear we're trying to get him on the show.

We'd love to have him.

His predecessor, Ben Wickler, on this show many times, always, again, I would say I agree with Ben Wickler most of the time, but regardless, he was always willing to have a conversation and we appreciate that.

Devon Rebaker, we want him on the show.

He has an open invitation to come on.

But he retweeted something from Josh Shulman, the Republican gubernatorial candidate.

A post he made about the Wisconsin State Fair.

Let's try to get this in as armor as we have time.

So here's what Josh Shulman posted at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Hey everybody, we're here at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in Chippewa Falls and we just had an electric time.

There are hundreds of people that came through and they're so excited for a grassroots campaign with a candidate who's willing to press the flash, burn the shoe leather and actually do the work it's going to take to take back Wisconsin.

We had a wonderful time here and still from people in this neck of the woods, and we'll see you soon in Spooner and then in Monticello and in your neighborhood soon.

Hi, that's all Eddie standing in front of a nice sign that said Wisconsin State Fair is red, uh, three-quarter zip and jeans.

I think it's great.

I did nothing wrong with that.

Regardless of whether or not I'm going to vote for the guy, it's just a very standard campaign thing.

Well, Devin Remacher the new Democratic Party chair of Wisconsin retweets that along with a picture and Zomers and I are not exactly sure who this guy is But Josh showman happens to have I guess you might say one of his pronounced features is he has really great teeth and and I don't want to say a big mouth, but I mean His teeth are very nice and you notice them.

I like I'm not gonna date Josh.

He's married man, but I mean, you know, I think he's a fine-looking guy nothing wrong with that but

Devon Remaker Retweets what we just played from Shulman along with this other person It looks kind of like the comedian Nathan fielder.

I'm not 100% sure if it is it might be Nathan fielder the comedian and seems to be making fun of Josh Shulman's physical appearance

And then he wrote something on it.

We're gonna come back.

I'm gonna tell you what Devon Remaker wrote and why I think the guy is off to a poor start as chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Don't attack Trump and then try to use Trumpism to get votes.

That's what I say.

We'll tell you what he said after this.

All balls show on the Cinec Media Ready Network.

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started.

having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Town of All Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Today on location, our beautiful studio is in Racine, Wisconsin, Radio City Rocket Park.

No, it's just Radio Park, I think.

I get confused.

It is

Radio Park.

That's correct.

All right, Radio Park, very good.

Here at beautiful Racine, Wisconsin, coming up after the bottom of the hour, you'll be joined by...

hometown favorite son state representative tipp maguire democrat here ever seen in the 64th district member of the joint finance committee looking forward to catching up with representative maguire after the bottom of the hour right now before the break here we played you a cut of josh schoeman who is the i should have said county executive by the way he's a current elected official county executive of washington county here in southeast wisconsin

Announced he's gonna run for governor as a Republican.

We ran into him up in the Northern Wisconsin State Fair last week along with Pat Crightlow, our colleague.

Pat and I had about seven minutes with him.

Look, you don't have a lot of time to get into any deep stuff, but I asked him about the state budget.

We asked him whether or not he needed Trump's endorsement or not.

Asked him about working across the aisle.

He answered all those questions.

And again, because of his support for Donald Trump,

Not gonna be someone that I would vote for but I really came he came across as someone who Was not when you meet him on the street, you know, like oh, that's a slimy politician I because the Republican Party booth was right across the aisle from the Civic Media booth I watched him with the crowd for over two hours.

I watched him one of the barns He listens to people unlike Scott Walker who I also saw campaign

It's not a forced thing.

It's not like oh, he's pretending to be a power.

He's pretending to be interested He comes across as a very genuine guy and smooth and I don't mean that derogatory I mean, he's very polished and I can see why he would connect I can see why he got elected accounting executive of Washington County So he put this on at the North Wisconsin State Fair he put on his ex-account of a 27 second video

Just saying, hey, we're here at the northern Wisconsin fair.

We're meeting people.

They're ready for new leadership.

We'll let you know.

I can't wait to see you.

Here's where we're going to be next.

Very, very good video.

So Devin Remacher, the new Wisconsin Democratic Party chair, repost that on Twitter, along with a guy.

Who do you think he looks like?

The comedian?

Nathan Fielder.

We think it might be Nathan Fielder.

We're not 100 percent

sure.

Just the angle is a little weird.

Hard to match with other pictures of him.

It appears that.

Remaker is trying to poke fun at Josh showman's natural facial features which Look, I'll make fun of Guilfoyle or or these Trump women that get the the Botox the lips and the hair extension because they're intentionally changing their looks to please Donald Trump and and also their positions of power and I think that's funny

thing up is different.

Yeah, exactly.

You're punching up This is a seemingly I don't want to read to but

Seemingly making fun of someone's natural or poking fun at someone's natural features, which I don't think is cool Then Remaker puts above that he says quote out of the out on the campaign trail Talking to my hundreds of excited grassroots supporters.

They're all just out of frame cheering for me too on quote

Because in the video that Shulman posted he's standing there alone because he has the northern Wisconsin State Fair behind him

It turns out people don't hang out by the sign for

the northern

Wisconsin State Fair They hang out inside the northern Wisconsin State Fair

and so Remaker seems to be like trying to insinuate that that Shulman didn't meet a bunch of people there weren't hundreds of people I look Because our booths were across from each other.

I will tell you that Josh Shulman or Josh Shulman

did in fact meet hundreds of people because I saw it.

And he was actually really good at it.

So, you know, Devin Remacher is what, 32, 33 years old?

And he's very young.

And he was Ben Wickler, the very successful longtime Democratic chairman of Wisconsin.

Remacher was his deputy.

And.

Look, I thought the Democrats should have put Joseph Pecky, a more seasoned guy, a guy in his late 30s or 40, early 40s, a professional marketer.

Pecky was on this program.

I thought the Democrats would have been better served, but I'm not a Democrat.

Democrats said, no, Todd, you're all washed up, and they decided to put Devon Remaker there.

What, the reason, and I hope Remaker comes on the show.

We've invited him I would love to have him as we said Ben Wickler was on this show several times always enjoyed him But I think this kind of too cute by half Seemingly making fun of Josh showman's physical appearance and then insinuating that showman was lying about meeting hundreds of people the northern Wisconsin State Fair It seems very Trump-esque to me and if Democrats think that the way you win elections is by mimicking Donald Trump

They're off on that.

They're just off.

Because Republicans rally around Trump, it's all about Trump and mimicking Trump on the right.

People aren't going to vote for Democrats, in my opinion, by mimicking Trumpism and being mean about things and punching down.

What I think Remaker should have done is said,

Look, does does Josh Shulman support federal ice troops coming in and disappearing people in our farm fields and dairy farms?

That would have been a fair punch on policy.

But to just go after a guy for his natural looks and then to insinuate that he's lying, because I'll tell you what, we are at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair for two days, quite what I work.

You know who I didn't see there?

Governor Tony Evers.

You know who I didn't see there?

Any Democratic elected official.

I'm not saying maybe the other one or two days the fair went on might not have been there.

But the Republican booth was hopping.

It was well laid out.

Lots of people behind there.

It was hopping.

The Democratic booth was off in a corner with one little sign that did not look good, by the way.

And one person sitting there.

I just think that Denver Remaker and the Democrats could do better.

Maybe having more people like Representative Tip Acquire, who I think is doing a great job down here at Racine, he will join us next via phone.

Don't go anywhere.

It's the title of our show live on location from beautiful Racine, Wisconsin, the home of WRJN across the civic media.

Ready Network.

We are live on location of our first day, our first sight of our What Makes Wisconsin great tour.

Kicking it off here at the studio is WRJN.

This is where to be a UK broadcast out of the beautiful Racine, Wisconsin, home of O and H Kringle.

Great sponsor.

Great Kringle.

Coming up an hour to gonna do a little bit of what's worse featuring cringles were the things and by the way, Dave in New Berlin one of our great listeners says Racine is my hometown Todd I used to visit the studio when I was a teenager.

I cut a few sound checks He says not very good ones, but I bet they are he said likely in the very studio that you're in back.

He says back in 1926.

I think he kids

No,

he was

saying that to me because I said that

We were talking about, you know, the old studio and we

said

in loving terms, like historic, and that it's one of the first stations in the U.S.

that went on air.

So Dave was saying he believes it went on air in 1926.

Oh, I see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I, I, I love, because my first job in radio to be RCO in Richland Center was in the original studio that opened up in 1949.

And so to have a chance to broadcast in a historical studio like RJN here in Racine, another original building built for radio is an honor and a privilege.

And we're so happy that we are here.

I'm happy that you're along with us at

36 minutes past the hour of two o'clock and so happy to have our next guest here as well.

According to his ex files, no, his ex account, says proudly serving the greater Kenosha Racine Summers, Mount Pleasant Elmwood Park region.

He is a state representative from the 64th district, including the city of Racine, a member of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, and he joins us via phone, state representative Tip McGuire.

Tip, how the heck are you?

I'm doing well Todd.

How are you?

I could not be better.

I'm sorry we picked today when you were not in the district We came down here didn't give you a heads up, but I appreciate you calling in and joining us because you know back in the day during my former boss Dale Schultz's last stint in the capital 2010 to 14 you were then working for former state rep Peter Barker and in a bipartisan fashion you and I over lunch would go out and take a walk around the building as they say the capital or a couple of

walks away and we would say, well, geez, how could our bosses work together?

And lo and behold, back in those days, both Dale and Peter did find ways to work together and got along.

I really, I always appreciated those talks and walks and it's great now to have you on as a state legislator yourself.

Well, I appreciated those talks and walks as well.

And those are two guys that we can both be proud to have worked for.

Oh, absolutely.

I really believe that.

I wish we had more of that going on in the capital.

And you're in your second term now?

I'm in my

fourth

term.

Are you really?

Oh, my God.

I see that.

I'm getting old, Tip.

It goes so fast.

Well, just watching you and the way that you've carried yourself, the way that you...

I have worked with the public.

It reminds me a lot of the best of our two former bosses because you're someone who truly cares.

You're getting to represent your hometown area.

And I think first and foremost, when you have a passion to represent where you're from, I think that makes a difference.

Agree or disagree?

I 100% agree.

The number one reason that you run for office is because you care about your hometown and you want it to succeed.

And so I'm very proud.

It's the honor of lifetime to represent Kenosha.

So tell us for those that don't know I mean, you know I grew up in Richland Center Southwest, Wisconsin lived almost half my life now and in Madison I don't get down to this part of the state as often as I should or I would like We're a statewide show tell folks a little bit if you were just kind of given the elevator pitch or or telling people about your hometown area the district you now represent in the assembly What should people know?

I mean, I think you got to start at Lake Michigan

We have one of the wonders of the world right here in our backyard.

We've got Lake Michigan.

We're right on the lake.

And so we're sort of between Milwaukee and Chicago, but we have excellent food, a little influence from both.

Excellent food, some wonderful museums, a downtown trolley that you can ride around, especially in the summer.

I wouldn't recommend it as much when it's cooled out.

But you can.

And it's just a beautiful community that, you know, honestly, it is a city.

It's a hundred thousand plus people.

But in reality, it still has that small town feel where people know each other and the communities very comfortable with each other.

Yeah, it's just a beautiful part of the state that those of us that might not get down.

I mean, a lot of people like going to.

Milwaukee to a Brewer's game.

I think for some of us, it's like, well, that's Southeast Wisconsin.

No, no, no.

There's actually a lot of life and vibrancy south of Milwaukee between that and the state border.

And in Racine and Kenosha area, certainly have that.

Tip, tell us before we get into the policy of this thing, tell folks a little bit about your journey growing up here, where you went to school and kind of what drew you into politics.

Yeah, so I guess if I'm being totally totally frank so I grew up here in Kenosha County a group in the town of Summers where my mother still lives but not too far from where I live now and And so my my father taught at Parkside my mother taught at a school in Chicago and they they both drove in different directions every every morning and then returned home but

Coming, you know, growing up with a family of teachers, I read a lot and we had like a big, you know, acre and a half yard.

And so I would get on, you know, get into all sorts of adventures out there.

Growing up, I went to St.

Sebastian's Insurgent and then St.

Catherine's High School in Racine.

I went to Marquette for undergrad and then I came to work with you in the Capitol, Todd, for five years before I went to law school at the University of Wisconsin.

Following law school, I was a prosecutor.

I was a special prosecutor in Kenosha and then an assistant DA in Milwaukee.

And then when the opportunity to run opened up in my hometown, I took it and I ran.

I guess I would say the thing that initially drew me to politics was when I was, I don't know, 16, 15 years old, I opposed the war in Iraq.

And so I started watching and observing politics a lot more that way.

My parents were always very politically involved.

And then from there, I volunteered on my very first campaign, which is in 2004 for John Kerry and Russ Feingold, and I made phone calls for them.

And then after that, I was just committed to making sure that we had a Wisconsin and the United States that benefited working people and where we could have faith that the decisions made by our leaders were the ones with our best interests at heart.

I love the story, and I said that wrong.

I apologize.

It really isn't just politics.

To me, it was a public service.

And I think you're someone, not, I think I know you're someone, because I've walked, I've spent time with you in the Capitol.

I've seen you work, I've seen you listen to people.

You're someone who really cares about helping others and making your area and the entire state better.

And that's why I respect about you and appreciate, even if we might, you know, not always agree on every single policy thing, it's your intent and why you do this.

So we're talking with state representative, Tim Auquire from the 60.

fourth district Democrat here from the Kenosha and Racine area.

So talk to us a little bit.

Well, first of all, tip, I gotta say.

So you got your law degree at Wisconsin, undergrad at Marquette, right?

Yeah.

So tell us, the big game, Wisconsin Marquette basketball, who do you cheer for?

Well, look, Marquette doesn't have a football team for me to cheer for.

I usually give them the edge in basketball.

You know, the badgers, the badgers, they got other things to cheer for them, uh, in.

So I usually give Marquette the edge in

basketball.

I, you know, my former boss, one of my other former bosses, Scott Kluge, he's a big Marquette fan and, and grad and, and, uh, so he takes me to one Marquette game, men's basketball game a year.

And I have to say, as a Wisconsin fan,

Marquette student section for men's basketball is better in my opinion most nights and they really shock a smart they really do it the right way So it's just part of what makes Wisconsin great.

All right, let's get on to some actual politics here So the state the estate budget you're one of four Democrats.

There's two assembly people There's two senators on the on the estate budget committee join finance committee You're one of the three who voted no on the on the state budget tell us we had us five

State Senator Calderoyce on the program quite a bit during the budget.

She was also a no vote.

Tell us Representative McGuire why you voted no.

Well, I think to get into the no vote, I want to kind of remind everyone about the context of that final decision.

After what seemed like many more months than is typically given, but was actually roughly on time, the process as it was going through

Republicans continued to try and create this very right-wing, very conservative, very radical budget.

And briefly they had entered into negotiations with the governor and then walked away.

And then they continued down this path of having a very right-wing budget.

And so from that point, that is sort of the undergirding of what was in a lot of the budget.

Now, the governor was able to come in and negotiate with them the second time and drag them kicking and screaming to a better result.

He was able to improve some of the funding for education.

He was able to make sure that we were at least extending child care counts or something like it for an additional year.

He was able to reverse the

87 million dollar cut that they were planning for the UW and start putting funds back into our university system.

And so there were a lot of really positive things that the governor did, but there were also a lot of things that were still a part of that budget that were very conservative.

And so when it came time for me to vote, I looked at the things that I had set out at the beginning.

as what we need to accomplish with this budget.

You know better than most, Todd, that every year the legislature gets together.

We have a lot of bills that we debate and that we differ on and that we agree on, et cetera.

But usually there are some big pressing issues that are the business of that year, things that must be accomplished.

And from my perspective, the thing that must have been accomplished this year was ending the cycle of referendum across the state.

Unfortunately, in school districts, everywhere rural, urban,

Big, small, and we heard it when we did the joint finance tour.

It was the number one issue discussed school districts were suffering and we're going to referendum and we're raising property taxes on their communities and their communities were stuck with that choice.

Whether to raise my own property taxes and make sure that my kid has a good school.

or whether to keep my property taxes and housing affordable, but worry about what's going to happen at the school.

Are they going to go to larger class sizes?

They can lay off teachers.

What's going to be happening at my school district?

And so we needed to end that problem.

And unfortunately, this budget doesn't do that.

I

think for communities across the state, they will once again go to referendum.

The governor had, at the beginning of the budget process, had put in a tremendous amount of property tax relief to make sure that the referendums that had already passed wouldn't continue to impact folks as harshly.

And unfortunately, Republicans took that out and refused to put it back in.

They neglected education, they neglected property taxes, and that means that communities are going to go back to this question of, should we raise property taxes when those property taxes are already going to be going up?

State Representative Tim McGuire, the 64th District.

A couple of minutes left here, Representative.

What you just said, you laid it out perfectly.

And I'm not asking you to speak for the governor, but as someone who had a seat at the table, can you give us any insight as to why Governor Evers, I agree with him, drew a red line in the sand to get money for childcare in this state.

He drew a red line at least to some degree to get more money for UW System, which I agree with, but he chose not to draw a red line to get the adequate or more money for K-12 public education.

Well, I think that the government made significant progress in the special education funding, which was very important.

And so I really want to credit him for and Senator Hasselbein for doing a good job negotiating better results for Wisconsinites.

But ultimately, if I'm being totally honest, Todd, I don't think that Republicans would have budged on property tax relief because I think that they are hoping that this fall they're going to come in and they're going to introduce some bill on the 400 year veto.

thing or they're going to introduce decoupling and they're going to say, oh, people's property taxes are going to go up unless you cut education in these other ways or send the first dollar from the state to voucher schools or whatever it is.

I think that they're going to come back in and use what they did in this budget as an excuse to do more damage later.

Do you have time to stick around for the segment or you've got to go?

We're

up against the clock.

That's why it has.

So we're going to take a quick break and do a little business and more on the other side.

It's a cliffhanger.

That's a tease from State Representative Tim McGuire, who will finish his thought asking more about politics and government on the other side.

We're live in his district at Racine, home of the WRJNWA UK.

It's the all ball show location across Wisconsin 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.

spinning the great hits from WRJN in Racine, Wisconsin.

It's the All Balls show live on location in Racine.

Our studio is here at Civic Media.

Eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock, that is Mickey Shore and the Versatones from Starlight Records.

Here, it was a label, you said, Zombers.

It was here in Racine, and they recorded in this very studio.

I don't know, not this studio.

It was at 1620 Edgewood Avenue.

Oh, okay.

Back of the day.

Back

in the 50s

and 60s, yeah.

Very good.

Well, we're speaking with, we appreciate him sticking around, the state representative from this area, Tim McGuire of the 64th District, Democrat here in the Racine and Kenosha area, Representative McGuire, have you ever heard of this starlight record?

This is part of the history of this district, and again, shows the diversity.

I mean, you got it all down here.

You got record labels, you got shoreline, you got sports, you got crops.

It's fantastic.

Yeah, I've honestly I've never heard of Starlight Records before so I'm glad that you introduced this to me I took

a note when you mentioned it earlier.

Oh very good very good Well, I appreciate coming back because look at I'm not you're not here to speak for the governor I don't expect that but you were a no vote on on the state budget here and the question I posed was you know the governor drew a line in the sand for for childcare money Which I agreed with he drew a line the sand for your system.

I don't think enough, but that's beside the point

I agreed with what he did draw the line in the sand for and as someone who touts himself as the education governor I just said I didn't understand why he didn't draw a deeper line in the sand on that granted he got money for special education but to your point earlier this budget means that people all over the state are going to have to have more referendums Eau Claire district is gonna lose like two million dollars in the next biennium there are smaller districts with even a greater impact you are making a point you wanted to finish up on that

Yeah, I wanted to say I thought that the governor did excellent work in dragging Republicans kicking and screaming further than I think that they wanted to go but he also was butting up against a timeline and That timeline isn't just the normal timeline for budget to pass and and you'll never hear legislative Republicans talk about this Maybe they mentioned this.

I don't know I would doubt it but that timeline was shortened because federal Republicans were passing the federal debt bomb bill that was going to cut

millions of Americans off their healthcare and was going to create problems in the healthcare space across the country.

And that included some federal dollars that the state receives and that goes into healthcare here in Wisconsin to make sure that we have coverage for people.

And so I think that the governor was working to get as much done as he could in the timeline that he had.

And while I wish that the budget was better, it certainly, I don't believe that it'll have benefited Kenosha schools down here.

Um, and, and so I think that there's going to be a lot of challenges facing our school districts.

I also understand why the governor did what he did.

And I'm, I'm grateful that he was able to take this budget.

I mean, honestly, Todd, I don't know if you were listening to every joint finance hearing and I, I hope, I hope you

weren't, I missed that.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

But, but an awful lot of, of those, those hearings were, were watching people take votes to, to just refuse to fund programs that Wisconsinites would be shocked.

right he weren't funded and the governor took that budget and he made it better and and again it wasn't good enough to earn my vote but i appreciate his efforts in doing that

And quickly, I talked about this during the process.

I'm glad you brought it back up, because I totally agree with you.

You know, you've been in many more, I'm sure.

But back when I worked for Dale Schultz in the state Senate, I was in meetings with Robin Voss.

You'll remember this.

We were both working at the Capitol when Dale held up the raping of the land in the Republican Mining Bill in northern Wisconsin, at least for a while, and was in private meetings with Robin Voss.

And he gets to a point where he just politely says,

Okay, I think we're done here.

Thank you very much.

We'll talk to you later and he walks out of the room and I think you're right I think that the governor probably pushed speaker boss as far as he could have gone

I Would I would I would I wasn't in the room, so I can't confirm that but I would hope so I certainly think that the governor was sticking up for his priorities and his priorities were Those three big things that we mentioned education childcare and UW system.

All right

Oh, no, I was just going to say, so I think that there are certainly some positives in the budget.

It did get a lot better.

But obviously, I think there's going to continue to be challenges on that one big problem that the state should be working to address today.

All right.

You're a young guy.

You're a smart guy.

You've made a name for yourself.

You're on Joint Finance Committee.

Are you outside the building?

Can I ask you a political question?

You can all right very good.

So I want to know the next two minutes.

What do Democrats have to do statewide?

Just in your opinion as a young Democratic leader, what do Democrats have to do politically to win in the state in 2026?

You know, I saw a headline the other day That I thought could could have been one of those recurring onion headlines And the headline was in quotes Dems may be overthinking this

I think that we, you know, you worked on campaigns before, you know, campaigns are, it's about talking to voters.

It's about going out and talking to people in your community, talking to people across the state.

We tend to think of these things as big strategic chess games, but really what we should be doing is taking our values, going out, asking people what they care about, and then telling them how we want to help.

It's that simple.

I couldn't agree more.

I could not agree more, and I wish more to someone who doesn't belong to any party anymore.

I left the Republican Party in 2011.

I want to see Democrats win, because I think it's the only major political party left that believes A, in democracy, fully and truly, and B, that can lead us forward.

But they keep seeming to step on their own message.

And is this, I'm sorry, we've got one minute left.

Do you think that this divide in the state between, I'll just call it progressive Democrats and more centrist Democrats, is that going to be the bane of 2026, or can they pull it together?

Oh, we can pull it together, absolutely.

I'm very confident in both the elected officials that we've got from across the spectrum, as well as in the people who are concerned about the future of our country.

We can pull it together.

We will pull it together because, frankly, the state depends on

it.

All right.

Here's our goofy question for next hour.

You get the first take at it.

What's worse, Representative McGuire, coffee cake or Kringle?

What's worse?

What's worse, coffee cake or Kringle?

Coffee cake, of course.

Kringle is amazing.

You got the right answer.

We'll play that on the other side.

State Representative Tip McGuire from the 64th District.

Thank you for your time, my friend.

Always welcome in this program.

Thanks for letting us hang out in your district.

Have a great day.

Yep, you too.

Thank you so much.

State Representative Tip McGuire, we appreciate him.

Come on back.

We'll play what's worse, Coffee Caker Kringle, Greg Bach in the second hour, and more news.

This is the All Ball Show from Racine after this.

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