Tony Evers, Governor of Wisconsin, gave his state of the state address for 2022. In this address he focused on his budget for this year, covering several key areas such as economy, healthcare, and education.
Economy
Governor Evers made it very clear that more needs to be done to help the people of Wisconsin through the current struggles of inflation work barriers. He started by announcing his plan to give every Wisconsin resident $150 from the state’s surplus to help make ends meet. He went on to say that if there was a family of at least four, then they would qualify for $600 from that surplus to give them a bit more wiggle room. As far as barriers are concerned, Governor Evers focused mainly on tackling childcare and caregivers. He wants to invest $130 million into the Childcare and Caregivers tax credits. With this investment, he says that the childcare tax credit would provide about 107,000 people with an average of $274, and the caregiver’s tax credit would provide about $500 to those that qualify. Governor Evers also stated that even with all of this investment, there will still be $2 billion sitting in the state’s surplus.
Healthcare
Governor Evers voiced the importance of supporting the state’s medical providers and helping them improve so that they can provide the best care possible to the residents of Wisconsin. This support includes a $30 million investment in the governor’s budget to support emergency medical service providers and services across the state. Evers stated that $20 million of this investment would be given to rural providers so that they can acquire the equipment and personnel needed to operate successfully and reliably. He also promised that there would be reimbursement assistance for these providers to help ensure that they do not have to cut back on critical services.
Another area of healthcare the Governor focused on was that of the state’s veterans and National Guard members. His announcement in this area was to invest $5 million to expand the Guards Comprehensive Wellness Office to give access to their services to every member of the Wisconsin National Guard. He said that this investment will help provide counseling, resiliency training, and crisis intervention and stress reduction programming to reduce burnout, protect mental health needs, and protect service members from suicide and substance abuse. His final promise for this program was to make it a constantly funded program starting next year through his next budget.
Education
Governor Evers’ discussion about education began with a proposal for a 750-million-dollar investment to help improve the state’s schools and to improve the outcome for students. His ultimate goal is to make sure that the state’s schools are fully funded. Part of this investment includes $100 million towards holding the line on property taxes across the state. Beyond that, he proposed a 25-million-dollar investment to accomplish a tuition freeze through the end of this year.
His final two proposals focused on mental health in schools. The first was a 15-million-dollar proposal to increase mental health services at schools. He says this money could be used to provide staff training to helpwith mental health, to acquire more high-quality mental health staff, or for any other mental health needs. The other was a 5-million-dollar investment proposal that would go towards increasing mental health services and support staff on the campuses of colleges under the University of Wisconsin system.
The position of Governor is up for election this year in Wisconsin, and Tony Evers will be seeking a second term. Wisconsin residents will be able to attend the primaries and vote on August 9. The polls will be open that day from 7 am to8 PM.
