This week’s Weekly Radio Addresses from Wisconsin’s Capitol discuss the use of federal relief funds and a State Supreme Court ruling. These addresses are available for Wisconsin broadcasters to use as they see fit. Here are the summaries from WisPolitics:
— In this week’s Dem radio address, Gov. Tony Evers announced his intention to invest the $3.2 billion in federal funding Wisconsin received from the American Rescue Plan Funds into small businesses and communities.
The plan includes putting $2.5 billion toward economic recovery and well-being, $600 million to support small businesses, $50 million toward supporting the tourism industry and $500 million into the state’s continued pandemic response. An additional $200 million will be put toward building infrastructure and expanding broadband to keep Wisconsin residents connected.
“We’re going to be working to get these funds out the door as quickly as we can,” Evers said. “We know these American Rescue Plan funds will be critical to making sure our state can bounce back and better than we were before this pandemic hit.”
Evers also touched on his recent veto of Senate Bill 183, which would have given Republicans in the Legislature the right to approve how the funds are used. He stated that he believes this measure may have prevented the state from getting relief to those that need it.
“At the end of the day, these funds don’t belong to me or any member of the Legislature–it’s your money, folks,” the governor concluded. “We need to put people before politics and we can’t afford to waste time on all the political back-and-forth.”
Listen to the address:
https://soundcloud.com/evers-barnes-admin/gov-tony-evers-address-april-1-2021
— In the GOP address, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu discussed this week’s Supreme Court ruling that Evers violated state law by unilaterally issuing multiple emergency orders to extend the state-wide mask mandate.
The Sheboygan Republican pointed out that by law, the governor has 60 days to manage the initial emergency response, and that after that, he is required to work with the legislature. By continuing to impose restrictions, LeMahieu stated, Evers ignored this law.
“We wanted to work with the governor to create a plan,” LeMahieu said. “Instead, the governor chose to ignore the law and impose new, tighter restrictions. For over a year, he both wrote the laws and enforce them. The people of our state had no say in how the new rules were to be written.”
Listen to the address:
https://legis.wisconsin.gov/eupdates/sen09/LeMahieu_WBA_Address04.01.2021.mp3
Find the archive of weekly addresses, organized by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, by going to: https://www.wi-broadcasters.org/for-the-public/weekly-addresses-archive/
