Evers calls for mental health, violence prevention funding in State of the State address

Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday evening proposed putting hundreds of millions of dollars towards student mental health in his upcoming budget plan and called for bipartisan investments in violence prevention during his State of the State address.

He also said he’ll propose initiatives to lower medical and child care costs for families, promised to push for broad investment in K-12 education and touted a recent report that found Wisconsin’s tax burden has declined.

And he alluded to President Donald Trump’s recent return to office, speaking forcefully in support of immigration and LGBTQ+ rights.

“I will not compromise on our Wisconsin values of treating people with kindness, dignity, empathy and respect,” Evers said. “And I will continue to deliver on my promise to fight for the values and priorities that I have every day as your governor.”

The address was Evers’ seventh State of the State since he first took office in 2019. The speech is an opportunity for a governor to outline an executive vision — but it’s often contentious, as the Democratic Evers and the GOP-controlled Legislature hold different priorities.

Immediately following the speech, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, called Evers’ speech “a whole lot of things that are not going to happen in Wisconsin.”

“We heard billions of dollars of spending, which results in billions of dollars of taxes,” he said. He also rejected Evers’ gun legislation requests.

Evers will unveil his budget proposal in February, which will include some of the plans he announced Wednesday. In past years, Republicans have torn up the governor’s proposed budget and written a new one. The executive and Legislature have sparred over spending the state’s multibillion-dollar surplus, which Vos has said is a nonstarter, arguing it should only be used to create tax cuts.

And Vos said Republicans will prioritize cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency tasked with carrying out Trump’s promised deportation of undocumented immigrants — moments after Evers called on lawmakers to “be honest” about the positive economic impact of immigrants in Wisconsin.

Evers declares 2025 the ‘Year of the Kid’

Evers’ biggest-ticket proposal was a call for the state to put $300 million toward youth mental health initiatives like peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs. That’s similar to a request State Superintendent Jill Underly made last year.

“The state of our kids’ mental health continues to be concerning for me, both as a governor and as a grandfather,” he said. “A kid in crisis may be distracted or disengaged and may not be able to focus on their studies, if they are able to get to school at all.”

It’s not the first time Evers, the former state schools superintendent, has pledged millions toward student mental health. In 2023, he called for $500 million for comprehensive mental health funding, including $270 million to support youth mental health. The budget that year, which was ultimately written by legislative Republicans, allocated about $30 million to mental health in schools instead.

On Wednesday, Evers said that was not enough.

“Making sure our kids are healthy, physically and mentally, is a crucial part of improving outcomes in our classrooms,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after the event, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, said Republicans are broadly supportive of some level of mental health spending.

“Three-hundred million is a lot of dollars,” he said. “But you know, we’ve increased mental health spending (from) virtually nothing from when I was first elected to $30 million in the last budget. And it’s vitally important. We’ll keep investing in mental health.”

Evers also promised to invest in child care — an issue that consistently broke down on partisan lines in the last legislative session — and in providing free school lunches to students. He also called for expansive funding for K-12 education.

And he called for $6 million to remove contaminants from water wells and another $6 million for lead poisoning intervention. Evers said he’d approve an emergency provision to make more kids eligible for lead poisoning resources.

Republicans said they will not approve any increases for school funding that do not come with increased evaluation standards.

Mental health, violence prevention top priorities

Evers argued that student performance in school is affected by a network of factors at home — from housing to hunger to violence.

He referred to his newly formed violence prevention office, saying he’ll propose funding in his upcoming budget to make that initiative permanent. Evers also said he’d call for $66 million for crime victims support.

He spoke about December’s deadly school shooting in Madison, calling for “common sense” responses to gun violence, including  a law that expands background checks for all gun purchases and another to remove guns from homes of people deemed a threat, known as “red flag” laws.

“We aren’t here in Madison to quibble about the semantics of the last shooting, we are here to do everything we can to prevent the next one,” he said. “We can do better than doing nothing. This Legislature must do better than doing nothing.”

Evers became emotional when he spoke about the death of Jonathan Brostoff, a Milwaukee lawmaker who died by suicide by firearm in November. He led the room in standing and applauding for Brostoff’s parents and widow, who stood in the Assembly gallery.

And then he called for laws that he said could help prevent such deaths of despair: a waiting period between purchasing and receiving a gun, and a voluntary registration program for people in crisis who identify as a risk to themselves. The waiting period used to exist, but was overturned by Republicans in 2015.

Republican lawmakers afterward rejected each of those policies out of hand.

“No, we’re not doing it,” said Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva. “The governor needs to remember that he took an oath to the entire U.S. Constitution, not just the parts that he likes.”

Vos called the proposals attempts to “take guns away from law-abiding gun owners,” and called the references to Brostoff a “cheap political stunt.”

Promises to lower household costs

Evers touted a recent report that found Wisconsinites have seen a significant reduction in their tax burden — a measure of how much income goes towards taxes — in the last 20 years.

But he called for some additional programs to reduce costs for Wisconsinites, including removing the sales tax on over-the-counter medications and capping the copay on insulin at $35.

He also proposed putting $500 million toward Child Care Counts, a pandemic-era program that used federal COVID-19 relief funds to keep child care centers open. Democrats consistently called for state funds to maintain that program, but were at odds with Republicans who argued it was an inefficient solution to the state’s child care crisis.

“Lowering everyday, out-of-pocket costs for Wisconsinites and working families must be a priority for us this session,” he said. “Making child care and everyday prescriptions more affordable are two easy ways we can help Wisconsinites afford basic needs.”

Republicans have called for tax cuts as one solution to child care costs. Vos said Wednesday that Republicans will propose using the surplus to give “tax relief of almost $1,000 to every person in Wisconsin so that they have the opportunity to use that for their own purposes.”

Evers alludes to Trump’s first days in office

Evers did not refer to Trump by name, but he did allude to Monday’s inauguration and some of Trump’s sweeping executive orders on immigration, climate change and gender issues.

“A lot has happened in Washington in the last 72 hours, and I know there is a lot of angst about what may happen in the days, months and years ahead,” he said.

He described Wisconsin as “born of immigrants.”

“Let’s agree to be honest about the fact that, in this state, some of our state’s largest and most important industries and companies have always welcomed the hard work of immigrants,” he said.

Evers called for bipartisan work on immigration, but said the solution could not “stymie our economic momentum” — a reference to Trump’s promises of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, which many experts say could have broad impacts on industries including agriculture.

Vos said Republicans will unveil legislation next week about their plans to cooperate with ICE and assist with deportations.

“If someone is here illegally and commits a crime, they’re going to be deported,” he said.

Evers also said he would veto any bill passed by the Legislature that affected access to birth control or abortion.

And he said he would veto any bill that affected LGBTQ rights.

“I will never stop delivering on my promise to use every power available to me to defend you, protect your rights and keep you safe,” he said.