‘A rocky road’: Wisconsin Republicans recap the first year of split control under Gov. Tony Evers – Madison.com

The top Republican in the Wisconsin Senate says the first year of divided government under Gov. Tony Evers has been a rocky road. The head of the Assembly Republicans says the last 12 months have probably gone better than I expected.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have together served as the respective heads of their caucuses over the last three legislative sessions. But this is the first time the two are concurrently doing so under a Democratic governor.

Both have said the arrangement has brought them closer together, particularly during the state budget process earlier this year. Still, each have their own take on the new governor and how to navigate that office.

The two spoke with reporters separately in year-end interviews in recent weeks; Fitzgerald addressed reporters in a news conference, while Vos held one-on-one conversations.

In his comments, Fitzgerald noted hes met with Evers three times over the course of the year and most of that was early on. Still, the Juneau Republican added hes working to set up another meeting in the new year, to map out some stuff that we've got some common ground on.

He also touted Republicans work in the state budget process, saying the plan Evers presented to the Legislature in early spring fell far short of where it needed to be to win legislative support, forcing lawmakers to kind of start from scratch.

Vos, R-Rochester, called the two-year spending plan generally a conservative budget that (Evers) tried to make more liberal. And he credited Republicans for opting to focus on topics that were not controversial in my mind.

If you look at this tone of their statements, they're almost always snarky and negative, Vos said of Democrats. And while we all have our fair share of snark, so I'm not going to say it's just them, they have a disproportionate amount that certainly is not helpful in the process.

But he also said hes looking to put forth a property tax cut proposal that would come after homeowners received bills this month showing potentially the largest property tax increase in a decade, according to a nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum report that found the increases were driven by state budget changes and local referendums.

Fitzgerald didnt give a target figure for the reduction, but said hed like it to be significant enough to attract lawmakers support. Any final amount would depend on the states tax revenue forecast, he added.

"People are concerned about a bump in their property tax bill," he said.

A Vos spokeswoman said the speaker is open to the idea, but it all depends on how successful the economy is next year.

Meanwhile, Vos in his interview said hes less interested in a bill Evers previously endorsed seeking to reimburse local clerks for the cost of holding special elections, though the caucus has yet to discuss it. That bill cleared the Senate with unanimous support in October. But Vos argued when someone decides to run for Congress, its not necessarily the states responsibility to pay for it.

In the Senate, Fitzgerald said hes expecting action every month that the chamber is on the floor this winter, the calendar will include some of Evers yet-unconfirmed Cabinet picks. Still, he said its a possibility the Senate wont act on all of them -- meaning some could be serving as secretaries without being officially signed off on by the chamber.

I don't know that anybody is necessarily going to make the case to vote down a secretary at this point, but I know there's still concerns with some, he said. But there are others that have garnered enough support and so I think we'll definitely have a couple more on the calendar in January.

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'A rocky road': Wisconsin Republicans recap the first year of split control under Gov. Tony Evers - Madison.com