Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said he would not sign the upcoming state budget if Republicans include a requirement mandating state employes working remotely return to the office.
“I think it’s important for us to say, ‘We want to get the best people working for the state of Wisconsin possible,’ and sometimes that will mean that they will work from home, part-time, full-time,” Evers said in an interview on WISN-TV’s “Upfront” Sunday morning. “We can work that out. It’s working fine.”
Vos last month suggested he wants to have state employees working in the office “at least three to four days a week.”
“A lot of employees aren’t working, or they’re working only from home and not doing it very well with little supervision,” Vos told WISN-TV in November.
Vos referenced an audit released by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau last year that found most state agencies and University of Wisconsin institutions allowed employees to work from home up to five days a week.
Most agencies said telework increased the efficiency of their operations, but many had not assessed the effects of remote work in writing.
In July and August of 2023, the audit bureau visited selected state government offices six times and found about one-third or fewer workstations were in use.
Evers said “we’ve heard for years the idea that … it’s not fair that so many of the people that work for the state of Wisconsin came from the Madison, Milwaukee area.”
“We went out of our way during the pandemic, and post-pandemic, to hire people in Rhinelander and all sorts of different places in the state, because we knew they can work from home or work from an office that’s remote from Madison,” Evers said.
Evers said he anticipated more compromise in the state budget this year after Democrats picked up more seats in the state Legislature. Republicans still have control and typically scrap most of Evers’ budget proposal and write their own.
“The idea that somehow they’re just going to throw ours out, and we’re working from theirs, is baloney,” Evers said.
Evers will decide whether to run for reelection after budget is complete
Evers said he’ll likely wait until after the state budget is done to decide whether or not to run for a third term in 2026. Evers is 73 and would be 79 years old at the end of a third term.
“I love what I’m doing, there’s no question about that, but we’ll see what happens sometime after the budget,” Evers said. “There’s a lot of people lusting after this job.”
Several Democrats, including Attorney General Josh Kaul, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, are considered contenders if Evers decides not to run for reelection.
Among the possible Republican candidates is U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents the northern part of the state.
Tiffany told WISN-TV on Sunday he was focused on the presidential election, Republicans’ agenda in Congress and the upcoming state Supreme Court race in April, but he didn’t rule out a run for governor.
The Supreme Court race “may be more important than the races that come up in 2026 with the statewide offices, and we’re going to be focused on that stuff,” Tiffany said. “After April, we’ll make a decision in regards to where the future lies.”
More: Act 10 could take center stage in upcoming state Supreme Court election
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Evers says he’ll veto budget if it has return-to-office requirement