We found courage in hospital rooms and hallways—in the doctors and nurses and healthcare workers who’ve braced themselves on the way to work and walked through the door anyway, who’ve comforted our loved ones when we couldn’t, who, even today, have never stopped showing up for us.
This past year asked a lot of us, and we’ve asked a lot of one another. But when we did, we found that the strength of our state is in what we are willing to face together—what we are willing to do for each other, especially when our neighbors need us the most.
Although the year is behind us, the remnants and hardship of 2020 remain.
I know folks are eager to put this virus in the past—frankly, I am, too. I know so many are ready to get vaccinated and get back to life as we knew it, and we are working to distribute vaccine doses as quickly and as fairly as we can.
And while Congress recently provided additional resources to help support families and our state’s response, we know it will likely not be enough to continue fighting this virus until we’re through distributing the vaccine.
There’s always more work to do, and just as we have this past year, we’re going to get it done. Now two years into my first term as governor, we’re not going to slow down. In fact, we’re just getting started.
Our forebearers gave us a mandate to go forward. And we have, as we must.
But “forward” was a challenge to us then just as it is here today not to move for movement’s sake. In this state, forward isn’t a metric of those who’ve moved the fastest, it’s the measure of the strides we make when we all go together.
As this past year has underscored, our course over the past decade has proven unsteady and uneven. For years, our state has plowed ahead unencumbered by the hopes of those we might leave behind.
We are reminded now that in the fight for progress and prosperity we each share responsibility. And it begins with broadband.
This pandemic has underscored—and in some ways, exacerbated—the digital divide that exists across our state. This pandemic has shown us firsthand that lack of access to high-speed internet continues to be a setback for kids, families, and businesses across our state.
Students, educators, and schools making the shift to virtual learning were faced with a lack of access or unreliable connections that made it difficult to teach, engage, and learn. Folks trying to stay healthy and access basic healthcare services had trouble using telemedicine or other alternatives to visit with their doctor when they couldn’t go in-person. And businesses working to adapt and provide online ordering or payment options didn’t have the technological tools or lacked connectivity in their area. And in some communities, consumers didn’t have the internet connection to take advantage, even if they could have.
According to the FCC, more than 430,000 people who make up 25 percent of our state’s rural population lack access to high-speed internet. Our state ranks 36th in the country for accessibility in rural areas. Earlier this year, our Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation released its “Wisconsin Tomorrow” report. It highlighted broadband as one of three priorities to begin our economic recovery saying this: “Fixing broadband in Wisconsin is not a moon shot; it’s not insurmountable. But it is critical to economic development and recovery and must happen now.” So, tonight, I’m excited to declare 2021 the Year of Broadband Access.
I’m proud that my first biennial budget invested $54 million into broadband across our state—the largest state investment in broadband in our state’s history. Well, not to be outdone, we’re going to do it again in this budget—except this time we’re going to nearly quadruple it.
My 2021-23 biennial budget will invest nearly $200 million over the biennium into broadband— that’s five times the amount invested in the 2013, 2015, and 2017 budgets combined.
It’s 2021, folks—having access to high-speed internet is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. Every Wisconsinite across our state should have access to reliable, high-speed internet. Period.
Now, lack of broadband access isn’t the only issue this pandemic brought to the forefront this past year.
The last two months of the year, I worked with Republican leaders on a COVID compromise. And I called on the Legislature to pass that compromise as the very first bill this session and to send it to my desk without delay. But tonight, I’d like to talk about the very second bill that should be passed by the Legislature this session, and that’s a bill to fix our broken unemployment system.
Since the beginning of this pandemic, we saw an unprecedented influx of unemployment claims— it exceeded the number of claims even during the Great Recession. To put it in perspective, over the course of four years from 2016 through 2019, the Department of Workforce Development handled 7.2 million claims. Well, since March, the DWD received 8.8 million claims alone—1.6 million more claims than the four previous years combined.
So, as we saw a massive number of new, incoming claims, we got to work reassigning state employees from other divisions or agencies and hiring and contracting new workers. We brought our staffing up from about 500 employees in our Unemployment Insurance Division to more than 1,800 to answer phone calls, process claims, and follow up with folks who’d applied for benefits. And during that time, the DWD paid nearly 600,000 claimants more than $4.6 billion in unemployment insurance benefits to folks across our state.
But the bottom line is that our unemployment system isn’t designed to handle the massive numbers of modern days, which has contributed to delays in processing claims, required more time to implement new federal programs, and made it harder to get benefits out the door.
Our antiquated system isn’t quite as old as I am, but it has been around since Richard Nixon was president—this system isn’t new, and these problems aren’t, either. And Republicans and Democrats alike are to blame. The fact of the matter is that previous administrations and more than a decades’ worth of legislators have known this system was outdated and couldn’t handle an economic crisis like the one this pandemic presented, and they never took the time to fix it. And to make matters worse, the Legislature spent the last decade passing laws deliberately making it even harder for people to access these critical supports when they need it the most, exacerbating the problems with our already-outdated system.
This past year brought to bear the inaction of my predecessors and members of this and previous legislatures who avoided their responsibility and duty for far too long. Well, I’ll tell you this: it’s gone on long enough. It ends tonight.
I’m announcing today I will be calling a special session of the Legislature to take up a plan to modernize our unemployment system and help ensure nothing like this happens to the people of Wisconsin again.
We know that replacing this system will take years—that’s why it should’ve been done sooner, but it’s also why we now have not another moment to waste. No politics, no posturing, send me the bill and let’s just get it done.
And I want to make myself clear: if the Legislature continues to ignore this problem—if they gavel in and gavel out like they’ve done before, if they leave this problem for another administration, another generation—the people of this state will hold them accountable at the ballot box.
Because this year, we’re also going to fix another problem that’s plagued our state for more than a decade: our gerrymandered maps.
Last year during my State of the State address, I announced I would be creating the People’s Maps Commission—a nonpartisan redistricting committee of Wisconsinites from each congressional district who would draw fair, impartial maps based on the 2020 Census.
So, for the past several months, The People’s Maps Commission, selected by a panel of three retired judges, has gotten to work. They’re hosting virtual hearings in every congressional district to hear feedback and input from people across our state to begin drawing The People’s Maps.
Now, Republicans in the Legislature said right away they’d ignore any maps the Commission created. That’s not a surprise given that in 2011 the Legislature hired private attorneys to draw our maps in secret and behind closed doors. And because the Legislature wrote themselves out of Wisconsin’s public records law, they were able to destroy many of the public records from that process.
Well, I believe—and I know many of you at home do—that the people should get to choose their elected officials, not the other way around. Wisconsinites don’t want maps that favor any political candidate or party—we just want maps where either candidate can win. Folks, that’s just common sense.
So, tonight, I’m announcing that my biennial budget is going to make sure that the Legislature draws our maps in the light of day, in the public eye, and with public input by requiring public meetings for the map-drawing process. And that’s why we’re also going to prevent the Legislature from destroying records from the map-drawing process because the people of our state deserve to know how these maps are drawn and by whom. And finally, and most importantly, we are going to require the Legislature to take up The People’s Maps, which will be drawn not by any political party or high-paid consultants, but by the people of our state.
Folks, it’s time we look to the people, not politicians, to draw maps that are fair and impartial.
Now, make no mistake: I do not underestimate the challenges that this new year may bring, or the grief we’re still grappling with, the ramifications we’ve yet to fully realize, the new problems that may arise still this year.
But as sure as we will face struggles, we will take them on together.
We’ve made it through a difficult year, folks. While it was discouraging, we aren’t defeated. While it was trying, we’re tough. Wisconsin, we’ve never been known for being timid, and we’re sure not going to start today. Our people, our state, and our democracy have withstood tests before, and we will again answer the call to go forward unfazed.
Be well, be healthy, and stay safe. Let’s get to work. Let’s move forward, together.
Thank you, and On, Wisconsin!
UW-Madison Marching Band, take it away!”
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Announcements, Adjournment Honors and Remarks Under
Special Privilege
Senator Agard, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate adjourn in honor of Eugene Goodman, the Capitol Police officer who saved the U.S. Senate from violence and destruction. The events of Wednesday, January 6, 2021 have shaken the core of our nation. We grieve the lives lost, and our thoughts are with those who were physically injured or suffered severe trauma as a result of the violent insurrection prompted by President Trump. While this will be remembered as a dark day in our country’s history, the actions of Officer Goodman stand out as a beacon of light. Rioters who broke into the Capitol were chasing Officer Goodman up the stairs, the video then shows him glancing towards the Senate entrance before luring the extremists in the opposite direction at his own peril. He risked his own life to save those locked down in the U.S. Senate chamber. He, very literally, protected our democracy. Senator Agard thanks Officer Goodman for his service, honor the sacrifices he was willing to make for his country, and she proudly adjourns in his honor today in the Wisconsin State Senate.
Senator Wanggaard, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate adjourn in honor of the fallen United States Capitol Police officers that gave their lives in service of their country following the January 6th breach at the U.S. Capitol. As a former law enforcement officer himself, he knows he is not alone in saying he feels as though he lost a brother. Police officers keep the public safe and are an irreplaceable part of our community. The effects of the loss of a single officer reverberates throughout the entire community and state.
Senator Carpenter, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate adjourn in honor and memory of US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who died on January 6th in Washington, DC as a result of injuries sustained while engaging with demonstrators during the insurrection.
Senator Carpenter, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate adjourn in honor of US Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who induced the angry mob to chase him alone up several stair wells away from the US Senate Chambers. Officer Goodman acted bravely and wisely using his talents to prevent dozens of possible severe injuries and to save many lives.
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Adjournment
Senator LeMahieu, with unanimous consent, asked that the Senate stand adjourned pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1.
Adjourned.
7:30 P.M.
