Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said he would not sign the upcoming state budget if Republicans included a requirement requiring state employees who work remotely to return to the office.
“I think it’s important for us to say, ‘We want to get the best possible people working for the state of Wisconsin,’ and sometimes that means they’ll work from home, part-time or full-time,” Evers said. in an interview on WISN-TV’s “Upfront” Sunday morning. ‘We can solve that. It works fine.’
Vos suggested last month that he wants state employees to work in the office “at least three to four days a week.”
“Many employees are not working, or are only working from home and not doing so well with little supervision,” Vos told WISN-TV in November.
Vos pointed to an audit released last year by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, which found that most government agencies and University of Wisconsin institutions allowed employees to work from home up to five days a week.
Most agencies said teleworking increased the efficiency of their operations, but many had not assessed the effects of remote working in writing.
In July and August 2023, the audit firm visited selected government offices six times and found that approximately 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 people who 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 kinds of different places around the state because we knew they could work from home or from an office that’s far from Madison,” said Evers.
Evers said he expected more compromises in the state budget this year after Democrats gained more seats in the state Legislature. Republicans are still in control and typically scrap most of Evers’ budget proposal and write their own.
“The idea that they’re somehow throwing away ours and we’re working from theirs is nonsense,” Evers said.
Evers will decide whether he will stand for re-election after the budget is finalized
Evers said he will likely wait until after the state budget is ready to decide whether 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 do, there’s no doubt about that, but we’ll see what happens sometime after the budget,” Evers said. “There are a lot of people who covet 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 re-election.
One of the possible Republican candidates is U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents the northern part of the state.
Tiffany told WISN-TV on Sunday that he was focused on the presidential election, Republicans’ agenda in Congress and the upcoming Supreme Court race in April, but he did not rule out a run for governor.
The Supreme Court race “may be more important than the 2026 races with the statewide offices, and we will focus on that,” Tiffany said. “After April we will make a decision on where the future lies.”
More: Act 10 could play a central role in the upcoming Supreme Court elections
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Evers says he will veto budget if it has return-to-office requirement
