Republican challenger tim michels in the wisconsin race for governor. Good evening. The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and its member radio and tv stations are pleased to welcome you to this gubernatorial debate. Tonights debate originates from madison, wisconsin. We have broadcasters large and small across the state involved in bringing this debate you. This continues the wbas longstanding commitment to public service, is written by the underwritten by the wba foundation and supported by a grant from the wisconsin counties association. Lets go to our moderator, a veteran wisconsin broadcaster, member of the wba hall of fame and professor at Loyola University chicago, joe geisler. Good evening. Tuesday, november eighth, wisconsin voters will choose between two candidates for governor, incumbent Democrat Tony Evers and republican challenger tim michels. They have agreed to do one debate before the election and this is yet. Here are the rules to which everyone agreed. Each question from our statewide panel of journalists, panelist told elect will be told the length of time for the response, either one minute or 30 seconds. We have countdown clocks. When candidates hit their limit, i will let them know. If they continue, their microphone will cease to work. If candidates fail to answer a specific question or change the subject, i will exercise the moderator option to note that an give them 30 seconds to provide a specific answer. Please note, this debate provides an Additional Service for voters. Many complex issues require deeper construct deeper context and verification, especially during a debate. And we benefit from more background. Next our debate data team, we will provide you with links to Research Materials about our key topics. Just follow the link on the screen or follow the wba on facebook, instagram or twitter to get that additional info. Our hash tag is wbadebate. The order of the first question was determined by coin toss and it is from dan hagan. I want to ask about rising prices. Wisconsin families can expect to pay at least 100 more than last winter to heat their homes. A gallon of gas costs . 75 more than last year. At a grocery receipt is likely 10 higher. How would you help the people of wisconsin who are struggling right now. One minute. Gov. Evers thanks for that great question and thanks to the broadcasters for making this happen. And thanks to the voters that are watching. I have a plan around this. Inflation is a worldwide phenomenon, and the impact of that inflation is spread across the entire world. That said, i have a plan. I had been hoping the republicans would come into session and we could do something right now, but my plan is, to mitigate against inflation, we are going to lower taxes on middleclass folks in wisconsin by 10 . We are going to get rid of the minimum markup law on gasoline, which could save people up to . 30 on a gallon. And also tax credit issues but the one that is most important is about childcare, a childcare credit. That way, we are giving people money and we can mitigate against inflation. Tim thank you for hosting this tonight, wba, and thank you to the panelists and most importantly, thank all of you for tuning in and taking part in this important political assets. It is a big election in a few weeks in the future of wisconsin is at stake. We have had weak leadership, but hope is on the way. I have been able leader my entire life. Joe biden is weak on inflation. Canceling the keystone pipeline. We can put more money in peoples pockets. I am a businessman, i understand microeconomics, i am going to do everything i can to put more money in peoples pockets to help them with the price at the pump and searching price of groceries. We are going to get her money in pockets in wisconsin and the hardworking people of wisconsin will spend more of that money on goods and services, helping make our economy more robust. Lets go to Michelle Mccormick. Here is what we note about shared know about shared revenue in wisconsin. When it comes to sharing that money municipalities for critical services, it remains stagnant. What action will you take to enable green bay and cities across our state to maintain and sustain Public Safety . You have one minute. Tim problems across the state are vast. Crime is up. School scores are down. The best decisions are made at the local level. People in county government, units of government, village president s, they are closest to the people. They hear the problems. We need to make sure there is ample funds at the local level to solve the problems. The bureaucracies in washington are vast. The bureaucracies in medicine need for leadership. Im going to mixer we have Adequate Funding for big problems. We will spend as much money as any governor, has on education, but spend it wisely. Right now, that is not happening we will have plenty of money for Law Enforcement because crime is surging across wisconsin. Everywhere i go from superior to kenosha, people are concerned about crime. I am going to provide bold leadership and we are going to get crime down and make sure Law Enforcement because the funds needed. The shared revenue formula, what would be your vision . Tim there is plenty of money in government, 43. 5 billion dollars spent every year. That is the taxpayers money. I am going to sit with the legislature and smart people like the lieutenant governor, make sure we come up with the right formulas and make sure there is funding for issues people in wisconsin are concerned about. At top of the list is inflation, crime, followed by education. Help is on the way. Governor, the question is specifically on formulas of shared revenue and what communities could expect. Gov. Evers shared revenue is a big deal in wisconsin. When i ran for office the first time, i made a pledge to municipalities across the state that we would increase share of revenue. I tried to do it in my first and second budgets, and they were reasonable things to do. And it was zeroed out. If you look at the last 10 years of shared revenue, that is the money that comes from wisconsin State Government and we send it out to municipalities. Every year, you see a zero, 80, as far as how much money was provided to our municipalities. The next budget, it is my top priority, 4 each year. That helps these people do the hard work, whether it is around crime, social services, you name it. They do the hard work and need the resources. The next question is from dr. Tim harris at Concordia University in milwaukee. Them a walking Neighborhood News Service had an article reporting the Milwaukee Police department seized 8076 guns from january 1, 2022 july 8 2022. Nearly half of those firearms came from several neighborhoods with northside zip codes. Given the adage, so goes milwaukee, so goes the state, how would you curb the illegal firearms . Gov. Evers i am going back to shared revenue because in order for those great people who work in milwaukee to do their work, they need the support financially from the state. Whether it is about training or any other things in the city of madison. That said, shared revenue will be increased by this administration. In addition, i am somebody that actually believes we have really thoughtful things we can do around guns universal background checks are one, red flag laws are another. Time and time again, the Marquette University poll asked the questions, 70 of the people of wisconsin said these are reasonable things we can do to provide safety in that arena. Lets do that. Lets bring people gather. Thats have this discussion and make some changes in wisconsin. Moderator your response . Tim thank you for the question about crime in milwaukee. At across the state, crime is rampant. Guns, i have a solution. But lets talk about crime. I spent a lot of time in the innercity in milwaukee. People tell me, why are you spending time on the Near North Side or south side of milwaukee . And i said it is because im going to be governor for long. Mill walkie has a problem and i am going to fix it. We are going to get crime down and scores up. We are going to provide opportunity for men and women that have no option but be on the streets. I was in wausau this week and spoke with officials at the Marathon CountySheriffs Department they told me 75 of recent homicides were stabbings. Those were not gun violence, it was knife violence. The left once always to take away guns. In a responsible gun owner. I will protect your Second Amendment rights. There is a followup question. 19 states have red flag laws. Universal background checks proposals did not make it out of legislative committee. What is your stance on the use of extreme Risk Protection orders and universal background checks . Tim here is a hypothetical example. A disgruntled ex could say, my ex is a hunter and has guns at home. It is a slippery slope read we need to uphold the constitution, and make sure lawabiding gun owners are not having the guns confiscated. I will be therefore responsible gun owners. We are going to have 600,000 deer hunters hit the woods in a few weeks. I love deer camp. But with millions of guns in wisconsin, we need to mixer sure responsible gun owners are not subject to having their guns taken away without due process because they have rights, and our constitution is at stake. Governor eve ors, your response on red flag laws and universal background checks . Gov. Evers i have supported both of those. They are reasonable. The Marquette University poll has hold on this issue many times, it is always 70 80 percent. Responsible gun owners dont have to worry about red flag laws because it will never be an issue for them. What we need to do is makes her that people who are making threats or thinking about hurting themselves, it has to go in front of a judge. We have to have lawenforcement people go in front of a judge when they make that request. That said, 70 80 of the people of wisconsin support this. Almost all the hunters have supported it also. Is it going to solve every problem . Of course not, no solution is going to do that. But it seems reasonable. The people of wisconsin want it. The will of the people is the law of the land. What about background checks . Gov. Evers i believe background checks should also be there. Universal background checks are just common sense. Just common sense. Now we go to our next questioner, victor from cvs 58 and Telemundo Wisconsin. Lets talk about this election process. Investigations and audits into the 2020 election hath found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Despite that, there are voters in wisconsin tonight who still believed the believe the 2020 election was stolen and it will result in officials taking things away. What is your plan to rebuild confidence in the state election process . Gov. Evers the last election was safe, secure, and there was not fraud. Honest to gosh, one reason people are concerned about it is that we have people like my opponent to continue to talk about massive fraud without any idea or any specifics. It was safe, fair, and we can have confidence in our elections. When someone talks about issues like this, they dont know if they are going to certify the president the present election, certification is something the governor does he need very specific way. When my opponent says, i am not sure, my legislature says that trump won, i dont want to sign that. That is part of the process. Voting rights are on this ballot. It is radical to say, fraud happened when it didnt happen. Tim to clarify, you need to go further than your question. There is a nonpartisan legislative commission that did find that illegal voting did happen in the last election. They found clerks were given illegal guidance by the Wisconsin Elections commission. I am a candidate today. I wish all Election Integrity issues were fixed in previous administrations. I will make sure that once i am governor, we never have questions again about Election Integrity. We will get these bills right, the bills that governor beavers vetoed governor have our governor evers vetoed. I will make sure that outsiders dont come in and take over our elections, that ballot targeting stops. And under my administration, we will never have questions and i will therefore certify any election after i am certified governor. Our data team is posting information about all these topics that you can read about, including fact exxon these issues. Our next questioner is frederica from pbs wisconsin. On the issue of abortion, please specify your position on access to abortion in wisconsin followed by the reversal of roe v. Wade, whether you favor criminalizing Abortion Pills in the malay people crossing state lines to get an abortion where it is legal refers to you, mr. Michels. I look forward tim i look forward to cleaning things up. Governor evers and the left have mischaracterized my position calling me a radical. I am prolife. The real radical is governor evers. He is for allowing abortion up the time of birth. He vetoed the born alive bill which would allow a doctor to murder a baby after birth. That is extreme. I am a common sense guy and i have listened to the people and will always listen to the people. I have said that if a ale is put before me from the legislature, which is a representation of the people, and it has an exception and it rate and in dust, that i would sign that. The stuff about if you are going to prohibit pills to come through the mail, if it is against the law and that is against the law. I am not against contraception. Mailorder pills, and also crossing state lines for legal abortions elsewhere . Tim i am a reasonable guy. People say you have a lot of common sense. That is something i will have to work out. I am not going to be this radical guy with checks at the border. Governor . Gov. Evers the bottom line is this. Women should have the ability and right to make decisions about their health care, including Reproductive Health care. And that includes abortion. My opponent is radical on this. And frankly, he is radical because it is not consistent with wisconsin values. We have had 50 years of roe v. Wade and it has worked in the state of wisconsin. We should go back there. But to think that we are in a position in wisconsin where we have a governor saying, we are going to criminalize abortion, throw doctors in jail and not have any exceptions for rape or incest, those positions taken by my opponent here are radical. They are not consistent with wisconsin values. Next question, amy dupont. I would like to talk about health care costs. According to the wisconsin hospitals association, 1. 1 billion in unpaid badger care patient costs are not covered by the state. So that 1. 1 billion dollars is then shifted to all wisconsin businesses and families. How would you reduce the reimbursement gap to Lower Health Care costs for all wisconsinites . Gov. Evers health care is a huge issue for everybody in this country and will continue to be. One of the ways we can make our Health System the best it could be, we could join a bunch of other states. Only 12 of us havent taken Medicaid Expansion or badger care expansion. And with those numbers, there are all sorts of republican governors who have gone along with this. We would be able to put good health care, good insurance, to 120 6000 people in wisconsin that dont have that good coverage whenever 26,000 126,000 people in wisconsin that dont have that good coverage. We have a lot of other issues in the state of wisconsin. Mr. Michels . Tim health care is important and we know that. At Michels Corporation, we provide Platinum Health care. If you take care of people, good things happen. And badger care and family care were started by governor tommy thompson, who has endorsed me. He had great vision and helped aliens of people. I am going to make sure there are adequate dollars for people so they can receive the health care that is needed. If we have people that have Proper Health care, they will be more productive. They will be able to get to work, help raise their family, be a member of the community. We need to make sure health care is therefore all. I will make sure the funding is available. I am not just a politician talking about it, i have done it and am going to do it as governor. Next question is from victor. Lets talk about conflict of interests. The wisconsin state statute says no state Public Officials may use their position to gain anything of substantial value for the private benefit of themselves or immediate family. Governor, you were expected to adhere to that. Mr. Michels, your Construction Company has done more than 1 billion worth of business with the state. Governor, have you adhered to that law and mr. Michels, how would you adhered to the law if elected governor . Tim every it michels as one every bid michels has done, we have provided a high quality project. I am going to completely divest from Michels Corporation. There will be no conflict of interest. I am a man of highest integrity, 12 years in the army, attaining the rank of major, selected to be commander of the honor guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. And the business that we helped grow, my brothers and i, from a few hundred to over 8000 a day, that doesnt happen without having integrity and firm leadership. I will do the right thing and the people of wisconsin have no concerns. Governor . Gov. Evers certainly i have met all the legal parameters for the governor the state wisconsin. I am a guy from plymouth who was a teacher, for gods sakes. There are not things that are problematic about this. I understand my opponent is going to be divesting, but i am sure they are going to continue to seek bids from the state of wisconsin. And i am not impugning his honesty, but how do we know how that is going to work . Do we need to change the process so that it isnt a problem . It is a problem with some people, i am not an expert, but i think it is going to look fishy . Our next question is Michelle Mccormick. According to the Wisconsin Department of revenue, our state has a projected Budget Surplus of 5 billion. Governor, what would you do with the money as governor . Gov. Evers thank you for the question. One of the reasons that amount of money is in our Rainy Day Fund and our surprise is because we did the right thing during the pandemic. We make sure that when we looked at revenue coming in during the pandemic, we saw people that worked at Small Businesses were suffering, farmers were suffering, our tourism industry, restaurants. So, we took 1 billion of the money that we received from the federal government, both the Trump Administration and biden administration, and we invested that. We had a good outcome and we have got the lowest unemployment ever and the highest number of people working ever. Our economy is strong. We need to use this for a 10 tax cut, get rid of the minimum markup law and provide tax credits. Moderator mr. Michels . Tim thank you. 58 billy dollars surplus is in the Rainy Day Fund. But the Evers Administration thinks that is a good thing. I think it is awful. The people of wisconsin were overtaxed by nearly 6 billion. We are going to do massive tax reform. I am but to put that money back into hardworking peoples pockets. That will stimulate our economy. This excess in taxes that some people think is good is wrong. There is a lot of need, but there is a 43. 5 billion annual state budget right now. We need businessmen who can do a proper analysis. We have 16 operating divisions at michels, do a deep dive monthly and formal review quarterly. I know how to make government deficient. You are paying too much in taxes, but help is on the way. Next question goes to dan hagan. Climate change is already affecting wisconsinites, i have reported on ojibwe people in northern wisconsin and their wild rice. How should wisconsin respond to a changing climate, one minute . Tim i was unaware of the wild rice problem. But you are tying it to climate change. I want a clean planet for my children, my future grandchildren. I want clean Drinking Water. I want to make sure everyone does the right thing. And at Michels Corporation, we are a green leader. We have an award from the dnr for our great environmental initiatives. Climate change, there is a lot of discussion about that. Has the temperature gone up . The temperature has fluctuated route the history of this world and we can say it happened because of mans actions in the last 100 years. But we should all be responsible like we are at Michels Corporation and do everything we can to make sure we have a healthy planet. The question was what would you do for wisconsin specifically . Tim as governor, i am going to be a bold leader and make sure we do all the right things. We are much work with the dnr. The dnr has a lot of problems, it is close to being broken. I know how to fix that. And we are going to make sure the people of wisconsin know that they are being taken care of and that we are going to take care of the environment. Governor . Gov. Evers instead of blah blah , i am going to talk about our state energy plan. It is working well in wisconsin. We have actually been able to increase solar in wisconsin, and it is not because people are for solar, clean energy necessarily. They just want the right thing to do. And it is cheaper. We are going to continue our efforts around solar and around mitigating climate change. I think i heard he doesnt believe in climate change. I do. It is making a difference. We are working with the ojibway on that issue with that dnr that is apparently so dysfunctional. That said, we are going to continue to make sure that the Clean Energy Plan is in place. And i am so pleased with the farmers of this state. They are working together, making sure their practices your time is up. Lets move on to amy dupont. Wisconsin has a lot of problems. Thousands of wisconsin milwaukee homes still get their water through led laterals lead laterals and thousands of families have been drinking bottled water for years because the water coming from their faucets is contaminated state dollars currently set aside to address these issues wont be enough to help everyone who needs help. How would you prioritize spending of the limited dollars sconce and had to provide safe water for the most wisconsinites . Gov. Evers we have been working on this problem for the four years i have been in office. It is an immense problem and we are making progress across the state. We recently just passed bills in the federal government is bringing in funding exactly for that. I have to talk about the issue of pfas. I heard my opponent slammed the dnr. The reason we cant get going on that is because of one member on the dnr board who was appointed by my predecessor. And he wont leave. And the senate wont approve my wellqualified candidate. That is crazy. It is going to take us another three years to set standards because one person has decided not to leave the dnr board. That is dysfunction. Tim great question, and i want to say that i am a Business Leader who understands this problem. I talked about 8000 employees we have at Michels Corporation, we are an infrastructure contractor. I understand replacing pipe. We put in over 4000 megawatts of renewable energy. We stand by what we do. But this pfas issue means bad actors did the wrong thing, businesses that will be held accountable. I am not going to let them off the hook. When they tried to leave the state or declare bankruptcy, im going to make sure there are remedies because clean Drinking Water is one of the primary roles of government. But if everyone has gone bankrupt and is gone, the state will step in to make sure the people of wisconsin have clean Drinking Water. Complex issues like this are worth reading more about and our data team is providing Additional Information on the wba website. Our next question is frederica. On education, tim michels says he is in favor of Universal School choice which would open private attendance to any tax pack to any student at taxpayer expense. Tony evers once 2 billion in taxpayer funding. Why should Wisconsin Fund parallel school systems, one private, one public . Tim the quick answer is because every parent is a taxpayer so they should all, equally, have the benefit of those tax dollars to benefit that tax dollars to educate the kids. The Education System is broken in wisconsin. Test scores continued to go down. The forward test, getting worse. The national test, the not the numbers continue to go down. Tony evers has been in education his whole life, you would think education would be going well under his leadership. But something has to change. Because we have nine schools in wisconsin where the reading comprehension score is zero. 60 of kids in our schools cannot read at the right level. I am going to do Universal School choice. It cant get any worse. It will get better because we are going to empower parents and we are going to stop this ert and get back to the abcs. Gov. Evers crt is not taught in our schools. Abcs are. Most parents teach them at home. We have 99 referendum issues this next election from 60 some School Districts in the state. They are saying we dont have enough money. If you think about public money, it is different here. In the state of connecticut, it costs 47,000 a year tuition. In wisconsin, Milwaukee Public Schools has 16,000. There is a big difference. We do need more resources. We need to make sure we have more special education money, Mental Health money, we need to make sure our Literacy Program is making top readers in the state. All these things can be done. Yes, i am going to increase the budget. We have a followup from frederica. Tim michels, you often say we need to stop the crt and get back to the abcs. The department of public corruption says Critical Race Theory is not being taught in wisconsin. What is your position of how the history of race should be taught in our schools, governor evers, one minute . Gov. Evers one thing that concerns me the most as a radical position is when you say, should we fund our schools more . That is the definition of insanity by my opponent. His plan right now is to take 40 of the funding away from our public schools. That is called defunding our public schools. Both of those are radical positions. They are not what the people of wisconsin want. I have run for office several times in wisconsin, and republican moms and dads and democratic moms and dads want Great Schools and that is what we are going to get. We need to make sure we have the resources to do this. As far as crt, it is not taught in our schools. I said that before. Maybe there have been discussions at the university level. Let me followup specifically. How should the history of race in our country be taught in our schools . Gov. Evers it absolutely can be. It has nothing to do with crt. Should we talk about the fact that japanese americans were interned in world war ii . Of course. We want to talk about that. We shouldnt be afraid about that. We are a strong state in a strong country. If we cant talk about eggs like that, we are in bad shape. Parents have a role in making those decisions, and teachers. We have always been able to figure this out. Tim we could talk all night about education. I am going to spend more money on education than any governor in the history of this state because education is so important for educating and training our future leaders of this state, future leaders of tv stations and restaurants and Construction Companies and nonprofits. Right now, they are being failed. How are we going to teach race . Get parents involved. Right now, parents are shown up parents show up at a School Board Meeting and they are given the stiff arm. Parents are screening right now. And i disagree that everything is being taught properly right now. Parents have shown me the stuff being taught to their kids at school and they are outraged. I am going to empower parents by having tuition dollars go with their sons and daughters go to the school of their choice, the tuition dollars that they pay taxes on. We are going to make education better for everyone in wisconsin. The question was how should the history of race taught in school . Tim i answered it. We are going to let parents decide, not woke educators. We are going to have parents teach that this is bad and this is good. We are going to do this right so we dont love the judgment of our future leaders so we dont cloud the judgment of future leaders. What is your detailed plan for crime revenge, mr. Michels . You have one minute. Tim crime went down in america from 30 years ago until two years ago. In the last two years, there has been a tremendous spike. It is a byproduct of the defund the police movement. We got to this crazy spot in america where les cops is better or police are bad. I have the endorsement of multiple police associations. They know that the governor evers association has provided weak leadership. Im going to stand with Law Enforcement because lawabiding citizens are fearful of the surging crime in wisconsin over the last two years. I am going to talk to the bad guys on Election Night in my victory speech and in my inaugural speech. There is a new sheriff in town and they are going to understand that if they are not willing to do the time, they shouldnt do the crime. Gov. Evers absolutely people should have the opportunity to be safe in their neighborhoods and homes. Absolutely we have to have that. But to accomplish that, it isnt about talking tough. It is about providing the resources so those officers can the job, and the Training Needs to happen. And we have put over 100 million into the milwaukee area other places in wisconsin for violence prevention, for local officers, Police Officers and emts. We have to make that happen in a consistent way and the only way we are going to do it is revenuesharing. Shared revenue is such an important thing. If we want our municipalities to do the hard work, they deserve to have the money. I am going to add 12 to the next budget for them. Wisconsin abolished pearl 20 is ago which means people convicted only before the year 2000 are eligible. That is 1700 people. It is up to the Wisconsin Parole Commission to grant discretionary parole. The governor appoints the chairperson. What factors do you want that chairperson consider when deciding whether eligible individuals should be released . You have one minute. Gov. Evers the governor does not control the parole board. They make those decisions. It is against the law for the governor to issue the roles issue paroles. I just fired the head of the commission for this very reason he did not take victim rights into account in one case, so i asked him to reverse that, he did. I asked him to resign, he did. Do we need to strengthen that . Absolutely. But the end of the day, it is going to be a record again. This is about shared issues. We have all sorts of issues in the criminal Justice System that need to be addressed. It is mostly done at the state level. I have tried to get shared revenue increased. We are going to make it happen this time. Shared revenue is what folks at the local level are asking for. Mr. Michels . Tim i want to tie that into the last two questions. We talked about crime and you heard more money, more resources, and it doesnt matter about leadership. I am going to talk tough and i am going to lead Law Enforcement. That is how you get crime down. On the issue of parole, same thing. Right now, governor evers made a pledge for years ago to cut in half the prison population. They released over 1000 convicted felons. They have about 10,000 more to go if you do the simple math. Of those, about 300 are convicted murderers or attempted murderers. 44 our child rapists. I will pick a chief parole commissioners who is going commissioner who is going to make sure we have the rule of law in wisconsin and lets the bad guys know they are not going to get out. Mr. Michels, if elected, what will your administration do to ensure the safety of wisconsinites during civil unrest, while assuring their First Amendment rights to assemble . Tim thank you. Great question. We saw the civil unrest, if you will, i think it was mamba mentality that hit kenosha two years ago. Hundreds of businesses were burned. I met with county leaders and they told me, we were doing everything we could. We were doing our part. The feds were doing their part. The county was doing their part. There was no leadership. It took 90 minutes to get from madison to kenosha. I would have been there in 90 minutes or less, making sure that our fourthlargest city in wisconsin didnt burn to the ground, that civil unrest didnt happen. I believe the governor called it civil disruption the other day. There is a big difference between peaceful protest and what we saw happen on tv in kenosha. It wont happen under a governor michels administration. Gov. Evers in kenosha, i did every single thing that was asked of me. From the get go, the first shot was fired. We had state cruisers stage crew prayers that we had state troopers coming in. We had local municipalities around kenosha to get them on board. And at 2 00 in the morning people need to know this the National Guard is only allowed to move if requested. Kenosha asked us at 2 00 in the morning. That same day, we had the National Guard there and we doubled it every day. If you want to know the truth about the situation instead of listening to my opponent, ask the Kenosha County sheriff, who is a republican. He said we did everything we needed to do. Frederica . This question is on the worker shortage. Sconce and has a Teacher Shortage na newburyport shows that by 2030, the state will see a decline of 130,000 workers, with young people in wisconsin leaving and not being replaced by people moving here. What is your prescription or attracting and retaining an adult retaining young adults to our workforce . Gov. Evers worker shortage is an issue. Most people are my age and when you get down into our kindergarten area, it is a lot less people you have to and i had. One thing we need to do is make sure we have some several discussions across wisconsin. Politics are difficult here and across our country. I am committed to that. But that said, we spent a fairmont of money, 100 million during the pandemic, allowing local people to think through what they should be doing locally in order to make sure they dont have a worker shortage. They came up with a great idea about upskilling people for advanced manufacturing. Other people are going to be putting Affordable Housing up, making childcare more affordable. Those are things we need to do. Tim everywhere i go across wisconsin, from kenosha to superior, lacrosse to sheboygan, i hear about the help wanted science. Employers are telling me about it, manufacturers are telling about it. Number one, we are going to get people off their couches and back to work. We created a class of lazy people during covid and it is time to get them engaged in our economy and stop sending them unemployment checks in covid subsidy checks. That is how they got lazy. Second, with this tax reform i talked about, we are going to make wisconsin a more attractive place to live. Students that are getting out of college are going to want to stadia. Military members are going to want to come back or relocate to wisconsin because it is a great state raise a family. And we have a great work ethic. Lets go now to victor. There are approximately 75,000 undocumented immigrants in wisconsin, as well as 7000 recipients of the deferred action for childhood allowance program, referred to as daca. Would you support drivers licenses are instate tuition for daca residents . Tim we need to make sure our border is secure. No nation can be sovereign if we have a leaking border. 3 million Illegal Immigrants have come into this country in the 20 months of the biden administration. I am all for more immigrants in wisconsin, we need more. I just talked about helpwanted signs everywhere. But we need to get them here illegally. This is a federal issue. We should expand the federal immigration plan so that the people who want to come on what come to america can pursue their American Dream and then america has the opportunity to make sure bad guys arent coming across the border seeking an opportunity for more crime, like we are seeing with gangs. Yeah, i want to make sure we have more workers, but we cannot reward bad they. And no driver license for illegals. Gov. Evers we cant battle the issue of lazy wisconsinites when we have so few people that are unemployed. Lets go to the next question. It is critical and shows the differences between the two people here. We have 70,000 people, undocumented in the state of wisconsin. Most of them are working hard, whether in our factories, our agriculture area. If we dont do something, if those people were to leave the agriculture industry, would no longer be the dairy state, folks. We depend on that labor. We need to be able to say to them, you should be able to have a drivers license. It will be safer because they will have to take a test. In addition, daca kids should get instate tuition. That is the least we can do. This is a 32nd question, victor. 30second question, victor. In november, do you commit to respect the outcome of this Gubernatorial Election and acknowledge it as fair and final . Gov. Evers yes. Absolutely. That is my job as governor. I certify the election last time. Information came in from all those hardworking people at the local districts across the state. Frankly, we owe them our thanks. Yes, i did it last night. No matter who wins, my opponent or me, i will certify that election. Absolutely. Tim i will certify the next election. Radical conspiracy theories about republicans that wont certify an election i spent 12 years of active duty. I swore to uphold and defend the constitution. I am going to certify the next election but i want to make sure after i am governor that we are not having these conversations for years from now four years from now. I am going to make sure no one in wisconsin ever has another question about Election Integrity. We have time for one final question and you will get 90 seconds. Our last question is our cleanup question. Dan . During this debate, you have heard things said about you that you think are plain wrong. We want to give you a chance to set the record straight. What has been said about you that you want to knock down, mr. Michels . Tim the other side spent tens of millions of dollars trying to characterize me as radical and irresponsible. That is anything but the truth. One of them is that we have a bad culture at Michels Corporation. There has been five sexual allegations over the 62year history of our company and zero have been found to be true. We have a tremendous culture of respect, for women, minorities, everybody. Ask anyone that works at michels. We have 8000 employees with spouses and nieces and nephews. They will tell you what a tremendous culture we have. We are trying to throw one of wisconsins greatest businesses under the bus for political gain. That is one of the big differences in this election. Are we going to elect people that have done real things in life . People that have made payroll, made tough decisions, have actually made jobs actually created jobs, not just talked about it. I have created thousands of union jobs and know how to get things done. The governor Evers Administration wants to blame others and talk about more money, it is the legislatures fault, the parole commissioners fault. I am a leader that will take responsibility and a man of integrity and we will have a better wisconsin for generations. Governor . Gov. Evers they keep saying that i sleep too late. I get up early just like any other human that is working hard for the people of wisconsin. Going to bed late, getting up early, they say i spend too much time sleeping. It is a bunch of crap. Our economy in wisconsin is strong. We are strong because of wisconsinites. We have been able to fix the roads. We have been able to provide resources for our public tools. We have cut taxes public schools. We have cut taxes by 15 and brought Small Businesses to every corner of wisconsin, over 6000 right now, heading to 7000. We are going to continue doing the right thing Going Forward and we have much to continue to be strong. This november, we are going to be making a huge choice in wisconsin. It is about continuing to do the right thing and being a strong wisconsin or going backwards because we have chosen a governor who, on issue after issue, on abortion, voting rights, education, radical solutions that are going to hurt our state. Folks, thanks to the broadcasters for doing this great work tonight. Thank you, i hope i have your vote this november. Moderator thank you, governor. Thank you, mr. Michels. I would like to thank amy dupont, frederica, dan hagan, dr. Tim harris, victor from milwaukee and Telemundo Wisconsin statewide and Michelle Mccormick from green bay. We covered the state. We think our Data Team Members working behind the scenes. And we want to tell you these Research Materials can be found at the wba website and social media accounts. Thanks to jonathan from appleton, james langa madison and giuliana from madison. Thank you for joining us for tonight debate. This debate has been sponsored by our wba foundation to throw ground from the Wisconsin Association of independent colleges and universities and the wisconsin county association. Our sincere thanks to the radio and tv stations who Work Together to produce this broadcast. To our candidates, our moderator, our panelists, our data team, as always wba member stations will be on duty to bring you the results. Election day is tuesday, november 8. Exercise your right as an american and vote