Evers promotes state budget and PFAS relief during stop at Bangor area farm

Gov. Tony Evers signed off on a two-year spending plan Wednesday after gutting a Republican tax cut and using his broad veto powers to increase school funding for centuries.

Evers angered Republicans with both moves, with some saying the Democratic governor was going back on deals he had made with them.

Assembly speaker Robin Vos said Evers reinstated liberal “tax and spend” policies that Republicans have tried to get rid of. While visiting a farm near Bangor on Wednesday, the governor responded to the claim from Vos that a deal was broken.

“He’s wrong,” said Evers. “We made no deals about levels of funding or anything else. The only thing that we’ve done is what went into that deal around making sure that shared revenue was in place.”

Speaking with reporters at the Everson Family Farms along Highway 16, the governor said Wednesday was “kind of a big day,” because he signed a budget that would increase funding for communities and for children’s education.

Evers also commented on a new government study which says nearly half the drinking water in the U.S. contains the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, that could cause cancer and other health problems. PFAS pollution has been at a high enough level on French Island that families there have been using bottled water for two years, instead of water from their own wells. Evers wants companies that produce PFAS to help solve the
problem.

The study by the U.S. Geological Survey studied water samples taken over a five-year period from homes, schools, and offices in hundreds of locations around America.