Evers is gonna grab those billions and do something with them

I knew Governor Evers would laugh at the gerrymandered GOP Legislature's plans to sabotage have oversight of the billions of stimulus dollars heading to Wisconsin. But I am impressed by how fast he put out a plan for how to use the money.

Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday he will spend $2.5 billion in federal relief funding to help Wisconsin's economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic governor delivered the news at a Milwaukee cafe just before he vetoed a bill that would have given that decision-making power over billions coming to Wisconsin through the federal American Rescue Plan to Republicans who control the state Legislature....

He said he was vetoing Senate Bill 183 "to make sure once we get the guidance we need from the federal government, we can work to get these funds out quickly and make sure they don’t get tied up in some political fight in the legislature."

Evers didn’t spell out how he would spend all of the $3.2 billion he will have control of but said $2.5 billion of it would be used to help businesses, with $600 million going toward Wisconsin businesses and $50 million going to the tourism industry. The rest of the spending for business remains undefined.

With the remaining money, $500 million would go to the continued pandemic response efforts and $200 million would go to infrastructure, including broadband internet expansions.

In looking at the release from Evers' office, it doesn't go into too much more detail but says it will "build on" the We're All In program that used CARES funds to give targeted relief to small businesses, particularly in hard-hit areas such as restaurants and lodging.

The infrastructure part is interesting, because it indicates that Evers is not going to wait around for this Summer, when the Dem-run Congress and President Biden plan to get their own infrastructure package done. It also could take the place of spending more state funds on infrastructure at the state level to help Wisconsin close a significant gap in broadband access and speed.

But what I also like about this move is that is jumps ahead of lawsuits that Robbin' Vos and other WisGOPs have threatened to file to try to take control of those billions from DC. Good luck having WisGOP try to pull funds that have already gone out to Wisconsin businesses and indviduals, and then try to say they're doing to....grab power and deliberate? And that they know better than our governor and the business owners that are getting the block grants?

You go with that, guys. We see what your real goal is, because you need things to go badly in Wisconsin in order for the GOP to win in 2022.