Gov. Tony Evers calls for special session to tackle farm crisis during State of the State address

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MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Governor Tony Evers delivered his State of the State address Wednesday night. 

It comes after the first year in more than a decade where the state's governor was not the same party as the Legislature. 

Gov. Evers pointed out that he was able to work with republican lawmakers on a lot of policy. But some of his high-profile proposals were shot down, and he's hoping to turn that around in 2020.

Whether it was guns, abortion, taxes or marijuana, Gov. Evers couldn't come together with lawmakers on many of his positions in 2019. But the former state superintendent says they were able to compromise on items like educations. 

"Although the budget I signed did not include my proposed $1.4 billion for our kids, we still provided the largest increase in general aid to Wisconsin schools in more than a decade," Evers said. 

Moving forward, Evers called for a task force on student debt. He also called for a special session next week in an attempt to increase dairy exports, help small and medium-sized farms and create a mental health program for farmers. 

"We're going to set a goal of increasing Wisconsin's dairy exports to 20-percent of the United States' milk supply by 2024," he said. 

The governor also repeated his pleas to republican lawmakers to draw new legislative election maps and legalize medical marijuana. So far he hasn't gotten much traction on either. 

"The people who work in this building, who sit in these seats and who drive the policies for our state, should not be able to ignore the people who sent us here."

But Evers says 95-percent of bills he did pass last year had bipartisan support. He also pushed for bipartisan issues like addressing youth vaping, investing in rural communities and cleaning state water.

"As I stand here today and we turn to face the horizon of the coming decade, I have never been more hopeful about us, Wisconsin," he said. And it is up to us to decide what kind of state we will be in ten years from now."

Evers will have his work cut out for him with some of these proposals. 

Republican leadership has signaled they plan on finishing their work for the year by the end of next month.

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