UPDATE (WKOW) -- In his first budget as governor, Tony Evers tried to pass a medical marijuana provision that ultimately failed.
Now two years later he's going even further by pushing for full recreational legalization, treating the drug like alcohol.
"It is refreshing to have a leader who hears the voices of the people of the state of Wisconsin and is inserting those values and those voices into his policy," Senator Melissa Agard, D-Madison, said.
She has long been a proponent of legalization in the state legislature.
Governor Evers pointed to a 2019 Marquette Law School poll showing that 59 percent of voters approve of full legalization.
"It feels like the only place where this is a partisan issue is under the Capitol dome here in the city of Madison," Sen. Agard.
In Evers's proposal, he projected that legalization would bring $165 million in revenue that he hoped to reinvest into communities by supporting equity grants and small and rural schools.
That number is not far off from what other states are seeing.
In Illinois, where cannabis has been legal since January of 2020, their Department of Revenue reports $152 million in tax revenue.
"It is vitally important that we learn from these lessons, and we take that revenue, and we take the opportunity to create that revenue to lift up Wisconsin's citizens as well as Wisconsin's entrepreneurs and businesses and farmers," Sen Agard said.
Republicans in 2019 rejected Governor Evers's first attempt at medical marijuana legalization before the bill even reached the floor saying it paved the way for recreational use.
Speaker Robin Vos said in a statement then "I'm open to medical marijuana when it's prescribed by a doctor, but it has to be done in a targeted way without allowing recreational use."
27 News reached out to Republican leaders Sunday, but we have not heard back.
Governor Evers's plan would only allow the sale of marijuana grown in Wisconsin, to support farmers.
Senator Agard hopes legalization will bring many benefits including stopping racial disparities in possession arrests.
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