Gov. Scott Walker
The governor is defending against criticism that Republicans have restricted local control over the last five years.
A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo released this week shows the Republican-controlled Legislature has passed 128 measures since 2011 that either place unfunded mandates or restrict decision making by local governments.
Assistant Assembly Democratic Leader Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) said the list of bills include many that have tied the hands of local lawmakers and “pass the buck onto them” through unfunded mandates. “From restricting county shoreland zoning ordinances passed by county boards, to banning municipal governments from passing container ordinances that make sense for the well-being of their community, legislative Republicans repeatedly used their majority in a blatant government overreach,” she said.
During a stop in Eau Claire Friday, Republican Governor Scott Walker noted that many of those measures were about lowering property taxes and returning the ultimate local control to taxpayers. “I’m proud of the fact that we ensure that property taxpayers have seen their property taxes go down, so they’re lower today than they were five years ago.”
AUDIO: Gov. Scott Walker responds to the LFB memo (1:04)
Walker also noted that many of the bills passed with bipartisan support, although Shankland pointed out that 80 of the measures actually had no Democrats voting for them when they cleared the Legislature.
WAYY contributed to this report.