The governor’s office has rescheduled a bill-signing ceremony, following a complaint from the measure’s Republican authors. Governor Tony Evers will sign legislation co-authored by Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Senator Howard Marklein and Representative Mark Born on Thursday.
In a press release on Tuesday, the lawmakers accused Evers of a “blatant political move to purposely exclude us from the bill signing” originally scheduled for Wednesday, while the budget panel holds a public hearing in Waukesha.
In a statement, Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said the governor’s office doesn’t “spend every waking minute obsessing over ways to irritate Republicans in the Legislature,” and that Marklein and Born could have just picked up the phone to request a rescheduling.
“Our office often works with legislators to adjust and accommodate scheduling preferences as we are able and as the governor’s availability permits—had either of the co-chairs decided to pick up the phone to simply ask us to do so in this situation before issuing a press release, we would have.”
Assembly Bill 28 provides the option of protective status classification for county jailers.