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Budget drops state funding for World Dairy Expo venue

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World Dairy Expo in Madison (File photo: Andrew Beckett)

A high profile project in Madison will have to advance without state funding. In March, Governor Tony Evers announced $30-million in his proposed capital budget, towards redevelopment at Dane County’s Alliant Energy Center. It’s the main facility for the World Dairy Expo each year.

But this week Republicans on the legislature’s budget panel eliminated that money. A disappointed Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said: “The state has always recognized the importance of the Alliant Energy Center to the entire state, and particularly to our ag community.”

Parisi said World Dairy Expo has a statewide impact, and attracts many visitors to Wisconsin. “We’ve been responsible for the debt service for 20 years on the center. The new pavilion, which is responsible for keeping World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin, has been a partnership between the state and Dane County.”

Among the $600 million requested by Governor Tony Evers that Republicans cut from state building budgets this week — included the redevelopment funds for the center.

The county had planned to raise an additional $47-million for improvements at Alliant. Parisi said that will be difficult absent the state funding.

Republicans complete work on state bduget

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Democrat lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee vigorously opposed the Republican plan for tax cuts, as the budget panel concluded it’s work on Thursday. State Representative Chris Taylor said the budget should show Wisconsinites that the GOP cares more about big business than average citizens.

“You all have raised taxes on low and middle income working people by reducing the earned income tax credit and reducing the homestead tax credit. That’s what you’ve done.”

The total tax cut is less than half the size of the Democrats plan, but Governor Evers wanted to raise taxes on businesses to pay for lower income tax breaks.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he’s optimistic that Governor Tony Evers will not veto the two year state budget. Vos spoke at a media briefing on Thursday, during which he contrasted the final JFC package with Evers’ originally proposed “Peoples Budget.”

“What did Governor Evers say, fix the damn roads? We’re doing that. What did he say, make sure we have a budget than can help children? We’re doing a kid friendly plus budget. He said make sure that we have the ability to take care of the most vulnerable. We’re doing that without expanding welfare. And we have enough resources left over that we prioritized a very large tax cut, that’s going to help every single family that pays taxes in the state.”

The GOP plan — including that $457 million tax cut over two years — now goes to the full legislature for consideration. Evers may then veto portions of it — or all of it.

Evers vetoes loom as work on budget wraps up

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As work on the state budget wraps up, talk of vetoes looms large. “I think you’re obviously going to see partial vetoes for sure,” Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz said on Monday. “The extent of those remains be seen. But I think we’re a long way off from what was proposed from the governor.

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Republicans on the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee have spent weeks taking a scalpel — some would say a cleaver — to the budget proposed by Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who has the ability to make partial vetoes. The governor also could veto the entire JFC spending plan, if he so chooses.

“He’s not going to get everything he wants, we’re not going to get everything we want,” said Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke. “He’s going to make some partial vetoes. If he chose to veto the entire budget, I’m telling you he’d be making a huge mistake.” Steinke said vetoing the entire budget would leave municipalities and school districts unable to plan for their own budgets. He and Hintz were guests on WHBY’s “Fresh Take” program on Monday morning.

Speaking with reporters following an event in Madison on Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said if Evers vetoes entire state budget, the Legislature will not come back to take up a veto override until October. By state statute, if a biennial budget is not signed by the start of fiscal year on July 1, spending levels set in the previous two year budget remain in place.

The Joint Committee on Finance is scheduled to complete its work on the budget on Thursday.

Kaul joins lawsuit opposing merger of T-Mobile and Sprint

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Wisconsin has joined a lawsuit to block the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.  Alleging it is anticompetitive and will drive-up prices for consumers, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined 8 states and the District of Columbia in filing a lawsuit to halt the proposed merger of the telecom companies.

The complaint, filed in New York federal court in coordination with California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. alleges that the merger of two of the four national mobile network operators would deprive consumers of the benefits of competition and drive up prices for cellphone services.

Women’s Suffrage Centennial Celebration at the Capitol

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At the Capitol, a celebration of Wisconsin’s status as the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, 100 years ago. Former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch noted that women have taken full advantage of the right to vote. “Since the 1980s, women have outnumbered men at the polls. Women today are 53% of the electorate.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley urged young women to learn from the stories of women in the suffrage movement, by voting and getting involved in the political process.

Comments from state Sheila Stubbs of Madison and Stockbridge Munsee Mohican Band President Shannon Holsey served as a reminder that women of color were largely excluded from the suffrage movement. State Representative Jesse Rodriguez said women also gained other rights, from keeping the wages they earned to having custody of their children. “A lot was on the line, and I’m glad that women led the effort, and didn’t falter.”

The event in the rotunda on Monday included a display of the original document that was ratified by the Wisconsin legislature.

Pride flag flies over Wisconsin Capitol

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Governor Tony Evers has ordered the rainbow pride flag to be flown over the Wisconsin state Capitol for the first time.

Evers on Friday issued an executive order to fly the rainbow flag over the Capitol for the remainder of June in recognition of “Pride Month.” It will fly over the east wing of the Capitol, where the governor’s office is located.

GOP Senators propose roads funding package

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A group of Republican state Senators propose a roads funding plan. The $133 million proposal comes as the Joint Finance Committee is set to consider transportation funding on Thursday. It includes giving each county $1 million, and towns $1,000 per mile for their roads. “They’ve been falling behind for a long time, and I believe this is a way for them to catch up, and level the playing field a bit,” said Senator Howard Marklein.

Jerry Deschane with the League of Wisconsin of Municipalities noted that there’s nothing for cities and villages. “We’re glad they’re talking about specific solutions, we look forward to working with them on a solution that’s more fair. he said. “Right now towns get roughly 40 percent of their road costs covered by the state. In cities and villages they get roughly sixteen percent.”

The plan uses one time money from an anticipated state budget surplus. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald called it “a laudable idea” but one that should be considered outside the state transportation budget.

Agencies partner in health care outreach initiative

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Two state agencies are partnering to help people access health care. Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said the joint effort with the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance will reach out, to some 290,000 thousand uninsured Wisconsin adults. “Shift workers, direct care workers, child care workers. These are the folks that end up falling through the gaps when we as a team . . . are not focused on making sure that those folks are accessing the care that they are eligible for.”


The goal is to inform more people aware of their options with BadgerCare or through the private insurance marketplace. “A major piece of this initiative is the education, and making the options available of coverage,” said Insurance Commissioner Mark Afable

Palm and Afable announced the partnership in a Capitol press conference on Monday, with Governor Tony Evers. Evers said he’ll continue to advocate for Medicaid expansion in Wisconsin. “Seventy percent of the people in the state have indicated in the most recent poll that they favor Medicaid expansion. We’re going to continue to fight for that.”

The legislature’s budget panel has removed a provision from Evers’ budget proposal, to accept $1.6 billion in new federal funding for Medicaid expansion in Wisconsin. Joint Finance Committee co-chair John Nygren, opposed to accepting the money, has said that expanding Medicaid is the same as expanding welfare, and not the right path to increase access and affordability.

Evers tells state Democrats he’s not boring

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Governor Tony Evers served notice, at the weekends’s state Democratic party convention in Milwaukee. Evers said that he and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnws were pegged during the camapaign as “boring”

“A lot of us have said that about me. We’re boring,” Evers told delegates. “And you know what we said to that? The hell with it.”

Evers told delegates at the Potowatomi Casino and Convention Center that’s there’s nothing boring about standing up for the people of Wisconsin. Republicans continue to take apart Evers’ budget proposals. “I have the most powerful veto in the nation, and to them I say, who is boring now?”

The new chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin said said his first order of business will be to get the party more engaged with expanding Medicaid in Wisconsin. Evers proposed budget included a provision to accept federal money through the Affordable Care Act to expand the program. Republicans have pulled that provision from the budget.

Ben Wikler told delegates in Milwaukee over the weekend that “Republicans are on the wrong side of history.” Wikler, who defeated state Representative David Bowen, said he personally called every delegate as he campaigned for the job that was vacated by outgoing chair Martha Laning.

Drunk driving bills clear Assembly committee vote

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Two bills related to drunk driving were approved by a state Assembly committee on Thursday. One of the measures from Mequon Republican, Representative Jim Ott, requires first-time drunk driving offenders to appear in court rather than simply paying a fine.

“Maybe standing in front of a judge would have enough of an impact on them that they say ‘you know what, I don’t ever want to do this again,'” Ott said Thursday.

The other bill establishes a minimum five year prison term for those convicted of causing a death by drunk driving. “Many times judges sentence appropriately,” Ott said, but noted that’s not always the case. “The worst case I heard was 11 months in jail for killing someone while drunk>”

Ott noted that in 2015, the most recent year for which we have statistics, the DOT reports 190 people died in drunk driving crashes. That’s more than one every two days