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Senate Republicans reject Kaepernick’s name in Black History Month resolution

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The Wisconsin Legislature’s Black History Month resolution moved to the state Senate floor on Wednesday. An amended version offered by Democrats included the name of former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick.

On Tuesday, Republicans in the Assembly removed Kaepernick’s name from the resolution drafted by the Legislature’s Black Caucus.

Milwaukee Democrat, Senator Lena Taylor, said the nation sees an historic moment in Wisconsin. “See you take us back, to a time where African-Americans had to have permission to speak, to read, to think, to what they should think.”

Senate Republicans toed the line,voting to table the amended resolution after Democrats spoke on it for more than three hours.

The former San Francisco 49’er brought attention to police brutality against African-Americans by kneeling during the National Anthem prior to games. Taylor pointed out that he’s also donated more than a millions dollars of his own money to organizations around the nation, including in his native Milwaukee.

Assembly Black History Month resolution deletes Kaepernick

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A Black History Month resolution almost failed to pass the Wisconsin Assembly on Tuesday. A proposed resolution from the Legislature’s Black Caucus honored a number of individuals. But at least one of those names apparently triggered some white Republicans.

“I think the biggest one was Colin Kaepernick,” for obvious reasons,” Majority Leader Jim Steinke said in comments prior to the start of Tuesday’s floor debate.

Milwaukee Representative LaKeshia Myers, on the Assembly floor later, said she and other Black Democrats thought the Wisconsin-born Kaepernick deserved to included in the resolution.

“He decided to take on ownership of a problem that he saw, which was police brutality,” Myers said.

AUDIO: Rep. LaKeshia Myers (:30)

The chamber ended up unanimously passing a resolution with Kaepernick’s name deleted. Myers later asked the Assembly Chief Clerk to change her vote on the resolution.

“To support the watered down version of this resolution would mean supporting the suppression of the African-Americans fundamental right to support injustice,” Myers said in a statement. Madison Representative Chris Taylor tweeted that she was also changing her vote.

Assembly passes GOP tax break bill

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Republicans in the state Assembly have passed a middle-class tax cut that’s at odds with Governor Tony Evers, who has his own tax cut plan.

The GOP bill uses a state surplus to fund a ten percent middle class tax cut. Evers plan, which he’ll introduce as part of his state budget proposal, uses some of that surplus, but also caps a manufacturing tax credit. Republicans call that a jobs killer.

“I can’t understand how we could possibly use up all of the surplus for this, and then ignore the rest of the budget,” Evers said Tuesday.

The Assembly passed the measure 61-33, with all Republicans for it and all Democrats against it.

State legislators spar over controversial UW-Madison course on Trump presidency

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There’s dueling viewpoints from the Assembly over a UW-Madison professor’s modern politics course.

The course syllabus says Trump “gleefully flouts the norms of governing” and describes a number of scandals he’s involved in.

Assemblyman Dave Murphy says the wording could have been better. “The syllabus was somewhat over the top, and I’m somewhat concerned about how it would affect students and their feelings about taking the course.” 

Murphy says he’s working for his constituents in raising concerns over the education of students. “They pay taxes that go to the University to fund this. They have a right to be heard and we have a right to say something about this.”

Democrat Assemblyman Jimmy Anderson says this is a perfect example of the sort of protected free speech that Republicans championed last session, and they have no room to complain. “I hope that in the future Representative Murphy and Speaker Vos take more careful consideration when they are selectively applying what they determine to be free speech.” 

“[They] made a big showing of saying how important is that we have free speech on campuses, and that we allow our students and professors to be able to speak their minds, and it struck me odd that we were now criticizing a professor for doing exactly that.”

Assemblyman Dave Murphy says his concerns were over the wording of the syllabus, and that he doesn’t have any desire to change the nature or content of the course.

Senator Baldwin seeks end to government shutdown

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The long federal shutdown is putting the squeeze on Americans, and Senator Tammy Baldwin wants it to end.

She says this sort of dysfunction can’t last forever. “There are a lot of Americans, including federal government workers that live paycheck to paycheck, and I’ve been hearing, as a Senator, from a number of those folks who are in crisis already.”

She says the shutdown hurts everyone, and not just the families of government employees. “Think if both income earners work for the federal government and aren’t getting paid. We’ve heard from families in that regard, but people who are served by these agencies may also be in crisis.”

House Democrats have passed a number of bills trying to reopen the government, but the Republican led Senate has refused to take them up for a vote.

Assembly Republicans propose middle class tax cut

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Speaker Robin Vos

Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature are pitching a middle class tax cut, one that puts them at odds with Democratic Governor Tony Evers.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Thursday that it will be paid for from the state budget surplus. “We actually have this huge surplus that’s been generated, and rather than allowing it to stay in Madison and be spent on growing government, we’d prefer to keep Tony Evers’ campaign promise and make sure that we have an opprtunity to do a middle class tax cut,” Vos said.

Vos and Assembly Republicans held a press conference at the Capitol on Thursday. Other members of the Assembly GOP caucus held similar press conferences in Wausau, Green Bay and La Crosse. In Wausau, state Representative Pat Snyder said he
doesn’t think that using surplus funds will be an issue as long as business growth continues. “I want to keep that momentum going, and with that momentum going, we’ll see surpluses every year.”

Governor Tony Evers

Evers campaigned on a tax cut which he’d proivide by scaling back a tax break for farmers and manufacturers. “Why jeapordize what has brought us to this point of prosperity by undoing a tax cut that has brought us to today,” State Representative John Nygren said.

An Evers spokeswoman said the Republican plan falls short of what the governor has proposed.

The governor’s sustainable plan to cut taxes for middle-class families-which is funded by rolling back tax giveaways for millionaires-would provide relief for 86 percent of taxpayers without adding to the deficit or relying on one-time funds.
In contrast, Speaker Vos’ spending plan continues to grow. Between this unfunded proposal, their refusal to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid, and growing legal fees for outside counsel to defend their lame-duck laws, Republicans are willing to leave taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Under the Republican proposal, couples filing jointly and making between $60,000 and $70,000 would see the largest average decrease – $311.

Governor Evers promises to continue push for Medicaid expansion

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Wisconsin’s new governor says he’s going to fight for Medicaid expansion despite the protests of the Republican majority in the legislature.

Governor Tony Evers says it’s an issue that touches every community in the state. “Every small town in Wisconsin has some facility that’s healthcare related. Whether it’s a clinic, whether it’s a small hospital, whether it’s a doctor’s office.”

He says he has got the backing of both the people of the state and the medical field. “The people that are using the facilities and work in those facilities support our position on that.”

Evers says the expansion will help people across Wisconsin get the health coverage they need. “I understand that they said that it’s a non-starter. We’re not going to, you know, burn the Capital down, We’re going to disagree. If that is their position, than we will disagree.”

Evers met with all of the Legislative caucuses on Tuesday in order to present his goals for the session.

 

Walker signs ‘lame duck’ bills in Green Bay

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Governor Walker has signed all of the bills curtailing the powers of the incoming governor that were passed in lame duck session earlier this month.

Governor Walker’s office announced Friday morning that he would be in Green Bay at noon today to take action on those bills, and then signed them in their entirety with no line item vetoes.

Walker had suggested earlier this week that he might use the veto, but declined to do so. He also waited to sign this bills until after putting together a deal for Kimberly Clark, using powers that would be stripped from the Governor in the bills.

Walker said that Governor-Elect Tony Evers will continue to enjoy some of the strongest powers of any governor in America, including having the line item veto.

The outgoing Republican governor used a Venn diagram to illustrate the continuity of the powers he employed for eight years, and those available to Evers.

There are a number of changes that the bills bring to the executive branch. Evers will not have the power to decide the head of the board of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation until 2019. Evers has campaigned on dissolving the board and rebuilding the state commerce department.

Under the new laws, the executive branch will also have to get permission from the Joint Finance Committee before making changes to medical assistance and insurance programs that require federal waivers. Republicans recently won the right to require single adults without dependant to be employed while receiving state aid.

The state attorney general’s office will also have to ask permission from the legislative Joint Finance Committee before entering or leaving lawsuits over state statutes. Republicans have worried that incoming attorney general Josh Kaul would pull out of defenses of the state’s voter ID law or it’s legal challenges against the Affordable Care Act.

The bills also restrict early voting to two weeks. In statements to the media at the signing, Walker said that he likes early voting but that it needs to be fair, and that allowing large cities like Milwaukee and Madison to have up to 6 weeks of early voting is unfair to residents in other parts of Wisconsin. A measure like this one has already been thrown out by a federal judge as being discriminatory in nature.

 

Governor Walker says he’s ready to sign lame duck bills

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Governor Walker is now deciding how, and not if, he’ll be signing lame duck legislation passed last week that curtails the powers of incoming Governor elect Tony Evers.

Walker indicated at a Pewaukee press conference that his staff is deciding how best to sign those bills, and if changes need to be made.

“Right now it’s most likely that we’ll probably do a series, at least one if not multiple, line item vetoes, is what we’re looking at most closely.”

He says that Democrats and the media have been inflating the impact the bills will have. 

“I could veto everything, I could sign it all, or I could do a line item veto. No matter which of those three options I do, Tony Evers come January 7th, will have some of the strongest powers of any governor in America.”

Walker has not yet officially received the bills from the Legislature. 

‘Lame duck’ laws likely to be litigated

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Speaker Robin Vos (WRN file photo)

There could be legal challenges, to portions of the Republican “lame duck” legislative agenda. “Everything’s on the table to stop this pernicious attack on our democracy, said state Representative Chris Taylor, a Madison Democrat. “I think absolutely there are probably going to be some legal challenges.”

Under provisions of Republican legislation passed by the extraordinary session, lawmakers will have the ability to hire their own attorneys to file litigation for the state, a role previously taken by the attorney general.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he’s not worried. “I believe, and the advice that I have been given is, everything that we have done has been within the bounds of the constitution, and I think it will be found that way. But of course they have the right, that’s our process.”

Incoming attorney general Josh Kaul predicts Republican efforts to restrict the power of the AG’s office will end up in court. “Probably there will be multiple litigations that result from this, maybe in multiple courts,” he said. “And one of the impacts of this is that the state is going to be mired in litigation in 2019.”

In additions to the changes to the attorney general’s role, Republican lawmakers would gain full control of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and the Legislature could block the new governor’s ability to write new regulations.