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GAB lawsuit in court

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A court hearing will be held in Waukesha today on a lawsuit filed against the state elections’ agency over the review of recall petitions. Governor Scott Walker’s campaign and the head of the state GOP want to force the Government Accountability Board to eliminate false and duplicate signatures from recall petitions, without making a complaining party point them out first.

Circuit Judge Mac Davis is not expected to make an immediate ruling. But he could decide today whether to let other groups join the lawsuit.

A petition drive to recall the Republican governor ends next month, and Walker’s campaign says it should not be up to them to find improper petition signatures.

Board director Kevin Kennedy has said the law presumes the signatures are valid if they’re dated and have a Wisconsin address. Kennedy says a more detailed review would require a change in the law and a lot more resources.

Letter raises Family Care questions

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Governor Scott Walker on Wednesday announced plans for an $80 million expansion of the state’s Family Care program and the end to an enrollment cap. Governor Walker says the move became possible after the state worked with providers to find cost efficiencies in the program, which was set up to help elderly Wisconsinites receive long term care at home instead of in nursing homes.

However, a letter released later in the day shows federal officials had recently ordered the state Department of Health Services to remove the cap. The letter dated December 13th directs the state to identify and enroll any individuals not admitted to the program after the cap took effect on July 1st of this year.

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie says the letter was discussing “permanent caps and was part of ongoing communication between DHS and the federal government.” Werwie says the Governor “always planned to lift the cap once the suggestions made by the non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau were ready to be put in place.”

The cap was included in the state budget approved earlier this year and will require legislative action to remove, as will allowing the program to be offered in all 72 counties in the state. Currently, Family Care is only available in 57 counties.

Wednesday’s announcement was widely applauded by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and several groups representing the elderly.

Joint Finance Committee co-chair Alberta Darling (R-River Falls) offered her support, saying she was thrilled to learn the administration had “found savings that make lifting the cap a possibility.” Senator Darling says she expects it “will be a top bi-partisan legislative priority in the coming year.”

However, fellow JFC co-chair Robin Vos (R-Rochester) expressed concerns about the plan, which will need to pass the powerful budget committee along the way. Vos says “Medicaid took up every single nickel of new revenue that was brought into the current state budget,” and they are being forced to find $500 million in new revenue “just to keep that program on a sustainable path.”

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:05)

Vos says he has “very serious doubts that their assumptions are fact based and not based on the best of wishes” and DHS officials will need to show the cost savings touted by Walker are backed by a detailed analysis to show the program will actually save money. Vos says he’s “very seriously concerned that they are looking to use some funny math to try and make this thing balanced.”

Concerns about recall bribery

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A state lawmaker says a legal loophole could allow recall organizers to offer bribes for petition signatures.

State Representative Evan Wynn (R-Whitewater) says he became concerned after a constituent questioned him on whether it was legal to pay someone for a signature on a recall petition. Wynn says the person claimed a friend had been offered $10 to sign a petition to recall Governor Scott Walker.

The Whitewater Republican followed up with the Government Accountability Board, which confirmed that current state laws would not prevent that from happening.

Currently, it is illegal to offer anything of value to get someone to vote, sign nomination papers, or stay home on Election Day. However, the law says nothing about recall petitions. Wynn says that’s likely because recalls were never really thought about much before this year, which has seen a historic level of petitions circulating against state senators and the governor.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:01)

Wynn is introducing a bill he says will close that loophole by adding recalls to the list of election issues where incentives cannot be used to encourage people to sign or not to sign.

In a letter to Wynn, GAB director Kevin Kennedy says offering compensation for recall petition signatures is not something the agency condones because it could undermine public confidence in the system. Kennedy writes that the Board would be interested in seeing some type of legislative reform.

WCLO’s Kyle Geissler contributed to this report.

Governor looks to expand Family Care

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Walker Family Care announcement (IMAGE:WRN)

Governor Scott Walker is proposing the enrollment cap on Family Care be lifted, and the program be expanded. The cap was put in place earlier this year after a state audit found inefficiencies in the program – which provides long-term independent care to elderly and disabled.

AUDIO: Walker on reversing enrollment cap (1:22)

Walker made the announcement this morning alongside a number of advocacy groups who praised his decision. Walker said his administration’s decision comes from the “unprecedented” statewide outreach by Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith and Deputy Secretary Kitty Rhoades on Medicaid issues.

The Governor said under his proposal Family Care could be expanded statewide, as it currently does not exist in 14 counties, primarily in northeast Wisconsin.

The Governor said the $80 million expansion over two years comes from funding already approved by lawmakers and DHS making the program more efficient. The proposal needs legislative approval but he believes it will pass with bipartisan support.

2011 in review: historic protests in Capitol

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Protests in Wisconsin (PHOTO: Jackie Johnson)

It all started when Governor Scott Walker unveiled his budget repair bill in mid-February. Walker said he’d fix the $137 million budget hole by radically reducing public employees’ ability to collectively bargain. “If we don’t do it — the legislature does not do this either through the budget repair or through the budget bill — I think it needs to be very realistic about what the alternatives are. You’re talking about massive layoffs at both the state and local level.”

Upon introducing the bill, Walker said the measure would have support in the Legislature, and he thought public workers would understand why the repair bill was needed. “I have every confidence that the professionals who showed up yesterday and today will continue to show up because they understand that the choices we’re making are to offset choices that I think are less positive being made in other states.”

The first sign of the protests came on February 14th, when University of Wisconsin students delivered Valentine’s to the governor’s office asking him to reconsider. Protesters gathered during a hearing of the Joint Finance Committee that continued through the night. Growing crowds, armed with sleeping bags and mobile phones, occupied the state Capitol around the clock showing their opposition to the bill while disrupting the daily operations of state government, chanting “kill the bill,” “the people united will never be defeated,” and “when I say Walker you say stupid.”

In the coming weeks, a peak of 100,000 demonstrators brandished signs and marched around the Capitol Square, drawing national attention and big names to the state. At one point, the Walker Administration put the Capitol on lockdown citing security concerns, causing even more tension. Demonstrators shouted, among other things, “let us in … let us in.”

A Dane County judge ordered the state Capitol building fully re-opened to the public in early March. Walker signed the collective bargaining bill into law in mid-March and it officially took effect at the end of June. To this day, protests continue, most regularly are the daily Solidarity Singers.

2011 in Review: ‘Fab 14’ a focus

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The state Senate set the tone for a tumultuous 2011 in Wisconsin politics. It began on February 17th, a scheduled Thursday floor session for the Wisconsin state Senate, for which the fourteen Democratic Senators failed to appear, to the chagrin of Majority Leader, Scott Fitzgerald. “I’m not sure where the Democrat senators are,” said Fitzgerald, who had dispatched law enforcement officers to find them.

AUDIO: Bob Hague reports (1:35) [Read more…]

2011 in Review: Passage of Act 10

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Gov. Walker signs Act 10 during a ceremony in March. (Photo: Brian Moon)

While this year’s Capitol protests, recounts and recalls made headlines on their own, Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to curtail collective bargaining for most public employees was the spark that set off many of the political battles fought in Madison in 2011.

Governor Walker introduced his budget repair bill on February 11th, arguing it was needed to close a $137 million gap in state spending. Walker warned that failing to act could result in “massive layoffs at the state and the local level.”

Included in the bill was increased pension and health care contributions from state workers, along with the removal of collective bargaining on most public employment issues.

AFSCME head Rick Badger was among many union members who called the bill an assault on the rights of workers that “would wipe out decades of labor relations.”

The bill seemed positioned for quick passage, with a vote scheduled in the state Senate just a week later. On the day that vote was supposed to take place though, 14 Senate Democrats left the state for Illinois to prevent a vote. The move resulted in a Legislative standoff that would take three weeks to resolve.

As lawmakers worked to get the Democrats to come back, tens of thousands of protesters converged on the Capitol building, disrupting the daily operations of state government as demonstrators fought to “kill the bill.”

During that time, the Assembly moved ahead with work on the budget repair bill and passed it after more than 60 hours of debate. But with Senate Democrats still out of the state and negotiations going nowhere, the measure was left to sit and wait.

Then, on March 9th, Senate Republicans called a conference committee hearing late in the day, where they approved a stripped down version of the bill. The changes removed the fiscal policy elements, leaving the collective bargaining changes intact. The move allowed Republicans to approve the bill in the Senate without Democrats being present. The Assembly quickly acted on the new version and Governor Walker signed it within days.

However, implementation was blocked by a legal challenge from Democrats, who argued the conference committee violated the open meetings law by not being properly noticed at least two hours in advance. A Dane County judge agreed with that argument and blocked implementation, but the state Supreme Court overturned the decision in mid-June allowing Act 10 to finally take effect.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:59)

Governor releases budget lapses

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Governor Scott Walker has released more than $123 million in additional cuts he wants made across state government.

The Walker administration on Friday sent the list of proposed funding lapses to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. The largest area impacted by the plan is the University of Wisconsin System, which is being asked to make over $46 million in additional cuts.

Several high priority areas are spared; such as school aids, college financial aid, and child welfare programs.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) says the “draconian” cuts targeting public education are the worst thing to do in a difficult economy. Barca also criticized the Governor for releasing the plan on the Friday before Christmas.

The Joint Finance Committee is expected to review the proposal early next year.

Walker says state still adding jobs (VIDEO)

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While the second half of 2011 has seen the state lose nearly 15,000 jobs, Governor Scott Walker says Wisconsin is still making progress on job creation. Walker says “after three years of losing 150,000 jobs, we’ve had not quite, but just under 20,000 net new jobs” this year.

httpv://youtu.be/dMC6aUkcUT4

Growth has turned negative since July though, with federal figures showing Wisconsin has continued to lose jobs since Walker’s first state budget was enacted. The Governor says the financial problems in Washington and instability in Europe, where Wisconsin exports many of its products, have played a major part in that downturn.

Preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show the Badger State lost more the 14,600 jobs in November. It’s the second month in a row the state was projected to lead the nation in job losses, even though figures in October were later reduced by almost 75-percent. Walker admits it’s not ideal, and things will need to turn around if he’s going to fulfill his campaign pledge of helping the state add 250,000 jobs during his first term in office.

Despite the jobs lost in recent months, Walker also points out that the state’s unemployment rate continues to drop and remains below the national average. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is currently at 7.3-percent, compared to the national average of 8.6-percent.

As for how to reverse the slide seen in recent months, the Governor says it will remain a focus of his administration. He says talking to small businesses has shown him the need to improve access to skilled workers, capital, and streamlined regulations. Walker remains hopeful that proposals in the Legislature to expand venture capital programs and streamline the permitting process for an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin will help accelerate job creation.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:08)

BadgerCare petitions delivered (AUDIO)

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John Hardin PHOTO: WRN

A northern Wisconsin man has delivered a petition requesting that cuts to BadgerCare be restored. John Hardin of Chetek, in Barron County, made the trip to Madison to deliver paper copies of his on-line petition to state offices, including that of Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith. “With the money that Mr. Smith makes, I guess a hundred dollar a month increase in his insurance would be a modest increase,” says Hardin. “But when you’re a mom or a dad with two or three kids, making $25,000 a year, that’s an incredible amount of money.”

AUDIO: John Hardin (2:15) [Read more…]