The Wisconsin State Capitol dome in Madison. PC: Fox 11 Online
MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Democrats and Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature expressed differing views after Governor Tony Evers delivered his final State of the State address Tuesday night in Madison.
A handful of local legislators weighed in on key issues that impact Northeast Wisconsin.
That includes how to use the state’s $2.4 billion surplus. Both sides want property tax relief and more school funding, but disagree on how to get there.
“We put historic amounts of money into schools. Historic amount. It’s never enough. When is enough? And so, we’ve laid out on the table a proposal. We sent it to the governor,” said State Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah.
He’s referring to a property tax relief plan agreed upon by the GOP caucuses that was sent to Evers Monday. The governor said in order for him to get behind a proposal, it needs to be “a heck of a lot better than the plan Republican leaders sent me.”
State Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Gillett, added, “You pay property taxes by paying rent too, so whatever comes out of that negotiation, I hope that we wrap up those people into the agreement.”
“We already did quite a bit of tax cuts and spending increases in our last budget,” countered State Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay. “The so-called surplus, I mean, we’re actually looking at close to a $3 billion hole in our next state budget. So, I don’t want to be in a situation where we spend a lot of money now and we’re in a terrible situation in six months or a year.”
Lawmakers also spoke about the $125 million set aside for PFAS clean-up, as well as closing Green Bay Correctional Institution.
“We just have to let the Joint Finance Committee release those funds. That’s where the action is there. Here on the Assembly floor, we do have some other bills on the issue of PFAS. One of them is all about transparency and accountability. If the county knows there’s PFAS in the water, there’s a report of that, we all should know that,” said State Rep. Ryan Spaude, D-Ashwaubenon.
“As a cancer survivor, I think it’s very important to get rid of PFAS, but that particular piece of legislation is really picking on our paper industry. They’re excluding all those different groups, but don’t exclude the paper industry. The paper industry cannot afford to pay off whatever amounts of settlements the state demands from PFAS,” said State Rep. Ron Tusler, R-Harrison.
“There’s two different ways that the parties want to approach things. The governor wants to close Green Bay Correctional and then let minimum and medium-security prisoners out. That’s how he’ll solve that problem,” said Wimberger. “With the population increase, Republicans want to build a new facility and keep them in appropriately. Do the rehabilitation programming there. How do you square that circle? I know Republicans aren’t really wanting to let people out of prison back into the streets that have prison sentences.”
“Closing GBCI should happen, but we need a reform to the prison system,” added Wall. “Create the slack in the system to allow that to happen, right? Nobody’s talking about opening the doors and walking away. So, there’s a lot of other things that need to happen, both in terms of the physical side of the correction system and some policy changes as well. So, the good news is, we’re not all that far apart.”
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