Progressive Thinking

MADISON - This update is provided to keep citizens informed about important decisions happening at the State Capitol and to help you stay updated on how elected officials are voting on key issues in Madison.

Senate Extraordinary Session – July 7
The State Senate met in extraordinary session on July 7 to take up the 2015-17 state budget (Senate Bill 21). A full list of session activities, budget amendments and votes can be found here.

K-12 school funding (Senate Amendment 4 to SB 21)
Summary: The Department of Public Instruction estimates that more than half of all Wisconsin school districts will see a reduction in state aid next year as a result of cuts to school funding. Democrats proposed investing an additional $270 million in categorical school aid to restore the local public school cuts and ensure that all children receive a quality education.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 4 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

Voucher school accountability (Senate Amendment 5 to SB 21)
Summary: Despite promises to increase voucher school accountability before further expanding the program and increasing the risk of fraud and abuse, no action was taken in the Joint Finance Committee to strengthen standards. In an effort to strengthen student and taxpayer protections, Democrats introduced this amendment to eliminate the expansion of private voucher school subsidies, increase education standards and strengthen public accountability.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 5 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

University of Wisconsin System funding (Senate Amendment 6 to SB 21)
Summary: This amendment would restore the $250 million cut to UW System schools, 2-year campuses and Extension programs.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 6 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

BadgerCare expansion (Senate Amendment 12 to SB 21)
Summary: This amendment would expand access to affordable health care and lower state taxpayer costs by accepting available federal funds to strengthen BadgerCare. The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau concluded that Wisconsin would save $360 million in the 2015-17 budget if federal health care funds were accepted.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 12 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

Preserve long-term care, IRIS and Family Care (Senate Amendment 13 to SB 21)
Summary: The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee made a number of sweeping changes to Wisconsin’s long-term care programs which will eliminate the popular IRIS self-directing care program and jeopardize access to critical services. Additionally, new requirements for an individual assessment prior to receiving personal care services will result in a reduction of $19 million in services available to people with disabilities.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 13 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

Special education funding (Senate Amendment 14 to SB 21)
Summary: The end of the 2015-17 budget will mark the eighth consecutive year that special education funding has remained flat. Costs associated with educating students with disabilities have increased over time, resulting in an overall decrease in the average reimbursement rate the state provides to school districts. In 1980, the special education funding rate was 66.1% of total costs. By the end of the 2014-15 school year, the rate fell to just 26.8%. This budget amendment would have increased the reimbursement rate to 33% of schools’ special education cost.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 14 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

Funding for state parks, science and educator positions, recycling grants and Stewardship (Senate Amendment 17 to SB 21)
Summary: This amendment would restore funding to numerous programs that were cut in the budget including state parks, DNR educators and scientist positions, recycling grants and bioenergy research initiatives. Additionally, it would maintain current bonding authority for Stewardship land conservation efforts and provide additional funding for urban forestry grants.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 17 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

Higher Ed, Lower Debt student loan relief (Senate Amendment 20 to SB 21)
Summary: With over 800,000 Wisconsin residents impacted by student loan debt, Democrats have advocated for additional relief from high interest rates and burdensome debt payments. The Higher Ed, Lower Debt amendment would allow individuals to refinance student debt at lower interest rates similar to options currently available for home mortgages and car loans.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 20 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

WEDC accountability and prohibition on outsourcing Wisconsin jobs (Senate Amendment 22 to SB 21)
Summary: After years of troubling audits and revelations of potential criminal violations at Gov. Walker’s flagship jobs agency, government watchdog groups have called for greater accountability and public transparency. This amendment would prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to outsource Wisconsin jobs, require employees at the WEDC to report instances of fraud to law enforcement, and subject agency officials to state laws governing misconduct in public office.
How they voted: Senate Amendment 22 was rejected by the majority party on a 19-14 party line vote.
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) opposed the amendment.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) supported the amendment.

Final passage of the 2015-17 Wisconsin State Budget (SB 21)
How they voted: Passage of the 2015-17 state budget was approved by the Senate on a 18-15 vote
Sen. Lasee (R-Marathon), Sen. Olson (R-Ripon), Sen. Gudex (R-Fond du Lac), Sen. Roth (R-Appleton) and Sen. Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) supported passage of the budget.
Sen. Hansen (D-Green Bay) and Sen. Cowles (R-Green Bay) opposed passage of the budget.

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This State Capitol Update is provided by Senator Jennifer Shilling, the Minority Leader in the Wisconsin State Senate. For additional information on legislative or committee action, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 608-266-5490.

Republicans betray Wisconsinites by passing a $73 billion 2015-17 State Budget that fails to invest in our traditional, shared values. The only winners are the special interests.

MADISON - The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate passed the $73 billion 2015-17 State Budget bill just before midnight Tuesday, sending it to the Assembly after voting to repeal a prevailing wage law for local government projects.

The fight over the prevailing wage law, which sets a minimum salary for construction workers on public projects, had helped delay the budget for more than five weeks as Republicans tried to broker an agreement that could win passage in both houses.

The Senate also unanimously voted to repeal a gutting of the state open records law, changes added in a surprise 999 amendment by the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee last week. In the face of a swift and fierce bipartisan backlash over the move that would have exempted nearly all records created by state and local government officials, Gov. Scott Walker and legislative leaders backed off and the Senate voted 33-0 to remove the changes.

Removing those provisions was the only Democratic victory Tuesday.

Republicans hold a 19-14 majority in the Senate and rejected all other Democratic proposals, including reversing a $250 million budget cut to the University of Wisconsin and increasing funding for public K-12 schools, during more than eight hours of debate.

The Assembly, where Republicans have a 63-36 majority, was scheduled to vote on the budget Wednesday night, a move that would send it to Gov. Scott Walker before he is to launch his presidential campaign Monday.

Assembly Democratic legislators met the media today to discuss the day’s Assembly calendar, most notably the state budget bill. It is unlikely they will have any more success than their Senate counterparts.

According to State Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), “Budgets are all about choices. Unfortunately, the budget passed by the Senate majority party represents political choices, not the choices of Wisconsin families.”

“People from across the state asked the Legislature to invest in public education, in the U.W. System, in roads and bridges, and in family supporting jobs. They asked legislators to protect the health programs and services for our vulnerable citizens,” said Vinehout.

Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Madison) pinned much of the blame on the Republican's allegiance to Walker's presidential ambitions.

“This budget spent over $10 billion dollars more than the 2009-2011 budget. The problem with this budget was never a lack of cash. From day one, the problem has been that this budget is all about presidential politics and not about the priorities of the people of this state,” Erpenbach said. “The decisions made today will have an effect on Wisconsin and I am afraid it will not be a good one."

Senator Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) agreed, saying Senate Republicans forced through a special interest budget that surrenders to the demands of the most extreme Tea Party factions while making it harder for our neighbors in Wisconsin’s middle class.

“Governor Walker has made it clear he places his own ambitions over ensuring financial security and prosperity for his own Wisconsin neighbors," said Larson.

“Tonight, Tea Party legislators again returned to their failed slash and burn policies that are bankrupting opportunity in our state and decimating our middle class," he continued.  "It’s like watching a bad rerun: the glamor is gone, the plot is predictable, the dialog is dated, and you’re just left with bad actors stuck in the past. It’s no wonder they tried to keep the public in the dark with their 999 secrecy motion."

This is the third budget since 2011. During that time Wisconsin has fallen to 35th for job creation and 50th for new businesses. Wisconsin has seen the biggest decline of its middle class of all 50 states.

By all accounts the GOP agenda of tax breaks for the rich and cuts to the services that help grow and sustain a strong middle class has failed.

The impact of this budget will be felt for years to come in the form of an economy that continues to lag our nation and places more pressure on already struggling families. The only winners are the special interests.

Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) concludes “This budget continues a pattern of giving yet millions more in tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of our public schools and universities as well as our roads and highways."

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Senate Staffers Linda Kleinschmidt and Jay Wadd contributed to the article.

Damaging changes proposed to the WRS Board structure under the cover of darkness, with no debate or public input, which could open the door for political manipulation and corruption.

MADISON - The Joint Finance Committee ended its work on the state budget last week by slipping in some policy changes in it's last minute Motion, #999. One of them affects landline phone service, which may hurt many rural residents in northern Wisconsin. Another changes the composition of the Joint Survey Committee On Retirement Systems (JSCRS).

This committee is responsible for reviewing any changes to the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). It has been composed of Senate and Assembly legislators of both parties plus representatives of the public, the Attorney General, The Department of Employee Trust Funds, and the Insurance Commissioners office. Under the proposed changes, the committee would become entirely appointed legislators (five Assembly and five Senate).

As with many of the proposals in this budget, this one is a “solution looking for a problem.” The current committee structure has been working. WRS is rated as one of the best public retirement programs in the nation. Why are changes being proposed?

The JSCRS is a powerful committee that is legally required to review any proposed changes to the WRS so that all the long term "effects" are known. This means "effects" on taxpayers, on retirees, on workers, of government agencies, on retention of high quality workers, etc. Recently, the legislature has been avoiding this law and making changes to the WRS without detailed study.

This proposal opens the door for political manipulation and corruption. The ruling party would have complete control over reviewing and recommending changes to the WRS. It reduces broad public oversight of a $100 billion public trust fund.

Governor Scott Walker and many Republican leaders support the goal of the right wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Wall Street to privatize public pension funds. Under privatization, Wall Street could make billions in fees and control the investments to divert retiree fund monies into their buddies' businesses. Governments could decrease their share of funding of public pension systems and retirees would get smaller pensions.

Is this an overreaction? Maybe. Will the state legislature vote yes on this budget proposal? We don't know. But has your paper, radio or TV station been covering this attempt to change WRS? Probably not.

It is very "Walker like" for the Governor to make an outrageous proposal like the recent attack on open government, walk it back in the face of outrage, then "end run" other damaging changes to public policy with no debate or public input, while the media is busy congratulating itself on their "victory".

The Joint Finance Committee ended its work on the state budget last week by slipping in some policy changes in it's last minute Motion, #999. One of them affects landline phone service, which many rural residents depend upon for all purposes including emergencies. They don’t have the option of a cell phone because of lack of coverage in many rural areas of the state.

MADISON - I didn’t expect to look up telephone laws reading the state budget.

Snuck in the end of the Joint Finance Committee’s work is a law change that could affect the safety of rural residents. It had me asking, “What if you picked up the phone to call 911 and heard no dial tone?”

Rural residents rely on small legal protections to keep a dial tone on their landline phones. Thousands of rural residents live in an area where cell phones do not work and cable services do not exist.

We rely on landlines for business, neighborliness, family communication, and emergencies and safety.

In 2011 a “modernization” of the laws governing telephones removed state law protecting consumers. Part of this legal language was known as the “provider of last resort”. That “provider” would be your local rural phone company.

Some phone companies are cooperatives heavily invested in serving rural residents - even providing high-speed Internet in some areas. But other rural providers are big city companies looking to invest in urban, not rural areas.

Recently the state’s budget writing committee finished its work. The final committee budget motion contained over 60 items amending state laws. Most of these items were policy unrelated to the spending of state dollars. In “capitol speak” we call these “non-fiscal provisions”.

One overlooked provision removed a date from state law – that is it. But the date, tying state law to consumer protections in federal law on January 1, 2010, protected rural telephone consumers from big telephone companies pulling the plug on their landline.

In another provision, the job of cleaning up those old telephone poles is left to land owners and local government (I find this incredibly irresponsible).

AT&T has made it clear they intend to eliminate all copper lines in the U.S. in the next decade. Call me pessimistic, but I do not see cable or cell coverage coming to the hills of western Wisconsin or the north woods any time soon.

So how are you going to call 911? Did anyone ask those 12 budget committee legislators – many represent rural folks – before they voted “aye”?

Much recent budget action would not endear legislators to their constituents if the people knew details about policy for which the 12 voted.

Here’s a sampling of the recent budget action. Take away powers of a locally elected (Milwaukee) county board to oversee contracts. Get rid of the (Madison) sanitary district county board appointees. Change the tax code to give more breaks to big business; Tax every dime of wage earners but remove mention of ‘living wage’ in Wisconsin law. Rewrite the minimum wage law. Make it harder to get employees represented by a union.

Added are new regulations of “pharmacy benefit managers” (those companies who tell you which generic drug you can have). Allow out-of-state “risk retention groups” to sell insurance. Increase the ways payday loan companies can dupe unsuspecting consumers. Provide details of how to resolve unpaid health insurance claims for chiropractors. Changes in septic and well pump installer electrician licensing and sprinkler codes adopted by cities. Some of these ideas might have merit – but they all deserve an open and transparent public hearing.

Fortunately, egregious changes to the state’s open record laws – sheltering the work of lawmakers from the public’s eye – became public. Under significant public pressure, the governor and legislative leaders agreed to remove any changes related to open records laws.

What about the remaining policy in the budget? All too often bills that fail to pass through the normal legislative process end up in the budget.

This is especially true with education policy that did not clear the Education Committee: special education “vouchers” for private schools; expanding who can “authorize” privately run charter school paid for with tax dollars; changes to the rules on “school report cards” for private schools paid for with public money and allow private schools to choose among several alternatives to the statewide student test.

Not all states struggle with policy hidden in the state budget.

Colorado, Oklahoma and Illinois are a few states I found that limit non-fiscal policy in the state budget. The latter uses a very simple Constitutional statement: Appropriation bills shall be limited to the subject of appropriations.

MADISON - Wisconsin Democrats have a bad case of Scott Walker on the brain.

The governor is in the news constantly, especially now that he is unofficially but obviously running for president. His opponents do a great deal to help keep him in the news, ridiculing his every move and parsing his every word and filling the blogosphere and twitterverse with a daily recital of his transgressions and shortcomings and overall unfitness for office. Whether any of it is true or false is beside the point. It all does Walker a considerable service.

In his book Don’t Think of an Elephant! and other writings, noted linguist George Lakoff examines how the human brain works, politically speaking. In our minds, words and images fit within what he calls moral “frames” and what us non-linguists would probably call core values. One of Lakoff’s key teachings is that when faced with facts that conflict with a moral frame, many if not most people will ignore the facts and hold tight to the frame. Lakoff also has observed that negating a frame paradoxically evokes the frame. For example, when Nixon told the country “I am not a crook,” the negation conjured the frame. The president unwittingly made people think of crooks when they thought of him.

There’s an old saying, “Speak of the devil and he appears.” When Walker’s enemies talk endlessly about what a bum the governor is, they keep the governor top of mind. Negating Walker evokes Walker . . . and relegates his critics and their ideas to the political equivalent of a dusty attic.

Democrats would be better off giving the governor the Lord Voldemort treatment. Do not speak his name. Resist the temptation to vent about You-Know-Who’s latest slip of the tongue or divide-and-conquer maneuver. Think twice when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named does one more thing prompting the urge to hurl insults. Counter the impulse to spew more venom with a conscious effort to concentrate on hopes and dreams and big plans for making Wisconsin a better place.

It has been well established that Wisconsin Democrats cannot beat Walker by hating Walker. Hating him has helped him immeasurably, made him stronger. Wisconsin has been reminded daily what the Democrats are against. What they are for is more of a mystery to state voters. It will remain a mystery until the choice is made to stop obsessing – and mourning – over what is being torn down and start drawing up blueprints for what will be built up.

If Democrats could just channel their inner Harry Potter, they would see that’s the power the Dark Lord knows not.