Political News - Wisconsin - onPolitix

Closer Look: Big items in the budget

2013-06-18T23:04:17Z

Here’s a look at some of the biggest items in the budget.

Republicans are confident these major provisions will stay. They control both Legislative chambers.

The budget includes an income tax cut of about $650 million. Rates in all tax brackets would be cut, but it varies on how much.

There are also major items related to education.

The private school voucher program would expand statewide, but there would be enrollment caps.

Spending in public schools would increase $150 per student the next two years.

And for college students tuition would be frozen in the UW System.

Finally - unemployment changes. People would have to apply for at least four jobs a week, instead of two, to continue receiving benefits.

Democrat Hulsey considering becoming independent

2013-06-18T21:24:39Z

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic state Rep. Brett Hulsey of Madison is considering switching his party affiliation to become an independent.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says Hulsey told him and Democratic Assembly Leader Peter Barca on Tuesday he was considering the switch.

Hulsey declined to comment, saying he was focused on budget debate that also began Tuesday.

Hulsey is one of 39 Democrats in the Assembly. There are 60 Republicans.

The last independent in the Assembly was Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer of Manitowoc. He was also previously a Democrat before switching.

Lawmakers pass venture capital bill

2013-06-18T19:22:18Z

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation that would invest millions of dollars in public and private money in Wisconsin startups despite criticism that the investment targets only limited industries.

The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, would create a program that invests $25 million from the state and at least $50 million in private money in young Wisconsin companies. The investments would be limited to companies involved in agriculture, information technology, engineered products, advanced manufacturing, and medical devices and imaging.

A slightly amended version of the measure passed the Senate on a 29-3 vote before the Assembly approved it. It now heads to Gov. Scott Walker's desk for his signature.

Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, a longtime supporter of investment capital programs, said all businesses deserve equal opportunities to grow. She said lawmakers are playing by excluding the biotechnology and life science companies from the investments.

Lassa said she suspects the biotechnology companies were excluded from the legislation because conservative lawmakers and religious groups oppose embryonic stem cell research.

But Darling dismissed the speculation, noting the bill is intended to go after industries that can return investments and create jobs quickly and has nothing to do with social issues.

Wisconsin Technology Council's President Tom Still, who worked with lawmakers in crafting the proposal, said although biotechnology businesses are important, they take longer to grow from an idea to maturity because of the industry's high regulatory and oversight requirements.

Paul Radspinner, president of Madison-based FluGen Inc., which makes vaccines, said an investment in the company today could lead to new jobs in the state.

Radspinner said losing that investment would force the company to move to other states where capital is available. He said he is troubled that it's the Legislature, rather than an investment manager, that decides which types of companies have the best potential.

"How do our legislators with no experience in this area have the foresight to make the choice of the winning industries that will take less time (to grow)?" Radspinner asked.

Democrats also said the $25 million initial investment is too small to make a long-term impact and the bill failed to specify how many jobs it would create in the future.

But Still said the number of jobs created under the bill is dependent on how many companies receive investments and how well they perform, and the $25 million is a good start to revive the state's entrepreneurial activities.

"You need to walk before you can run," Still said.

Debate begins on budget plan

2013-06-18T18:37:18Z

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Assembly on Tuesday began debating a budget plan that Republicans were seeking to revise to boost its chances of passage, but the proposed changes don't address some of the most contentious proposals - including a statewide expansion of school vouchers.

A final vote was expected Wednesday in the Assembly, with the Senate slated to take up the bill on Thursday. The budget must pass both houses in identical form before heading to Gov. Scott Walker, who has the ability to make more changes through his extensive line-item veto authority.

The $70 billion budget would cut income taxes by $650 million over two years, expand statewide private school vouchers currently only available in Milwaukee and Racine, reject a federally funded expansion of Medicaid, and permit the selling of public properties.

"I am proud of what we're doing," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said at a news conference in his office, along with Republican Majority Leader Scott Suder and Rep. John Nygren, co-chair of the budget committee.

Vos outlined two significant changes the Assembly would be voting on later Tuesday. One would delay a provision that would make it easier for big water users to get permits to drill high-capacity wells. Another would remove caps on a property tax credit program benefiting disabled veterans.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he hoped changes being made in the Assembly would satisfy concerns raised by some Senate Republicans and lock up their votes. Sen. Dale Schultz, the most vocal Republican critic, hadn't seen the Assembly changes.

"I have no idea exactly what's in it," he said before the Assembly began debate on the budget. "I imagine whatever's necessary to get the budget passed is in it."

Schultz reiterated his concerns with key parts of the budget, including expansion of the private voucher school program statewide, that were not going to be changed by the Assembly. He declined to say whether he would vote against the plan.

Republicans hold a 60-39 majority in the Assembly. But in the Senate the margin is only 18-15, so if two or more Republicans join with Democrats against it there won't be enough support for it to pass.

Moderate Senate Republicans, along with Democrats, had been calling for more changes to the budget, including a scaling back of the voucher expansion and acceptance of the Medicaid money. There were also calls to reject a provision that would kick the Center for Investigative Journalism off of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, do away with a requirement that DNA samples be collected from anyone arrested on a felony or convicted of any crime and not allow bail bondsmen to operate in the state.

But no changes were coming to those parts of the budget in the Assembly, Vos said. He said Assembly leaders have worked in good faith with Republican senators and he hoped the budget would not be changed in the Senate.

Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, announced on Monday he was voting against the spending plan, in part because it creates a projected $500 million shortfall at the end of the 2015-2017 budget cycle. He and 10 other Assembly Republicans had offered a letter raising objections to various provisions.

"If you are a conservative in Wisconsin and you choose not to vote for this budget, I cannot see a scenario where you would ever vote for a budget," Vos said. The budget gives Republicans 95 percent of what they wanted, and any more than that can't be reasonably expected, he said.

The high capacity wells provision was one of the most controversial items added to the budget by the Joint Finance Committee.

The language would block anyone from challenging high-capacity well applications and permits by arguing the state Department of Natural Resources didn't consider the cumulative impact of the well and surrounding wells on the environment.

But the Assembly planned to delay the change until July 1, 2014. Vos said it was his hope that the Legislature would revisit the issue between now and then.

High-capacity wells have long been a contentious issue in Wisconsin. They've come to the forefront again in recent years with the growth of businesses that use vast amounts of water, such as sand mining and factory farms.

Republicans said the budget provision simply reinforces the DNR's position that it has no power to take the effect of multiple wells into account when approving applications. Democrats and environmentalists, though, said the prohibition would leave citizens without a way to force the DNR to consider the big picture of multiple wells depleting groundwater, lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands.

The budget committee also voted to include a cap on a growing property tax credit program for veterans.

The committee placed a $2,500 limit on the amount of property taxes that could be reimbursed to veterans who are fully disabled. The committee also created a mechanism to drop higher-income veterans and their spouses from the program.

Walker had called on the Legislature to fix the issue after veterans groups called it shameful and said the budget was being balanced on the backs of veterans.

Vos said their concerns would be addressed, but the exact changes to be made were not immediately released.

Senate approves WEDC board term limits

2013-06-18T17:46:19Z

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Senate has approved a bill that would limit terms for board members at Gov. Scott Walker's troubled quasi-public jobs agency.

The bipartisan measure would set fixed, six-year terms for Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation board members rather than have them serve at the pleasure of the governor and legislative leaders. State auditors would have to perform annual reviews of WEDC's finances rather than biennial studies, and all WEDC employees would be subject to state ethics laws.

WEDC has drawn fire after a May audit found the agency didn't consistently follow the law or its own policies during its first year, failed to adequately track loans and provided tax breaks to companies that didn't qualify.

The Senate passed the measure unanimously Tuesday.

Bipartisan agreement reached to limit debate

2013-06-18T17:38:50Z

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A bipartisan agreement has been reached with the goal of avoid all-night debate of the state budget in the Assembly.

Republican and Democratic leaders have agreed to a schedule that will allow for 12 hours of debate spread over Tuesday and Wednesday. Debate is scheduled to end by 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, with a vote occurring before 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

If lawmakers were to hold to that schedule, it would be a dramatic change from past budget debates in the Assembly that have gone all night and typically not wrapped up until the early morning hours.

The Assembly has been working under an agreement this year to avoid late-night debates and votes on all bills it considers.

The Senate is scheduled to begin budget debate Thursday.

Senate confirms two of Walker's regent nominees

2013-06-18T17:05:19Z

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Senate has unanimously confirmed two of Gov. Scott Walker's nominees to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.

Former state auditor Jan Mueller and former Republican Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow will join the 18-member Board of Regents. It is responsible for establishing policies and rules governing the UW System. Their seven-year terms start immediately.

The Board is still looking for a student member after Walker rescinded his nomination of 20-year-old UW-Platteville student Joshua Inglett on Wednesday, just two days after nominating him. Inglett said the withdrawal came hours after he told the governor's office he signed a petition to recall Walker.

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Tuesday that it shouldn't matter that Inglett signed the petition, but Republican Senate President Mike Ellis cut off Erpenbach's comments.

Feingold chosen for Africa post

2013-06-18T15:53:19Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Tuesday that he has chosen former Sen. Russ Feingold as the new U.S. special representative for the Great Lakes region of Africa and the ongoing crisis in the Congo.

Congo's government and rebels, known as the M23, have been negotiating in Uganda since December under a regional bloc, but the talks have often been set back by accusations over who is responsible for rampant violence in Congo's North Kivu province.

"The suffering in the Great Lakes region of Africa and the ongoing crisis in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to trouble all of us greatly," Kerry told reporters. "We are convinced that we have to help the parties find a path to a lasting peace, to a permanent cessation of hostilities and to the disarmament and demobilization of M23, accountability for human rights abuses and, finally, a breaking down of the barriers that are standing between humanitarian aid and the civilians who need it."

Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, chaired the Africa subcommittee when Kerry was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Feingold succeeds R. Barrie Walkley, who has been the special representative since December 2011.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata and Matthew Lee contributed to this report

Republicans looking to curtail mine protests

2013-06-18T15:34:58Z

MADISON (AP) — Republicans are looking to curtail public access to an iron mine site in far northwestern Wisconsin in hopes of stopping protesters from interfering with the project.

The state budget will be amended to give the state Department of Natural Resources authority to pass rules restricting access, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Tuesday. Vos had said earlier that DNR may be able to pass an emergency rule on its own, but he said the agency doesn't currently have the authority to do that in this case.

Rep. Mark Honadel, R-South Milwaukee, said protesters are uninformed and pose a threat the workers in the area.

The Assembly was scheduled to debate the budget Tuesday and vote on passing it Wednesday before it goes to the state Senate on Thursday. Gov. Scott Walker has to sign it before it becomes law.

Gogebic Taconite wants to build a 4 -mile long open-pit mine in the Penokee Hills on the Ashland-Iron County line just south of Lake Superior. The company has started boring exploratory holes on the site.

The project has sparked an outpouring of complaints from conservationists, who say the mine would devastate the region's natural beauty and contaminate the area's water supply. Authorities say a group of protesters last week slashed tires, damaged equipment, destroyed a geologist's camera and stole her cellphone.

In May, a group of mine opponents nailed an anti-mine banner to the roof of the DNR's Wausau service center, DNR Deputy Secretary Matt Moroney said in a mass email to the agency's staff.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday that the site lies within managed forest land, a DNR program that lowers property taxes for landowners who practice sustainable forestry and open the land for public hiking, hunting and fishing. Frank Koehn, president of the Penokee Hills Education Projection, told the newspaper that the group ran a hike with about 50 people to the mine site on Saturday without any incidents. He said it's important for people to see the site so they can understand the operation's impact.

But Gogebic Taconite spokesman Bob Seitz said the company fears protesters might cause more trouble. Republican lawmakers have championed the mine, passing a sweeping bill earlier this year that relaxed Wisconsin's mining regulations to help jump-start the project.

Assembly delays budget debate until Wednesday

2013-06-18T13:43:41Z

MADISON (AP) — Republicans privately negotiated a series of last-minute changes to the Wisconsin budget Tuesday designed to smooth its passage, including removing a cap on a popular tax credit program for disabled veterans and delaying the loosening of requirements for high-capacity wells.

The changes, discussed among Republican legislative leaders in both the Senate and Assembly, were announced throughout the day but never formally introduced. After only 15 minutes of debate on the two-year, $70 billion spending plan, the Assembly quit work for the day so Democrats could be briefed on the Republican changes before resuming Wednesday morning.

"We came ready to debate this bill and we still don't know what's in the bill," Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca said as his caucus prepared for a briefing with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. "It seems like it's changing by the minute."

None of the changes Republicans announced got to the heart of the biggest budget issues that have generated the most heat from Democrats and moderate Republicans - namely the growth of private school vouchers statewide and the rejection of federally funded Medicaid expansion.

The budget touches the lives of nearly every person in the state. It would cut income taxes for all tax filers by $650 million over two years, expand statewide private school vouchers currently only available in Milwaukee and Racine, and tighten income eligibility under Medicaid, forcing nearly 90,000 people into federally subsidized exchanges to purchase insurance.

It also would allow for the selling of public properties, freeze tuition at the University of Wisconsin for two years, require DNA to be collected upon arrest for a felony or conviction of any crime, and allow bail bondsmen to operate in the state.

"I am proud of what we're doing," Vos said at a news conference prior to debate starting.

Vos said the changes to the plan the Assembly would be voting on were worked out as part of an agreement designed to ensure the budget passes both houses. Clearing the Assembly, where Republicans hold a 60-39 majority, was never in doubt. But in the Senate, where Republicans have a narrow 18-15 edge, moderate Republicans were actively seeking concessions.

One change announced by Vos would delay a provision that would make it easier for big water users to get permits to drill high-capacity wells. Another would remove caps on a property tax credit program benefiting disabled veterans.

A third would give the state Department of Natural Resources the authority to pass an emergency rule restricting public access to land near Lake Superior where protesters have attempted to interfere with preliminary work to open a massive iron ore mine.

But Democrats raised concerns about the changes, including wording that appeared to restrict what information the state Department of Public Instruction could release about voucher school students.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he hoped changes being made in the Assembly would satisfy concerns raised by some Senate Republicans and lock up their votes. Sen. Dale Schultz, the most vocal Republican critic, hadn't seen the Assembly changes.

"I have no idea exactly what's in it," he said before the Assembly began debate on the budget. "I imagine whatever's necessary to get the budget passed is in it."

Schultz reiterated his concerns with key parts of the budget, including expansion of the private voucher school program statewide, that were not going to be changed by the Assembly. He declined to say whether he would vote against the plan.

Republicans hold a 60-39 majority in the Assembly. But in the Senate the margin is only 18-15, so if two or more Republicans join with Democrats against it there won't be enough support for it to pass.

Moderate Senate Republicans, along with Democrats, had been calling for more changes to the budget, including a scaling back of the voucher expansion and acceptance of the Medicaid money. There were also calls to reject a provision that would kick the Center for Investigative Journalism off of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, do away with the DNA collection requirement, and not allow bail bondsmen to operate in the state.

But no changes were coming to those parts of the budget in the Assembly, Vos said. He said Assembly leaders have worked in good faith with Republican senators and he hoped the budget would not be changed in the Senate.

Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, announced on Monday he was voting against the spending plan, in part because it creates a projected $500 million shortfall at the end of the 2015-2017 budget cycle. He and 10 other Assembly Republicans had offered a letter raising objections to various provisions.

"If you are a conservative in Wisconsin and you choose not to vote for this budget, I cannot see a scenario where you would ever vote for a budget," Vos said. The budget gives Republicans 95 percent of what they wanted, and any more than that can't be reasonably expected, he said.

The high capacity wells provision was one of the most controversial items added to the budget by the Joint Finance Committee.

The language would block anyone from challenging high-capacity well applications and permits by arguing the state Department of Natural Resources didn't consider the cumulative impact of the well and surrounding wells on the environment.

But the Assembly planned to delay the change until July 1, 2014. Vos said it was his hope that the Legislature would revisit the issue between now and then.

High-capacity wells have long been a contentious issue in Wisconsin. They've come to the forefront again in recent years with the growth of businesses that use vast amounts of water, such as sand mining and factory farms.

The budget committee also voted to include a cap on a growing property tax credit program for veterans.

The committee placed a $2,500 limit on the amount of property taxes that could be reimbursed to veterans who are fully disabled. The committee also created a mechanism to drop higher-income veterans and their spouses from the program.

Gov. Scott Walker had called on the Legislature to fix the issue after veterans groups called it shameful and said the budget was being balanced on the backs of veterans.