What I Heard at the Arcadia and Mondovi Listening Sessions
On Monday, March 6, I held listening sessions in Arcadia and Mondovi. It was wonderful to hear from so many folks about their thoughts and concerns regarding the proposed state budget. I am looking forward to working with my legislative colleagues to work through the state budget process.
While I heard about many different issues, here are the topics that were brought up the most:
- Transportation
- Increase rural road funding
- Raise the gas tax
- Too much money is going to megaprojects and outside of rural Wisconsin
- Provide funding for bridges under 20 feet in width
- Education
- Eliminate school start date mandate
- Increase funding for K-12 and reinvest in rural schools
- Natural Resources
- Do not eliminate the DNR magazine
- Create state support for flooding issues
Increase research on high capacity wells
- Allocate general purpose revenue for state parks
- Balance the state budget, decrease borrowing
- Give municipalities ability to create a local sales tax
I also had the opportunity to take my legislative colleague Rep. Amy Loudenbeck (31st Assembly District), who is a member of the Joint Finance Committee, on a short road tour of the district. During the tour I showed her examples of our road conditions, and we stopped at the site of the bridge that was recently washed out in Waumandee. I believe that that this type of district exchange is an important way for legislators to get a first-hand experience of the unique issues in each part of the state.
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