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 April 9, 2021

 


 

It's coming.  It's almost here.  You should have a say in determining where it goes.

 

A few weeks ago, the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress decided to borrow $1.9 trillion from our future.  Our state's Republican representatives and senator voted against this move for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that much of the money that had already been delivered to states for COVID-19 relief remains unspent to this day.  (For instance: in Wisconsin, Governor Evers received $2 billion in spring 2020 to use at his sole discretion.  The not-very-transparent data that he has made available so far indicates that he has allocated most of it, but a year later, it remains unclear how much he has spent.)

 

Another reason why Republicans objected to the enormous new spending is because your money is being used to bail out some states' and cities' irresponsible spending.  And, sure enough, practically on cue, the New York legislature wasted little time coming up with some new outrageous spending: this week they created a new $2.1 billion fund to pay illegal immigrants up to $15,600 each.

 

But the die is cast now.  The U.S. Treasury will soon deposit another $3.2 billion in Wisconsin's checkbook, so to speak, on top of what's left from the $2 billion last year and not counting hundreds of millions of additional dollars that will flow directly to school districts, counties, cities, villages and towns.

 

In more than half of U.S. states, the state legislature -- the people's most direct representation -- is involved in deciding how to spend such money.  It only makes sense: appropriating money is clearly a core legislative function under every democratic constitution (federal or state) that I'm aware of.  But twice already this spring, Governor Tony Evers has vetoed legislation that would have given the people of Wisconsin a say in these decisions via their representatives and senators.  He still prefers to do this alone.

 

 

 

I found myself wondering what $3.2 billion looks like.  A quick Internet search provided a graphic (source) that shows about how big a pile you'd have if you counted out $1 billion in $100 bills.  Each of those crates in the picture would be $100 million.

 

Governor Evers is about to receive 32 new crates of your money.  It's coming.  It's almost here.  You should have a say in determining where it goes.  That's a chief reason why you sent me to Madison: to represent you when it's time to divvy up your cash.

 

Very recently, Republican legislators announced a sensible plan for putting this money to work for our entire state rather than just Governor Evers' priorities.  In fact, we didn't even try to use it all; our plan purposely leaves several hundred million dollars in a fund for Governor Evers to use at his discretion, just as before.  If you like, you can click on the photo at the top of this message to watch the video of us presenting our plan.

 

 

We think you know best how to put your own money to work.  We propose sending assistance to households equal to 10 percent of your property taxes.

 

We propose a major investment in broadband infrastructure.  Matched with private sector funds, we think this will make broadband Internet capability (not to mention reliable phone service) available to 95 percent of the state within four years.

 

We propose supporting long-term care facilities and their workforce that has been stretched thin.  Nearly half of COVID-19 deaths occurred in these facilities, but they received a relatively small share of the funds that were (and still are) at the Governor's disposal.

 

The tourism and hospitality sector of our state's economy (and all the jobs associated with it) suffered tremendous harm.  To jumpstart their recovery, which remains significantly behind the recovery of our greater economy, we propose a summer sales tax holiday.

 

Other ideas include upgrading our aging water infrastructure, improving our readiness for future emergencies by improving our public safety communications systems; supporting the Unemployment Insurance trust fund to protect businesses from a possible tax hike later this year; supporting rural economic development projects; and more.

 

Both the Assembly and the Senate will be in session next week to consider these proposals from the people's representatives.

 

The money's coming.  It's almost here.  You should have a say in determining where it goes.

 

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Office of Representative Terry Katsma
State Capitol, Room 306 East
P.O. Box 8952
Madison, WI 53708

(608) 266-0656
Rep.Katsma@legis.wisconsin.gov|  |