Listening Session, Pancakes, Law Enforcement, and Shared Revenue

A lot has happened since my last e-update. I had a listening session for the Latino community with Senator Spreitzer, attended several events supporting law enforcement, ate a bunch of pancakes, got into it with Republicans on shared revenue, and had some adventures with Sully.

Latino Listening Session
A couple weeks ago, I got together with Senator Spreitzer to hear the concerns of members of the Latino Community in Beloit. One of the key issues highlighted by the community was the need for drivers licenses and ID cards for undocumented immigrants. People deserve the ability to drive legally and everyone is safer when everyone has access to insurance. 

Law Enforcement
The last few weeks I’ve traveled around the district to support local law enforcement. I presented legislative citations to Beloit Police Officers Anthony Love and Antonio Richardson for their swift actions which saved the life of a two year old child in March. I went to an awards ceremony for law enforcement in Brodhead, and I went to another event in Evansville recognizing the contributions of their local law enforcement.

Pancake Breakfasts
It is officially pancake breakfast season. In the past couple weeks, I’ve been out in support of the Orfordville Fire Department for their pancake breakfast as well as the Monticello Lion’s Club pancake breakfast. 

Shared Revenue
My last few weeks have all been AB 245. This is the Republican shared revenue bill that also includes a laundry list of attacks on local control. I heard this bill in the Assembly Local Government Committee. At that time, I put forward with my Democratic colleagues a clean bill. A bill that does what we need most for our communities. It gives them additional funding without strings attached, because I truly believe our local governments know how to spend money best for their communities. Republicans rejected this proposal, while promising that fixes and amendments to the bill would still happen. The next week I heard this bill on the Assembly Floor. We did finally get an amendment from Republicans. We got it about an hour before we had to vote on it. It included 90 different provisions that changed many facets of the bill. One thing remained though; a bill full of attacks on local control. I tried to get the Assembly to do the right thing and move this bill back to committee so we could have time to work through these changes and have time to bring our own. Republicans voted down that motion, and I ultimately voted no on this bill. I strongly am committed to getting more money for local governments, and I hope the Senate makes changes to this bill that make it something that can get my vote. 

Sully Sunday
This past week Sully went to visit Decatur Dairy. Their award winning cheeses are amazing, and make this a must stop location in Decatur. In particular, stop for a grilled cheese sandwich. We look forward to visiting again! If you have a recommendation for where Sully should go next, nominate a location here.

Representative Clinton Anderson