Republicans Vote Down Clean Shared Revenue Plan

Fast Process Leaves Bill with More Problems than Solutions

MADISON, Wis. - Today the Assembly Committee on Local Government voted AB 245 out of committee along party lines. The bill contains not only shared revenue; it includes many preemptions to local governments. The committee voted down a Democratic proposal on party lines introduced by committee members Rep. Clinton Anderson, Rep. Sue Conley, Rep. Samba Baldeh, and Rep. Melissa Ratcliff that would have removed the policy items not related to shared revenue from the bill. Representative Clinton Anderson responded to the committee voting down a clean shared revenue bill and moving forward their omnibus bill. 

“This process has been rushed. We got the bill last week, had a public hearing two days later, and only received 25 hours of notice for today’s hearing. This is not how government should function,” said Rep. Anderson. “Not only was this bill rushed, the author in his public testimony acknowledged that it had problems and promised solutions. Today we saw zero amendments from the author or any other Republicans to try and improve the many deficiencies in this bill.” 

“We offered Republicans a clean slate today to work towards a common sense solution by removing the policy items in this bill that had nothing to do with shared revenue. Republicans rejected that proposal. They would rather placate members of their own caucus than actually work together for a real bipartisan solution.”

“The plan we were left with is a road map to restricting local authority. It removes the ability for local governments to make decisions on everything from advisory referendums to how local health departments deal with serious dangers to public health. I believe we should leave local decisions to local decision makers. It is time for Republicans to stop this top down, big government approach to regulating municipalities,” said Rep. Anderson.

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