Raising the Minimum Wage

The minimum wage in Wisconsin and a dozen other states is $7.25/hr. It hasn’t changed in more than a decade despite the cost of living increasing by more than 25%.

Most folks earning the minimum are not teenagers. Most are over 25 years old and many of those folks support children. How do they get by? Even with food stamps (paid by other taxpayers), rental assistance (paid by other taxpayers), etc. most cannot count on having food at the end of the month or having other essential needs met.

To address this problem, I’m sponsoring a bill led by Senator Agard to immediately raise the minimum wage to $10.15 and up to $15 next year. After that, the wage would increase by the same percentage as the cost of living.

The legislature happily increases its salary every year, so why not extend that practice to the poorest workers?

What PFAS?

One of the first actions of the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) was to eliminate all of the protections and programs pertaining to PFAS that were part of the Governor’s budget proposal. This included $10 million every year for municipalities to test and treat drinking water contaminated by the chemicals.

Before the budget was released, the Governor and the Attorney General announced that the state would sue the polluters who contaminated ground water around the state.

Last week, the GOP introduced a bill that would provide $10 million each year for municipalities to test and treat drinking water which I supported. However, the second part of the bill was a “poison pill.”  This provision barred any city that received grant money from suing a polluter. Thus, if a city received $25,000 to test their water and found that it was toxic, they would be unable to sue to recover their losses and costs.

I have introduced AB 419 which has the same funding allowances as the Governor’s bill but also includes provisions to establish standards for a wide range of PFAS/PFOA variants that may be found in drinking water (and no “poison pill.”)

The GOP “Tax Cut”

Two weeks ago, the GOP majority on the Finance Committee passed an income tax cut. As you might expect, the tax cut would give a lot of money to a few and not much to most of us.

Example: For households with incomes between $300,000-$500,000, the tax cut would be about $3,000 per year or about $60 per week. For households with incomes between $30,000-40,000, their tax cut FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR would be $49 or about a dollar per week.

Because the revenue making the tax cut possible is a one-time avalanche of money from the federal government, this would leave the state in a very difficult position when it has to support schools or provide health care when the next budget comes around and there is no multi-billion dollar federal grant.

This is an irresponsible fiscal strategy and one that would do real harm to the state if it were to pass. If the Governor vetoes this measure, I am confident that we would support the veto.

Here is a link to an op-ed by me published in the Wisconsin State Journal that fully explains my views. 

Decreasing Access to Voting

As part of the GOP’s state and national campaign to build distrust in Wisconsin’s voting process, the legislature voted to make it much more difficult for people in nursing homes or those with disabilities to vote. Layers of additional bureaucratic steps, penalties of prison-time for nursing home staff that might assist their residents, annual re-applications with photo IDs, etc. are some of the new measures to tamp down the vote. Has there been a single incident of nursing home residents committing fraud? No. Or of the caregivers of people with disabilities voting by absentee and then in person? No.  

Juneteenth and Immigrant Heritage

June was a month of special commemorations. Early in the month, I requested a special proclamation from Governor Evers naming June as Immigrant Heritage month. Along with that I introduced an Assembly Resolution also supporting that effort. The US is not alone in having anti-immigrant sentiment as a regular feature of political life. We also often forget that immigrants are responsible for creating much of what we value in the state and nation. For example, I believe that there is a consensus the Milwaukee Bucks would not be in the NBA Finals had it not been for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

On June 16^th we were pleased when President Biden signed a law making Juneteenth (6/19) a national holiday. The Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus organized a program in celebration of the day along with the raising of the Juneteenth flag.

Cutting Transit Aid to Madison

The plan for Madison’s Bus Rapid Transit System is to build its first line on East Washington Ave. from East Towne to the Capitol. In April, the Biden administration announced that it would provide about $80 million to the effort. Madison tax payers will add about $20-30 million but the state will contribute nothing to the project.

Although the BRT will provide transportation to thousands of state employees, the JFC double-downed on its opposition to public transit by cutting transit aid to Madison (and Milwaukee) by 50% over the next two years. That will come to about $40 million that the city would typically use to fund operations. Obviously, Madison Metro has just come off a very difficult year when most of its riders stayed home. Surely, this is the worst time to reduce aid. (Note: Transit aid to primarily GOP Green Bay and Appleton was not reduced.)

Finally

This is being sent while the final terms of the budget is still unknown. The Assembly and Senate approved their version – or vision- of the next two years. It now goes to the Governor who can veto it in part, or veto the whole document and start over. No one knows where that leads.

Now that summer is here and the virus has receded, I hope that we will have an opportunity to meet.

Also note, if you have guests from out of town, the tours of your beautiful capitol have resumed! 

Until then you can reach me at my office (266-0960) or by email at Rep.Baldeh@legis.wisconsin.gov.