Assembly Session

The Assembly met on March 23 to vote on a number of bills, including several that address COVID-19:

• Assembly Bills 23 and 25 protect individuals' right to decide for themselves whether to receive the COVID vaccine.  AB 23 forbids state and local health officials from imposing a COVID vaccine mandate, while AB 25 forbids employers from doing the same to employees.
  
• Assembly Bill 24 prohibits local health officials from taking any actions to close or prohibit gatherings at places of worship during the pandemic.  I trust places of worship to take appropriate steps to protect the health and safety of their members.
• Senate Bill 38 requires the Governor to prepare a plan for when state employees who have been working at home will return to their offices.  Wisconsin taxpayers deserve to know that their employees are doing they work they are paid to do, and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Governor Evers to put together some sort of timeline.
• Senate Bill 183 requires the Governor to submit plans to the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee for spending the federal funds related to COVID that Wisconsin receives.  Wisconsin has already received billions of federal COVID dollars, and it will receive billions more, and it's inconceivable that one person should have almost total discretion over this amount of money with no meaningful input from the taxpayers' elected representatives.  SB 183 would make the process more transparent and accountable.
  

Assembly Bills 23, 24, and 25 will now go to the Senate for further consideration.  The Senate had already passed Senate Bills 38 and 183, so those bills will now go to Governor Evers for his approval, although I am not optimistic that he will sign them.

The Assembly also passed Assembly Resolution 15, which directs the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections to investigate the administration of elections in Wisconsin, with a focus on elections after January 1, 2019.  This is in addition to an in-progress audit of Wisconsin's elections administration that the Legislature's Joint Audit Committee ordered earlier this year.  I continue to receive contacts from constituents who are concerned about election security, and I look forward to the results of these investigations.

Budget Update

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau recently issued two memos about Governor Evers' 2021-2023 state budget proposal, Assembly Bill 68/Senate Bill 111. 

The first memo describes each tax and fee modification contained in the budget.  (The memo makes references to pages and items in the budget summary the LFB published last week.)  The second memo provides distributional information about the effect of AB 68/SB 111 on the individual income tax.

The main takeaway is that, as introduced, AB 68/SB 111 would increase net taxes by over $1 billion over the course of the next biennium and increase fees by over $17 million.  However, it's important to bear in mind that these memos describe the effects of the budget bill in its current form, as Governor Evers introduced it.  I think the Joint Finance Committee will likely make many changes to the budget over the next several months so that the final product stays well within Wisconsin's means.

Legislative Website

If you are interested in learning more about bills that I have authored, co-sponsored, or voted on, please click here.  This link will take you directly to my Wisconsin State Legislative page.  Also, if you are interested in viewing my office website, click here.