Highlights and Lowlights from Yesterday’s Assembly Session

High Capacity Wells

Senate Bill 76 passed the Assembly yesterday with all Democrats voting against the bill. The bill rolls back regulations that protected our groundwater and grants forever-permits for high capacity wells with no additional oversight.

Effectively, Republicans abandoned Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine, the constitutional protection that recognizes that the people, not the state, are the rightful ‘owners’ of our water. Senate Bill 76 threatens this doctrine which guarantees Wisconsin’s public water remains free and available to the public.

With the passage of this bill, Republicans chose winners and losers on water rights – and the average working people and small family farmers are the losers – in a political climate where the deck has been consistently stacked against the average person. The bill should have been amended to restore basic fairness, but Republicans refused to even consider reasonable changes. The result is a significant threat to our water resources.

Homelessness

Assembly Republicans passed an anemic package of bills under the guise of addressing homelessness. After six years of driving down wages and failing to expand access to affordable health care, child care, and family medical leave, Republicans have only exacerbated the problem of homelessness in our state. The bills passed yesterday do nothing to address the root causes of homelessness or to expand access to affordable housing, and given the opportunity to pass amendments that invest in substantive, evidence-based solutions, Republicans refused.

The Wisconsin Coalition Against Homelessness has indicated that, at a minimum, Wisconsin should triple the $3.25 million of dedicated funds it spends to address homelessness to $10 million. I offered amendments that would have invested in evidence-based approaches of eviction prevention, Rapid Rehousing, and Housing First programs. These amendments followed the recommendations of the Coalition Against Homelessness and of the many homeless services providers who testified at a hearing on the bills. Each amendment failed on a party line vote, with all Republicans voting against investing new resources to end and prevent homelessness. 

To successfully address homelessness we must tackle its root causes.   I remain committed to expanding the availability of affordable housing and case management services, increasing wages, expanding access to health care, and increasing economic security – all key ingredients to ending and preventing homelessness. Watch for more information about bills I will be introducing in the upcoming weeks to tackle this issue.

Civil Legal Access Legislation Advances

Last summer, I served on the Legislative Council Study Committee on Access to Civil Legal Services.  These bipartisan committees consist of legislators and members of the public who have subject matter expertise.  The Study Committee was directed to review the funding and delivery of legal services for the low income people in civil cases. Yesterday, two bills developed by the Study Committee were passed by the Assembly.

The first, Assembly Bill 115, recognizes that providing low income and at-risk populations with free or reduced-fee civil legal services can be an effective way to eliminate or reduce the dependence on public assistance or other government programs. The bill encourages the Departments of Administration, Health Services, Children and Families, Workforce Development, and Justice to allocate, as allowed by federal law, any federal block grant money they administer which is intended to benefit low-income, indigent, vulnerable, or at-risk populations for the purpose for providing civil legal aid to qualified individuals.

The second bill, Assembly Bill 116, creates the Interagency Legal Aid Coordinating Council.  The Council will evaluate how providing low-income, indigent, vulnerable, and at-risk populations with civil legal services will serve, or further the missions, responsibilities, and goals of the agencies represented on the council.

Update: Joint Finance Committee Begins Amending the Budget

On Monday, the Joint Finance Committee started voting on parts of the state budget.   The Committee will probably spend the remainder of this month debating and voting on each piece of the budget. Here are a few highlights from this week’s deliberations:

In his budget, the Governor had proposed eliminating the Judicial Commission and Judicial Council. These bodies play an important role in the oversight of our judicial system, and I am pleased that the members of the Joint Finance Committee voted unanimously to remove their proposed elimination.

The Committee also considered the Environmental Improvement Fund. Democrats introduced a motion to extend the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program until all lead laterals were replaced. Laterals are the pipe extensions that carry water from the city’s main water lines across your property to your home, and the presence of led in many of these laterals puts residents, especially children, at risk of lead poisoning. The City of Madison was the first in the state to successfully replace all lead laterals citywide. Republican members of the committee opposed the motion.

I will continue to provide highlights of Joint Finance Committee actions on the budget in future newsletters.  If you would like to know more about what the Joint Finance Committee is discussing the Legislative Notification Service will provide you with meeting notices.  Once you subscribe, you may also enter bill topics, committee names, and bill numbers to have topical legislative notices emailed directly to you.  Access the Legislative Notification Service by visiting http://legis.wisconsin.gov/.

Madison/Middleton Expand Use of Solar Power

The City of Madison and the City of Middleton have launched a program called MadiSUN Solar Group Buy. The program assists residents to buy solar electric systems to help power their homes.

The program is recruiting households to participate in the program. They will connect residents with solar providers and assist with accessing federal tax credits and Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy program rebates.

MadiSUN will be putting on six educational events that will help people learn more about solar energy and their program. Click here for a schedule of these upcoming events.