Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This week, the Joint Finance Committee hastily finished its work on the
budget and considered a bill that would hand over $3 billion in
corporate welfare and roll back environmental protections to pave the
way for Foxconn. Earlier in the week, I stood with Verona Road business
owners as they called for a sustainable solution to our transportation
financing woes and shared stories of businesses that have closed, moved,
or suffered in the face of ongoing construction delays as a result of
Republicans’ refusal to address our infrastructure needs.
In this newsletter, you will find more about final changes made to the
budget by the Joint Finance Committee, the latest move to hand over even
more power to Foxconn, and what is happening with workers’ compensation.
If you have any questions or need assistance with any matter, please
feel free to contact my office.
Sincerely,
Lisa Subeck
State Representative
78th Assembly District
Hunger
Action Month
To kick off Hunger
Action Month, I attended a legislative day at Second Harvest Foodbank of
Southern Wisconsin. The event included conversation with their staff
about fighting hunger in our community and a tour of Second Harvest.
After the tour, Rep. Mark Spreitzer from Beloit and I stuck around to
help package 4000 pounds of bulk elbow macaroni in family size portions
for distribution to those facing hunger in southwestern Wisconsin.
Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin and NBC15 are inviting
everyone to take action this September during Hunger Action Month.
On Thursday, September 14, join thousands of people across the country
and Go Orange to fight hunger!
Here's how to GO ORANGE:
-
Individually, and as a group,
wear orange (the symbolic color for hunger) on September 14.
-
Take individual and group
pictures - have fun with it.
-
Post both your individual AND
group pictures on Facebook.com/NBC15Madison and on Instagram using
#Orange4SHFB.
Lands' End, Habush Habush & Rottier
S.C., TASC, Door Creek Dental and Starion Bank will donate meals to
Second Harvest Foodbank for every photo posted.
For more ways to take action against hunger all September,
click here to visit the Hunger Action Month webpage.
Budget
Moves out of Joint Finance Committee
After more than two
months of delay due to Republican infighting, the Joint Finance
Committee has passed its amended version of the governor’s budget. It is
expected that the full Assembly will vote on the bill next Wednesday
with the Senate voting shortly thereafter.
Transportation
While residents, businesses and local government leaders were hoping to
see a sustainable long-term transportation funding plan, the amended
budget still lacks a plan to fix our failing roads into the future.
Instead, the bill targets owners of electric and hybrid vehicles by
raising their registration fees by $100 and $75 respectively. The
increased revenue from this fee does not come close to filling the hole
in the transportation fund and is counter-intuitive at a time when we
should be encouraging the use of vehicles that cause less harm to our
climate. Again, Republicans have kicked the can down the pothole-laden
road with no sustainable solution to our transportation funding woes.
Although it had been removed from the budget as a policy item earlier in
the budget process, a provision to repeal the prevailing wage law on
state road projects was reinserted into the bill by Republicans on the
Finance Committee. According to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance,
repealing prevailing wage could cut the salaries of these workers by as
much as 44 percent. Driving down wages in this way will cost Wisconsin
far more in the long run than it would to simply pay the industry’s
prevailing wage to the workers who build and care for our state’s
buildings, roads, and other public facilities. The same Taxpayer
Alliance study tells us that this move could actually cost taxpayers
more than $336 million.
The Joint Finance budget also moves the state closer to collecting
highway tolls. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will seek
federal approval to begin tolling federal highways in the state. If
federal permission is granted, the proposal requires DOT to seek
approval from state lawmakers to proceed with tolling.
Attack on
Family Planning Providers
As with the last state
budget bill, Republicans on the Finance Committee once again introduced
a poorly thought-out “wrap-up motion” which reads like a laundry list of
proposals and pork projects designed to garner the votes of political
holdouts. This time the motion included requiring arbitrary audits of
family planning health care providers.
The measure approved by Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee to
single out family planning health care providers for audits wastes
taxpayer dollars and harasses women’s health centers. Previous audit
findings by the Inspector General were so flawed that he had to retreat
from his attack on these providers, and safeguards for all Medicaid
providers are already in place through the Medicaid Program Integrity
Division.
To be clear, these senseless and arbitrary audits of women’s health
centers are nothing more than an attempt by Republican leadership to
shore up the votes of their most extreme members for a bad budget.
Click here to see what else was in the so-called wrap-up motion.
Foxconn
This week, Republicans
in the Joint Committee on Finance advanced the Governor’s proposed
Foxconn subsidy which will provide an unprecedented $3 billion in
corporate welfare and roll back laws protecting our water and our
environment to woo an international corporation into building a factory
on the Illinois border.
Republicans were again eager to pass this legislation despite the fact
that even in the best case scenario, it would take 25 years for the
state to break even. Even then, there are no guarantees, and taxpayers
will be left flitting the bill at a cost of hundreds of millions per
year. Meanwhile, in this budget and future budgets we will be left
without the resources we need to fund our schools, fix our roads and
bridges, and grow our economy into the future.
In case the bill passed last month by the State Assembly wasn’t bad
enough, a Senate amendment passed by Republicans on the Joint Finance
Committee would allow Foxconn unprecedented power in our legal system.
This provision will allow parties involved in court cases related to the
EITM zone created in the Foxconn bill to file appeals directly with the
Wisconsin Supreme Court, rather than going through the normal court
appeals process. Worse yet, any decision of a lower court to issue a
temporary halt (or “stay”) during appeals will automatically be reversed
when an appeal is filed. This sets up a dangerous overreach into the
judicial system by the legislative branch and an unbelievable power grab
by a foreign corporation.
The Senate will vote on the bill next week Tuesday, and the Assembly
will vote on the Senate’s changes to the bill on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, the likely result is that a bad deal will have been made
even worse.
Health
Care Town Hall
Yesterday, my Democratic
colleagues and I hosted a Health Care Town Hall meeting. It was great to
see a number of you there and to hear from so many Dane County
residents. We heard about what life was like for some before the
Affordable Care Act, and what it would mean for them if it was repealed.
We also heard from many in attendance about their concerns regarding the
constant Republican attacks on women’s access to reproductive
healthcare.
Though we can celebrate the victory of the failed attempt to repeal the
Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Senate, there are still looming threats
of changes. It is critical that we remain vigilant in the fight to
expand – not limit – access to affordable, quality health care.
Click here for coverage of the Town Hall from the Badger Herald.
Click here for video from yesterday’s town hall meeting.
Verona
Road - Get it done
In a bit of good news,
the version of the budget adopted by the Joint Finance Committee does
not contain a further delay to Verona Road construction. However, as the
budget goes through the Senate and Assembly, that could change.
Unfortunately, for nine businesses along the Verona Road corridor, the
delay in construction in the last budget and uncertainty over a
completion timeline, caused those businesses to close or relocate. When
the project began, the businesses along the corridor worked together,
advertised, and did everything they could to bring customers to their
doors and keep their employees at work. Once the shovel hit the ground,
the responsibility of the state was to see the project through to
completion in a timely, competent manner. Governor Walker and the
Republicans failed to meet their obligation.
Small businesses along the corridor have taken hit after hit. More than
33% of business along the corridor have reported more than an 11%
reduction in sales since the project began, while 13% of the businesses
along the corridor have experienced loss of sales greater than 25%. The
result is less money to reinvest in the businesses, hire more employees,
or increase the pay of valued employees.
All of this could have been avoided by keeping the project on schedule,
but that requires a sustainable solution to Wisconsin’s transportation
funding crisis. Republicans have refused to get serious about fixing our
roads and infrastructure, leaving Wisconsin families and small
businesses to pay the price.
Workers
Compensation
Wisconsin was a pioneer
in Worker’s Compensation. Over 100 years ago, the first Worker’s
Compensation policy was written in Wausau, Wisconsin, after a handful of
powerful business leaders known as the Wausau Group formed Employers
Mutual Liability Insurance Co. of Wisconsin. The business leaders, who
had gained their wealth through logging, recognized the need to
diversify the economy of the area and lay the groundwork for future
economic success. They knew the importance of workers having income to
pay the bills in the event of injury.
In order to maintain a sound worker’s compensation system, a Workers
Compensation Advisory Council (WCAC) was created. Comprised of
representatives of labor and management the WCAC reviews the law,
considers and debates potential changes. When consensus is reached,
proposals are drafted into a finalized, agree upon bill that is
submitted to the Legislature for a vote. Out of respect for the process,
the bills have not been subject to amendment in the past.
While we expect an agreed upon bill to be submitted soon, there is
concern that business interests may attempt to undermine both the WCAC
process and the ability of workers to receive the coverage their
families need when injuries occur. Our system has served employers and
employees equally well for decades, yet there have been repeated
attempts to dismantle it since 2011.
You can learn more about the WCAC and the process by reviewing the
following websites.
WC Council
overview
WC
Council membership roster
Agreed-Upon Bill process description & past bill summaries
September
is Preparedness Month in Wisconsin
September is
Preparedness Month in Wisconsin. It’s also back to school month for
students across the state. Many of those students will be learning about
emergency preparedness this school year thanks to STEP — Student Tools
for Emergency Planning.
The statewide program teaches 5th graders how to be prepared for various
emergencies and disasters, including blizzards, tornadoes, flooding, and
fires. The program also shows students how to put together an emergency
kit and develop an emergency plan with their families.
Since 2010, more than 50,000 students from various public, private,
charter and home schools have participated in this youth preparedness
program across Wisconsin. Teachers are provided with all STEP materials
at no cost to the schools, including instructor guides, videos, and
student handouts. All students participating in the program also receive
a starter emergency kit to take home. The basic lesson is only one hour
of instruction, but teachers can expand the lessons to cover eight hours
of materials.
Each week this September, ReadyWisconsin will highlight easy and
inexpensive ways for you and your family to prepare for emergency
situations. You can visit http://readywisconsin.wi.gov for more
information. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
College
Students: Outsmart Social Media Scammers
Social media
applications are everywhere: on our computers, our phones, our
televisions and even in our cars. Nowhere is this more evident than on a
college campus, where students use these apps as a means of making
personal and professional connections to help them prepare for the
future. But all of that goodwill can be undone by scammers and identity
thieves who set up traps on these apps with a goal of capturing users'
money and personal information.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
asks college students to help protect their identities and their wallets
by tightening the security around their social media accounts and by
thinking before they click on links in social posts.
Users of all services should set up complex passwords or passphrases for
their social media accounts, turn on two-factor authentication if it is
offered, and use the security features available in the apps to block
public access to their posts. To avoid scams, users should be very
suspicious of links in posts that direct them to unfamiliar websites or
that advertise unrealistic offers for popular products.
Scammers often use fake account support emails to gather login details
from social media users. These "phishing" emails falsely warn recipients
that they need to provide their usernames and passwords in order to
update a social media account or avoid an account suspension. Delete
similar emails and log directly into the service if you need to check
your account status.
Each social media application has its own risks for identity theft and
scams. Watch for these app-specific risks:
Twitter:
-
Watch out for links in direct
messages from users you don't know. These links may be included with
a message intended to draw you in, like "Can you believe this is
true?"
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Watch for warnings from Twitter
about unsafe links. According to Twitter, these links match a
database of potentially harmful URLs which could lead to phishing,
malware or spam sites.
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Buying followers and
engagements and using "free followers" apps could compromise your
account and may also violate Twitter's rules.
Facebook:
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Watch for "profile viewer
tracking" service pitches – Facebook does NOT offer this feature.
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Hacked accounts can send
malicious posts to everyone in your friends list, and the messages
will post to their feeds (potentially attracting other victims). The
links in these posts could drive users to websites where malware is
transmitted to their devices.
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Fake surveys and quizzes can be
ploys to harvest personal information.
LinkedIn:
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Watch for "get rich quick" and
work-from-home scams. Do your research on a company before you apply
for a job posting, particularly if it seems too good to be true.
-
Third-party websites claim to
provide LinkedIn phone support for a fee, but these groups are not
affiliated with LinkedIn. LinkedIn does not charge users for support
and will not request login information from customers.
-
Other common scams according to
LinkedIn: mystery shopper offers, phony inheritance scams (advance
fee scams), romance scams.
For additional information or to
file a complaint, visit the Consumer Protection Bureau at
datcp.wisconsin.gov, call the Consumer Protection Hotline at
800-422-7128 or send an e-mail to
datcphotline@wisconsin.gov.
Fun
Wisconsin Fact
Wisconsin’s name comes
from the Wisconsin River, which was called Meskousing by the
Algonquian-speaking tribes. The name was recorded in 1673 by French
explorer Jacques Marquette. Over time, the word was Anglicized into
Ouisconsin, Wiskonsan and finally into its current spelling and
pronunciation. Linguists think the original name must have been borrowed
from the Miami word “meskonsing” which translates to “it lies red” or
“this stream meanders through something red”, likely referring to the
sandstone formations in the Wisconsin River.