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Helping to Clean Up Our Community
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On Wednesday, I was proud to join with my colleague Representative Gundrum to testify in support of legislation that we brought forward to help with an important clean-up in communities in our districts, Assembly Bill (AB) 943. This legislation would provide up to $2.5 million in funding for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to contract for the removal of the hazardous electronic waste left behind by the now-defunct company 5R Processors. This waste is currently contained in several semi-trailers and warehouse facilities located in Rusk, Price, and Washington Counties.
As you may know, 5R Processors was an electronics recycling company formerly based in Ladysmith. Investigations of this company by the DNR and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered a great deal of illegal activity on the part of 5R, including the storing of hazardous waste at unpermitted facilities, transporting hazardous waste without the required manifest, and concealing these violations from state regulators. This led to the federal prosecution of several of the company’s leaders.
While we would all like to see those who are responsible for this hazardous waste in our communities pay for the cost of the cleanup, they are likely to never have enough money to do so. Therefore, unless the state steps in, the cost of this cleanup could fall to local governments and local taxpayers which they cannot afford.
Thank you to Rusk County Administrator Andy Albarado and Ladysmith City Administrator Alan Christianson for making the long trip to Madison to support this bill. To learn more you can read my testimony by clicking here.
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Standing Up for Our Small Businesses
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Another part of my week in Madison was participating in a hearing in the Small Business Development Committee. The committee heard an update from Secretary Hughes of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and also heard testimony on two bills.
The first bill, Assembly Bill (AB) 912 limits the use of emergency powers during emergencies so that no business may be declared essential or nonessential. It also requires that any action or regulation of a business relating to an emergency must be applied to all businesses uniformly. During the pandemic, many businesses were wrongly declared “non-essential” by Governor Evers and shut down. These unilateral mandates shut down many small businesses across our state while other large chain stores were allowed to remain open, packed full of people. AB 912 ensures that if any mandates are ever put into place in the future, they are applied to all businesses equally.
The second bill the committee considered was AB 940. This bill deals with the implementation of talent attraction and retention initiatives by WEDC. In the most recent state budget that was signed into law by Governor Evers as 2021 Act 58, WEDC is required to spend $3,000,000 on talent attraction and retention. With businesses across our state struggling to find the employees they need to meet their needs, it is critical that WEDC implement these initiatives as quickly as possible. While Act 58 was signed into law by the governor back in July of 2021, very little progress seems to have been made on implementing these initiatives. AB 940 requires the CEO of WEDC to submit a plan to the Joint Committee on Finance describing in detail WEDC's plan for spending the funding as required under Act 58 within 30 days after the bill becomes law and requires WEDC to begin using that funding.
Both of these bills were recommended for passage by the committee later in the week and I look forward to voting on these bills in the full Assembly soon.
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Labor and Integrated Employment Committee
In my last e-update, I shared that the Labor and Integrated Employment Committee, which I chair, held a public hearing on three bills, Assembly Bills 883, 910, and 911. I'm happy to report that on Thursday the committee voted to recommend the passage of these bills and they will likely be taken up by the full Assembly next week. To learn a bit more about these bills click here to read my previous e-update.
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Workforce Development Committee
This week I participated in a public hearing in the Workforce Development Committee on three bills in the Stronger Workforce Package. The aim of this package of legislation is to begin to address the workforce shortage facing our state by reforming our state's public benefits programs to help those on the sidelines to reenter our state's workforce.
- Assembly Bill 937 - This bill would tie unemployment benefits to the state unemployment rate. In times like we are in today where jobs are plentiful, the period of time an individual could remain on unemployment is reduced. When times are tough and the unemployment rate is higher the maximum time an individual could remain on unemployment would increase.
- Assembly Bill 938 - This bill would provide a comprehensive tune-up to fix problems with the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. Changes would include extended call center hours, weekly eligibility crosschecks, requiring DWD to audit work searches, update misconduct statutes, provide JFC oversight of enhanced federal benefits, and provide additional online resources to employers to connect with qualified workers.
- Assembly Bill 939 - Under this bill, if a UI claimant who is required to perform work searches does not show up for a job interview and it is verified by DWD they would not be eligible for UI benefits for that week.
I’m pleased to report that AB 937, AB 938, and AB 939 were all passed by the committee and will likely be taken up by the full Assembly next week.
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Meeting with the Wisconsin Library Association
A part of my busy day in Madison on Tuesday was meeting with folks from the Wisconsin Library Association. Thank you to the libraries across the 87th District for the important work you do for our communities!
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Talking Real Estate
On Wednesday, several of my colleagues from Northwestern Wisconsin and I had the opportunity to meet with realtors from our area and talk about some issues important to their industry. Thank you to all the realtors who made the long trip down to the Capitol to meet with us.
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One of my favorite parts about serving as your state representative is getting out and interacting with constituents at many of the wonderful community events across the 87th District. Check out some of the upcoming events around the district below. Also, if you know of any other events, please contact my office and let me know, so I can include them in a future e-update and try to attend myself.
Check out some of the events coming up around the district:
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One of the best ways to stay up to date with what is going on in Madison is to sign up for the legislature's notification tracking service. This service allows you to follow legislative activity in Madison. Once you create a free account you can sign up to receive notifications about specific bills or committees as well as legislative activity pertaining to a subject area (i.e. agriculture, veterans). You can sign up for this service at notify.legis.wisconsin.gov.
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