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It is hard to believe but the legislature is back in session. This week,
my colleagues and I were sworn in on by the Chief Justice of the
Wisconsin Supreme Court. And next week, the Governor will be delivering
his State of the State address.
Like the State of the Union Address, the State of the State is an
opportunity for the Chief Executive of state government to outline his
plan for the next year and share his goals. Of course, everything is in
broad terms but it helps give those of us in the legislature a sense of
the direction our next session will take.
Following the State of the State, the Governor will be back a few weeks
later in front of the Legislature again to deliver his budget address.
That will be the official start of the budget process for the 2017-18
biennium. Once the Governor gives his recommendations to the
Legislature, the proposal will go to the Joint Finance Committee (JFC)
to debate each and every provision. This process will go all the way
until June when the proposal agreed upon by the JFC is voted on by both
the Assembly and Senate. Then it is back to the Governor’s desk for his
signature.
One of the things I always try to remember during the budget address is
that the proposal introduced in January will be very different from the
proposal signed into law in June or July. The JFC takes the Governor’s
recommendation as just that – a recommendation. Each week we learn that
certain aspects have been modified, expanded, or even eliminated
altogether.
The most contentious issue we are likely to deal with in the budget is
transportation. Even with the constitutional amendment to protect the
Transportation Fund, the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau
estimates that the fund will have a shortfall of nearly $1 billion. With
our crumbling roads and bridges, it is clear that we are going to need
to fund these repairs somehow but there is a lot of conflict about how
we do it. Some people think we should raise the gas tax or index it to
inflation. Others favor toll roads specifically to go after out-of-state
drivers. Still others think we should cut spending on mega projects.
Last session during the budget process I sent out weekly e-updates to
explain the latest on the budget process. As we get underway again this
time, I’ll be starting that again. If you have any questions about the
process or would like to track a particular issue, feel free to let me
know and I can keep you posted.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions on
any legislative or state issues. I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Steve
Steve Doyle
State Representative
94th Assembly District
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Doyle New Year’s Column
You know that one family member you can’t talk politics with? Now
imagine there are 99 of them…
Sometimes it feels like that when I go down to Madison. Gone are the
days when Republicans and Democrats could come together to socialize
after a hard day of debating on the Assembly floor. In the last few
months our state and country have seen partisan divides reach new
heights that few could have imagined.
Lately politics is either awkward silence or screaming matches. Hardly
anyone civilly discusses the issues anymore and it seems like no one
wants to listen to what the other side has to say. Compromise and
cooperation have become relics of the past. Coworkers are still nursing
wounds from nasty arguments over the presidential election. Families are
still sitting in uncomfortable silence around the dinner table. Spirited
debates over current issues have been replaced with personal attacks and
demonization.
The election is over. It’s time to move on.
My number one priority this session is to help bring back
bipartisanship. Just as I’ve done for the past two legislative sessions,
I’ll be cosponsoring an equal number of Democrat and Republican bills
over the next two years. I will look for the best ideas, regardless of
the political party. And when it comes to getting my own bills passed,
I’ll keep working with the majority party like I have before. For me, it
doesn’t matter whose name is on the bill or if it is followed by a D or
an R, just so long as it is in the best interests of my constituents and
our State.
Some things are easy to do in a bipartisan manner, like working with a
bill’s author to make just the right tweaks so that it can get a
unanimous vote in committee or on the floor. Some things require a bit
more effort, like sitting down with those on the other side to find out
exactly where our disagreements begin and end. As a new member of the
State Assembly leadership I’ve already had the opportunity to be part of
the negotiations with the Republican leadership over the rules that will
apply during our floor debate. I was pleased that we were able to reach
an agreement fairly quickly on those rules – including an agreement that
we need to put away our cellphones and actually pay attention to the
debate.
Bringing back bipartisanship isn’t going to be easy. Our state and our
nation are deeply divided with fear and anger sometimes overruling
common sense. It might even get louder before it gets quieter. But that
still doesn’t change the fact that working together is the right thing
to do.
This isn’t something that I can do on my own. It is something that will
require a unified effort. We need to work together to fund our schools,
fix our roads, create jobs, protect our environment, and promote
economic development. This most recent election wasn’t so much a victory
for either party as a message for change. In Wisconsin, that change
means we need to work together instead of one side dictating the terms
and the other side refusing to engage.
Maybe working in a bipartisan manner won’t help you survive that lecture
from your great uncle about how wrong you are politically. But it is my
sincere hope that by coming together down in Madison, my colleagues and
I from both parties can help change the political environment and make
some needed improvements in our State. That’s a New Year’s resolution
worth making.
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