This week, the Legislature voted to pass Senate Bill 21, the 2015-2017 state budget. 

On Tuesday, July 7, the Senate adopted two amendments to the substitute amendment the Joint Finance Committee had approved last week.  Senate Amendment 1 to Senate Substitute Amendment 1 removed several controversial provisions from the finance committee's version, including changes to Wisconsin's open records laws and changes to the makeup of the Legislature's Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems, which reviews legislation affecting public retirement systems.  My office received many constituent contacts about these provisions since they were approved last week, and I am happy that the Senate took them out of the budget.  Something as serious as changing the open records laws should be introduced - if at all - as standalone legislation and go through the normal legislative process so that legislators and constituents alike understand exactly who supports changes, why, and what effects those changes would have on transparency.  SA 1 to SSA 1 passed unanimously.

The Senate also passed Senate Amendment 2 to Senate Substitute Amendment 1.  This amendment included a number of technical tweaks but also included a significant reform of Wisconsin's prevailing wage law, exempting all local governments, including school districts and technical college districts.  State projects above the current cost thresholds would still be subject to the prevailing wage, but the process for determining the prevailing wage in these projects will be greatly simplified via reference to wages determined by the federal government under the Davis-Bacon Act, which is essentially the federal version of the prevailing wage law.

The Assembly met Wednesday, July 8, to vote on concurrence with the SB 21 as the Senate had amended it.  The Assembly did not adopt any additional amendments of its own.  The debate was interrupted for about two hours in the afternoon when the Capitol was evacuated in response to a bomb threat, but the Assembly finally approved the budget early Thursday morning.  SB 21 will now go to Governor Walker for his approval.

I voted for the budget not because it's perfect - it's far from that - but because it ultimately seemed to me that the good outweighed the bad.  The Legislature was able to erase Governor Walker's proposed cuts to K12 education and include an additional $100 per pupil in the second year of the biennium.  We were also able to reduce the proposed cuts to the UW and freeze in-state undergraduate tuition.  We were able to preserve SeniorCare and IRIS and expand Family Care statewide.  This budget also included the smallest authorization of new bonding since the 1980s.  Insofar as transportation projects will be affected by cuts to the Governor's original bonding request, the effects will be spread around the state - including the Milwaukee area - not just dumped on rural areas and other communities outside southeastern Wisconsin.

I think this is a good budget for Wisconsin taxpayers and their families, and that is why I voted for it.

With regard to the Milwaukee Bucks arena, the finance committee introduced standalone legislation, Assembly Bill 279/Senate Bill 209, and held an informational hearing on Monday, July 6.  The committee took no further action this week, so the future of these proposals remains to be seen.

The Assembly also met this week to vote on a few other proposals.  The most noteworthy is Senate Bill 179, which aims to protect unborn children from the pain of abortion procedures.  At 20 weeks after fertilization, an unborn child is assumed to be capable of feeling pain, and SB 179 prohibits abortions past that point except in cases of medical emergency.  The Assembly passed SB 179 with my support, and the proposal will go to Governor Walker for his approval.

The Assembly also voted 96-1 to approve Assembly Resolution 12, which reaffirms Wisconsin's "long-standing tradition of open and transparent government".