Madison – Today State Senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) invited Governor Walker to be his guest at a special town hall meeting in Milwaukee's Third Senate District, in order to discuss the governor's budget provision repealing Milwaukee's 75 year-old local public employee residency requirement. The neighborhoods and property values in the Third Senate District – home to many city employees – will be particularly destabilized by this change.
“My constituents and I hope the Governor will agree to attend an event to explain his reasoning for slipping this major – non-fiscal – policy item into his fiscal state budget. I think this would also be a great opportunity for Governor Walker to explain why he did not follow through on his promise not to slip non-fiscal public policy into the state budget,” said Carpenter.
The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau determined that Governor Walker inserted fifty-eight non-fiscal public policy items into his state budget. The Republican-dominated Joint Finance Committee refused to remove all of those policy items; it even added more.
“I am eager to hear Governor Walker explain why his party’s new principle of legislating ‘control of locals’ has apparently replaced the long-held conservative principle of ‘local control,’” said Carpenter.
Senator Carpenter stated that he is looking forward to scheduling this town hall with the governor’s office.
