Testimony being heard on Wisconsin budget in West Allis
Members of the Joint Finance Committee listen to testimony at the public hearing on Gov. Walker’s proposed 2011-13 biennial budget.
About 400 people have filled the chairs in the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Hall today to give their testimony about Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget.
The hall is huge (this is where all the commercial hawkers gather during the fair) and the sound is difficult, but citizens continue to take advantage of this opportunity to tell the Joint Finance Committee their concerns in favor or against the fiscal policy plans.
JFC Co-chair Robin Vos (R-Burlington) is holding to the plan to end testimony at 6 p.m., even though the hall is available and rented by the JFC until Midnight.
“This is amazing on two fronts – we heard criticism that the room was too small, now people are saying the room is too big,” Vos said. “We had a meeting on the budget repair bill for the first time in a long time and we’re told 17 hours was not enough. We are here today at the same time that was previously used by the Democrats. There has been plenty of opportunities for people to come to the Capitol and march, and if people are not able to get here due to working, email works just as well as testifying here today.”
Vos’s unwillingness to extend the hearings into the evening hours has raised concerns with Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee).
“In Stevens Point I learned Rep. Vos would not extend the hearing and in the course of that conversation, I learned the hall at State Fair Park was reserved from 6 p.m. to Midnight,” Taylor said prior to today’s committee hearing. “He knows we have the room and he is ultimately denying our ability to use the room. Please allow Leah Vukmir’s and my constituents to be heard. Allow Sen. Carpenter’s and Sen. Larson’s constituents to be heard.”
She said Vos’s decision to cut off testimony at 6 p.m. is an example of how the Republicans have chosen to lead.
“To shut individuals off, to deny them their First Amendment rights,” She said. “Why reserve the room for six hours you don’t need? We know people who work until five and have rush hour traffic, so why deny their opportunity to be heard. They can email their legislators, but it is a different experience to speak face to face with your representative. ”
As for cuts the public are suggesting, Taylor said she hasn’t heard anything specific beyond citizens desiring that there be a shared sacrifice. “If we’re going to give tax credits to the wealthy, we shouldn’t be doing it on the backs of the working, the lower class and the poor. It is not fair that 67% of corporations are not paying their fair share of the taxes.”
Darling and Vos reminded people that this is the governor’s budget and that they have changes they want to make, such as restoring SeniorCare and higher education issues.
Darling added she is not hearing what programs the citizens want cut, only the public’s priorities. “This is something we have to do in the legislature; If you want to put money somewhere else, you have to find money in another area to fill that hole. But we have this big hole because of the recession and big spending by legislatures and governors over the last few decades. But the reason for this big hole now is due to taking that $2 billion in stimulus money to fill education and Medicaid.”
Since testimony began at 10 a.m. the majority has focused on cuts to transit, SeniorCare, MPS education and farmland conservation. A large group of school choice advocates, joined by students from Milwaukee Messmer and St. Anthony’s Catholic School, also testified about increasing funding to their programs and lifting income caps for choice.
Tomorrow, look for a recap of what the public is advising the JFC will do with the Walker budget proposal. Today’s photos by Patti Wenzel and Nickolas Nikolic.
