Rep. Shelia Stubbs Attends Governor Evers’ Milwaukee Budget Listening Session

MADISON, WI – On December 10, 2024, Representative Shelia Stubbs attended a budget listening session hosted by Governor Tony Evers in Milwaukee. Representative Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) released the following statement:

“Thank you, Governor Evers, for hosting this listening session to solicit input on the upcoming 2025-2027 Executive Budget. Sessions like these are instrumental to ensuring that our next state budget reflects the needs of communities across Wisconsin.

As part of the Strong & Safe Communities breakout group, we had the opportunity to hear from organizations about their initiatives to empower residents, provide resources, and prevent violence. We also were able to listen to the perspectives of community members on the areas of greatest need in our state.

Participants in my breakout group stressed the need for more affordable housing, as well as programs that help keep families in their homes and prevent eviction and homelessness. They also expressed the importance of allocating more funding to programs that revitalize existing structures through remodeling and restoration to create more affordable housing.

We also heard about the increased demand for food pantry services and how some providers have needed to purchase supplies out of their own pockets in order to put food on families’ tables. There is a huge need to support our local food pantries, as they are experiencing an increased volume of users while also dealing with funding cuts.

Also present for this discussion were multiple violence prevention advocates, who expressed how recent cuts to funding from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) has strained their ability to provide services to violence survivors, especially with increases in domestic violence and human trafficking in our state.

These advocates voiced the need for increased funding to victim services and mentioned Assembly Bill 615, my bill to create a task force on missing and murdered African American women and girls in the State of Wisconsin, as necessary legislation to prevent violence and provide resources to victims and their families.

Throughout our conversation, it became clear that we must increase funding to our local communities and uplift the organizations that for too long have had to do much more with much less in order to provide critical services to our constituents.

Affordable housing, food security, and prevention of all kinds of violence are integral components of communities that are strong and safe. It is key that we continue listening to the voices of those most impacted and advocate for these initiatives to receive proper funding.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.