[Lekooks] Fwd: 10 Worst Things in the GOP Budget

Fri Jun 30 17:10:22 CDT 2023

My husband, Dan, said that I may want to pass this on to my LCUUC's group.
So, here you go.

Chris Kunert

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Daniel Dupies <ddupies2 at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 4:55 PM
Subject: Fwd: 10 Worst Things in the GOP Budget
To: Christine Kunert <ckunert2 at gmail.com>

The info below is from Tom Dupuis' aunt. You may want to pass it to your
Lekooks gang. dd

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: KATERI T DUPUIS <kateridupuis at mac.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 9:26 AM
Subject: 10 Worst Things in the GOP Budget
To: DUPUIS KATERI T <kateridupuis at mac.com>

In case you haven’t had a chance to follow the budget hearings, this email
from Chris Larson consolidates the info for you. Teri

*From: *Senator Chris Larson <Sen.Larson at legis.wi.gov>
*Subject: **10 Worst Things in the GOP Budget*
*Date: *June 30, 2023 at 7:29:49 AM CDT
*To: *Kateri Dupuis <kateridupuis at mac.com>
*Reply-To: *Senator Chris Larson <Sen.Larson at legis.wi.gov>

View this email in your browser
<https://mailchi.mp/legis.wisconsin.gov/lr2023budget?e=6e27a28cfd>
Kateri,

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin State Senate passed the Republican’s budget
proposal on a party-line vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats
in voting “no.” On Thursday, the Assembly acted as well.

Thanks to legislative Republicans’ gerrymandered majority, *this harmful
and downright offensive budget will reach Governor Evers’ *desk by the end
of the week. When it does,* I hope he will use his power as Governor to
veto most, if not all*, of its most damaging provisions.

With such a massive document, it’s easy to get lost in the details. As
such, I decided to share a list of the top 10 worst things that made it
into the final Republican budget. I hope you will take a moment to read
through them and *let me know what you think*.
10) Fails to invest in public transit
Currently, public transit support is included in the state’s Transportation
Fund. This budget takes away dedicated funding and instead puts transit
aids in the General Fund.

This means that each budget cycle moving forward, the source of over
one-third of the funding for Milwaukee’s bus system must compete with every
other agency for support. This  makes it easier to cut transit support in
future years, something no public transit system in our state can withstand.

Finally, the shared revenue portion of this budget continues the strange
Republican obsession with the streetcar and puts in place a punitive
restriction on use of state funds for The Hop, Milwaukee’s streetcar
system, making future expansions to places like Mitchell Airport or AmFam
Field that much harder.

9) Hinders efforts to protect our environment
At a time when climate change remains the greatest threat to our
civilization, as evidenced by the Canadian wildfires that have made our air
unsafe to breathe for several days, this budget fails to invest in climate
protections. It provides insufficient funding for clean water, undercutting
efforts at lead removal and PFAS remediation.

Lastly, this budget sticks a finger in the eye of electric vehicle owners
by adding an additional $75 annual registration fee on top of the existing
$100 Electric Vehicle (EV) tax. For Milwaukee EV owners, that takes their
registration to $235 per year. We ought to join other leading states and
countries by incentivizing the transition to clean energy - not punishing
people who are trying to do their part.

8) Fails to make our communities safer
Republicans had a tremendous opportunity to improve safety in our
communities. Sadly, they dropped the ball in a big way. First, they
defunded the Office of School Safety (OSS), a bipartisan program under the
Department of Justice (DOJ) whose federal funding is expiring this year.
One of the main functions of the office is a 24-hour safety tip line, which
has received over 7,000 contacts since its inception, with half of those
calls coming since 2022.

OSS also funds crisis response teams and trains school staff on how to
prevent violence and respond to critical incidents. Defunding OSS leaves us
woefully unprepared to prevent and respond to future school shooting
incidents. Specifically, it cuts 16 staff positions down to 4.

Republicans rejected all provisions related to drunk driving, including
language from a bill I authored that would require ignition interlocks for
first-offense OWI and add Wisconsin to the interstate Driver License
Compact, which helps keep drunk drivers off our roads and hold them
accountable when they move from state to state. Wisconsin will continue to
have the worst drunk driving laws in the country.

This budget makes it almost impossible for communities like Milwaukee to
invest in violence prevention efforts by requiring them to expand their
police force over the next 10 years, even if there is a large reduction in
crime. If they don’t, the city risks losing 15% of its shared revenue.

Finally, this budget rejects common-sense gun reform. This despite gun
violence being the #1 killer of kids in the U.S., and despite half of all
gun deaths being suicides. Background checks, red flag laws, safe storage
requirements - these should be no-brainers in our fight against gun
violence.

7) Fails to attract residents or grow our workforce
Wisconsin’s population is aging and shrinking. If we don’t address this,
the future of our state looks rather bleak. People like to live in states
where their freedoms are respected. This budget continues to outlaw
abortion and reject legalization of cannabis, something that is now legal
to some degree in every neighboring state.

To help support working families, Governor Evers proposed paid family leave
in his budget proposal. Nearly every other developed nation has figured
this out. Republicans removed that provision without batting an eye.

It’s no secret that our state has a severe shortage of nurses and that
UW-Madison has hundreds more applications to its engineering school than it
has spaces to enroll them.

Both of these problems could have been addressed in a big way if we had
funded building projects at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, but neither of
these projects were included in this budget proposal.

6) Cuts $32 million from our UW System
After years of unfunded tuition freezes, pandemic challenges, and sky-high
inflation, Republicans chose to cut the UW System budget by $32 million.
This will eliminate at least 188 full-time positions, and will lead to
further tuition hikes (and possibly even campus closures) going forward.

Wisconsin used to be a leader in higher education. We’ve fallen all the way
to 43rd this year, and this budget will only make that worse. Every dollar
we invest in higher education is a net positive for our state. Every dollar
we cut is a missed opportunity to grow our economy, expand our workforce,
and develop our future leaders.

5) Rejects BadgerCare Expansion
Wisconsin is one of just 10 states that continues to reject the federal
Medicaid expansion. We do so at our own peril. In this budget cycle alone,
the decision not to expand BadgerCare will cost our state $675 million
dollars, on top of the $2.1 billion we’ve already lost out on to date.

As an added insult, we will fail to provide health coverage for about
89,000 low-income people. That’s right, we’re paying more to cover fewer
people. Since Scott Walker came up with this scheme, we’re still the only
state to try this idiocy.

4) Eliminates $340 million in childcare support
Child Care Counts is a pandemic-era program funded primarily with federal
dollars that has been a lifeline for childcare centers across the state.
Over half of licensed childcare centers in Wisconsin benefited from this
funding, and 25% of them (about 2,000 facilities) are at risk of closing if
this program ends, putting 87,000 kids’ childcare at risk.

Failure to continue Child Care Counts when federal funding ends at the end
of 2023 will worsen our workforce shortage, shrink our economy, and hurt
working families. We cannot let that happen.

3) Doubles down on failed private school voucher experiment
This budget raises per-pupil funding for the state’s various voucher
programs by as much as $3,686 per pupil - an increase of 40%. The total
taxpayer cost for choice and charter schools in Wisconsin over the next two
years will rise to nearly $1.5 billion. That’s a massive shift of resources
that could be going to our public schools.

If that’s not enough, private schools receive 90% reimbursement for costs
related to special education - students with Individualized Education Plans
(IEPs), while public schools only receive 33%. However, unlike public
schools, voucher schools are legally able to discriminate against disabled
and LGBTQ+ children, something they repeatedly do.
<https://senatorchrislarson.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6247338a47c1e2cb95294a140&id=3b3f81ab13&e=6e27a28cfd>

This budget does all of this without adding a shred of additional
accountability to make sure kids attending these schools are receiving a
quality education and having their rights respected. 30+ years into the
program and their “teachers” still don’t have to be licensed.

2) Severely underfunds K-12 public education
Wisconsin is in the midst of a teacher shortage. Public schools have been
underfunded for so long that this year’s graduating seniors have never
attended a public school in 13 years whose funding has kept pace with
inflation.

Even the most conservative estimates from public education advocates
suggest that a $1,500 per-pupil funding increase is needed to give our
students a quality public education - something guaranteed to every child
by our state’s constitution. And yet, this budget gave just a $325 increase
in per-pupil funding each of the next 2 years. Our kids deserve far better.

1) Squanders our record $7 billion surplus on tax cuts that favor the rich
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am extremely passionate about public
education. You may even be shocked to find that I didn’t put inadequate
school funding at #1 on my list of worst things in the GOP budget. That
should tell you something about how bad this tax cut proposal is for our
neighbors. Here are the highlights:

   - Makes our tax code less progressive by squishing 4 brackets into 3
   - Gives a $746.9 million tax cut to the top income bracket, and just
   $33.7 million for the bottom income bracket
   - Married couples making $19k per year would pay the same income tax
   rate as those making $400k
   - Slashes state revenues by over $4 billion, which will force future
   budget cuts as the economy slows
   - Gives millionaires an average tax cut of over $30,000

Final thoughts
With a *$7 billion starting balance*, this budget could have gone a long
way toward undoing twelve years of austerity under gerrymandered Republican
rule. Instead, *we’re taking half the surplus and blowing it on tax cuts
that mostly benefit the rich*, and giving much of the rest of it to
hospitals, road-builders, and private school operators instead of policies
that benefit everyone.

Perhaps one day, when our legislature reflects the will of the people once
again, we can craft a budget that meets the moment and expands opportunity
for all of our neighbors. Tragically, today is not that day.

In Service,
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+++++++++++++++++++++
KATERI T DUPUIS
kateridupuis at icloud.com
++++++++++++++++++++
Without freedom of speech, we would not know who the idiots are.
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