Compromise or Confrontation?

Compromise or Confrontation?

It’s Up to the GOP

In the November election, Wisconsin Democrats took all of the state-wide seats and over 54 percent of the votes cast for Assembly seats. One might think the Republican legislative leadership would recognize this as a mandate to find common ground with the new Governor-elect and his administration. No such luck.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and State Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald have rebuffed Governor-elect Evers’ offer to work on a people’s agenda to improve our roads, enact comprehensive healthcare reform and fully fund public education. Instead, they have called for a special session of the legislature to start next week. With outgoing Governor Walker’s blessing, they will try to enact a series of laws to limit Evers’ power and ability to govern while consolidating more power in GOP hands.

While the list of bills to be considered will not be released until after my deadline for this article, it is widely thought to include:

1. Taking the power to approve administrative regulations away from Governor Evers, even though they willingly gave such power to Walker.
2. Limiting Evers’ ability to appoint members to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s Board of Directors in order to continue GOP control of its agenda.
3. Moving the Spring 2020 election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat currently held by a conservative Justice to a date different than the Spring Presidential Primary where Democratic turnout is predicted to be higher thus hurting Justice Kelly’s chances to hold the seat. Never mind that the municipal clerks responsible for running these elections are mostly opposed to the move because of the time needed for potential for recounts, added costs and voter confusion.
4. Passing package of economic incentives to keep Kimberly-Clark in the Fox Valley. The paper maker has threatened to leave Wisconsin without more state help. 
5. Putting some GOP favorite rules, such as the requirement for a photo ID for voting and work requirements for Medicaid eligibility into state statutes.
6. Enacting state law requiring health insurance companies to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions.
7. Limiting Evers’ ability to change the Attorney General’s Solicitor Generals office in order to try and preserve some of the lawsuits brought by outgoing Attorney General and soon to be Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schmiel.

Never fear though because the Assembly and Senate leaders have yet to agree on how these or other measures might be considered. Speaker Vos apparently wants one omnibus bill that includes all of the issues. Majority Leader Fitzgerald favors individual bills that would be taken up separately, probably because he does not have the votes in his chamber to pass the Kimberly-Clark package after being burned by the Foxconn deal. Evidently, neither wants to address redistricting and the creation of fair maps or any of the other pressing problems Wisconsin voters want them to solve

Both leaders want to get the job done by mid-week so they can all go home for the holidays.

This effort, whatever its final form, does not bode well for cooperation on issues that voters cared about in November. Governor-elect Evers plans to work on the people’s agenda that includes fixing our roads, bridges and other parts of Wisconsin’s infrastructure too long neglected by the GOP. He wants a public education budget that fully funds our public schools and returns power to locally elected school boards to control their own district finances. He wants to expand Medicaid by accepting federal support that Walker rejected so more people have healthcare coverage.

Evers has called the proposed power grab unnecessary and potentially violative of the constitution’s separation of powers doctrine. He will have the support of his new AG, Josh Kaul, who will have no problem defending Evers’ positions.

Hopefully, some of the few moderate remaining Republican legislators can stand up and put a stop to the special session. They are the only ones who have the ability to slow the train or put it on a siding. They do so at the peril of losing financial support from GOP committees controlled by the leadership if they do not toe the line. They are the last hope for cooperation and a search for common ground in the coming legislative session.