Rep. Kaufert and library record law

From a Press Release on WisPolitics:

State Representative Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah) and Senator Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) will introduce legislation that will allow libraries to turn over surveillance tapes to law enforcement agencies without a court order. An incident recently at the Neenah Public Library highlighted the need for changing the law.

“The Neenah incident really highlights the need for the language change,” Kaufert said. “The last thing we want to do is create an environment that allows certain individuals to commit a crime knowing that it could be sometime before law enforcement will be able to identify them because they can’t get a hold of the evidence.”

Under current state law, no public library records can be released to identify a library user unless there is a court order. The State Attorney General’s Office last year in an opinion stated that because surveillance tapes reveal the identity of a library user the only way to receive those tapes is through a court order.

“Clearly, the law needs to be changed,” Ellis said. “The right to privacy is important, but it should not trump the right of the public to be protected. “What if some seven- or eight-year-old child had walked down that aisle and witnessed that disgusting act. Don’t they have rights, too?”

Kaufert and Ellis plan to work with the Wisconsin Library Association, Law Enforcement Groups, and Local Government leaders to make sure the language is clear and direct so this problem doesn’t happen in the future.

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Additional coverage of this issue can be found at the American Library Association:

A police investigation into whether a crime occurred April 2 at the Neenah (Wis.) Public Library has intensified efforts already underway by the Wisconsin Library Association and state legislators to enable librarians to share surveillance tapes with law enforcement in criminal cases without a subpoena. The investigation involves a patron’s report that a man was masturbating in a second-floor book aisle; by the time police arrived the suspect was gone.

Although Neenah Public Library Director Stephen Proces preferred to give police the pertinent surveillance tape immediately, he had to decline until he was served with a subpoena April 18 due to an informal opinion in November 2006 from the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office. The request stemmed from several thwarted investigations, including one in which the Sun Prairie Public Library wished to share with police a surveillance tape that might help identify who had stolen SPL’s donation box during library hours, according to the Wisconsin Library Association.

WLA is seeking a “new narrow exception to the court order requirement for release of library records for library administrative purposes including collection of fines and penalties, and the protection of library staff, library users, and library property.” State Sen. Michael Ellis (R-Neenah) and Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah) announced April 17 that they would introduce such an amendment. “The right to privacy is important, but it should not trump the right of the public to be protected,” Ellis said in the April 17 Appleton Post-Crescent. Assistant Attorney General Alan Lee, who wrote the opinion, told the newspaper that he backs the amendment.

Ironically, neither police nor library officials were able to identify the suspect from the subpoenaed video, from which several still photos were made. “We had 33 employees look at the video, and no one recognized this person,” Proces told American Libraries.
Posted April 20, 2007.

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According to Kaufert in a piece in the Post Crescent:

"It's another example where some bureaucrat is interpreting the law way too broadly," he said. "I don't want to see the police department have to jump through hoops just to do an investigation."

Kaufert said his staff would work with the state Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Library Association, which already have drafted a narrow exception to the law that would allow libraries to share surveillance video with police when criminal activity is suspected.

"We will send it around for co-sponsors in the next week," Kaufert said. "Then we will introduce it as a bill."

Owens & Roth: Pension income tax credit

Both Roth and Owens are coauthors of AB28, which creates an individual income tax credit for retirement plan income.

According to the Legislative Reference Bureau:

This bill creates a nonrefundable individual income tax credit that is calculated by multiplying the claimant's marginal tax rate by the amount of pension income received by the claimant each year from a qualified retirement plan under the Internal Revenue Code, except that the credit may not be based on pension income hat is already exempt from taxation.

The bill first applies to taxable year 2008, and limits the maximum amount of pension income on which the credit may be calculated. For taxable year 2008, the maximum allowable pension income is $2,500. The maximum amount of pension income increases each year from $2,500 to $5,000 in 2009, $10,000 in 2010, $15,000 in 2011, and $20,000 in 2012 and thereafter.

Roth and Kaufert on Hwy Projects

The current 41/441 hwy set up has been questioned by local residents for lack of safety and inadequacies. Reps Roth and Kaufert have joined the call for changes. The Appleton PC posted a story on April 17 on this, including the following:

“There (are) too many projects in the pipeline and not enough money to fund it,” Kaufert said. As it stands, he said, the “earliest” the interchange could be completed would be 2012.Roth said the interchange project “is very, very important for economic development of our communities.”

Unfortunately, Kaufert said, Gov. Jim Doyle does not share the same urgency view and has directed spending on the “Zoo interchange” and other projects in southeastern Wisconsin to the detriment of the 41-10/441 project.“This is a vital economic and safety issue for this area,” said Kaufert, who noted that the transportation fund in the next biennium budget is “in trouble” and likely facing a deficit.

Click here to review a study of the DOT Study and Plan of the 41/441 expansion.

Hintz and Budget Forums

According to this blogger:

State Representative Gordon Hintz has scheduled five state budget workshops, each focusing on one of the "big five" state programs.

The schedule is listed below.

UW System April 30, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Reeve Memorial Union 227 A&B

K-12 Education May 14, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oshkosh Area School District Administration Building

Medicaid May 21, 6:30-8:30 p.m.Oshkosh Senior Center-Willow Room

Shared Revenue June 4, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Location TBA

Corrections June 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oshkosh Public Library

Hintz on Financial Aid Loan Issue

Below is a letter sent by Rep Hintz to the chair of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities:

Dear Representative Nass,

Recently a number of colleges and universities across the country have had their student loan operations fall under a cloud of suspicion due to a wide range of apparent conflicts of interest. Unfortunately, several schools in our own University of Wisconsin system are now facing similar scrutiny. I am writing to request that the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities convene a hearing to investigate this matter further and to ensure that hardworking Wisconsin students and their families are receiving fair student aid guidance from the schools they attend.

According to numerous published reports, student lending companies have employed a variety of methods to promote their services, including:
· Offering university administrators lucrative “consulting” fees in return for nebulous services.
· Giving schools money in exchange for leaving the federal government’s loan program.
· Supplying financial aide officers with lender-funded training.
· Paying universities an annual fee for being granted “preferred lender” status.

While the first two of these examples have yet to be reported in Wisconsin, evidence of their existence elsewhere should lead us to inquire if they are practiced here. The second pair of examples has occurred within the UW system; and while neither are perhaps technically violations of the conflict of interest guidelines in state statutes, each raises ethical questions with regards to lending.

When schools and lenders adopt such practices competition in the lending market is stifled and results in the appearance of collusion against the best financial interests of the student. It is incumbent on the members of our committee to find out which schools in the UW system are using such methods and to assess the impact on the students of our state. With the cost of tuition increasing and more Americans carrying debt, we owe it to the students of Wisconsin to ensure that they have an affordable and fair method to help them provide for their education.

Sincerely,
Gordon Hintz

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The Milwaukee JS also covered the story here, including a breakdown of issues in Wisconsin including:

"• A student loan company called Education Finance Partners paid UW-Oshkosh a cut of its student loan volume in exchange for being placed on the university's preferred lender list for private loans.
• The director of financial aid at UW-Eau Claire owns stock in the parent company of Citibank, one of the university's preferred lenders.
• Wells Fargo, a preferred lender at UW-Green Bay and UW-La Crosse, paid for financial aid officials from those universities to attend out-of-state training.
• The director of financial aid at UW-Milwaukee served on the advisory council of Student Loan Xpress, a company that does more business at UWM than at any other university in the country. She has since resigned from the council."

The Oshkosh Northwestern covered the story here, including the following statement by UWO professor Kevin McGee:

"I would feel the same concern about any financial arrangement where the university is benefiting from any kind of financial transaction involving our students," McGee said. "I think it's appropriate that we have an educational role in when it's smart to borrow money and when it's not, but when the university starts to make a profit out of it, is there a temptation to become morally compromised."

Hintz on Hospital Tax

According to a piece by the Oshkosh Northwestern on April 10 discussing Rep Hintz and Sen Roessler's positions on the hospital tax:

The state needs to investigate ways to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate to help provide more health coverage for the uninsured, said Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh.

"We have the challenge right now where we have a lot of programs that the state provides funding for and low reimbursement rates that are impacting everybody's health coverage. We, as a state, need to have a discussion about the best way to preserve funding and address the low reimbursement rate," Hintz said.

Recall a recent post on Rep Kaufert's position.

Hintz, Wells, and Building

UWO received the approval of the regents for several UWO building projects totaling $97 Million.

The Oshkosh Northwestern today posts that the additions include:

• What taxpayers will be paying for:
  -- Academic Building - $40 million
  -- Student support and Development Center- $8.5 million
  -- Acquisition of Cub Food lot for Facilities Management- $5.9 million
• What UWO pays for:
  -- Academic building – $8 million
  -- Residence hall- $34 million
  -- Cub food acquisition - $350,000
  -- Softball stadium- $500,000

The article also included the following information regarding Rep Hintz:

Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said the biggest hurdle UWO faced was getting approval from the building commission. Hintz said he knows that the chancellor has spent considerable time at that commission.

"One of the reasons why I believe this plan will be successful and will have the support of the legislature is because UWO and Chancellor Wells have done a good job planning it," Hintz said.

Kaufert on Hospital Tax

In a March 14 press release, Rep Dean Kaufert and State Sen Mike Ellis critize the proposed Hospital Tax. According to the release:

“The governor has called this tax a “win-win,” and he has even alleged that four hospitals in Neenah and Appleton will collectively gain $12.6 million more in revenues than they will pay in under the new tax,” Kaufert said...

Kaufert said the governor’s numbers were based on an unrealistic best-case scenario that ignored numerous federal rules governing medical assistance. Federal rules, for example, impose reimbursement limits, forbid “hold-harmless” clauses and require some reimbursement dollars to pass through HMOs. When those rules are applied, the numbers are vastly altered, he said...

“The governor is proposing to take more than $11 million out of the Fox Cities with just this tax alone, to say nothing of the proposed increases in cigarette taxes, gas taxes, drivers licenses and a whole host of fees and taxes,” said Kaufert. “This is a sick tax that is unhealthy for the Fox Cities.”

...Kaufert and Ellis said the tax is even more odious because it is absolutely unnecessary to fund our current medical assistance programs. Under the governor’s proposal, the new hospital tax, along with the increased cigarette tax and a raid on the Patients’ Compensation Fund is simply being used to replace more than $800 million in current spending over two years.

According to an article on the hospital tax in the Milwaukee JS on February 16:

Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to increase federal funding for state health programs through a tax on hospitals would shift some of the cost of providing care for the poor and the uninsured to many of the state's most profitable hospitals. For this reason, the proposed tax would produce some clear losers and clear winners.

The losers overall would be hospitals in affluent, suburban communities such as Waukesha, Brookfield and Mequon. The winners would be hospitals near poor neighborhoods, such as Aurora Sinai Medical Center and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Joseph, both in Milwaukee.

The governor has proposed using some - though not all - of the revenue to pay hospitals more to care for people in state health programs such as Medicaid and BadgerCare.

State Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch discusses the hospital tax here. Pic below of Huebsch from his legislator website.

Hintz statement on Budget

Rep Hintz has issued the following piece on the budget. I strongly encourage a critique and suggestions for additional priorities and critical assessments of the budget, as much of the content below relies heavily on Democratic party talking points. In addition, I also encourage reference to past budget activity and legislative priorities.

I will again request a statement on the budget from Reps Roth, Kaufert, and Owens, and will quickly post their statements if I receive a response.

From Rep Hintz (Verbatim):
__________________________________

State Budget Process Needs Your Input

In my first two months in the legislature, I have met with many individuals and organizations. Although there are many issues confronting the legislature, our primary challenge is adopting the 2007-2009 state budget.

Every two years the Governor proposes a budget to fund our state government for the next two years. This is the beginning of the budget process. Over the next few months, the legislature will consider what programs are worth funding, how much should be spent, and where that money should come from. By now you have seen headlines and heard radio and TV spots highlighting the programs, costs, and potential impacts of the proposed budget. The size and complexity of the state budget can be overwhelming. But the decisions and programs included in the budget affect all of us and it is important to understand what is being proposed.

During the campaign, the issues I heard most about were often local (garbage fee) or national (the Iraq War). Yet over the next two years Wisconsin is budgeted to spend more than $27 billion of our general fund tax dollars on programs, many of which impact us directly. Over the next few months, I will be soliticiting your input. After all, this is your state budget.

Some of the decisions we need to make as a state include:

Can we afford to provide health care to all children and the uninsured? The Governor has made an ambitious proposal to cover all children and increase eligibility for childless adults. The funding for this proposal comes from an increased assessment on hospitals, a tax on tobacco, and increased federal matching funding.

How much should the state spend on K-12 education and what is proposed budget’s impact on the Oshkosh Area School District? Many of the challenges our school district faces on spending, closing schools, and revenue caps are affected by decisions made by the legislature. Is the proposed funding for K-12 education in Wisconsin enough to provide quality education in Oshkosh and to keep property taxes under control?

How much should the University System and UW Oshkosh receive? For the first time in several budgets, there is a significant increase in funding for the UW system, including money to support UW-Oshkosh’s Growth Agenda and increased financial aid.

What is the cost of tracking sex offenders and hiring additional DNA crime lab analysts and how much should we spend? There has been increased attention on how to effectively deal with sex offenders as well as the need for additional DNA analysts in our state crime labs. This budget includes increased funding for both of these.

How should we pay for highways? For years, Wisconsin’s gas tax automatically increased with inflation, leading to steady funding for a quality transportation system, but it also created the second highest gas tax in the U.S. The legislature repealed the automatic increase last year and the Governor has proposed taxing oil company profits to pay for the additional highway infrastructure.

What is the best way to pay for state services and what can we afford? The Governor’s budget does not increase the income or sales tax, but does increase fees and other taxes on cigarettes, hospital and oil company profits, while providing a number of targeted tax cuts and exemptions.

Decisions on what programs to fund and whether we can afford them will require more than the opinion’s of legislators. It will require the feedback of people such as you. I will be hosting several public forums to discuss the state budget and I really hope that people will attend to ask questions and provide comments. If you cannot attend, you are always welcome to contact me directly.

The first forum will be held on April 5, from 7pm to 9pm at the Oshkosh Public Library, 106 Washington Avenue in Room A & B.

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Kaufert and Term Limits

Rep Kaufert and several colleagues have proposed a constitutional amendment (AJR13) which calls for term limits on the following elected positions in Wisconsin: the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, and members of the legislature. The proposal limits terms to 12 consecutive years of service in the same office.

According to this blog: "In 1995 there were 23 sponsors of a resolution to put 12-year term limits on those in the state legislature. A resolution was again introduced in 1997 but only had 13 sponsors. 1999's resolution had ten sponsors, 2001's resolution had six sponsors, and 2003 had only two lonely sponsors."

Rep Kaufert was first elected in 1990.

See the bill here.

Cable Competition and Community Access

There has been lots of discussion regarding Assembly Bill 207, named the Wisconsin Cable Bill or Video Competition Act. Supporters state that the bill, which is being heavily lobbied by AT&T, will increase competition in Wisconsin's Cable market, therefore increasing quality and lowering prices. Opponents state that this bill will lower consumer safeguards and dramatically hurt local Cable Access broadcasting networks.

While there is much more detail available from both sides of the proposal, it does seem that if all parties are willing to work together, Wisconsin can have increased cable competition while protecting consumers and local cable access stations. This is a complex bill to understand though, and confusion can lead to poor choices.

See the Bill here.


Some of the news:

From Oshkosh Community Access Television Director Jon Urban:

"OCAT's existence is in jeopardy and we need your help. A bill was proposed last week by state Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, that will strip the authority of local municipalities to manage local cable franchise agreements and replace it with a one-size-fits-all franchise agreement process managed by the state. The bill has been titled Proposed Video Franchising Legislation LRB 1914/3.

The proposed bill has raised "significant concerns" by both local governments and Wisconsin PEG (public, educational and government) access channels like OCAT. The League of Wisconsin Municipalities, the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities and the Wisconsin Association of PEG Channels have been working together for several months to communicate to the bill authors that local control of the franchise process is essential. Local control, through local franchise agreements, allows municipalities to ensure fair compensation for the private use of the public rights-of-way; video services for all residents, not just a select few; proper repair of streets and roadways that get damaged by telecom providers; protection of consumer rights and continued availability and funding of PEG access channels and facilities. Unfortunately, the proposed bill does not have adequate language addressing these key issues.

Most concerning to OCAT is that the bill will prohibit municipalities from requiring video service providers to provide funds, services, programming, facilities or equipment in support of PEG channels. Without specific language protecting current PEG channels and funding, this bill will cripple, if not eliminate the OCAT operation."


From the Oshkosh Northwestern on April 2:

Opposition - "If it would pass … it could have some devastating impacts on local governments across the state," said Oshkosh City Manager Richard Wollangk... Combined with the loss of other funds for capital equipment and having to possibly pay for expenses like transmitting the signal that Time Warner currently provides for the city's community access television stations, the city could see a financial impact of $2.8 million to $3.5 million during the nine years remaining in the current contract, Wollangk said."

Support - "We're not trying to kill the channels," Raschka said. "It's all about competition. Consumers haven't had a true choice in video." According to Jeff Bentoff, spokesman for AT&T, the cable competition bill is a "pocketbook issue" for many consumers. Cable rates in the Green Bay market, Bentoff said, have risen 24 percent from 2000 to 2006. Competition, he said, will drive down prices for consumers."

Our Representatives: "If we're going to open up competition we're not going to do so at the expense of consumer protection or local government," (Gordon) Hintz said."


From the Oshkosh Northwestern Editorial on April 3:

"The good: Wisconsin can and should keep an open mind and open door to competition, especially if it means cable TV costs can decrease.

The bad: The legislature needs to ensure that, if the bill passes, it contains a strong provision requiring any new state cable provider to either provide or work with municipalities to ensure an "eye-on-government" channel. Does Oshkosh need two or three local government and public access channels? No. But it does need that one, CSPAN-like eagle's eye on local government boards and councils."


One of the best articles criticizing the bill can be found on OnMilwaukee.com by "jfoust":

"AT&T and its sock puppets spin this as "video competition." I think that’s bull. Look at the facts. Since 1984, the FCC has prohibited cities from granting exclusive franchise agreements. If you have Time-Warner Cable, there’s nothing to prevent Charter or AT&T from entering your neighborhood. All they need to do is work with your city to create a franchise agreement. FCC rulings already require cities to give every provider the same terms."


From the Wisconsin State Journal on March 24:

Opposition - "Wisconsin residents would lose their rights to cable television repairs within 72 hours, credit for service interruptions and advance notice of rate increases, under a bill on the fast track in the state Legislature."

Support - "Consumer costs for video service have dropped 23 percent in markets where phone companies offer competition, Montgomery said, citing a General Accounting Office study. And in a report out this week, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute said each Madison customer could save up to $138 annually through video competition."


From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal on March 27:

Support - "Scott T. VanderSanden, the president of AT&T Wisconsin, told the committee that when AT&T enters a cable market "prices go down and service goes up."
"I suspect you might be asking, 'Why is AT&T so concerned with video?' Simply put, studies show that consumers want an alternative to cable and we want to provide that alternative," VanderSanden said.

He said AT&T operates in 438 communities in Wisconsin, and that if the company were required to negotiate TV franchise agreements with each one, consumers would have to wait years to get AT&T's video products. "Under this bill, local governments get major benefits of revenue sharing and consumers see benefits of competition much sooner," VanderSanden said."

Opposition - "Janet Jenkins, the state's top consumer advocate, said the bill, called the Video Competition Act, would weaken existing standards in a variety of ways. She said, for instance, it would no longer ensure 30-day notice of rate increases to customers.

At the same time, she said, it would end the right to have service repaired within 72 hours and would not require credit be given on consumers' bills when a service interruption of four hours or longer occurs. "We have significant concerns about the total lack of consumer protections in the legislation," said Jenkins, administrator of the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection."


From the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's Big Money Blog:

"Montgomery is one the bill's lead sponsors and the measure must have Huebsch's OK to pass the Assembly. Huebsch and his Republican colleagues control the Assembly 52-47. Turns out AT&T barely knew Montgomery and Huebsch existed until last year. From 1998 through 2005, AT&T employees or political action committees had contributed only $300 to Montgomery and $800 to Huebsch.

In 2006 when the proposal was being developed, AT&T contributed $2,250 to Montgomery's campaign and $1,225 to Huebsch, and a few months later out pops the bill AT&T wants. It also turns out Montgomery's proposal is not exactly homegrown. It comes from a group called ALEC, which stands for American Legislative Exchange Council. This Washington-based conservative think tank is a bill mill, penning numerous anti-regulatory, anti-tax and pro-business proposals and encouraging state legislators around the country to offer them up at home."


From the Legislative Reference Bureau (broken into several different parts):

"Current federal law generally prohibits a person from providing cable service without a cable franchise. "

"Current federal law allows either states or municipalities to grant cable franchises to persons who provide cable service, which are referred to as "cable operators." Under current state law, municipalities (i.e., cities, villages, and towns) grant or revoke franchises. In addition, current state law allows a municipality to require a cable operator to pay a franchise fee to the municipality that is based on the operator's income or gross revenues."

"This bill repeals state law authorizing municipalities to grant cable franchises to cable operators. Instead, the bill requires a person who provides "video service" to obtain a video service franchise from the Department of Financial Institutions (DFI)."

"Under the bill, if a person has not been issued a cable franchise under current law, the person may not provide video service unless DFI issues a video service franchise to the person. The bill allows a cable operator who has been issued a cable franchise under current law to provide cable service under the cable franchise until the cable franchise expires, or apply to DFI for a video service franchise. "

"A video service franchise under the bill authorizes a video service provider to occupy public rights-of-way and construct, operate, maintain, and repair a video service network in the video franchise area. A video service franchise does not expire, unless a video service provider gives 30 days' advance notice to DFI that the video service provider intends to terminate the video service franchise. A video service provider may transfer a video service franchise to any successor-in-interest, including a successor-in-interest that arises through merger, sale, assignment, restructuring, change of control, or any other transaction. A video service provider and a transferee must notify DFI and affected municipalities about the transfer, but the bill prohibits DFI and municipalities from reviewing or approving the transfer."

"The bill prohibits a video service provider or municipality from bringing an action in court regarding the amount of a video service provider fee until the parties have completed good faith settlement negotiations. In addition, an action regarding a dispute over such an amount must be commenced within three years following the calendar quarter to which the disputed amount relates, or is barred, unless the parties agree to an extension of time."

"the bill prohibits municipalities from requiring video service providers and interim cable operators from providing funds, services, programming, facilities, or equipment related to public, educational, or governmental use of channel capacity;"

"The bill prohibits DFI and municipalities from regulating video or cable service rates of video service providers or interim cable operators that provide service in a municipality if at least one other unaffiliated video service provider or interim cable operator serves the municipality"

"if a video service provider pays video service provider fees to a municipality as required under the bill, the municipality may not require the video service provider to pay any compensation allowed under current law for obstructions or excavations, or pay any permit fee, encroachment fee, degradation fee, or any other fee, for the occupation of or work within public rights-of-way."

"The bill repeals requirements enforced by DATCP and district attorneys regarding cable television subscriber rights regarding service interruptions and disconnections, repairs, program service deletions, and rate increases."

Call for Budget Hearings

Rep Hintz has announced a Budget Session in the Oshkosh community in which he will,

"inform and involve the public as to how the budget affects them and how state government is spending taxpayer money. Decisions on the budget require the feedback of citizens"

The budget discussion will take place on Thursday April 5th from 7-9pm at the Oshkosh Public Library, 106 Washington Ave, Room A&B.

Back in February, we recommended that Hintz, Owens, Kaufert, and Roth all hold public forums on the budget:

"Hopefully, as this advances, our state Assembly Reps and Senators will hold several informational and idea sessions. That will be a challenge, as that would mean that they would need to have a basic understanding of a 1700+ page document, and be able to discuss this document. The least that they can do is hold a forum where they bring someone who does know what the budget entails. But then again, if our representatives don't understand the budget they are to vote on, what are they doing?

The important thing is to see which representatives are going to follow through with their job - to be a voice for the citizens of the district that they represent. How do they do this? By holding these informational and listening sessions with citizens back home, talking about what the budget proposal means, and bringing citizen concerns and ideas back to Madison."

We commend Rep Hintz for hosting this forum on the Budget, and we strongly encourage the other local representatives to host similar forums (if others have organized similar forums, please let us know). If representatives are not holding these types of forums, then the citizens of that district need to contact their representatives and demand to be a part of the process.

We again call out to Reps Kaufert, Owens, and Roth to hold public hearings on the state's budget. I will send them an email to see if they are planning any upcoming budger forums.

Kaufert, Owens, & a WI Death Penalty

From the Milwaukee JS on 3/28/07 regarding the reintroduction of the death penalty in Wisconsin:

"Republican Sen. Alan Lasee (R-DePere), who as president of the Senate over the last two years made sure the advisory vote was on the Nov. 7 ballot, is the chief Senate sponsor of the bill; the Assembly lead sponsor is Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah)."

It seems there is a strong push for death up here in Winnebago: Introduced by Senators A. Lasee and Roessler; cosponsored by Representatives Kaufert, F. Lasee, LeMahieu, Owens and Gunderson.

The killing would take place by lethal injection (see here too).

See the bill here.