Recent Assembly Happenings Jan 25, 2008

Rep Hintz wants Public Defenders to be more accessible to low-income individuals. According to Hintz's release: The legislation would update the SPD’s financial eligibility criteria to be the same as that of the W2 program (except the SPD criteria limits the asset exclusion for a home to $30,000, and takes the cost to hire an attorney into account). Under the new eligibility requirements, the SPD would be able to provide legal representation in about 15,400 additional cases per year. Additionally, the new requirements would ultimately eliminate the liability for counties to provide counsel to people who do not qualify for SPD representation.

Rep Kaufert wants mandatory breathalyzers attached to your ignition for all repeat drunk driving violators. They would need to breath into it before being able to start the car and randomly while driving.

As many other sources have already told you, Rep Carol Owens is stepping down after 16 years of government service. You can read her release here. Rep Owens, like Rep Roth, would not respond to questions from this site, because she would only provide feedback to constituents in her district and we may or may not have had an address in her region. Hopefully the next official in the 53rd will be more open to disclosing their opinions and positions. Good luck in retirement Carol. This local site linked here didn't care much for Owens.

The Oshkosh Northwestern interviewed Rep Hintz and State Sen Roessler on their response to Doyle's state of the state address. The entire interview can be found here. Really not much is said, but here is one statement from each:

• Hintz, when asked if anything was left out of Doyle's address: "..one thing that was missing was campaign finance reform. We seem to be closer to getting our governor’s attention when he called for a special session and we certainly still have time this year to act. I’m a little bit disappointed that we haven’t heard anything about campaign finance reform. It’s just because to me one of the biggest issues that needs to be addressed in Wisconsin. I think the support is there from the public."


• Roessler, when asked about Doyle's Health Care proposal: "my first comment is that it puts a further nail in the coffin of the Senate Democrats Healthy Wisconsin proposal. The governor continues to not support that proposal. What he did talk about is that the public cares about disclosure, how much they are paying for and they want to see those costs and who is performing the service. They want to be more in charge of it, consumer driven. The governor is now talking about the involvement of consumers and again, the Democrat majority simply want to pour more money in it and raise the money and then have a board determine what the benefit plans are going to be. A board of absolute generalists and no one from the medical community and on and on.A government operated health care system and government run system is costing $15 billion in taxes on our workers and employers is not the way to go. Now, the first that I heard of BadgerChoice is tonight. It is all about the cost. I agree with the governor that it is all about the health care cost. He said something there that it is the cost. He is the saying the same thing that we republicans have said for months when we came up with Healthy Wisconsin that it is about the cost. I do not know really the particulars about this plan. This is the first that I heard of it tonight."

The "Labor Chicks" are back to life, with early endorsements of any Democrat that will run. According to the site, they would support "Any Democrat who will do a good job in the 53rd Assembly district. All you have to do is be able to stay awake during Assembly sessions and you will be doing better than the incumbent. " Oddly naive - this blind Dem support at any cost leads one to endorse Chuck Chvala over Bob Lafollete. Not everyone has to like Bob.

Rep Roth and friends have introduced a bill that would require the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to prepare report to be released to the public for 48 hours before the Joint Committee on Finance, the Assembly, or the Senate can approve a budget bill. The report will bring to light all earmarks, including the cost, location, beneficiary, and requesting representative or senator. Their press release can be found here.

Rep Kaufert sponsored a resolution paying tribute to former state assembly rep and WW2 decorated veteran Richard Steffens, who passed away Jan. 2.