The proposed Green Energy legislation will set new thresholds for the utilization of renewable energy in Wisconsin.  Moving to green alternatives should be encouraged; it is the right thing to do for the environment.  But any legislation requiring utilization of green energy must always be carefully analyzed for the fiscal ramifications that will result.

These ramifications include some that affect our citizens through the amount of money taken out of their pockets in the form of taxes, their own increased utility costs, as well as, whether the new requirements will attract jobs or chase them away. This proposed bill, as all bills, must be carefully looked at from all angles – so there are no unforeseen consequences.

Early numbers indicate that this legislation will greatly increase the cost of government – costs that must be shouldered by taxpayers. Some early estimates of the legislation indicate that the net infrastructure costs will total $16 billion though the year 2025.  We all know who is going to end up paying this extra $16 billion.

This is $16 billion that the already-strapped Wisconsin taxpayer does not have. Proponents of the bill say that it will create many jobs to help offset its costs. However, initial reviews by economists are casting some doubt on the proponents’ assertions, citing the fact that Wisconsin’s economy is heavily reliant on manufacturing.

The simple fact, according to economists, is that Wisconsin’s manufacturers are highly susceptible to increases in energy costs and passage of the legislation would result in higher, potentially significantly higher, energy costs.  Manufacturing is struggling and compounding their difficulties will not generate jobs, but chase them away.

Once again, the bottom line here is that the state does not need to be spending money it does not have. And while it would be nice if we could buy more green energy now and in the future, the price tag associated with this specific proposal is far too high. It is another example of the errant priorities of the Democrat-controlled legislature.

The legislature should be working to create real jobs for the people of Wisconsin.  We need to get the people of Wisconsin back to work. Instead, this legislature has allowed such erosion in the manufacturing sector that government jobs now outnumber manufacturing jobs in the state.  This is unacceptable!

Earlier this year, Assembly Republicans established the Jobs Now Task Force which traveled around the state and gathered suggestions from people on ways to stimulate the economy. Many of the recommendations were drafted into legislation and introduced with bi-partisan support. We are in the final few months of the legislative session, but there is still time to act on these proposals. It is job-creating efforts like these, that we need to focus on, not more spending.

Many of the proposals have completed the committee review process and are now in the Rules Committee waiting to be scheduled for floor debate. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, these proposals have yet to be scheduled.  Four proposals that form the cornerstone of the Jobs Now initiative are:

• Assembly Bill 476- Which would direct the State of Wisconsin to develop strategies to prevent businesses from moving to other states;
• Assembly Bill 477- Which would advance the ability of employers to claim the job tax credit;
• Assembly Bill 478- Which would end combined reporting; and,
• Assembly Bill 184- Which would increase the allowable income and franchise tax deduction for businesses.

The people of Wisconsin need more jobs – not more government tax-and-spend policies.

As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 888.482.0001.  You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

The growing momentum behind our effort to prevent invasive Asian Carp from entering Lake Michigan got a cold shoulder from the Obama Administration this week when U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the lawsuit.

Last week Attorney General Van Hollen added Wisconsin to the growing list of states from Minnesota to New York backing a lawsuit filed by the State of Michigan. The suit seeks to close the locks on the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal to keep the invasive carp from gaining access to the Great Lakes. The lawsuit was filed as the outcry from state and federal officials to close the locks seems to be falling on deaf ears.

Congressmen and Senators from both parties along with environmental groups like the National Wildlife Federation have been calling for swift action by the State of Illinois and the Army Corps of Engineers to close the locks, at least temporarily, to make sure the carp do not gain a foothold in the Great Lakes.

The partisan politics in Madison stink sometimes, but the brief filed by Kagan on behalf of the Obama Administration has an even worse smell – old fashioned Chicago politics.  The administration appears to be willing to play Russian roulette with the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem and a $7 billion dollar fishing industry (not to mention all the waterways connected to the Great Lakes) in order to protect the short term financial interests of the Chicago shipping industry.

The position taken by Illinois and Kagan in the lawsuit is essentially that even though DNA from the carp has been found beyond the electronic barrier that is supposed to keep them from spreading, they’re not sure the barrier is failing.

Closing the barn doors after the horses are out of the barn is pointless. Refusing to close the locks until we’re sure these fish have entered the Great Lakes would be inexcusable! Despite this setback, I will continue to pursue every option available to prevent this highly destructive species from entering the Great Lakes.

As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001.  You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Hello to everyone in the First Assembly District!  Before we get into today’s topics, I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  With no legislative activity scheduled until January, this is likely my last column for 2009.  So for this last 2009 edition of Notes from the West Wing, I want to talk about legislative activity this week on Drunken Driving and Asian Carp.

This week, the State Assembly and State Senate met in Extraordinary Session to consider legislation to toughen Wisconsin’s drunken driving laws.  As you may know, earlier this fall the Assembly and Senate each passed bills regarding drunken driving.  However, the two bills differed and neither house passed the other’s legislation, so a new version of the legislation was needed, one that both houses can approve.

The Democrats made passing the new drunken driving legislation a priority for their agenda so the legislature was called into a special session in order to be able to pass the legislation before the end of the year. Toughening Wisconsin’s drunken driving laws has been a priority of mine for years, and I am very pleased to see this action happening, but why has not the same importance been placed upon job creation or stimulating Wisconsin’s economy?

None the less, the legislation passed this week makes some important improvements including making a fourth offense a felony, requiring the use of ignition interlock devices, and increasing the fines and penalties on those convicted.  The legislation does not, however, criminalize the first offense or make the third offense a felony which my own legislation would do.  Because of this, some will say that the legislation passed this week does not go far enough.  While on one hand I tend to agree (hence my own legislation), anything we can do to make existing law tougher is an improvement.

This week the Assembly also passed a Resolution authored by me and Representative Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) authorizing Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to pursue any and all legal means to prevent invasive Asian Carp from getting into Lake Michigan.  The State of Michigan’s Attorney General is in the process of filing a lawsuit to force closure of locks on the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal to make sure the carp do not enter Lake Michigan, and we have now given Attorney General Van Hollen the authority to take similar action.  This invasive species could destroy the $7 billion dollar per year fishing industry in the Great Lakes and radically alter the environment of the lakes.

These fish came up the Mississippi River and have been kept in check by electronic barriers which may now be failing.  Last week I sent letters to members of Wisconsin’s Congressional Delegation, including Congressman Steve Kagen, asking them to pressure the Obama Administration to close the locks to make sure the carp do not get into Lake Michigan.  These fish destroy the natural habitat of the waters they infest, and devastate native fish populations.  It is imperative that action is taken quickly.

View the resolution passed this week here: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/AR-16.pdf

That is all for today’s update.  As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!

State Representative Garey Bies talks about auto insurance, another component of the 2009-2011 State Budget that has recently been generating many phone calls and emails to his office.

For those of you who have been subscribing to my e-mail update for a while, you will remember my April 10, 2009 update that dealt with non-fiscal policy that the Democrats had included in their budget bill.  One of the provisions that I specifically mentioned in that update concerned changes to mandated auto insurance coverage limits and the removal of related tort reforms.  In that column, I warned that if the final budget included these provisions people could see auto insurance premium increases in the range of 33-43%.  Unfortunately, this is exactly what has come to pass and as people have received their most recent auto insurance bills, they have been justifiably upset.

First of all, as I mentioned in that April update, these auto insurance provisions should never have been in the budget.  They bore no fiscal impact upon the state, they neither increase nor decreased revenues or expenditures.  Yet they were included, and passed.  Why?  Because the Democrats did not want to have to deal with the public outcry against these provisions had they been required to go through the normal legislative process.

However, now that people are receiving their new insurance bills, the outcry has been loud, and widespread.  To add insult to injury, not all of the budget provisions have gone into effect yet either.  A couple of provisions go into effect on January 1^st and June 1^st 2010.  Already making an impact on your insurance bills are drastically increased insurance coverage limits and the ability for the trial lawyers to go after multiple insurance policies when trying to recover damages, referred to as stacking.

The bottom line is that Wisconsin, like the rest of the country, is facing a major recession and is shedding jobs.  Companies are either going out of business or are simply moving jobs from Wisconsin to other states.  As a result, Wisconsin residents are being squeezed.  Less income and higher taxes are difficult to take and to have dramatically higher insurance rates tacked on is simply strike three.

On the bright side, I and several of my Republican colleagues drafted legislation to rescind the auto insurance provisions passed in the state budget.  Thankfully, this legislation is scheduled for a public hearing next week.  Whether the Democrats allow the legislation to move forward and be passed remains to be seen.  We can always hope!

As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Greetings once again to everyone in the First Assembly District!  For today’s edition of Notes from the West Wing, I want to talk about another consequence of the Democrats’ 2009-2011 state budget that is generating a lot of discussion now here in the capitol and around the state: prevocational services.

Prevocational services are jobs at work centers for physically and mentally handicapped workers throughout Wisconsin.  Because of recommendations at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), 10,000 jobs for the handicapped will end.  This is not right.

According to Rehabilitation for Wisconsin, an advocacy organization for Wisconsin’s disabled workers, more than 65,000 disabled persons are served by Wisconsin’s 66 work centers and more than 10,000 of these people are at risk of losing their jobs if DHS is successful.  The DHS proposal calls into question prevocational services, which help disabled participants learn and acquire work experiences where they can develop general, non-job-task-specific strengths and skills that contribute to paid employment in integrated, community settings.

I am a strong supporter of Prevocational Services.  I have been a part of The Sunshine House, Door County’s work center, since the early 1970s.  For the last 20 year I have been the legal guardian of Harold, a mentally handicapped man who has utilized prevocational services.  Harold’s job at the work center is very important to him.  For Harold and thousands of other individuals, these programs instill an invaluable sense of pride and accomplishment.

I cannot idly allow DHS to close off this option to so many of our most vulnerable citizens.  Last week I made a speech on the floor of the State Assembly about the importance of prevocational services.  I and 45 of my colleagues have written a letter to Governor Doyle formally requesting that he and DHS reconsider eliminating these opportunities.  Prevocational services are not about a paycheck.  It is so much more than that.

It is unfortunate that DHS did not communicate with the disabled workers, their families, advocates, or legislators before making this decision.  I sincerely hope that Governor Doyle will listen to legislators and families and stop the DHS proposal that will affect so many people.

As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Good day to everyone out there in the First Assembly District!  For today’s edition of Notes from the West Wing, I’d like to comment on a subject that has caused my office to receive a flood of contacts from constituents the past few weeks.

Recently, Wisconsin Public Service (WPS), the utility out of Green Bay, included with their most recent bills to customers, notification of a new tax on utilities as a result of Wisconsin Act 28, the biennial budget bill which I voted against, passed by the Democrats in the legislature and signed by Governor Doyle.

The notification to customers about the new tax has generated a lot of unhappy phone calls.  Residents are more than justified in their anger.  This new utility tax is just one of $4.7 billion in new taxes the Democrats have enacted since the beginning of the current legislative session – all at a time when the state and national economies are reeling and unemployment is high and continuing to rise. Raising taxes is never a good idea, but when our families are facing pay cuts and unemployment, higher taxes are the last thing we need.

The kicker regarding the new utility tax bill, is the claim by Democrats that it is going to pay the salaries of District Attorneys. District Attorneys should not be the target of the people’s ire. The DAs did not request this tax, nor did they lobby for it. In fact, the tax doesn’t even go to pay for the DA’s salaries! The revenue from this tax goes into the General Fund where it can be used for anything.

It is similar to another new tax I talked about in a previous Notes from the West Wing that the Democrats implemented on cellular phones. That new tax was claimed to be used for funding emergency services. Of course, in the same swipe of the pen that created the new tax, the Democrats re-routed the proceeds of that tax to… guess where? That’s right, the General Fund where it can be used for anything.

The bad news for residents is that new utility tax and the new cellular phone tax and many others, like the 127% tax increase on nursing home beds, were part of the budget bill that is already signed into law. We tried to remove these (and other) taxes from the budget and ultimately I voted against the budget bill, but unfortunately the Democrats had the votes and passed it. Now, it is going to take a new legislature to undo the damage done.

By the way, anyone notice their new garbage tax yet?

Well, that is all for this update. As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Good day to everyone out there in the First Assembly District!  For today’s edition of Notes from the West Wing, I’d like to provide an update on legislation that I have authored here in the State Legislature.

First off, I want to mention my bill, Assembly Bill 154 (AB 154), which prohibits a person from purchasing tobacco products and providing them to a minor.  It is currently against the law to buy cigarettes and provide them to a minor, but not illegal for an individual to buy other tobacco products, like chewing tobacco, and provide it to a minor.  This bill, AB 154, would extend the prohibition on purchasing cigarettes and providing them to a minor to other tobacco products.  AB 154 has a long list of bi-partisan co-sponsors here in the legislature and was unanimously approved in Committee.  Unfortunately it has not yet been scheduled for floor action.  I am not sure why as there is no opposition to the bill, even the tobacco companies are in support, but it languishes anyway.  Hopefully we can get it scheduled soon.

This week saw the introduction of two more of my proposals.  The first allows full-time members of the military stationed in Wisconsin to receive residents’ rate for entry into Wisconsin’s state parks.  A simple bill that deserves consideration.  Also introduced this week is my legislation to update Wisconsin’s Inattentive Driving Law.  Many changes in technology have occurred since this law was written, like cell phones, DVD players, GPS devices, etc.  My legislation will provide a comprehensive update to the law to reflect the advent of these types of devices.

Lastly, I would like to mention a new proposal that I have authored that I am currently circulating amongst my colleagues for co-sponsorship.  The legislation concerns how state funds are distributed to our public schools.  I think everyone agrees that the current school aid system is flawed as the distribution of state aid is dependent on the market value of property within a school district rather than on the residents’ ability to pay.  In districts where land values are inflated due to wealthy out-of-towners bidding up prices, school districts are left footing the entire bill for educating the children as the state sends no assistance.  This is unfair.  My legislation does not change how much aid is distributed, but how that aid is distributed.  First, my legislation will establish a floor payment to every school district of $1,000 per student.  Then, the balance of the money is distributed per the current school aid formula.  Even this token amount of school aid will be of great benefit to districts that currently receive no state aid.  For those districts that currently receive state aid, the impact on their aid will be minimal, typically a reduction in aid of around one-half of one percent or less.  If Wisconsin is going to claim that it provides monetary aid in the education of our children, then I think it is only appropriate that every school district receive at least some state aid, no matter the amount.

Well, that is all for this update.  As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Good day to everyone out there in the First Assembly District! A few different items for today’s Notes from the West Wing. First, I’d like to mention that the Assembly Tourism Committee is holding an informational hearing in Wisconsin Dells next week, September 30. The hearing will be open to the public and I hope that some people from the First Assembly District can come down to the hearing and share their insights on tourism in Wisconsin in general and tourism in the First Assembly District in particular. Details on the public hearing are:

Assembly
INFORMATIONAL HEARING
Committee on Tourism, Recreation and State Properties

The committee will hold an informational hearing on the following items at the time specified below:

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 – 10:00 AM
Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau Board Room
115 La Crosse Street
Wisconsin Dells, WI

Testimony will be taken from invited speakers and will then be open to the public.

The Status and State of the Tourism Industry in Wisconsin
Recognizing the importance of the Tourism Industry to Wisconsin’s economy and the challenges faced by Tourism businesses over the past two years due to both a natural disaster and an economic downturn, the Committee is seeking input about the status of the Tourism Industry in Wisconsin and advice about what the state could do to aid the Tourism Industry.

In legislative news, I have a couple of issues I would like to briefly talk about.  First, my legislation to require utility companies that operate nuclear power plants to make payments to the communities they are located within if the company stores spent nuclear fuel on the premises in a dry cask storage facility, received a public hearing last week before the Assembly Utilities Committee.  I authored and introduced this legislation at the request of the Town of Carlton where the Kewaunee Nuclear Plant is located.  The energy company that operates the plant wants to store, for the foreseeable future, spent nuclear fuel on the property, a function that was never anticipated to occur.

The storage of spent nuclear fuel was supposed to occur at the Yucca Mountain Repository not on-site at nuclear plants.  However, despite billions of dollars of investment, it is unclear when, if ever, the repository is expected to accept deliveries.  It is unacceptable to ask our local communities to take up the role of Yucca Mountain.

Also of note was the passage of legislation by the Assembly aimed to tighten Wisconsin’s drunken driving laws.  As a co-author of the legislation, I was happy to see the bill pass the Assembly unanimously.  Do I think this legislation will be the answer to Wisconsin’s drunken driving problems?  No, but I do think it is a step in the right direction with some increased penalties and additional ignition interlock requirements.  The legislation still falls a bit short in that it does not criminalize the first OWI offense or make a third offense a felony.  I have another proposal to establish these last two points but it does not appear that my legislation will even receive a public hearing.  None the less, it was important that we pass the legislation as anything the legislature can do to combat drunken driving needs to be done.

Well, that is all for this update.  As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 888.482.0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Summer is coming to an end all too quickly but I hope everyone has had plenty of opportunities to spend time with friends and family in beautiful Northeast Wisconsin.  But the end of summer is significant for another reason too: the effects of the new state budget are beginning to be felt.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from members of local fire departments and emergency medical services regarding the new 911 tax the democrats included in their budget.  The new tax levies a fee of 75 cents on every cell phone line or land line.  The tax provision then establishes a new designated fund called “the police and fire protection fund” and stipulates that all revenues from this new tax be deposited in this fund.

While the decision by the Democrats to raise taxes in these difficult economic times was ill-advised, what makes the 911 tax worse is the fiscal misdirection they play with the revenues.  You see, this new tax is not going to EMS, police, or fire departments.  In the same budget provision that created this new tax and established this new fund, the Democrats then require that all revenues generated from the tax be withdrawn from the “police and fire protection fund” and deposited into the state general fund.  Why?  Because they needed more revenue to support ever-increasing state spending.  Did I mention that this new tax is expected to cost Wisconsin taxpayers $102,600,000 over the two year budget?

This is just one example where the Democrats are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Another prime example of this practice is the treatment of the Transportation Fund as Governor Doyle’s piggy bank.  He transferred almost $66 million dollars of highway money to fund non-transportation programs in this current budget.  Since 2003 Governor Doyle has raided the Transportation Fund to the tune of over 1.3 billion dollars, stealing money that should be used to strengthen our crumbling roadways.

The Transportation Fund is a segregated fund that is primarily utilized to pay for roadway creation and maintenance.  The majority of the revenue for the fund is from the gas tax and vehicle registration fees.  So when I go to the gas station and pay a 31 cent tax per gallon on my gasoline I am rightfully expecting it to go for highway maintenance and improvements, not for pork projects in Milwaukee and Madison.

But the bookkeeping only gets worse when you consider the state had to borrow close to a billion dollars to fill the hole created by the stolen funds. This is your household equivalent of over spending your savings on vacation and using your credit card to buy your house.  You wouldn’t do that and your government shouldn’t be doing it either.

That is all for today’s update.  As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 888.482.0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.

Good day and I’d like to wish everyone an enjoyable 4^th of July.  I hope you are all able to celebrate with friends and family.

I hope you as readers have not grown weary of my e-mail updates recently.  I know I have sent out quite a few Notes from the West Wing detailing the state budget and I must apologize in advance for the length of this update, but I felt it was important to get the word out on the many problems I see in this budget.  The media has only so much space and time to devote to the budget and as a result, lack the ability to report on the many ways this budget will impact the lives of Wisconsinites.  That is why I have written these budget updates and I really appreciate the feedback I have received so far.  In response, today’s “Notes” will cover the budget as conceived by the Conference Committee established by the Democrats and then signed into law this week by the Governor.

First, some of the “big picture” numbers.   The budget passed by the Democrats’ Conference Committee and signed into law by Governor Doyle will increase spending by $3.64 billion, or 6.2%, to a total of $62.24 billion while at the same time claiming “the deepest spending cuts in Wisconsin history.”  Using federal stimulus dollars to prop up and expand unsustainable state spending is not a cut.  The federal stimulus dollars should not have been used decrease state obligations which then would have allowed relief for taxpayers.  Instead, we now have increased spending AND increased taxes.

The budget passed by the Democrats raises state taxes $2.25 billion and will increase local property taxes by an estimated $1.49 billion.  In fact, already has the Sturgeon Bay School District indicated that “it’s a burden that will ultimately be shifted to the taxpayers.” In the first five months the Democrats have increased taxes in Wisconsin by $4.96 billion through the Budget Repair Bill, the State Budget, and the property tax.

This budget is not good for the Wisconsin taxpayer.  The media is reporting that the Democrats are claiming this budget was crafted without an across the board increase to the state income or sales tax.  While this is true, what is conveniently not mentioned is that just about every other state tax is increased.  Their claim that the middle class taxpayer is protected is also true so long as the middle class don’t have a telephone, take out the garbage, have a retirement plan, pay a utility bill, end up in the hospital or nursing home, or own their own home.  It’s no wonder they crafted this budget behind closed doors, if I were them, I wouldn’t want the people of Wisconsin to know about it either.

Despite the influx of billions of federal stimulus dollars and the billions in tax increases to inflate the state budget, the Democrats felt it was necessary to make certain spending cuts.  Included are cuts to general school aids which are what the Sturgeon Bay School District is talking about, but also to the Department of Corrections that will result in the release of criminals back to the streets.

The state budget gives authority to the Department of Corrections (not judges) to release felons early from prison in an effort to cut costs.  The criminals that are now available for release are those convicted of certain Class C through Class I felonies.  Some of the Class C felonies in this list include: 1^st Degree reckless homicide, Homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, kidnapping, bank robbery, drug manufacturing and drug dealing.  Just two of the Class D felonies include homicide by intoxicated use of a firearm and 1^st degree reckless injury.

Is this really where the state should be looking to cut costs?  The release of violent criminals such as these?  As a former law enforcement officer I certainly don’t think so.  Yes, the state needs to cut spending, but I do not agree with the Democrats’ spending priorities.

In the end, the Democrats passed their budget.  I voted against this budget because I believe it takes Wisconsin in the wrong direction.  It is unfortunate to note that just yesterday, Briggs and Stratton announced the closure of two manufacturing plants and the loss of almost 500 more Wisconsin jobs.  But what readers should take note of here is that Briggs and Stratton is not cutting these jobs but moving them to Georgia and Alabama.

Lastly, the icing on the cake with this budget is that it maintains a structural budget deficit.  While technically the state budget is “balanced,” in two year’s time Wisconsin will be facing an estimated $2.26 billion deficit (see table 6 in hyperlink).  The historical challenges faced by Wisconsin in this budget cycle afforded the perfect opportunity to change the course of government and reign in state spending and give the people a government that lives within its means.  That did not happen.

While I agree that past legislatures have had a hand in the current fiscal imbalance I would remind readers of two things: one, the budget starts with the Governor, and Governor Doyle has now been in office for seven years; and two, if the legislature had passed the Assembly Republican budgets of the last several sessions, Wisconsin would not have been facing a deficit this spring.

That is all for today’s update.  I hope everyone has a great 4^th of July and an enjoyable summer.  As always, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. You can also visit my website at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.