Zac Schultz: The Joint Finance Committee held its first public hearing on the budget in Calumet County on Wednesday. Their second was today in Milwaukee. One of the Democrats on that panel, Representative Chris Taylor, joins us by phone. Thanks for joining us.

Chris Taylor: Thanks for having me.

Zac Schultz: Are there any budget concerns you’re hearing more often than others?

Chris Taylor: Yes. There’s definitely some concerns. I think probably the biggest concern for all of the changes to family care and the elimination of IRIS, these are the long-term care programs that our state has really been a leader on. And I can’t tell you how many individuals have come today, just dozens of people who tell us how concerned they are with these changes, people with disabilities, people in wheelchairs, family members, a lot of mothers. It’s heart-breaking. It’s absolutely heart-breaking the stress that people with disabilities and seniors are being put through with the uncertainty that Governor Walker’s budget created. So that’s definitely one of the biggest areas of concern. The second area is really K-12 education. We’ve heard from many schools, many school districts about how harmful these cuts are to our kids. We’ve heard from parents in Wauwatosa, all over really, all over the Milwaukee area about how concerned they are and that we should be reinvesting in our kids. We should be increasing funding, not cutting funding by $127 million. So I would say those two issues probably dominate the day. And they dominated our last budget hearing as well.

Zac Schultz: We’ve heard from Republicans on the Committee that they have similar concerns about K-12. Does that give you confidence that there will be some resolution?

Chris Taylor: Well, I hope so, because our kids need us to act on their behalf right now. You know, our children are depending on us. So the Democrats will certainly be working and doing everything we can to lessen these cuts. School districts actually need a bigger investment. They are facing increasing costs. They’ve been cut. We’ve had some of the biggest cuts in the history of Wisconsin over the last several years. And now what we’re hearing is they’re losing teachers. Their class sizes are increasing. They’re having to cut instructional time. They’re having to get by with outdated materials. They’re having to have very large classes. That’s not what we want for our children. We need to make the investment in our kids. So I am optimistic that we can get some changes. Now, is it going to be the magnitude of the change that I think we need to make? Maybe not. But we will be working as hard as we can, the Democrats, to get rid of these cuts and make the investments we need to make in our children.

Zac Schultz: Well, Joint Finance has scheduled four of these public hearings, but the Democrats on the Committee plan to hold additional hearings. What do you hope to gain from having more hearings?

Chris Taylor: Well, unfortunately these hearings are all scheduled at a time when people are at work. So working families and working individuals have really been limited. There has been no hearing scheduled at a UW campus, which I think is absolutely critical when you look at the $300 million in proposed cuts that was done to our world-class University System. So we Democrats are committed to going many more places to hear from individuals at times that people are not at work, on the weekends, and we just want to give people as much opportunity as possible to comment on this budget. This is their money. This is taxpayers’ money, and they are the people who should have the loudest voice in this budget.

Zac Schultz: Now, we’ve got a little less than a minute left in the interview. For the groups that are showing up, how many of them are just coming on their own volition versus some that are organized. We’ve seen some lobbyist, coordinating groups to go testify en masse. Are you seeing a lot of that?

Chris Taylor: I’m seeing everything. We’re seeing parents come. I’ve seen a lot of mothers here today because they’re really concerned about their kids. Either their kids have disabilities and they’re caring for them or their kids are trying to get a good public education. So we’ve had a little of both. We’ve had groups. We’ve had individuals. You know, when you have this many people, gosh, I think all said and done, we’re probably going to get close to 1,000 people in and out of this hearing. They’re not all going to be testifying. You ran the gamut. But the common theme is please do not pass this budget. This budget hurts the working people of the state of Wisconsin. This budget hurts families. This budget hurts seniors. So we hear very little support for this budget.

Zac Schultz: All right. Well, Representative Taylor, thanks very much for joining us.

Chris Taylor: Thank you for having me.