Here & Now

"Heavy Lift" To Finish Lincoln Hills Legislation

Frederica Freyberg:

It's a sprint to the finish for lawmakers at the state capitol as they try to pass major pieces of legislation before the session ends in March. In tonight’s capitol insight we check in WPR’s Shawn Johnson who’s been running as fast as he can to cover the bill-passing dash. Shawn, thanks for being here.

Shawn Johnson:

Hey Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

So describe what this bill-passing dash is like up there.

Shawn Johnson:

It's kind of crazy. I mean there was a day last week when, if you take executive sessions of committees, the times when they vote on bills, public hearings, when they take public testimony on bills, there were like 30 of those in one day last week. So pretty much impossible to keep track of all of them. Look at the Thursday session day, they had one committee where they formally introduced a bill, held a public hearing on it and voted on it in the Assembly committee. It was a Lincoln Hills bill. And then they dashed off to the floor and they ripped through the Assembly calendar there on a bunch of different topics. That’s kind of what it’s like now.

Frederica Freyberg:

So we talked about this being major pieces of legislation though and you just mentioned the Lincoln Hills bill. What else are they doing?

Shawn Johnson:

You've got the governor’s welfare special session bills. The Assembly went through ten of those. The Senate hasn’t taken those up yet. But they’re out of the Assembly now. A bunch of foster care bills that had bipartisan support also. You had a big wetlands bill that would make it easier for developers to fill state wetlands, non-federal wetlands. That’s pretty contentious as well. That passed the Assembly and will likely be up in the Senate next week.

Frederica Freyberg:

The juvenile correction bill calls for closing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Correctional Facilities for juveniles and replacing them with facilities in counties across the state. The plan is bipartisan. It was announced this week by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. State Representative Evan Goyke was among the Democrats who worked on that bill and he was there for the announcement as well.

Robin Vos:

The basic idea is to say that we need to have a facility that continues to take care of the worst of the worst among juvenile offenders but our goal has always been the same: to make sure that any juvenile who commits an offense, be it minor or major, has the chance to rehabilitate themselves. Hopefully become a productive member of society and do it in a way that also protects the public.

Evan Goyke:

The hard part is we're at the end of the legislative session, and so time is of the essence to get this signed into law before we recess for the electoral process. And I hope–there’s no doubt that we can get this done. The only doubt is if we will get it done. It takes the political will of the majority party. Certainly you saw today the Assembly has a bipartisan group pushing this. We just need to get it through the Assembly, the Senate and signed by the gov.

Shawn Johnson:

And as to whether it will get done, Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald threw a little cold water on that this week. When he was asked about the Lincoln Hills bill by reporters, he said that would be a big lift.

Scott Fitzgerald:

I mean, in concept I agree with it. It’s just a matter of can you — that’s a big lift before the end of session. And we’ve had these discussions during the budget about just, not just juvenile, but also DOC and new facilities.

Frederica Freyberg:

Add to that Speaker Vos threw a little of his own shade.

Robin Vos:

Every major proposal is a big lift. I mean that was the whole point. For us, we have been working on it for a while. We’ve had authorship. I guess in my experience if you have the buy-in from all four caucuses, it seems like it should make it a lift, but maybe not as big.

Shawn Johnson:

And then you had this from the governor, who wants this done this session and before the election.

Scott Walker:

I think so far the response has been positive, but I want to make sure that there’s enough time to get this through not just the Assembly, but the Senate, and it’s something we stressed to Senator Fitzgerald and others that we want to get this done. We think it’s important to get this done yet this session.

Frederica Freyberg:

For his part, the Assembly minority leader described the breakneck pace of trying to pass a bunch of legislation in the governor’s agenda, like the $100 child tax credit. He called this part of the Republican 2018 “Regret Agenda. And yet is the minority being a little bit marginalized now because they have these pretty major bills, the foster care bill and the juvenile corrections reform bill, that are bipartisan. Where does that leave kind of the minority when that’s their role, to kind of not like the stuff in the governor’s agenda?

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah. I mean especially with the Lincoln Hills bill, the juvenile corrections bill that is about as bipartisan of any bill that we’ve seen up there in some time in the Assembly. You look at the public hearing on that issue. That is a potential political liability for the governor in an election year and yet politics really did not seep into that particular hearing. They’re definitely onboard with that. That said, we could go through probably a much longer list of bills where the minority party has been marginalized, their voice hasn’t been heard and they can say we are at odds with Republicans on this stuff.

Frederica Freyberg:

In terms of the governor’s agenda, whether the Assembly and the Senate can pass this in the remaining days, does it matter all that much politically? Because the governor could always say, “Well, I wanted this,” right? If it doesn’t get to his desk and he doesn’t get to sign it, politically may not be as important as knowing he was pushing for it.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah. We’ve kind of talked about that before. He planted that flag, said this is my agenda. Whether or not the legislature goes along, so what. This is what Governor Walker stands for. It kind of depends on issues, right? When it comes to the Lincoln Hills issue, you know, if they don’t do anything on that, we look at recent history there, and there have been years of reports of abuse there. They don’t know that that’s not going to stop. That’s a facility that’s been under investigation.

Frederica Freyberg:

Right.

Shawn Johnson:

So just saying you want to do something there is not going to fix a problem. When it comes to say, the tax credit, though, the governor has said he wants a child tax credit. He’d like to see a sales tax holiday also, but seems to be alluding that that’s not going to happen. But if he wants to get $100 checks into the hands of parents in August in an election year, they’re going to have to pass something there.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah. That’s got to pass. So what about next week? What’s up?

Shawn Johnson:

More chaos. The Senate’s in for their only day in February. They’re only going to meet two more times this year according to Senator Fitzgerald. You got the Assembly could potentially be in three days next week and basically wrap up the rest of their agenda.

Frederica Freyberg:

Put your running shoes on. Shawn Johnson, thanks a lot.

Shawn Johnson:

You’re welcome.