Frederica Freyberg:

Eyes are on Washington, what with work and dissension over major tax overhaul and other more salacious matters. But the Wisconsin legislature has been powering through its session. In tonight’s closer look, a check-in with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. We’ll hear from the Minority Leader coming up. And Speaker Vos, thanks very much for being here.

Robin Vos:

Happy to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you join us today to talk about the Assembly session. Foxconn stands out.

Robin Vos:

Yeah. It’s one of the biggest accomplishments we probably had in our state’s history. The largest foreign investment in generations. Thousands of good-paying jobs coming to southeastern Wisconsin. And luckily thousands of good-paying jobs will probably filter their way throughout the entire state. Governor Walker often talks about the impact of large corporations and the suppliers that they give business to through the state. So Oshkosh Corporation as an example; 300 different suppliers that continue to help a company that does a lot less in business than Foxconn will. Still incredibly important to the Fox Valley. It’s a good example of how one large corporation like that – while there’s good-paying jobs that’ll be just in Racine County and southeastern Wisconsin – it will also help the entire state.

Frederica Freyberg:

What should taxpayers make, though, of the governor not mentioning Foxconn in his re-election announcement? I mean, is he distancing himself from it?

Robin Vos:

No. I was just with him at the signing. I think he’s incredibly proud, as all of us are, of the opportunity for us to create 13,000 good-paying jobs in Wisconsin. I think that for the critics, I wish they would take some time to actually look and say let’s focus on positives about Wisconsin. They are so busy constantly berating every possible good thing that happens, trying to talk down Wisconsin. I don’t understand that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Will your members in districts outside southeast Wisconsin campaign on this?

Robin Vos:

I think they’ll mention it. I mean it’s not the entire agenda that we’ve had. We’ve done lots of good things. If you look at our budget as an example. Tax cuts, getting rid of the personal property tax, more money than we’ve invested in schools in close to a generation. At the same time, we’ve been able to make sure we focus on our priorities of making sure we have more funding for worker training. More funding for mental health care. All of those things are lots to be proud of. Now Foxconn is one important bill this session but it’s certainly not the only one.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of this session, it’s not over. There are several bills still hanging out there. What is your reaction to Republican Senator Steve Nass saying he expects you to kill conservative bills after the flap where you blasted Nass and two other Republicans senators for their negotiating tactics during the budget?

Robin Vos:

Well it’s kind of typical of what Steve Nass does, right? He’s kind of a frame-thrower. That’s what everybody knows him as. Conservative legislation has happened the entire time I’ve been speaker. We’re going to continue to push an agenda that makes Wisconsin a place that people want to work. They want to retire and they certainly get to keep more of their own money. Now I know he has a problem actually communicating with his own caucus members to be able to get bills through his caucus. So if he gets bills through, send them to the Assembly. If they’re good legislation, they’ll pass in our House.

Frederica Freyberg:

On some of these bills, what's your position on concealed carry without a permit?

Robin Vos:

I've always been in favor of that as a general idea. Now Governor Walker has come out saying the system we have works fine. He’s right about that. There’s not a huge need to make a change. I think we passed concealed carry and Democrats said it was going to be like the Wild West. We certainly haven’t seen that. It’s been very responsible. We see tens of thousands of Wisconsinites getting a concealed carry permit without issue. So I certainly am open to the discussion but I want to make sure Governor Walker and my colleagues are in the same place.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about banning fetal tissue research?

Robin Vos:

There’s two competing bills. I think they both have merits. Neither one has the ability to pass in our caucus at this point. We’ll continue the discussions to try to find common ground. I think the vast majority of Republicans have considered themselves pro-life and we want to make sure we do those things, but we’re also pro-research. And that’s why I have a preference between the two bills. But certainly either one addresses that concern.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about civil forfeiture reform?

Robin Vos:

That's something that we have talked about. I’ve been a supporter of that for a long time. Representative Mark Born has taken the lead in our caucus to try to find a consensus between those who worry about protecting people’s fourth amendment rights but also the ability of law enforcement to use those funds to help combat drugs and all the opioid crisis we have. We’ll find a consensus and I hope we’re able to pass that too.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you’re not stopping down bills.

Robin Vos:

Not at all, as long as they’re good ideas.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why didn’t you appoint any Democrats to the task force that will study building a new prison?

Robin Vos:

Yeah, it's actually not about just building a new prison. I mean I know once again, continuing with their theme, it’s all politics all the time. I was incredibly disappointed that one of the first things that Gordon Hintz did was to take somebody off of WEDC, as a Democrat appointee, who had been there the entire time to understand the Foxconn deal and put somebody on who was running as a Democrat for governor. It’s not surprising to me that as we are not talking about reforming sentencing or any of those kinds of things, that is not part of this commission’s purview. It’s really looking at the fact that we’re at 142% of our prison capacity and we do not have the ability to put more people in jail without additional facilities.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why no Democrats on the task force?

Robin Vos:

Yeah, we had three people came to me during the budget process: Michael Schraa is the chairman of the corrections committee. Mark Born is our expert on correctional issues. And we also had David Steffen who asked for it. So those three asked for it. Those three got on.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think about the potential for Democratic gains in next year’s elections?

Robin Vos:

You know it's interesting because I’ve heard this now ever since 2010 that of course, after the recall we’re going to make gains. We gained a seat. In 2014 of course Governor Walker was on the ballot. It was supposed to be a repudiation of him. We gained a seat. Here we are in 2016 with Donald Trump on the ballot. They guaranteed they were going to make gains and we gained another one. I saw what happened in Virginia. The vast majority of those gains were in seats that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016. We don’t have many of those in Wisconsin. She was not carrying Wisconsin as a state. I’m confident we’ll maintain a good, strong majority and continue our conservative reforms.

Frederica Freyberg:

Robin Vos, thanks very much.

Robin Vos:

Thanks, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaker Vos holds a commanding majority of 64 out of 99 members. Minority Leader Gordon Hintz of course hopes to pick up a few seats. He joins us now. Thanks for doing so.

Gordon Hintz:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Robin Vos says he’s not worried at all about Democrats picking up any seats in the next election. What do you say to that?

Gordon Hintz:

Well that's the Speaker’s prerogative. I think the big thing we have going for us that we saw in Virginia last week is we’ve had eight years of failed Republican leadership, both by the legislature and the governor. After eight years, we literally have cracks in our transportation infrastructure. I think that we’ve seen that we’ve cut funding for the UW system significantly. We’ve had cuts to K-12 education and mostly we’ve had ineffective economic growth. We’re a little more than half the national average. We lag behind our neighboring states. Everything that the governor has promised hasn’t worked. Lower — bad economic growth and we’ve done it at sacrificing our environment and our future financial security in terms of budgets.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you think that resonates with the voters because one of the messages of course of the administration is the unemployment rate is historically low.

Gordon Hintz:

Wisconsin has always had a lower unemployment rate than the national average. If you have low unemployment but slow job growth, that’s not an economic indicator. What that shows is you have a people shortage. One of the things we’ve seen over the last five years is we’ve had an out-migration of working age people to other states where there’s greater opportunity and no one’s moving here. I think this is going to be one of the telling narratives of the 2018 election. Jobs will follow people. And if you don’t have clean drinking water, if you don’t have well-funded public transportation systems, if you don’t have innovative and dynamic communities that are funded partially by the state, this isn’t going to be an attractive place for people to live.

Frederica Freyberg:

Foxconn is now signed and delivered and on its way. Of course, Speaker Vos thinks that means it’s a great day in Wisconsin. Are most of your members still sour on it?

Gordon Hintz:

It's not just our members who are sour. It’s the public statewide. Again, you’d be hard-pressed to find too many people maybe outside of southeast Wisconsin that thinks it’s a good idea to give $3 billion of taxpayer money to a foreign corporation, the largest taxpayer subsidy in United States history, when the best potential payback if everything happens is 25 years. We’ve had a number of start-ups, small business people say if we had spent a fourth of that supporting new business investments, growing small business, providing capital, you’d be a lot better economically.

Frederica Freyberg:

It's a done deal now. Anything to do?

Gordon Hintz:

Hold them accountable. Look, if it’s going to happen, I hope it’s the best deal possible, but I want to make sure that we are getting good information, that we’re holding WEDC accountable. Their track record hasn’t been great. When you’re charging that agency with both the oversight and the enforcement, I think there are a lot of questions to ask. But yeah. I mean, look, I hope for the best, but the reality is the opportunity cost is the biggest loss for Wisconsin taxpayers.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of WEDC, we asked Robin Vos why there were no Democrats on the prison task force and he said because his members approached him and wanted to be on it. So this is where the WEDC part comes in. He said that by way of explaining this, he said that he took issue with you assigning Dana Wachs to the WEDC board when he’s running for governor. Was that appointment a politically deliberate one on your part?

Gordon Hintz:

Only in the sense that — no. My colleague Dana has been an outspoken critic of Foxconn. He’s an attorney who’s used to reading a lot of detailed contract language. Certainly wanted someone who I thought was going to hold things accountable. He’s a legislative colleague. I’m the Minority Leader. I wanted to put someone on there who I knew was going to hold this governor and administration accountable.

Frederica Freyberg:

What about the prison task force? Are you upset that there were no Dems on that that Vos was appointing?

Gordon Hintz:

I'm more disappointed. Every other committee that we have, they come across, tell us they just created a new international committee, asked us for six members. Senator Fitzgerald obviously reached out to Senator Shilling and asked for a Democrat on there. I think it has more to do with hiding the fact that there is no prison policy. That our numbers are only escalating, that the costs are costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more. They don’t want to be held accountable. You can hide behind the whole appointment thing but the reality is the speaker and this governor’s track record on corrections is a disaster.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you have any idea whether or not the governor will appoint a Democrat?

Gordon Hintz:

I don’t. But we had a number of members, especially our minority members, who have a lot of communities of color who are disproportionately-impacted by our correction policies. And I think it would be a good move on his part if this committee is actually going to have any meaning or effectiveness at addressing a lot of problems with our criminal justice system.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Lots more to talk about but we’ll leave it there. Thanks very much.

Gordon Hintz:

Thanks for having me.