Sen. Devin LeMahieu on Wisconsin Politics in 2023 and 2024

Frederica Freyberg:

In other news, as part of our end-of-year interviews with legislative leaders, senior political reporter Zac Schultz talked with Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu about 2023 and the year to come.

Zac Schultz:

Give me your perspective on the last year starting with the budget, that was the big bill of the year. How do you think that everything’s unfolded for you?

Devin LeMahieu:

I think we got a lot of good things done this last year in 2023. The shared revenue bill for local levels of government, school funding, school choice expansion, a budget that could have been better if the governor wouldn’t have issued a couple of vetoes, but — and then this fall, passing — you know, keeping the Brewers around for another 20 years and we got a lot of good bills done.

Zac Schultz:

A year ago, there was a lot of talk about a reset with the governor. There have been some good moments with the governor we just talked about. There have been some other moments where the Senate has rejected some of his appointments. There have been some other controversies. How do you feel your relationship is with the administration right now?

Devin LeMahieu:

Since the budget, we haven’t communicated a whole lot, unfortunately, but I guess worked somewhat with the governor’s office on the Brewers bill to make sure that he was comfortable with it and obviously he really wanted to get it done as well, but it’s just unfortunate he keeps vetoing tax cuts when we have such a large surplus that we’re sitting on taxpayer money when we could be giving it back to them.

Zac Schultz:

Speaking of the tax cuts that have been passed and vetoed twice now, you have been able to work with the governor on other issues. Is there any room to sit down at the table and find compromise on what he might be willing to sign?

Devin LeMahieu:

I don’t know — I mean, if it’s some wish list of his, like things that don’t make sense, it’s not worth doing a tax cut but he was for reducing that tax bracket in the — before he ran for re-election, and used that as part of his re-election tactics, but now apparently it’s not — it’s a wealthy tax cut, which starts at 24,000 when you file individually, that tax rate, and 36,000 married filing jointly. So it’s really unfortunate that he sort of flipped his idea of that being a good way to reduce taxes in the state of Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:

When you look ahead to the next year, what bills are a priority for you?

Devin LeMahieu:

I think there’s two bills that hopefully we can get done yet. First is the right of first refusal to allow Wisconsin companies the right to build new transmission lines first. Keep that work done here in Wisconsin. It’s going to save rate payers money, so hopefully we can get that done. And there’s electric vehicle charging bill that was just introduced. I think that bill will be vital to expand charging stations around the state of Wisconsin as there are more and more electric vehicles.

Zac Schultz:

In terms of election bills, are there any bills out there that you think the governor will sign specifically some of the early counting bills that have been proposed in the past?

Devin LeMahieu:

Well, there was a time when I actually authored that bill a couple of sessions ago, but I’m not sure where that bill is at in the Senate right now. I don’t know if it will move or not, but you know, it’s important to make sure that some of the bigger cities actually get their votes counted on time.

Zac Schultz:

One of the other big things that happened this year, obviously, was the Supreme Court election and a shift in the balance and the power there. How much does that weigh on your caucus when it comes to either the bills that you’re proposing or obviously looking ahead to possible new maps next year?

Devin LeMahieu:

I think there’s a lot of concern in our caucus, and amongst myself that, you know, everything that we’ve done over, for me, for eight years and for other people who’ve been around even longer, for the last decade, 12 years, all of the reforms that we’ve passed could be undone by, depending on how activist this court actually becomes, and, you know, it’s early on, but you can tell the first thing that they did was challenge our maps, that she was sworn into office, so that’s — it’s really unfortunate that it seems like with the governor’s lawsuit trying to — suing us, our joint committees, that we have two branches of government trying to box out the legislative branch right now. We are a coequal branch of government and we’re going to keep operating like that and look forward to getting good bills done.

Zac Schultz:

One of the big things for Republicans next year is the convention coming to Milwaukee. What do you think that impact will be for the rest of the state all the way in the fall?

Devin LeMahieu:

You know, I think it will be good — it would have been great if we had the DNC convention here in 2020, just to highlight Milwaukee and the great state that we are. It will be exciting to have all of the cameras on on the city of Milwaukee and highlight the good state of Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:

But as far as an electoral boost, you think that can change minds in Milwaukee, the suburbs, or anywhere else in the state?

Devin LeMahieu:

I’m not sure if that will happen. It’s going to be up to whoever the nominee is to do that. We’ll be working hard at the grassroots level in the Senate. I think we’ve been very successful finding — this last session, we had a lot of open seats that were close and we found good candidates and — who connected with their districts and that’s how we picked up a seat and got to a two-thirds majority. It will be my job to help find good, qualified candidates if we have new maps or if some of our members decide not to run again. But I think a lot, if things — just the even Senate districts are up, I think a lot of those senators will probably run again. But we’ll see.

Zac Schultz:

Do you hope that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee?

Devin LeMahieu:

I’ll let the voters decide on that. I’m a big fan of Nikki Haley. I think she would be a nice contrast to President Biden, but that’s for the voters to decide.

Zac Schultz:

Senate majority leader, thanks for your time today.

Devin LeMahieu:

Thank you.