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Assembly Passes COVID-19 Legislation
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | April 14, 2020
From WisPolitics.com …
The state Assembly, often deeply divided on big issues, today overwhelmingly backed legislation to help Wisconsin deal with the impact of COVID-19 as leaders praised the measure as an example of what can be done when lawmakers work together.
The legislation, approved 97-2, would give the Joint Finance Committee new powers to redirect money to help cover expenses related to COVID-19, help Wisconsin qualify for more federal Medicaid money and suspend a one-week waiting period before those laid off can begin collecting unemployment benefits.
The only members to vote against the bill were Milwaukee Dems Jonathan Brostoff and Marisabel Cabrera. The pair in a statement said they opposed the bill, because it didn’t go far enough to help working people, saying it was “little more than scraps.”
While Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, praised the bipartisan talks that produced the bill, they also bemoaned what could’ve been.
Vos said Republicans wanted to freeze state spending in the second year of the budget, which begins July 1, but Dems refused to make the hard decisions now despite signs state revenues are going to drop dramatically.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates the state will receive $2.3 billion in federal stimulus money with $1.9 billion of that flowing directly into state coffers for Gov. Tony Evers to spend without legislative oversight. The state’s rainy day fund also had a balance of some $655 million earlier this year.
“There is no doubt in my mind we’re going to have to come back at some point and deal with the economic carnage to deal with our decision to not freeze spending,” Vos said.
Meanwhile, Hintz, who was the only Dem voting in person, said those who believe the state’s challenges with COVID-19 will begin to recede once the guv’s public health emergency declaration ends May 11 are mistaken. He predicted the chamber would be back to deal with additional issues. Hintz also knocked a late amendment from Vos, who described the changes as technical.
Hintz insisted they were the result of a late lobbying effort.
“I got those calls, too, but those are the same kind of politics that should be left out of this,” Hintz said.
The Senate plans to take up the bill tomorrow.
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