Larson Weekly Report - March 29, 2012

Senator Chris Larson, 7th District

Dear Friend,

This week we review the events of the recently concluded 2011-2012 Legislative Session. Also, please remember to exercise your right to vote on Tuesday, April 3.

As usual, please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns or opinions you may have about our community or our state.

Sincerely,

Chris Larson
State Senator, District 7
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Larson Report Update
The Legislature has concluded it 2011-2012 session. In anticipation of fewer legislative obligations in the Capitol, Representatives and Senators will be spending more time in their local community and less time in their Madison offices.

Because of these changes, I will be altering the distribution of the Larson Report. Beginning this week, the Larson Report will be sent out every other week, rather than every Thursday. These biweekly reports will continue to keep you apprised of local events, provide timely news updates, answer some of the most frequent questions asked by neighbors, and include interesting information about our community and state.

In addition to providing you with a newsletter every other week, I will periodically send out email updates when important issue arise. The normal weekly distribution will resume when legislative activities pick up again in November.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions about these temporary changes.

Legislative Session Sends Wisconsin, Our Community Backwards

The 2011-2012 Legislative Session will go down in our state history books as the most divisive and dishonest legislative session ever. Rather than focusing on job creation and economic growth, those in control used their power to push a backwards, ideological agenda that neglects the needs of our family, friends, and neighbors.

Below we will take an in-depth look at just how our community and state have been harmed by the Walker administration's radical policies and devastating cuts in the areas of jobs, education, health care, public transit, the environment, accountability and transparency, and taxes and investment in our communities.

JOBS & ECONOMY
Although Governor Walker and Republican legislators promised to focus on jobs this session, they utterly failed to follow through. The numbers do not lie. While the nation has added jobs every month for 17 straight months and neighboring states all posted job gains this past year, Wisconsin fell tragically behind under Governor Walker's leadership. A new nationwide report released by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Wisconsin lost 12,500 jobs from January 2011 to January 2012, more than any other state over the past year. In fact, Wisconsin is one of only six states to lose jobs in the past year, and our job losses are more than three times higher than the next state on that unfortunate list.

Click here to view the report and a chart showing the state-by-state breakdown.

Despite the pleas of people across Wisconsin who are in desperate need of jobs, Governor Walker and Republican legislators put partisanship above progress right away by rejecting federal job creation money that then went to other states, helping their economies. Continuing this painful partisanship, Governor Walker and Republican legislators left Democratic employee training and jobs proposals untouched. Below is a list of just some of these proposals that Republicans refused to act on to get Wisconsin moving on job creation:

Expand the Workforce Advancement Training Program and create grants to assist local businesses with expanding and diversifying (SB 316/AB 431).

Create grants for technical colleges to provide additional training in advanced manufacturing skills (SB 40/AB 97).

Direct the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to develop, implement, and fund a program to link businesses that need more qualified workers with Wisconsin's technical colleges so they can provide the necessary training for those businesses to grow (AB 575.

Give the Wisconsin Economic Development the authority to award grants to Wisconsinites trying to qualify for income and franchise tax credits to improve or expand their business (AB 90.

Increase the amount of tax credits available for dairies to continue modernizing facilities and employ workers for these projects (SB 120/AB 186).

Unfortunately, this session has also been about picking winners and losers. In order to help the big corporations and special interests further their backwards agenda, Governor Walker and Republican legislators have sacrificed Wisconsin’s jobless, children, and women by choosing:

-- To provide big corporations with $2.3 billion in tax giveaways, Governor Walker cut $1.6 billion from neighborhood schools that educate our children.

-- To create a $196 million slush fund with little oversight, Governor Walker made over $1 billion in cuts to our health safety net being used by children, displaced workers, and the elderly.

-- To make up for increasing spending by over $1 billion in his budget compared to the previous one, Governor Walker cut funding for basic women's health care, shared revenue for local governments, public transit, and recycling and stewardship programs.

We need to get Wisconsin moving in the right direction with the rest of the nation. Unfortunately, the job-killing policies implemented by Governor Walker and Republican legislators this legislative session will do nothing to help our state out of this crisis.


PUBLIC TRANSIT
Massive highway expansion projects were highly prioritized this session over repairing our local roads and investing in our public transit infrastructure. This assault began with the rejection of $800 million in federal funds to create jobs and a high speed rail option connecting Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and additional communities.

The attack continued with the elimination of the new Regional Transit Authorities and extensive cuts to public transit in Governor Walker's budget. According to a recent study by the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, Wisconsin taxpayers are footing roughly $2 billion to fund questionable and unnecessary transportation projects in the budget rather than putting those funds towards local roads and public transit. In addition to a loss of $77 million in shared revenue, the following communities saw cuts to state transportation funds in the amounts listed below:

Cudahy = $98,181
Milwaukee = $2,546,188
Oak Creek = $164,524
Saint Francis = $65,933
South Milwaukee = $90,118

As a result, local governments have been forced to shift funding, raise fares, change or eliminate routes, and reduce vital services. Many of these changes were seen by riders in our own community. On January 1 of this year, the Milwaukee County Transit System was forced to increase fares for TransitPlus users by 75 cents, raising the cost of each bus ticket to $4. The system also had to eliminate some bus services.

During the legislative session, I worked to remedy this dire situation for our neighbors by supporting a number of public transit initiatives. Once such proposal was the Workforce Mobility Act, legislation I authored with Senator Jessica King.

The Workforce Mobility Act seeks to prevent further cuts by reinvesting in our state’s public transit infrastructure to ensure that our family, friends and neighbors are able to commute to and from work. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a recent re-estimate of the transportationfund indicates that an additional $32.9 million remains available for use. This bill would have used $9.6 million of this funding to restore the cuts to our mass transit systems ensuring that our workforce can get to their jobs each day. Unfortunately, progress on this was rejected by Governor Walker, his administration, and Republican legislators.

Having a well-supported public transit system is vital to maintaining and creating jobs in our community. According to the Milwaukee County Transit systems, on average 140,000 rides are provided daily. Of these, 39% are commuters traveling to and from work, another 5% are heading to job interviews, and 11% are students making their way to classes to learn valuable skills for their future careers. Therefore, I will continue to do what I can to support key public transportation initiatives.
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Office Phone: (608) 266-7505
Toll-free Phone: (800) 361-5487

Email: Sen.Larson@legis.wi.gov

Mailing Address:
State Capitol
P.O. Box 7882
Madison, WI 53707

Web Site:
SenatorChrisLarson.com
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Larson Weekly Report - Part II
Thursday, April 5, 2012
-- EDUCATION
-- ENVIRONMENT
-- HEALTH CARE