Move to knock rent-to-own and residency out of budget thwarted again

April 30, 2013


Move to knock rent-to-own and residency out of budget thwarted again

Dear Neighbor,

Today, we on the legislature’s budget committee held a second round of votes on the governor’s state budget proposal.

For a second time now, the co-chairs of the committee broke from historical precedent and denied members the opportunity to vote to remove items identified by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau as non-fiscal policy items from the budget. These items include authorizing rent-to-own companies to operate in Wisconsin, prohibiting residency requirements in local communities and funding for a special-needs voucher, among others.

I will continue to press for a vote to knock these non-fiscal policy items out of the budget. Each one should be considered individually, out in the open in standing committees with public hearings, not buried in a 1,080-page budget.

Democrats and Republicans did join together in unanimous support of a budget package for veterans and to remove the governor’s proposal to take over Circus World in Baraboo. But we still haven’t done any heavy lifting on important priorities like health care and public schools. Those issues will have to wait for another day, as our nonpartisan fiscal analysts are still preparing revenue projections for the next two years.

The budget committee will meet again at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, May 9. You can watch the proceedings live on Wisconsin Eye: http://www.wiseye.org/.

Sincerely,
JON RICHARDS
State Representative
Assembly District 19