Let’s get right to the morning’s Key Reads.
People are sick of politics as performance art.
The sideshows are just a distraction thrown out there in the hopes that the public is intrigued and titillated by the conflict and forget about specific policy problems that aren’t resolved.
Case in point: Yesterday’s stunt at the State Capitol, where the Governor held a press conference in the chambers of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. He was darn tootin’ upset that they didn’t heed his call to meet on PFAS pollution remediation funding.
A Governor has no authority over the legislative branch. He know this. But he hopes you don’t.
What the Governor can do is sign or veto bills presented to him by the legislature, and in this instance that’s exactly what he did. but, again, he’d rather have you focus on the fight, that the facts.
This is s policy dispute over HOW to address a problem. It is not one side ignoring a problem.
Evers again demands PFAS money; Republicans say its game-playing | The Center Square
Communities in Wisconsin dealing with PFAS pollution are again waiting on the finger pointing at the State Capitol to end.
Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday held a news conference to blast Republican lawmakers for skipping a meeting he called to talk about a clean water plan that he vetoed.
Evers accused Republicans of ignoring PFAS pollution and leaving people to suffer with contaminated water…
The issue is $125 million that Republicans included in their clean water legislation.
The governor wants to spend that money, but he doesn’t want the rules that the Republican-controlled legislature says come with it.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, said the governor wants to treat landowners who find PFAS contamination on their land or in their water as polluters. Republicans, he said, don’t want to bankrupt those landowners, who he says are victims themselves.
“Gov. Evers ignored the desires of impacted communities with his veto, and now he attempts to distract from how he’s harmed us with a demand for a slush fund,” Wimberger said in a statement. “He doesn’t want to explain why he insists on punishing PFAS victims for pollution they didn’t cause.”
Evers said the problem is a lack of negotiation from legislative Republicans.
“Republicans are missing in action,” Evers told reporters at the Capitol. “Are we angry about that? I’ll just speak for myself, and the answer is yes. We should absolutely be getting that money out the door.”
Wimberger said it’s the governor who is MIA, and who is refusing to negotiate.
“Gov. Evers vetoed the $125 million plan to address PFAS,” Wimberger said. “I’ve repeatedly asked [the governor] and Legislative Democrats to provide language to protect PFAS victims that’s more to their liking, but they haven’t, and with this veto they’ve made it clear they want to be able to punish victims of PFAS and make them pay for pollution they didn’t cause.”
The Governor is going to great lengths to reduce the constitutional authority of the legislature. And he hopes the new liberal majority on the State Court will decimate the balance of power by ruling in his favor in a new case.
Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear arguments in Democratic governor’s suit against GOP-led Legislature | AP
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a case on Wednesday that pits Democratic Gov. Tony Evers against the Republican-controlled Legislature in a fight that could have a broad impact on how state government functions.
The case marks the latest power struggle between the Legislature and Evers, who has issued more vetoes than any Wisconsin governor. A ruling in favor of Evers would upend decades-old practices in the Legislature and make it easier to approve projects in a land stewardship program. But Republicans warn that the dispute is about much more than that.
Evers argues that the Legislature’s powerful budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, controlled 12-4 by Republicans, is exceeding its constitutional lawmaking authority and acting as a fourth branch of government. The Legislature counters that the committee’s powers, including the approval of certain state conservation projects, are well established in state law and court precedent.
Hang on to your hats.
If you think the controversy over money in college sports has created havoc, just wait til the same thing happens in High Schools here!
NIL deals for Wisconsin high schoolers could soon be a reality | Fox 6 News
What’s become known as NIL is trickling down to the high school level as well. Most states now allow high schoolers to make money with their NIL. Wisconsin, however, does not – at least not yet.
FOX6’s Stephanie Grady sits down with the executive director of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA), Stephanie Hauser, to discuss how that may soon change for good.
Stephanie Grady: At the upcoming annual meeting, which is coming up on April 24th, athletic directors, they’re going to vote on allowing high school athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness — like what’s been the case in colleges and universities since 2021 with the Supreme Court’s ruling on NIL. What are some of the main arguments you anticipate hearing from both proponents and opponents of this?
Stephanie Hauser: This is something our membership has been discussing for the past three years very actively. And each year, the interest in intrigue and possibly adopting it has grown. And so we’ve seen that the scale has kind of tipped to the point where we believe it is time for the membership to take a vote on that. The largest argument against allowing this for student athletes is truly just how do we protect the integrity of high school athletics if we allow this door to be cracked open? That’s the that’s really the biggest argument that I’ve heard against it. It’s a philosophical view is that it doesn’t belong in high school athletics. Yet we are seeing that 31 other associations have found a way to make it work. So, we have looked at the language that they have added, and we have mirrored the language that our membership will be voting on, because again, we are seeing it. It can work.
As the surprisingly-good Milwaukee Brewers are in the midst of their first losing streak of the year and April showers have settled over much of the state, some could see this at a glum hump day.
While today’s Key Reads may have not helped lighted the mood, we hope they saved you some time and kept you informed.
We’ll be back at it again tomorrow.
