For a party that prides themselves on fiscal responsibility and "no pork budgets," the Assembly Republican's budget should remind us the days of Tommy Thompson and mind-bogglingly high debt. The budget passed 51-44, with one Republican voting alongside the dems.
Here is a list complied by Legislative Fiscal Bureau featured on wispolitics.com:
"The items include everything from requiring legislative approval for off-reservation casinos, some things Republicans have been trying to pass for the last four years, to the elimination of straight ticket voting, which some Republicans believe hurt them at the polls last fall in the Dem wave that swept the country.
Here are some examples of the policy items in the document:
-Require school district referenda to be held on regularly scheduled primary or general election dates.
-Changing state law to require schools to meet a set number of hours rather than at least 180 days annually.
-Allow schools to refuse to hire felons or to fire them.
-Allow employers to refuse to employ or terminate anyone convicted of a sex offense or a violent offense.
-Eliminate the residency requirement for Milwaukee Public School teachers.
-Create an exception to quotas on "Class B" liquor licenses for full-service restaurants.
-Require proof of citizenship to qualify for public assistance "to the extent permitted under federal law."
-Require child sex offenders who are required to be monitored through GPS tracking to have license plates on their vehicles with a chartreuse-colored background.
-Eliminate sick leave for legislators, justices and judges, and all other state elected officials.
-Change requirements for local governments on posting legal notices, ordinances, rules and orders.
-Prohibiting prisoners from initiating a John Doe proceeding by complaining to judges that a crime may have been committed. Prisoners would only be allowed to complain to district attorneys.
-Alter state laws on the self-defense privilege.
-Allow electors to require identification whenever a ballot is issued under their name.
-Prohibit Milwaukee from printing more than 200 percent of the ballots used in the previous election for the next one.
-Allow an authority as defined under the state's Open Records Law to withhold access to any record containing a utility security system plan under certain circumstances.
-Create a legislative Joint Committee on State Mandates.
-Modify the regulation of elevators.
-Eliminate the ban on heated exterior pedestrian walkways not fully enclosed within a building, which has been in existence since 1980."
Here is a list complied by Legislative Fiscal Bureau featured on wispolitics.com:
"The items include everything from requiring legislative approval for off-reservation casinos, some things Republicans have been trying to pass for the last four years, to the elimination of straight ticket voting, which some Republicans believe hurt them at the polls last fall in the Dem wave that swept the country.
Here are some examples of the policy items in the document:
-Require school district referenda to be held on regularly scheduled primary or general election dates.
-Changing state law to require schools to meet a set number of hours rather than at least 180 days annually.
-Allow schools to refuse to hire felons or to fire them.
-Allow employers to refuse to employ or terminate anyone convicted of a sex offense or a violent offense.
-Eliminate the residency requirement for Milwaukee Public School teachers.
-Create an exception to quotas on "Class B" liquor licenses for full-service restaurants.
-Require proof of citizenship to qualify for public assistance "to the extent permitted under federal law."
-Require child sex offenders who are required to be monitored through GPS tracking to have license plates on their vehicles with a chartreuse-colored background.
-Eliminate sick leave for legislators, justices and judges, and all other state elected officials.
-Change requirements for local governments on posting legal notices, ordinances, rules and orders.
-Prohibiting prisoners from initiating a John Doe proceeding by complaining to judges that a crime may have been committed. Prisoners would only be allowed to complain to district attorneys.
-Alter state laws on the self-defense privilege.
-Allow electors to require identification whenever a ballot is issued under their name.
-Prohibit Milwaukee from printing more than 200 percent of the ballots used in the previous election for the next one.
-Allow an authority as defined under the state's Open Records Law to withhold access to any record containing a utility security system plan under certain circumstances.
-Create a legislative Joint Committee on State Mandates.
-Modify the regulation of elevators.
-Eliminate the ban on heated exterior pedestrian walkways not fully enclosed within a building, which has been in existence since 1980."
2 Comments:
The provision about printing ballots in Milwaukee is particularly troubling to me. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but elections vary significantly in voter turnout.
If a presidential election has huge turnout, the Democratic base will be stiffled by the lack of ballots in Milwaukee.
If you know me, you know that I'm rarely one to attack a party as a whole, but this issue warrents an exception. This is yet another example of the Republican Party attempting to disenfranchise poor voters and people of color.
The Republicans know that they normally vote for Democrats, so instead of changing their agenda to reach out more to those constituencies, they choose to take away their right to participate in our Democracy. It's at downright shameful.
My question would be whether this means 200% more ballots than the immediately preceeding election (e.g. no more than 200% more ballots for 2008 than for 2006) or for like elections (e.g. no more than 200% more ballots for 2008 as for 2004, since their both presidential). I don't think it's unreasonable to predict that you might see more than double the turnout during presidential election years as you would for midterm elections, at least at some polling stations in Milwaukee. If this is the case, it is indeed very disturbing.
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