Wisconsin state Rep. Billings on roundabout ribbon cuttings, end of legislative session, healthcare, Thanksgiving politics

Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings in the WIZM studio Monday for La Crosse Talk PM, discussing ribbon cuttings for roundabouts, the end of the November legislative session, healthcare, smoking age and what it’s like at Thanksgiving dinner for a legislator.

La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

Began the show talking quick about a busy Monday for Billings, who was at a ribbon cutting for roundabouts that aren’t done yet and a few healthcare meetings.

That led to a conversation about civics and how legislators need to get up to speed on issues that aren’t familiar to them.

After that, we spent a minute on the Wisconsin Supreme Court beginning hearings on the “rigged maps” lawsuit. After that, we discussed the smoking age, should vaping be legal indoors and if we could ban smoking indoors in today’s political atmosphere.

In the second half of the we talked about the November legislative session, in what I like to call “cram” sessions. We also hit on healthcare/health insurance as open enrollment is underway and why not every politician isn’t trying to make that a campaign issue. We also discussed how an extraordinary amount of Democratic bills had a floor vote — TWO out of 71 bills were Democratic, or 2.8%. That’s nearly a 1% jump from last year, when only 1.9% of bills were from Democrats.

Ended the show talking about the Thanksgiving dinner and politics at the household of a state legislator.