Wisconsin Democrats call for public to vote against set of Republican-written amendments on the August ballot

Two proposed amendments by Republicans in the state Legislature to change the Wisconsin constitution could affect how federal funding gets to communities around the state.

Those amendments will be on the ballot in the August primary — not the November general — and Wisconsin Democrats want voters to say “no” to both questions.

THE BALLOT QUESTIONS

Question 1: “Delegation of appropriation power. Shall section 35 (1) of article IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?”

Question 2: “Allocation of federal moneys. Shall section 35 (2) of article IV of the constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys the governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided by legislative rule?”

The two questions would essentially strip power from the governor and hand it to the legislature when it comes to distributing emergency funding.

Democrats argue that if the power is handed to the Legislature to accept and distribute funds for emergencies — from anything like flooding assistance to COVID-19 funds — that the money would not be appropriated in a timely fashion.

During a news conference outside a 4th Street business Tuesday, state Assembly Rep. Jill Billings (D-La Crosse) said the amendments are deceptive and could give Republicans in the legislature more power to control funding.

“I’ve seen how Republicans can’t even distribute state moneys properly,” Billings, speaking outside the Vision of Light stained glass shop, said. “And they want us to allow them to have sole control now over all federal moneys, in all situations, by constitutional amendment?”

Vision of Light owner Penny Fassler said local businesses were disappointed by the inaction of lawmakers during the COVID outbreak four years ago. That’s when COVID started to ramp up and the Republican-led Legislature remained out of session the last nine months of 2020 without calling an extraordinary session to deal with the pandemic.

“Wisconsinites should not give the Legislature the sole power over critical funding” to help small businesses, Fassler said. “In 2020, they sat on the sidelines while we waited for support, and we can’t trust them to do right by our businesses, next time we need help.”

William Garcia, both the La Crosse County and the 3rd Congressional District party chair for the Democrats, pointed out that Republicans didn’t have a problem with governors distributing emergency funding when Scott Walker was in charge.

In August of 2018, Walker flew by helicopter to Coon Valley to check out flooding and by October had requested from then-President Donald Trump a federal disaster declaration for multiple counties, including La Crosse and Vernon counties.

“And of course, at that point, the Republican Legislature was like, ‘Great, this is working exactly as it should be,'” Garcia said on the Democratic Voice podcast. “But now, because we have a democratic governor and they don’t have control over it, they want to stop it. The dangerous part of emergency is, that our Legislature in particular, can’t pass anything. They can’t agree on anything.”

Billings does believe the two parties can work together to allocate money for projects, such as cleaning up PFAS “forever chemicals” in drinking water, which has kept residents on French Island on bottled water for 4.5 years now.

Republicans wrote into their budget that the Democratic governor signed back in January, $125 million to spend helping fight PFAS. Since then, however, the money has sat idle, while the two sides fight over details into how to allocate the funds.

Among community organizations, which would be affected by the constitutional amendment changes, is Black Leaders Acquiring Collective Knowledge (BLACK) in La Crosse. Board member Andrew Rasmussen said the group wants federal funding protected.

“Our funding helped over 60 students and staff expand their world view through summer experience programs that focused on academics, cultural identity and history, college and career readiness, and mental health,” Rasmussen said.