State Assembly Rep. Tara Johnson on federal funding freeze fallout, hospital exams without consent, city taxes

Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Tara Johnson in the WIZM studio this week on the impact potential federal funding freezes will have on Wisconsin farms and businesses, city taxes vs. regional assets and hospital performing exams without consent — legally.

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It was an interesting start to the show with Johnson (D-Shelby), just bringing up when La Crosse and Shelby were working on a boundary agreement years ago.

But that led to a conversation about city taxes, which then led to us talking about regionalizing assets, like the airport and La Crosse Center. The La Crosse city council this week voted on contributing $250,000 to an airline revenue fund, which the county passed a few weeks ago.

Johnson was a former La Crosse County Board chair, so she had some insight on some of these things happening locally.

After that, we discussed the fallout that could come from a potential federal funding freeze. This conversation happened a day after Johnson was in Westby talking with business leaders, farmers and school superintendents about the impacts they have seen and would see in the future from different federal funds being halted without warning.

Lastly, we hit on some important legislation that should move rather quickly through the state Legislature banning hospitals from being able to perform exams on people under anesthesia without their consent.