Vos takes listening session questions in stride

Assembly speaker was happy to be on home turf dealing with constituents

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Staff Writer

At Burlington High School May 6 to honor three individual state champions, Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that particular duty was one of his more pleasurable ones.

Someone cracked a joke about his listening sessions later in the day being less so, and Vos agreed the tone would certainly be different. And so it was that night, as Vos listened for more than an hour to various area residents on everything from taxes to health to marijuana.

“Wisconsin has a very fine tradition as a progressive state,” said the man at the meeting lobbying for lesser penalties for marijuana possession, saying the state is wasting “a big chunk of money” prosecuting cases.

That one person chewed up more than a half of the scheduled hour of a listening session, but Vos agreed to stay longer to hear more questions.

The majority of the audience give-and-take with the Republican assembly speaker came in the form of questions about health insurance, and the impact of the Affordable Care Act, commonly called ObamaCare.

Other topics of discussion included taxes and the impact of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget on Burlington Area School District, as well as further discussion about education.

The taxes and education discussions were something Vos said have been common topics everywhere, as well as discussion about Walker’s biennial budget.

Education – and the impact of BASD under-levying for tax purposes in the past – were one of three major points. BASD School Board Citizen Committee Representative Dia Kleitsch called out the governor’s system as penalizing BASD, as the School Board has consistently underlevied in the past, and would have to raise taxes significantly to meet the governor’s matching funds.

Vos argued that districts that have lower taxes – and therefore less local income to pay for public schools – shouldn’t automatically be taking a bite out of the state government’s pie. Kleitsch responded that the system, as it is set up, penalizes districts that have kept costs and taxes under control and rewards districts that tax as much as they can – an apparent contradiction of Walker’s vow to keep taxes down.

The fallout of those disagreements in philosophy has hit Burlington hard, as the fiscal-conservative group WeVote has complained that the district has not taken full advantage of Walker’s policies. The other side has argued that the district has been and will remain fiscally conservative, and labeled the WeVote faction as “radical.”

Another issue tied to education that was raised at the meeting was the state’s decision to go with a single-school data system – namely Infinite Campus, as opposed to the Wisconsin-based Skyward system.

School Board member Bill Campbell was in attendance, and said the decision to go with a single provider – one that sent business out of state, no less, to Minnesota, vs. utilizing Skyward – made no sense.

“It doesn’t make any sense to anyone,” Campbell said.

By way of response, Vos indicated that he has spoken with Gov. Walker, and some sort of compromise could be in the works. Specifically, Vos indicated that the state may not follow through on the contract.

But with the exception of the marijuana discussion – which finally drew jeers from other audience members and calls to sit down and let others talk – the major point of discussion was health care. The man who criticized the state’s stance on marijuana also criticized Gov. Walker’s decision not to set up the ACA “exchanges” for health insurance.

Vos corrected the man, saying that the governor is waiting for the ACA to work its way through implementation. When it does, state residents who qualify will be sent to sign up for the exchanges, while those at 100 percent of the poverty line and below will be sent to the state’s Medicaid program.

Vos also chided the man for saying he and the governor were shirking their responsibilities to the ACA.

“I didn’t shirk it, because I didn’t vote for it,” Vos said, who also added that he did not vote for Obama.

At the start of the session, Vos outlined the territory change because of state redistricting, which resulted in 60 percent of his district being new to him this year.

He also outlined a few key ideas in Gov. Walker’s outlook for the state, including cutting down on food stamp fraud, mental health care reform and helping out the middle class with tax cuts.

Before the session in Burlington, Vos said the other two listening sessions held earlier in the day had gone well, and that since state government has started to shift from the recall elections back to normal functions, people are glad to be heard.

“It’s nice to sit down at things like this and listen to people’s concerns, as opposed to being in a constant campaign mode,” Vos said. “I think it’s important for us to not keep dwelling on the past, and focus on what we can do to make the future better.”

The Assembly speaker’s other two listening session stops Monday were in Mount Pleasant and Union Grove. Vos said his idea was to travel along Highway 11 Monday.

“It’s why we did the three today,” he said.