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Wisconsin Watch is previewing legislative races in toss-up districts forward of the Nov. 5 election by specializing in key points for voters and what candidates say they’ll do to deal with them.
Rural well being care entry, reasonably priced little one care and public schooling are key points for western Wisconsin voters within the toss-up thirtieth Meeting District the place Democratic candidate Alison Web page will search to unseat incumbent Rep. Shannon Zimmerman in November.
This district covers elements of St. Croix and Pierce counties. It contains the cities of Hudson and River Falls, in addition to the village of North Hudson. It additionally incorporates the UW-River Falls campus and Willow River State Park.
A Wisconsin Watch evaluation of previous voting patterns suggests the district is now a toss-up after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed new legislative maps earlier this 12 months.
Zimmerman, 52, has represented the district since 2017. He co-chairs the Joint Committee on Info Coverage and Know-how. He’s additionally a part of the highly effective Joint Finance Committee, which oversees the state price range. He’s the founding father of a language translation firm and owns a small enterprise.
Zimmerman didn’t reply to Wisconsin Watch’s repeated requests for an interview.
Web page, 68, spent her profession as a nurse and later as CEO of Western Wisconsin Well being. She is a River Falls college board member and served on the Workforce Growth Board of Western Wisconsin. In 2022, Web page ran towards Republican Rep. Warren Petryk within the outdated 93rd Meeting District, the place she misplaced by greater than 5,000 votes.
The Democratic Legislative Marketing campaign Committee — a nationwide group — not too long ago introduced that Web page and the thirtieth Meeting District are on its goal record “to construct Democratic energy throughout Wisconsin” and “shift the steadiness of energy within the Legislature for the primary time in over a decade.”
“As an alternative of taking my agenda from the powers that be within the Republican Legislature or the Democratic Legislature, I might take my agenda from the individuals of this area,” Web page mentioned when requested what units her aside from her opponent.
In a current interview with the Western Wisconsin Journal, Zimmerman mentioned he brings a “sensible, common sense strategy.”
“I can be referred to as too reasonable for the Republicans, and never in favor with the Democrats,” Zimmerman mentioned. “That’s most likely proper the place you wish to be as a result of I feel that’s the place you get issues accomplished.”
Within the final legislative session, there have been 437 cases of not voting within the Meeting, in accordance with the Legislative Reference Bureau. If distributed evenly amongst all 99 members, that might quantity to 4 or 5 cases per member. Zimmerman had 38 cases of not voting. He was granted a depart of absence for 4 flooring periods throughout which lawmakers voted on a number of payments. He instructed Wisconsin Watch his absence was resulting from a well being problem.
Rural well being care
Entry to rural well being care is a key problem in western Wisconsin. Two hospitals and 19 clinics within the area closed this 12 months, leaving 1000’s with out native choices for care.
Web page mentioned the answer requires the state to work with the federal authorities.
Medicaid growth, which Republicans within the Legislature have blocked, might assist by permitting individuals incomes greater than the federal poverty stage to entry government-funded well being care and bringing extra money into the state, Web page mentioned. Wisconsin is considered one of 10 states — the one one within the Midwest — that has not but expanded Medicaid.
“If I might wave a magic wand and do good issues for well being care, I might construct well being care into the general public college system, so that each little one would have a well being care check-up, and supply fundamental preventative well being care counseling, together with psychological well being care,” Web page mentioned.
Over the last legislative session, Zimmerman co-authored a invoice that might set up a certification course of and grant program for disaster pressing care and remark amenities, which deal with psychological well being and substance use problems.
Zimmerman has opposed efforts to broaden Medicaid. In 2023, he was a part of the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee that voted to take away Medicaid growth funding from Evers’ price range proposal.
“We’re actually to the purpose now the place the federal authorities is attempting to purchase Wisconsin into better authorities dependence,” Zimmerman mentioned of Medicaid growth in 2021, in accordance with WPR. “That’s absurd.”
A survey revealed in 2022 discovered that 70% of Wisconsin voters assist totally increasing BadgerCare. The Marquette Legislation College Ballot has equally discovered 60% or better assist for accepting Medicaid growth.
In 2017, Zimmerman responded to questions from the Republican Eagle and mentioned he supported “including provisions to the price range that established matching grant applications for rural clinics and hospitals that practice superior apply clinicians and allied well being professionals.”
Training
The Hudson College District not too long ago estimated it could expertise a price range deficit of $7.5 million by the 2028-29 college 12 months resulting from declining enrollment and frozen income limits. Now the district will go to operational referendum in November to exceed its income cap by $5 million on a recurring foundation, asking property taxpayers to pay for its operations, upkeep and staffing prices.
This fall, 120 college districts in Wisconsin are holding referendums, in accordance with the Wisconsin Division of Public Instruction. Many districts, together with Hudson, have raised considerations that state support will increase haven’t stored up with inflation.
Web page mentioned the state must “step again,” take a look at different states and decide what the perfect, most truthful technique to fund public schooling is. The answer could possibly be a mix of each state support and referendums, however what’s taking place now is just not working, she mentioned.
“If the state is underfunding — so that they’re not holding tempo — and also you’re going to referendum for working income, you then’re progressively transitioning the price of public schooling from the final fund onto the true property taxpayer, and that isn’t a good suggestion,” Web page mentioned.
She believes public schooling is dealt with most effectively — “with the perfect product on the lowest price” — via one unified public college system.
“Siphoning off cash to assist faculties that aren’t the general public college system — I don’t suppose is smart for the state for the long term,” Web page mentioned.
However she doesn’t have something towards personal faculties and oldsters wanting their youngsters to be privately educated.
“Entry to a free, wonderful schooling is a proper of each little one within the state,” Web page mentioned. “Entry to a personal schooling that could be a part of a non secular group is just not a proper.”
Beneath the present per-pupil funding mannequin, college districts throughout the state, together with Hudson, want to shut and consolidate resulting from declining enrollment, Zimmerman mentioned in a current interview.
In 2023, laws that elevated per-pupil income limits in public faculties and elevated tax funding for personal voucher faculties on the identical time handed as a part of a compromise between Republican lawmakers and Evers. Zimmerman was on a depart of absence and didn’t vote on the invoice.
In 2024, he voted in favor of a invoice that might have repealed reductions of state support paid to highschool districts underneath Wisconsin’s personal college voucher applications — permitting funding to return immediately from the state reasonably than from reductions in public college districts’ funds.
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Baby care
Reasonably priced and accessible little one care has been a persistent problem throughout the state of Wisconsin, and locations like Hudson within the thirtieth Meeting District aren’t any exception. The state is shedding lots of of kid care suppliers yearly, in accordance with the Wisconsin Division of Kids and Households.
Baby care deserts exist throughout 70% of rural Wisconsin, in accordance with a 2021 report from the Wisconsin Early Childhood Affiliation. The Financial Coverage Institute discovered {that a} typical household in Wisconsin must spend a 3rd of its revenue on little one look after an toddler and a 4-year-old.
Primarily based on 2016 knowledge from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Division of Well being and Human Providers deemed little one care reasonably priced if it prices as much as 7% of a household’s revenue.
Web page mentioned she would think about a number of options, reminiscent of supporting those that enter or wish to enter the kid care discipline, incorporating little one care into the Okay-12 public college system and dealing with neighborhood non secular organizations to offer little one care.
In 2023, the Joint Finance Committee voted to finish funding for the Baby Care Counts program — a pandemic-era subsidy program. Zimmerman was not current for that vote.
Final 12 months, Zimmerman joined his Republican colleagues in voting for measures that might have lowered the minimal educating age of assistant little one care suppliers from 18 to 16 and elevated the permitted ratio of youngsters to employees in little one care amenities. Suppliers and advocates say these efforts wouldn’t assist present challenges within the little one care discipline.
Revenue tax reciprocity
Tax reciprocity between states is an settlement that permits individuals who commute to work throughout state strains to pay taxes within the state the place they reside. It’s particularly vital to western Wisconsin residents close to the Wisconsin-Minnesota border who journey throughout state strains for work.
This 12 months, Zimmerman authored a invoice signed into legislation by Evers that may start the method of reestablishing revenue tax reciprocity between the 2 states, which was discontinued in 2009.
Web page would assist revenue tax reciprocity and mentioned it’s an vital problem she often hears from constituents within the thirtieth Meeting District.
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