Monthly Archives: June, 2023

(The Center Square) – Don’t look for Wisconsin Republicans to reverse course on their proposed diversity, equity and inclusion cuts at the University of Wisconsin.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Wednesday defended his plan to cut $32 million from the UW System’s budget if university leaders don’t shift it away from DEI efforts.

“The goal is really fairly simple, it is to say that if you are at UW System, on any of the campuses, you should be able to be taught. And you should be able to learn. It should not be indoctrination, where you’re only allowed to have one point of view,” Vos told reporters.

Vos has pushed against the UW’s DEI administrative force for the past month.

Back in May he said he wanted to find a better use for the $16 million that was spent last year on nearly 200 DEI administrators at the state’s 23 UW campuses.

He said that again on Wednesday.

“They tell me we don’t have enough people to be in engineering. We don’t have enough folks who are teaching an awful lot of careers. But. boy are they able to find millions of dollars to put into a curriculum and an ideology,” Vos added.

Gov. Tony Evers and top statehouse Democrats on Wednesday slammed Vos’ proposed cuts. The governor called the idea “disastrous for our UW System, almost certainly causing cuts to campuses and critical programs statewide, and will only hurt our kids, our state’s economy, and our state’s workforce in the process.”

The top Democrat in the Wisconsin Senate, Minority Leader Melissa Agard, echoed the same theme.

“Republican actions to cut funding from the UW System for their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives is small-minded, wrongheaded, and counterproductive to our state’s efforts to recruit and retain our future workforce,” Agard said in a statement of her own.

But Vos said the UW System chose to focus on DEI instead of the state’s workforce needs.

“We gave [the UW System] more than enough time to say ‘Let’s redouble our efforts, to take the money which is going into [DEI] any promote economic development, and careers that we know we need, and filling jobs that should be taught to kids in Wisconsin.’ And they kind of ignored that,” Vos added. “So, iIf they have extra money then I think it should be taken back, and the taxpayers of Wisconsin will have a chance to use it for something better than indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology.”

The Republican-controlled legislature was supposed to vote on the UW System’s budget Tuesday night, but that vote was delayed because of the DEI spat.

Vos did not say when lawmakers will try and vote on the university’s budget again.

The Biden Administration and House Republicans recently reached a bi-partisan deal to raise the debt ceiling. To reach the compromise, and keep the United States from a catastrophic debt default, the White House agreed to a series of spending cuts to social safety net programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps. (Here is a look at the American presidents who added the most to the national debt.)

SNAP is a federal program designed to help needy families and households afford food. The debt ceiling deal includes considerable changes to SNAP eligibility, expanding work requirements for older Americans, while also expanding access for veterans and homeless populations.

According to the latest available data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, more than 15.8 million American households -- or 12.4% of all households -- received SNAP benefits in 2021. And exactly how many Americans would be directly impacted by the latest eligibility changes remains to be seen.

Of the 12 metro areas with available data in Wisconsin, Milwaukee-Waukesha has the highest SNAP recipiency rate. According to the ACS, 15.6% of all area households received SNAP benefits in 2021. Meanwhile, the SNAP recipiency rate across the state as a whole stands at 11.8%.

Of all 366 metro areas nationwide with available data, Milwaukee-Waukesha ranks as having the 87th highest SNAP recipiency rate.

StateMetro area with highest SNAP recipiency rateMetro area SNAP recipiency rate (%)State SNAP recipiency rate (%)Metro area(s) considered in stateAlabamaMobile19.514.112AlaskaAnchorage8.710.41ArizonaYuma22.311.27ArkansasFort Smith15.110.96CaliforniaEl Centro25.912.026ColoradoPueblo19.48.47ConnecticutNew Haven-Milford14.411.74DelawareDover12.910.51FloridaMiami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach18.614.121GeorgiaColumbus22.012.414HawaiiKahului-Wailuku-Lahaina11.412.62IdahoPocatello16.28.46IllinoisDecatur20.414.110IndianaKokomo13.89.411IowaDavenport-Moline-Rock Island15.89.87KansasWichita10.07.32KentuckyBowling Green15.514.25LouisianaLake Charles22.919.09MaineLewiston-Auburn13.511.53MarylandCumberland18.012.65MassachusettsSpringfield20.114.65MichiganSaginaw19.613.414MinnesotaDuluth9.47.95MississippiHattiesburg12.713.53MissouriSt. Joseph12.310.28MontanaGreat Falls11.58.63NebraskaOmaha-Council Bluffs9.28.53NevadaLas Vegas-Henderson-Paradise14.313.62New HampshireManchester-Nashua5.96.01New JerseyVineland-Bridgeton15.99.13New MexicoFarmington28.420.74New YorkBuffalo-Cheektowaga16.415.012North CarolinaGoldsboro25.513.915North DakotaFargo6.66.22OhioLima20.113.011OklahomaLawton13.413.83OregonGrants Pass24.715.98PennsylvaniaErie19.614.118Rhode IslandProvidence-Warwick16.414.91South CarolinaFlorence20.911.18South DakotaRapid City7.88.02TennesseeKingsport-Bristol15.311.910TexasMcAllen-Edinburg-Mission30.912.223UtahOgden-Clearfield6.35.64VermontBurlington-South Burlington9.910.91VirginiaVirginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News10.68.89WashingtonYakima23.912.310West VirginiaBeckley22.118.37WisconsinMilwaukee-Waukesha15.611.812WyomingN/AN/A5.50

(The Center Square) – Some of Wisconsin’s latest proposed election changes may actually become law.

Both Republicans and Democrats at the Capitol on Wednesday agreed on new legislation that would re-work some of the fringes of the way that Wisconsin’s elections work.

One of those plans is Assembly Bill 298, which would require a vote of the full city council or county board before a city or county could close polling places.

Milwaukee State Senator Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, said that change goes straight back to the long lines in Milwaukee during the 2020 election.

“In 2020 the residents of Milwaukee had to be in line for six blocks. They had 175 polling locations sold,” Taylor. “It truly was an issue to see people standing for six blocks, in the rain. With five polling locations.”

Another plan, Assembly Bill 283 would have the Wisconsin Elections Commission reimburse local election managers for the costs of special elections in the state.

“It’s not a blank check,” Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, added.

Assembly Bill 282 would require any election office that livestreams Election Night vote counting to keep the recordings.

A fourth plan, which lawmakers said was still being worked on, would require a military ID for all military ballots or absentee ballots.

“I believe there are ways to…try and figure out ways to make sure our military members are not having their votes stolen, not having their votes discounted by people pretending to be armed forces members,” Sortwell said.

Wisconsin law currently does not require any kind of voter ID for military ballots. A former Milwaukee Elections Commission worker mailed three fake military ballots to State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, last year to expose the loophole.

Under the new plan, Assembly Bill 299, military members would have to provide their DOD number along with their ballot for their vote to be counted.

Sortwell said the proposal is not ready for a vote yet, but promised to find a way to “adapt and overcome as they say in the military.”

Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed many of the past attempts to reform or clarify Wisconsin’s elections laws post-2020. The governor has said he will not sign any new law that makes it tougher to vote.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Wednesday to pass a debt limit deal brokered by the White House and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The vote was 314-117 in favor, with dozens of Republicans and some Democrats voting against.

The measure, if approved by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden, would suspend the nation's debt limit until Jan. 1, 2025, after the 2024 presidential election; cap non-defense spending but also limit defense spending increases; and expand work requirements for some of those receiving food stamps, among other things.

With the bill now heading to the Senate, it still faces a tough vote as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have already expressed hesitation or outright disapproval.

The Senate faces a looming deadline Monday, the day the U.S. Treasury has said puts the federal government at risk of defaulting on its debt obligations, which many economists say could have significant impacts on the country's debt rating and economy.

McCarthy fought off dozens of Republican defections to get the bill across the finish line in the House.

Those critical of the bill, named the “Fiscal Responsibility Act,” argue it is a far cry from the one Republicans passed weeks ago to raise the debt limit, saying it has been hollowed out by concessions made to Democrats.

One of the concerns is that it would suspend the debt limit until 2025, after the 2024 presidential election. The U.S. is approaching $32 trillion in debt and fiscal conservatives say federal spending, and massive budget deficits, must be cut. Critics argue that the bill passed by House Republicans earlier in May went much farther to cut spending.

“The Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed by House Republicans, responsibly raised the debt limit while reining in spending,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “The Fiscal Responsibility Act simply does not live up to the expectations we set, and I cannot in good conscience vote for it."