Fitzgerald, Governors staff tied to open records debacle – News – 1330 WHBL

The budget being debated also freezes tuition for the next two years.

“It’s unbelievable quite frankly, that in a state like Wisconsin, that anybody would dare bring forth a provision of this sort”, said Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha).

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother of ex- president George W Bush, said that “we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments”.

He said the biggest issue with the open records proposal is that no lawmakers took credit for it.

The bill will now be sent back to committee where the public will have opportunity to weigh in.

Democrats argued Tuesday, July 7th that it would irreparably harm the university system to move forward with the cut backed by Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans who control the Legislature.

UPDATED: Friday, July 3, 2015 — 6:11 p.m.

The Joint Finance Committee passed it 12-4 on a party line vote.

Those not in favor of this provision feel it won’t hold public officials accountable for their actions. In any context, this would be a slap in the face to the people of WI.

Bill Lueders, head of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council slammed the measure saying “the records these changes would seal off have, on countless past occasions, been used to expose wrongdoing and provide essential information on the workings of government”.

This major change, which has received far less attention than the open records law rewrite, would strip the state’s Department of Workforce Development of the power to to investigate complaints that an employee is not being paid a living wage, and would replace “living wage” with “minimum wage” throughout Wisconsin’s laws.

For one, Walker says, she doesn’t agree with her husband all the time, “ut most of the time things work out a lot better than I think they will”.

The proposed changes would exempt legislative communications from the law; shut down public access to bill drafting files; and specify that the Legislature can shield any record by rule or policy.

After substantive discussion over the last day, we have agreed that the provisions relating to any changes in the state’s open records law will be removed from the budget in its entirety.

When asked who wanted the change in the law, legislative Republicans imitated a Family Circus cartoon. He said he did not author the proposal but would not say who had except “staff and leadership were involved”.

Speaking in Green Bay, Sen. Officials at the agencies represented on the board have previously said changes to the state’s retirement plan weren’t necessary, however a board made up of entirely partisan legislators might be more likely to greenlight such a plan. This would include opinions and analyses prepared at public expense at all levels of government, from local school boards to the governor’s office.

Doubling down on Walker’s war on public sector unions: A provision in Motion 999 requires that government workers seeking to unionize win the support of 51 percent of all the workers in the affected pool, rather than just a majority of those voting. But the move triggered sharp criticism from conservative groups that usually like Republican efforts in the state Capitol. Walker’s spokeswoman didn’t immediately return an email message to The Associated Press.