Selective Support for Clean Energy (Hour 3)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglo powered by UpNorth News.

Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of UpNorth News, Pat Craiglo.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06.

It's a Wednesday morning, June 18th, 2025.

It's another beautiful morning, a little foggy, but beautiful to have you here up north.

Live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media radio network or listening or watching us on all of our different platforms.

Thanks for starting your day right here.

That might include the Up North News Facebook page where here's my first question for you.

How what's your life like if you're so grouchy that at six o'clock in the morning you're going to put a comment up

on somebody's Facebook going, it has to hurt to be such a leftist hack.

No sane person wants the left anywhere near power.

And yet you want to be near us.

That's adorable.

Thank you for that comment.

I mean, it's gone already, but you took the time to have some coffee and put up that little thing.

Maybe coffee isn't such a great thing after all, Parker Olson, standing by in Madison A2.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I'd like to think coffee would help that person, whoever that is, but you know.

I like to think that person just needs to have a little reality check.

That's what I think.

I don't think it's the coffee patch.

It was a last minute replacement to my original question.

Doesn't it seem wrong that a Florida hockey team has won the Stanley Cup again over a team from Canada?

Yes.

I

mean, I'd be saying that even if I hadn't spent the weekend in Canada with friends, I've been saying this for a long time.

And again, it all started with some guy dragging the Minnesota North Stars down to Texas.

Okay.

I'm never going to root for a hockey team in Texas, but then you put one in Florida.

Now there's two in Florida.

And they've both won championships fairly frequently for the last couple of years.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

And in Canada, uh, not so much.

So it's, it just feels a little off.

But I mean, if you really want things to feel off in the world of sports, the brewer's lost to the Cubs, which again, that's just wrong.

But the Cubs are in first place.

That's, that's the way, that's the way things are going right now.

That's kind

of the annoying thing is that the Cubs are actually very good.

Yeah.

It's a shame.

That's what we're just going.

It's annoying.

It's annoying.

You look over at Craig Council and he's just smirking over there in the dugout.

You're like, yeah, well, you know,

Hey, good on Craig.

You didn't get ejected last night.

I'm proud of him for that.

You got ejected two games in a row like last week.

Little victories.

Little victories for Craigers there.

Coming up on the program today, the Republican-led legislature fell all over itself after the 2018 election to undermine Tony Evers and Josh Kahl even before they took office.

They met in a lame duck session to strip away powers from the incoming governor and attorney general, and it has taken six and a half years.

But on Tuesday, a unanimous

Wisconsin Supreme Court started taking steps to let lawmakers know that there are still three co-equal branches of government.

We'll have more to say about that.

We are, of course, tracking the progress of the next state budget bill through the Joint Finance Committee and the legislature, including some recent talk of punishing cuts to the University of Wisconsin system and recent moves about the gap between how Republicans support special education.

in voucher schools versus public schools.

We'll talk to a school district finance director about the strain that that gap puts on all property taxpayers in the state.

The president's big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill working its way through the Senate not only has massive cuts to Medicaid and other vital programs, it also tries to kill the tax credits that could create a new generation of clean energy jobs.

Republicans are suddenly having second thoughts.

Not about protecting health care or any of that stuff, but at least protecting the tax credits that benefit their corporate friends who could create those new energy jobs in their states.

We'll talk to Melissa Baldoff about that.

We'll talk to Earl Ingram with a preview of tomorrow's Juneteenth celebration in Milwaukee and elsewhere.

James Kelly will talk to us about stories he's covering across Western and Northern Wisconsin.

And it's Wednesday, so it wouldn't be Wednesday without a visit from Melissa Kay in our Wisconsin Rapid Station because I mean, we put big money into the production of this jingle, so we are gonna fly this pigeon right into the ground.

It will be time for...

Pigeon Quest!

When will the day come that she just doesn't show up on Wednesday mornings?

Or, Wednesday day where she shows up and there is a pigeon on her shoulder.

That's my question, because I think we're getting very close to her having a pigeon.

To one or the

other.

Just on her finger.

She's going to pop into the call and have a pigeon just sitting on her finger there.

And we're going to

go, wow,

she

actually managed to get a

pigeon and not get robbed.

she got a pigeon and look she's training it so well it's already doing tricks it's it's holding up a little pigeon middle finger at me for making all the kfc jokes so and it's wearing pants and it's wearing pigeon pants i still don't know if she's being on the up and up with us because because honestly i haven't cared enough about pigeon pants to google them and see if they're a thing but oh i did melissa will give oh wait you did oh

yeah i

did

there

so pigeon pigeon pants are real

Pigeon pants are real and they're spectacular.

You can text or comment on pigeon pants or any of the weighty topics of the day, eight, five, five, seven, five, civic eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

Use that civic media app as well or put a comment on Facebook or YouTube.

You know, maybe, maybe have your coffee first before you unleash any venom, though I will say.

Well, first I'll say our email address is radio at upnorthnewswi.com.

You can send a comment that way.

I will say that I got a little personal in one of my posts yesterday because, you know, we've got a question of the week from our Sunday newsletter.

And that is, you know, should Governor Evers run for a third term?

And I took, I took the time to put into this post saying, hey, it's Pat here.

answer the question, keep your venom to yourself.

You know, don't we don't need the insults.

We don't need the the memes.

You should see the memes that people work on, political memes, that they think are so funny.

But I mean, they're funny to Beavis and Butthead and not too many other people.

Like just just don't.

And

when I looked at Facebook last night and I could see that that post was already approaching 200 comments.

It's like, as I put in the post, I said, the nice thing about our delete button is it's never off duty.

We've got no problem weeding the garden over here.

And so I thought, well, okay, here we go.

And actually, it wasn't too bad.

And that includes all the people that don't want Tony Evers to run.

That includes the people that don't like Tony Evers.

And they buy in large.

you know, avoided the personal insults.

I mean, they would say things like, you know, you know, the state's gone to hell or something like that.

But I mean, you're not going to get deleted for that.

You know, it was the really personal stuff that some people just feel like this is their outlet for it is, you know, the comment sections.

And I was just like, I don't want to play that game with this because a question like that invites all the all the invectives and everything but

Folks by and large, even if they weren't Tony Evers fans, they just stuck, they played by their rules, said what they want to say, and we will have the answers later on in the week about what people are saying about whether Tony Evers should run for a third term.

We talked to Dan Schaefer about that yesterday in our 8.30 half hour.

So if you missed that, we'll play a little bit of it back here coming up at 6.30 as he covered the State Democratic Convention.

And let me remind you that our Sunday morning newsletter, Sunday mornings with Pat Crichtlow is now available at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Click subscribe in the top.

banner on our website and you can get our Monday through Friday newsletter as well and Christina Laurie's new sports themed newsletter on Saturdays.

I'll tell you more about what's in the newsletter today right after I tell you Brittney Merlot's state forecast for today.

She says showers and storms are spreading into the state as low pressure swirls by to the south of us with some rounds of rain expected to remain the rest of this week.

And then a hot and humid weekend sits on the horizon.

So for today, rain, especially over the southeastern half of Wisconsin, substantial in spots, she says, some spotty showers and thunderstorms everywhere else by midday highs today in the mid seventies, a northeast wind at five to 10 miles an hour.

Rain ending early partial clearing overnight lows in the low fifties up north near 60 in the south and north wind at five to 10 miles an hour.

All right in the daily newsletter that Christina Laurie puts together of course her June dairy month story is about the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research Did you ever wonder how microbes affect the safety the quality the texture and the flavor of cheese?

Of course not, but other people do.

How about how bacteria can affect different types of cheese?

How do you extend a cheese's shelf life?

This is what the cheese nerds do at the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, and we are far healthier and better for their work, and you can read more about it.

She's got an article on Colby Cheese.

I've been through Colby many a time.

I've been in the Colby Parade when it was in my state senate district.

None of it's gonna get me to really like Colby cheese, but it was invented there and a lot of people do like it and there's even tips on how to serve it and get the most out of Colby cheese.

and also an article on Door County Fish Boils, and we're to find some of the really good ones.

So again, all of that is in our newsletter.

Sign up at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

I forgot to mention to you, Parker, that when I was in Regina over the weekend, looking at the flatness of the Saskatchewan Prairie, there actually was a natural feature that they went out of their way to show me.

All kinds of mounds about 10, 12 feet high.

okay

taking up an entire city block uh and and our hosts our friends said you know guess what those are and my first thought was they look like big piles of wood chips you said no i said how about compost no no wasn't that either you know was it sand you know for plowing the street so like no you're close those are all the snow piles

that

are

still melting up there.

I mean, like I said, an entire city block of mounds, you know, 10, 12 feet high.

And of course, all the schmutz from the roads, all the

dirt

stuff is is on top of the snow.

And so it's kind of keeping it insulated.

So that's why it's melting slower.

It is slowly melting.

But yeah, there's still snow piles up.

I wonder how long that's going to take to go away completely.

Just in time for the first flakes, if I know anything about weather in

Canada,

that's it.

The other thing

I will say about being up there with these folks, friendliest people, again, Canadians, when our flight was canceled on Sunday, do you know, unlike in any other American airport, your flight is canceled.

It's the only way out of town that day.

We had to wait 24 hours, not one person.

lost their minds and blew up at the ticket agent or the gate agents there.

Everybody was just very like, oh, you know, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry you had to cancel my flight.

It must have been my fault.

Yeah, just the nicest.

It was such a change of pace.

It was just really nice to see.

So it's good to know that, again, unlike our first commenter online this morning, we can be friendly all the time if we choose to be.

We just have to choose.

Maybe you just need to be eating more maple syrup.

and more poutine and then you're nice poutine

maybe that's it that's it that's it poutine i'm i'm happy to add that to my diet

Yeah, much more often.

And then Derek Van Horten can make more fat jokes, which is fine.

As I mentioned, the Cubs beat the Brewers five to three.

The Cubs have up their division lead to six and a half games over the second place Brewers who've won the NL Central each of the past two years.

Isaac Collins hit a two run homer for Milwaukee coming up tonight.

Jacob Mizorovsky will make his second major league pitching start tonight for the Brewers.

And you can catch the pregame starting at 630 on several Civic Media stations.

head over to CivicMedia.us to learn much more.

Boy, we have got a lot coming up for you today, all from the heart of America's up north, live from Lake Wissota.

So thank you for making this the place to spend a part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Let's take a couple of minutes here and talk about what's called the power of the purse in government, your tax dollars and how they're allocated.

I don't know if you paid attention to rallies this past weekend, but in America, we don't have Kings.

We give the power of the purse to our elected officials in Congress and in our legislature to write up budgets a president or governor can sign or veto them in certain ways.

And then once that budget is signed, it is up to the president or governor in the executive branch to dole out those funds in some cases without meddling from the other branch of government.

as long as the executive branch doesn't meddle in what the legislative branch is doing.

And I've got two examples to tell you about at the state and federal level that illustrate what's going on in our state and in our country today.

You know how divided the Wisconsin Supreme Court is right now with its four progressives and its three conservative justices.

Hard to imagine they'd agree on much, but there was a unanimous ruling yesterday.

Seven, nothing.

Striking down.

some of what Republican legislators did in 2018.

To take you back then, Tony Evers had just beaten Scott Walker, who was running for a third term as governor.

And Josh Call had won the race for attorney general, J.B.

Van Hollen, if memory serves, it's been a while now.

Anyway, but so they'd won their elections, Call and Evers, in November.

They weren't going to take the oath of office, of course, until what, January 3rd?

So...

In the weeks afterwards, the legislature met.

The Republicans called themselves in.

When that happens after an election, but before they're all done with the term, that's called a lame duck session.

Because, you know, again, they're supposed to have all the power of a lame duck, but actually they still can set laws if the outgoing executive, in this case, Governor Scott Walker, is willing to sign them.

And so the legislators stripped away some powers from the governor.

and from the Attorney General, and Scott Walker could have stood up for the dignity of the office that he was leaving.

He could have said, no, no, no, this may be passed by my Republican friends in the legislature, but I have to stand here for the integrity of the governor's office.

Oh no, come on, we're talking about Scott Walker.

He signed those in a heartbeat and out the door he went, taking powers away from Tony Evers and Josh Call.

We won't dwell on the governor part of it.

We still have Republicans controlling the legislature and they're still holding up well more than a hundred nominations from Governor Evers and have all these other restrictions, but this Supreme Court ruling yesterday was about the Attorney General's office and the court ruling unanimously that the legislature through its Joint Finance Committee

does not have the authority to approve settlement agreements made by the State Department of Justice in certain types of cases.

So sometimes when there are lawsuits involving state government, the Attorney General represents the state, and sometimes there are settlements in those cases.

The Joint Finance Committee, the Republicans, were saying, well, the Attorney General can't

do any of those things, reach a settlement without our say so because, you know, we have the power of the purse.

And in an initial challenge back when the state supreme court had a conservative majority, the conservative justices agreed with that Republican point of view saying, yep, the legislature has the power of the purse.

And so they, they should have some, uh, some say so when the executive branch through the attorney general is settling cases.

But even back then.

They said, that's how it is overall, but we're not saying there wouldn't be instances where that wouldn't be appropriate.

And finally came some ways in which that would apply.

For example, there could be settlements that involve civil enforcement or actions that other state agencies in the executive branch ask the Department of Justice to pursue.

And in those cases, you really do have an executive branch that is no longer dependent on the power of the purse.

They're funded, you know, and they're gonna go do their thing on behalf of the people of Wisconsin.

And...

In this latest case, this is where the state Supreme Court said that these types of enforcement, like for environmental cases, consumer protection cases, lawsuits over a breach of contract, financial regulation, all of these things outlined in the Wisconsin Examiner article by Henry Redmond, all of these things are at the core of executive branch power.

And you know who wrote that?

It wasn't one of the progressive justices.

It was one of the conservatives, Justice Brian Hagridorn.

And the other conservative justices agreed that in those cases, the legislature can't put guardrails, they can't intervene in the settlement process.

Now, this isn't the world's biggest deal, of course, but it's a sign that no matter how much some politicians try to grab power, at some point,

Balance is going to be restored.

You're going to have Supreme Court justices in this case who will point out where there has been an overreach.

But it didn't come for six years and it didn't come for several elections until you, the voters got involved and handed the Supreme Court back to a progressive majority that would hear those arguments and convince the conservative justices to come along.

Meanwhile, on the national side of things, you have President Trump.

Again, saying he's going to extend the lifetime of TikTok and not face a ban.

But the thing is that ban was passed by Congress.

It's the thing that he's supposed to be enforcing and he's saying, no, I just won't enforce it.

And Congress just lets him, you know, as happens in dictatorships.

You've got a president who's willing to drag the U.S.

into a Middle East war now with Iran, ignoring the War Powers Act.

Congress just lets him.

That's what happens in dictatorships.

And now Trump is trying to use something called pocket rescission to once again cut spending that has been approved by Congress.

But he is ignoring the law and not letting Congress have the power of the purse.

And Congress just lets him.

kind of thing that happens in dictatorships.

We'll have an update on the Trump big bloated budget bill and what's being said about that as well throughout the course of the morning.

First, we're going to have the Midwest Farm Report and then we're going to hear from Dan Schaefer on these mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Kraitla.

It's a Wednesday morning.

It is June 18, 2025.

Welcome back to mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Pat Rightlow.

Nice to have you along.

And again, since we expanded the show to three hours and we know not everybody.

can sit around and catch all 12 segments that we do throughout the course of the day.

You might miss one or two here or there.

So occasionally, we'll play some of the 831s back in the 630 half hour.

And why wouldn't you do that with Dan Schaefer, political director at Civic Media and founder of the Reconbobulation Area?

And he covered the State Democratic Convention.

He also had that column about whether Governor Tony Evers should run for a third term.

In fact, I just wrote an article over it up north news wi.com about that same topic.

It does not unlike Dan who takes a position on the question.

I don't I references article and some of the other reactions to it.

And then, you know, ask what do you think?

Do you think the governor should run for a third term?

Anyway, so we talked about that with Dan, but he mentioned having an upcoming column on convention observations.

And so I started yesterday's conversation by asking him to share a couple of those observations with us.

I had an

opportunity to interview the keynote speaker for the event, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.

So go check that one out at the recombobulation area.

And then I wrote a story about the chair vote.

on Sunday with Devon Remaker coming out ahead over Joseph Hecke and William Garcia.

It did go to a second round in the rank choice vote there, which I thought was pretty interesting.

But so you can read that there.

And I'm also writing a kind of a longer, what re-combobulation-era readers will be accustomed to reading after big events that I cover.

Ten takeaways is typically what I will do there.

And I'm finishing that up.

now.

And, you know, it was my number one takeaway on the list as I'm going through it here is it was really the Ben Wickler show.

It was, you know, Ben Wickler celebrating his the end of his run in his six years as chair of the state Democratic Party.

He took the stage.

I lost count of how many different times that he took the stage over the course of the week.

Obviously some ceremonial duties bringing it in and out, but he also delivered a 17 minute speech of his own really powerful one.

He also joined Senator Tammy Baldwin during her prime time address to kind of have a conversation between the two of them instead of just hearing the senator speak.

And you know, so much of what was talked about was, you know, just the last six years of

of his leadership and what that has meant to transform the party.

And I think in so many ways, if we look from 2010 to 2018 in Wisconsin politics, we can characterize that as the Walker era, perhaps 2019 to 2025 could be characterized as the Wichler era.

Oh, I think that's entirely fair.

And that is not a knock on Tammy Baldwin or Mark Buchan or Gwen Moore or anybody else.

But I mean, it is a pace that he set.

It is, you know, a fundraising era of productivity that will probably be unmatched in state Democratic Party history.

And look, I know at a convention, folks are naturally upbeat.

even Democrats.

Sometimes they do form circular firing squads and things like that, which is why I asked this question.

Yes, they celebrated Ben Wickler.

Did you feel like the delegates were in a healthy place going forward?

Or did you get a sense that there was a lot of, you know, woe is me, Ben Wickler is going, the party is going to lose momentum and things like that?

Yeah, I think there's still a lot of optimism, I think, you know, just from throughout the weekend.

I think, you know, even though there was a lot of competition between, especially between the top two candidates, Remaker and Zipecki in the race, I think most people like both of the candidates and just had to decide which of the two candidates they'd like more.

But I also think, you know, it's just, yes, it's, they're...

Wicklers are big shoes to fill and as I grabbed a quote from the Wisdoms treasurer I don't know how many other people other people were taking note of this that particular speech In the convention, but treasurer Randy Udell who is also a state representative He said that the party operated at an unprecedented scale in 2024 Raising nearly 70 million dollars saying this performance exceeded that of any state party across the country so that is

quite the legacy to leave with the party and some big shoes to fill.

But I think overall, the mood, I think the spring election results have absolutely reinvigorated the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

I do wonder what this convention would have been like had that election not happened.

Had it been just coming off of the loss against Donald Trump last fall.

if that was the main topic that people were thinking about.

But I think with the spring election, any mention of Susan Crawford, any mention of defeating Elon Musk got just raucous applause in the building.

So I think that those results from April certainly had an impact nationally, but obviously had a clear impact on the state of mind from Wisconsin Democrats, that's for sure.

We're talking to Dan Schaefer from the Reconpopulation area and Civic Media's political editor from Tony Up and National on YouTube.

I think the next era could be representative Mark Bocan, really liking what he's doing recently.

Bernie Sanders even mentioned him as someone to watch.

That wouldn't surprise me and I think part of that, I'm not giving Derek Van Orden credit here, but could be the Van Orden effect where Mark Bocan felt like, well, somebody's got to stand up to this guy or he's just going to

bully his way through and truly be Wisconsin's next Joseph McCarthy.

But it's not just Van Orden.

Mark Buchanan has been increasingly vocal about what the progressive caucus among House Democrats should want and what they stand for.

Yeah, he's been, you know, I think his profile is certainly rising in a number of ways.

He's had some high profile moments questioning members of the Trump administration.

And yes, he was there at the convention this weekend.

He delivered a speech to he talked about, you know, Derek dealing with Derek van Orden and how he

Mark Pokan of the second district has held more town halls in the third district than Derek Van Orden has this year.

So he's really making an effort there to really put...

Put Mr. Van Orden on notice, and boy, doesn't he need it.

You and I know that well.

Oh, do we

ever?

So you wrote this column last week asking if Governor Tony Evers should run for a third term.

At any point, were any food products thrown at you during the convention?

Or people just coming up to you just to boo?

Anything like that?

What was?

Well, how were you received?

You know,

I.

There was a lot of feedback about that column.

I will say that a lot of a lot of the conversations that I had Were off the record, so I'm not gonna share any of the details with that But I do think there there were a lot of people who I would say are more receptive to it than what you might see publicly right now I'll just say that But you know didn't didn't have any any problems with the food and the drinks and that didn't wake up with any arrows in my back

or anything like that.

It's one thing to write a column like this calling for a very well-liked Democrat to step aside and not seek another term right before the convention, but people can disagree without being disagreeable.

I think there are a lot of issues that are fake both sides.

a conversation.

I think this is an actual both sides conversation.

I think there, this is one that, you know, I think there can be a case to be made that Evers is the right person to run again.

And obviously I made the case that he'd be better off passing the torch.

And so, you know, Evers did not give any indication on what he's going to do in his roughly, he had a fairly short speech about between 10 and 15 minute speech.

that he delivered at the convention.

Obviously he had a presence there.

He had an ice cream hospitality suite going during the afternoon of the convention, very on brand for the governor.

But there was really no indication of whether or not he would be running, even though the theme of the convention overall was the road to 2026.

So I think clearly it's going to be a big question going forward.

The party had some decisions to make this weekend.

This was kind of a, definitely,

had people talking this column did, but any, any takes on it, you know, might be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.

Who knows though?

It was a very, it's a very earnest question and some very earnest emails have come in.

We made it our question of the week in our Sunday morning newsletter should Governor Evers run for a third term.

Folks can respond to it themselves by sending us an email radio at upnorthnewswi.com.

And I won't I read through some of them yesterday and I will through the course of the week again.

But I just wanted to

to second that note that this is something that people feel very genuine about.

I won't say strongly.

It's probably something they weren't thinking much about until recently.

But they have some very genuine feelings about whether he should or should not run for another term and for folks saying, well, is this going to have an impact on next year's race?

I would point out that the election is still just under a year and a half away.

This convention weekend will be a distant memory by that point.

That's true and you know the governor has said that he's going to make this decision after the budget process is over

There's some things we could talk about when it comes to

the budget process.

Oh, but wait, but wait, there's the budget process.

We started the program this morning with that social media post from Chris Kappenga from Waukesha County saying, well, you know, if I got a vote for what joint finance my fellow Republicans are giving me, well, maybe I just would rather not have a budget at all.

I think to a degree that's actually telegraphing what Republicans might want to do.

And I'm giving you all of 30 seconds to tell me if you think it's a real possibility or not that Republicans would just not send the governor a budget.

I think it's interesting.

It's we also saw how the Scott Walker boosted that comment from Chris Kappenga on his social media feed as well.

So that's that's interesting.

You know, we've heard before that

They might need Democratic votes in the state Senate to pass a budget.

Maybe they just don't even pass a budget at all.

That was Dan Schaefer visiting with us yesterday.

You'll hear him Tuesdays at 8.30 here on mornings powered by Up North News.

And I guess, look, I'm not trying to...

complicate the discussion.

I just thought that it was interesting that people seemed to be going in one direction, which was, well, if a couple of Republicans don't like what joint finance is going to do, they're going to need democratic votes in order to pass something.

Well, that would have been the case in Congress, but here they don't have to pass a state budget.

And so that to me might be a head fake about needing democratic support when they might just let this thing go and roll the dice and take their chances.

But on the DC side of things, the Senate is now taking up Trump's big bloated boondoggle of a budget bill.

And Senate Republicans have been hearing a lot from people unhappy with the degree of cuts in there, especially to Medicaid, but many other things as well.

And Senate Republicans listened and have made the cuts even deeper in their version that came out yesterday.

but they also Undid something the house wanted to cut and that would be the tax credits for creating a whole new generation of clean energy jobs Now this is something where somebody like a Tom Tiffany has been saying that the entire Inflation Reduction Act should be repealed so that you know big oil can have whatever it wants There shouldn't be any solar or wind and Tom Tiffany's view of things

Fortunately, there are some brighter people in Congress who understand everything from climate to job creation and to tax credits, and they want those preserved.

But in order to do that, it means even deeper cuts for things like Medicaid.

Ron Johnson has taken a look at the first draft of the Senate Republican budget, and he's doing the same thing that he did eight years ago.

He's saying, nope, not gonna be part of this, I don't support it.

Trump and other Republicans had to come to him and say, what do you want to get your support on this bill?

And he says, oh, it just, it puts too much on the deficit.

But if you give me a special carve out for pass through corporations, I'll support it.

And he did.

And it blew a $2 trillion hole in the deficit.

This new bill would blow anywhere from a three to $5 trillion hole in the deficit.

And Ron Johnson currently says he's a no.

Stay tuned to find out what he's going to ask for in return.

We're going to visit with Melissa Kaye coming up as part of today's history lesson, as we always do at this time of the mornings up north and live here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

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We'll check Melissa Kaye's quest for a pet pigeon after this.

Remember that viral video that accompanied the song Fleetwood Max Dreams the guy on a skateboard drinking his cranberry juice and they start singing?

Speaking of cranberry juice

Melissa Kay is here and we're going to talk about the Cranberry Blossom Festival in Wisconsin Rapids, among other things.

Right after I tell you that that song Fleetwood Max Dreams was the number one song this week in 1977.

One more history note before we get to Melissa here on this day in 1873.

Susan B. Anthony was fined $100.

That was a lot of money back then, fined $100 for attempting to vote.

in the 1872 presidential election.

How dare

those

women try to vote.

And look, look where we are now.

We've got women who are not only voting, but becoming big time radio stars.

And before we get to the Grandbury Blossom Festival in Wisconsin Rapids, of course it's Wednesday.

Of course it's Melissa.

Of course she's excited because it's time for this week's installment of

Pigeon Quest.

They're no expense.

So much.

You guys, I showed that off to everybody.

Oh, that's so nice.

And we've made you sit here all throughout the commercial break.

You've been just dying to tell us the news because, apparently, once again, your email machine went off last night.

Yes, I

love that they send

it to

me on

Tuesdays.

We don't know, so let's do it.

What's new?

Okay, so they are so happy for paint bucket.

Paint buckets the winner.

I'm getting paint bucket.

You're getting paint

bucket And

they they ship them by mail.

So I I'm gonna have to like Go to the post office to pick up paint bucket.

That's gonna be shipped But she said that they have that they have the special relationship with their local place and it it's all fine Parker,

I don't know how I feel about this.

Okay, so my my feeling is

What's it gonna be?

You in danger, girl.

You're danger.

Well, yeah, that part.

That part's not great.

My thinking is imagine walking out of the post office, holding a pigeon.

Yes, I know.

In a box.

It will be in a box that has holes.

But yes, but you're not going to contain your.

You're going to open that box in the paint and the

second.

No, I'm not

opening it in the car.

That was the second choice for an SNL skit pigeon in a box.

So.

Paintbucket could be here as soon as they're going to ship it on Monday.

OK.

So

by next Wednesday, I could have a pigeon.

So excited about this.

You know, I know who's not excited.

Do you know the saddest creature on this planet right now is little bell pepper, little pep.

who didn't make the cut and isn't going to be living with Melissa.

Not yet anyway.

That's true.

Could

be

too much like cat ladies, bird ladies, they got to get their start somewhere.

Oh, come on.

Now,

actually, no, that's not true.

Tony asks, have you pigeon-proofed your place yet?

Yes, we've discussed this.

A

little bit, yes.

I

still need to check my plants because I don't know if any of them are hazardous too.

My newly my newly arrived friend

paint bucket

my my coo worker No

Well if

that wasn't a clue to get back to the history lesson, I don't know what was Yeah, let's celebrate the birthday of Tommy Hunt who was born this day in 1933 member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the flamingos

My love must be kind of blind

love.

I did not know this, but Tommy Hunt from the Flamingos actually passed away back in mid-February that week that I

was

away on vacation.

February 15th, he passed away at the age of 91.

So I love this version of it though.

I mean, our Garfunkel has a really cool version of I Only Have Eyes For You, but the Flamingos to me, this is the best one.

On this day in 1948, Columbia Records introduced the long-playing record album and a public demonstration at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Also born this day...

Composer Sammy Kahn was born in 1913, passed away in 1993.

Songs include Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.

A lot of Sinatra tunes, Love and Marriage, Love is the Tender Trap, My Kind of Town, Chicago.

And one of my favorites here, Sinatra's singing a Sammy Kahn classic with Count Basie and his

orchestra.

Melissa,

I got to send you this album or just have you download it.

Frank

Sinatra Live at the Sands.

Best album.

It's just the best.

On this day in 1983, Sally Ride became America's first astronaut in space.

Happy birthday to Blake Shelton.

He is 49 years old today.

I

thought he was

older than that.

Uh, yeah, I would think so too, but no, 1976.

So

yeah, next year would be his 50th birthday.

He just, he just looks, you know, ridden hard and put away wet is all that is this.

You gotta have that for a country.

Happy birthday to Nathan Morris, a founding member of Boys 2 Men who is 54 years old today.

And finally, Sir Paul McCartney.

One of

the Beatles

is 83 years old today.

There's all kinds of Beatles songs I could put up here to market.

But Melissa's here.

We like to have fun.

Paul McCartney has fun.

He likes to write those silly love songs.

So happy birthday 83 years old Paul McCartney today today is International Day for countering hate speech so go to Derek van Orden's Twitter feed and say something in response today It's interesting that today is national Cleaner aquarium day, and it's also national fishing day.

I don't think the two are related, but you never know

Melissa K from WFHR 97.5 and of course 105 WIRI and soon to be Pigeon parent of Paint Bucket.

I don't know

if the name's gonna stay but soon to be.

Okay so no I'm not gonna say it no more KFC jokes.

I don't know

my brother said mick bucket and I'm kind of liking that.

Thank you, Melissa.

Oh, boy.

Oh,

it's a pleasure, guys.

All right.

Much more head in the next hour of our mornings powered by Up North News here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Live, across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake Basota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.

Hey, welcome back.

It is seven o'clock.

Well, seven oh six.

Anyway, we're in the seven o'clock hour of our program these mornings powered by up north news.

Nice to have you along.

We've got Parker Olson in Madison Studio A2.

Brittany Merleau will be up here in just a bit and it's Wednesday.

So we're going to be doing our homeroom segment.

Coming up in our next half hour, we'll be talking to one school district finance director about the ongoing gap in special education reimbursement and how the legislature treats public schools compared to how it treats voucher schools.

Spoiler alert, public schools once again coming out on the short end of the stick on that one.

So stick around for that in just a bit.

But first we've got to talk about the weather.

Where an hour ago I read you the state forecast from meteorologist Brittany Merlot and it said expect rain at the start of the day in the southeastern half of Wisconsin.

And I'm calling up the radar right now and it shows that much of the southeastern half of Wisconsin is getting rain this morning.

So one point for Hufflepuff.

Brittany Merlot gets that one right.

It's raining in much of southeastern Wisconsin today.

Ms.

Merleau, good morning.

How are you?

It sure is.

Good morning, everyone.

A little bit cooler today than what we felt yesterday.

We hit 90 degrees down south.

Really?

Racine.

Yeah.

Oh, OK.

Squarching out there already.

Mid-80s in Madison.

And now today, eyes are going to be mostly in the 70s.

Low 70s to upper 70s, depending where you are.

Right now, though, this morning, 50 degrees up north.

70 down south.

We're seeing patchy fog far north as well.

And then, of course, the overcast cloudy skies that rain rolling in southeast parts of the state.

We're actually looking at a small storm headed towards Delavan and towards Lake Geneva area.

Nothing is severe warned.

There is a small chance that later this afternoon, some of these could become stronger, maybe severe.

If they are severe, hail and high winds would be the risks with them.

Otherwise, really just looking at some heavy downpours, especially south and especially east.

Yes, Milwaukee area down to about Lake Geneva, even into Jamesville, you could see one to possibly two inches of total rainfall today.

So a bit of a soaker for you.

No sunshine, unfortunately.

Keep an eye out for, of course, some flash flooding.

Streams are going to be rising down there as well.

And then up north, what's going to be happening is not much.

Maybe a scattered shower, maybe a rumble of thunder on a.

much more likely as we go into the afternoon and evening.

And again, none of those really look strong to severe.

But as we go through tomorrow, those temperatures are going to be starting to rise again.

We've got the potential for strong to severe storms tomorrow evening, then again on Friday, and then that heat and humidity is going to be building and Pat, heat index, it's going to be feeling like 100 degrees as we go into Saturday and Sunday

statewide.

sauna like out there

All

right,

well, we consider ourselves prepared here and you know what you need to do when it gets to be like that?

You need to drink your water.

You know who

knows this?

Robin Tigerton.

He says it's cloudy and 65.

Yesterday he had to mow six yards in Tigerton, trying to get ahead in the mowing game before the hot weather comes this weekend.

He says, I do drink plenty of water and Gatorade.

When I'm mowing, I still hear Greg in my head, drink your water.

So Greg, Greg has a way of getting in your head that way about drinking

your

water.

water.

He mentions his cousin Jodi Grip and drug passing away recently, who was an awesome cook at Matthew's supper club in Clintonville and made spaghetti for his birthday.

And he goes on to say Brittany is a meteorologist genius.

We can fact

check that.

That's that's 100% true.

And Tony giving us a gross emoji face for the gross weather that might be coming up this weekend.

But you know, again, Gatorade, water, all those things that Parker likes.

Yes, absolutely.

Yes,

no sugary drinks.

And I know it's sad to say but avoid the alcohol this weekend.

It's going to dehydrate you.

All things in moderation, right, Brittany?

Yes, I know.

I know.

Moderation, absolutely.

Yes.

I mean, it's only Wednesday, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I mean, when you know that there's going to be such a hot weekend coming, do you have your own plans, your own defense mechanisms, or do you just stay inside in the air conditioning?

I try to hydrate right now, actually.

I went out to the store yesterday and I got those electrolytes.

Act crazy drinks, you know, double hydration.

It's what plants crave, yes.

Get your

mundo,

okay.

I'll be drinking some of those and then of course trying to stay cool as we go through this weekend.

I'm not going to go crazy doing a lot of biking and stuff that I usually do because that heat exhaustion, it snuck up on me before.

I have been close to heat stroke, so personally I know.

Yeah, you know, you don't want to be working that hard.

And apparently the Gatorade H2O thing was a waterboy reference according to Tony.

Yes.

I guess I'll have to

watch that

movie sometime.

So Water Boy hasn't made the cut yet, but maybe someday.

Okay, thank you, Brittany.

Talk to you next hour.

All

right,

coming up today on Matt and Air on Air, 9.30 this morning, Dr. Kristen Lierly will be joining Jane and Greg and then of course a 10.50 stick around for this shouldn't be a thing.

On the Maggie Dawn show at 4.30 this afternoon, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway will be joining Maggie Dawn and of course you can catch Nightlight with Peach Waba at 6 and then there's always that Todd Alba show.

You will hear him weekdays from 2 to 4.

And you often hear him at 750 on Wednesdays here.

We've actually punted him.

We've punted him over to Thursdays at 750.

We're gonna have Jimmy Koska on at 750 today for stations that are following us.

You might be in a local news break.

If and if that's the case, you can catch us later on demand by podcast head over to Spotify or or Apple.

Tony asked on YouTube what

Tony, you need to know I'm the worst at keeping up with some movies.

You have no idea how many years and years it took me to watch Forrest Gump or Step Brothers or the Sandlot.

All these movies that eventually my daughters would shame me into watching so I would get some of the movie references.

So apparently Water Boy is gonna have to go on that one.

Let's talk a little sports at 713.

First off, the NHL Stanley Cup.

It's done.

Florida won it.

Yay.

In baseball, the Cubs beat the Brewers five to three, so the Cubs are now six and a half games up on the second place Brewers.

Isaac Collins did have a two run homer for Milwaukee, and Jake Mizorowski will make his second major league pitching start for the Brewers coming up tonight against the Cubs.

Coverage of the pregame begins at 630 on stations in Richland Center.

Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, Park Falls, and Hayward, so tune in there, and I believe...

Oh, I was looking at the WIA postseason calendar here and we are a day away yet from the Baseball and Girl Soccer Championships.

The Baseball Championships for high school will be at the Fox City Stadium in Grand Chute and the Girl Soccer Championships will be played in Milwaukee.

So, there's a little check on sports for you.

Well, we got rid of the terrorists, right?

I mean, all this deportation that's going on out there, we've

gotten rid of all the terrorists?

I guess because we're also at the point where a teacher, a teacher's aide in the Milwaukee area has done that self-deportation thing.

Because again, it's teacher's aides, the people who are helping our children that are apparently the big risk, the to or what?

To our what?

To crime?

To our health?

To the life of the country?

I don't know.

But once again, we've got Trump's mass deportation plan that is leading people to, you know, basically fear for their livelihoods.

And now we're leaving the country with their American-born children.

In this case, in Milwaukee, we're talking about teacher's aide Yassinia Rano and her 10-year-old daughters.

It will be the first flight ever for her twins to a country they've never seen before.

They were born in Milwaukee.

They are U.S.

citizens.

And for Rwana, who works in the Milwaukee Public Schools, it's the end of a rich life built over 14 years in Wisconsin, according to an article written by Sophie Carson in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

She says, I have a tornado inside of her, standing with friends, colleagues, supporters, said she was grateful for the support and hoped that she could one day return to the US.

She crossed the border without authorization in 2011.

She'd been living with an order for deportation, but until now, there'd not been any effort to take action against her or others like her.

She kept regular appointments with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

But she's now a local symbol of the Trump administration's deportation net sweeping up people like her who have committed no crimes, have US citizen children, and have been working legally in in-demand fields.

And that's where I want to take it next year because we also have seen Trump

Flip-flop on workplace raids depending on where they are last week He said he was gonna leave alone farms and and the hospitality services But then days later reversed himself yet again and said there must be these mass deportations and I think back to the Republican National Convention last year in what had to be what is not had to be what is one of the lowest points in this country's history was to see thousands of people in that arena

holding up signs that said mass deportations now.

It was one of the saddest moments in American history that in a country built by immigrants, many of whom did not follow any kind of processes like we have now, they simply came for that better life and made that better life.

And they put up with all of the prejudice, discrimination, bias, abuse, bad publicity year after year.

and to see it culminate this way in this manner is just such a sad low point, not just for American history, but for the American economy.

I saw a great little spoof on social media yesterday featuring four or five older white guys wearing their Trump caps, but shirtless, because they were out picking crops in a field.

for a few minutes and then they said, this is tough.

We gotta bring them back.

And then you see them trying to clean, you know, a hotel room and they can't.

They're tired and like, we gotta bring them back.

All these people waving these nasty portation signs whose lives would be so much poorer, but for the clothes that they wear that are made by migrants, for the services that they enjoy that were made by migrants.

And they can all day long come back and go, well, she knew she was breaking the rules.

We also know she broke the rules of a system that's broken and she would like to follow the rules of a system that works.

And the system would work if a certain class of politicians would get off their collective butts and once again, embrace the notion that we need immigrants more than ever in this country or this economy is going to go south in a hurry.

The baby boomers and their red caps.

They are leaving this mortal coil at a rapid rate and they are not being replaced in the workforce.

And to say, well, they just didn't follow the rules while you don't want to update the rules says a lot more about what your real motivations are.

Those folks waving those mass deportation signs one day and pretending to go to church the next day.

We need solutions in this country.

We don't need mass deportations.

It's expensive.

It's wasteful of our tax dollars.

and it's not targeting the people that are being vilified the most, the ones who aren't citizens but are committing crimes, which is a fraction, a tiny fraction of the immigrant population, but they're easy to villainize, they're easy to vilify, put in political ads with their dark skin and their long rap sheets.

Compared to all the many, many, many people who come here, make a better life for themselves, escape gang violence, escape human trafficking, until a bunch of white guys come along with their mass deportation signs and policies and say, you know, this country's for Americans, said these people who weren't Native Americans in any way, shape, or form.

So they're getting what they want.

A good teacher's aide is self-deporting with her American daughters.

and we can only hope she eventually makes her way back to this country to do good.

Unlike some other people who we'd be all better off if they could somehow be deported right out of any seats of power in our government.

Some of you are getting a local update next and then we'll have our homeroom segment talking about special education funding in about 15 minutes.

You're up north.

It is just about seven twenty three now on this Wednesday morning, June 18th.

Pat Crite low up here in Chippewa Falls and Parker Olsen at Studio A2 in Madison.

Again, we say A2 because from now on when guests come in here and they start heading toward A1, Parker's going around and tackle them and drag them down the hallway into A2.

Yeah.

And let's get a window in that thing.

What do you what do you say?

Here's the thing.

You don't have to ask for permission to put that window in there.

You just grab that sledgehammer that I know is down there with all the other building supplies And you just put one hole in the wall and they're like well now we got to do something We may as well put a window in here.

I mean there's

that's the back wall of the front wall up there.

There's definitely there's definitely Stuff in this room.

That's heavy enough that I could use as a sledgehammer If I really what there is a window however, it does not look anywhere near towards like the entrance

Yeah,

so I might have to go through an office or two to be able to see

that way, but I

think that'd

be okay.

It's a work in progress.

It's okay.

From the Eau Claire Leader Telegram, Altoona's new container park aims for a mid-July opening.

Let's see, this is talking about how I'm looking at the photo here.

Have you seen these where people take these shipping containers,

you know, you

might see in semis or on cargo ships, and then repurpose them?

This one is like a little community park that will eventually be filled with vendors and things like that.

This particular space, it says, will include five total vendors, three restaurants, a tap room, and one retail space.

Wow.

I know.

I've seen this again for people who are looking for unique forms of housing.

Have you seen where they're like

put in a frame of like apartment buildings, maybe like a stack of four by four, you know, on top of each other.

Okay.

Yeah.

I haven't watched any of like the, you know, the HG TV shows or anything like that to, to know if this is really worthwhile.

But I mean, it sounds like it has potential, maybe.

Maybe.

Maybe.

It seems cool.

Yeah.

Well, the cool thing is, is I'm looking at the photo here and it's, it's down near the Altoona Rail yard.

Okay.

Which, which, you know, my, my dad, you know, worked for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad for many years, working the train worked in the caboose of the trains from Altoona to St.

Paul.

And at that Altoona Rail yard, still as busy as ever, though the the railroads don't have the same kind of employment that they used to have.

But it's nice to again, have development that is kind of embracing, you know,

the train tracks.

You think of the, think of the ball parks, you know, that are built along like the St.

Paul Saints, you know, used to have one that was built along the train tracks there.

So whether it's train tracks, rivers, things like that, it is not having every, it was just so tired when every park and every housing development looked the same.

There is a, I think there are new apartments in Whitewater that's a buddy of mine and I were driving pasts.

And he looked at them and went, wait a minute, are we in Manona right now?

What just happened?

Because it's the same thing.

Yes.

And look, there's a lot to be said about consistency.

I mean, part of the reason we have chains now is that there's consistency.

If you go to a McDonald's or a Chili's or whatever, you know what you're going to get.

I go to a Holiday and Express all the time.

I know what I'm going to get, but you lose the local flavor that way.

And I always tell the story about going to a business meeting when I worked in a different industry.

And they sent me to a business meeting in Denver.

But it turned out to be at an airport hotel.

So all I could see out the window for this entire conference was, you know, the Hilton and the Wyndham and the Hyatt and the Holiday Inn.

And I saw a Chili's and a Wendy's and a McDonald's.

There was nothing that told me I was in Denver until I went back to the airport and you can see the mountains out the other way.

you know.

But otherwise, there was no local characteristic like that.

That's not fun.

Now, Altoona has started doing that.

If you're taking Highway 53, which now bypasses Eau Claire to the east of Eau Claire, and you're going through Altoona, and once upon a time, there was nothing there.

If I could find one old piece of footage of me as a TV reporter, which we'd be going back 25 years now.

And it would be me standing in essentially the woods on a trail saying that someday the highway is gonna come through here and all of this is gonna be developed and you're thinking no way and sure enough it is the the River Prairie development is It's lovely although I would argue it.

It's really filling in like it's filled in so much now that I feel like it might be losing some of its luster, but

Again, you can make it uniquely yours.

And so now you come to the other part of Altoona and you see these containers that are very, they're painted in very bright colors, bright yellow, blue, orange, red are all there.

And again, show real promise for being uniquely local right there near the rail lines.

And so I

I want to salute that and say, great, bring in the vendors.

We need the local vendors.

We need local restaurants.

Again, there's nothing wrong with a little consistency, but it's definitely a short trip to Cookie Cutterville, isn't it?

Yeah, I would definitely rather eat at a locally owned, like this is us embracing local community kind of place than I would go to McDonald's as much as I love a McNugget.

What I have fun with as I've done all my travels now is that if there's one thing McDonald's are known for in this day and age is that all the old men in a local community will gather at the McDonald's for their senior cup of coffee.

and basically it'll be a gathering of the Knights of the Round Table there.

You know, the whole brain trust will gather and they will solve the problems of the world, man.

But the thing that's fun about that is if you go to a place, either a city or a community where there's not a local McDonald's and can you find the place where they gather?

And when you find that place, you're just like, oh, here's, if McDonald's were here, they'd be like, yep, here's where they put the McDonald's, you know, if you ever do someday, because this too is where the brain trust gathers and solves all the problems of the world.

If only, if only we would listen to them.

That's what

we need in Washington DC is we need microphones that are secretly wiretapping all those McDonald's early in the morning.

We should do that for just like a week.

just see what happens if we let the old guys at the roundtable do it.

I think that could be really fun.

We're going to talk to Mark Elworthy from the Eau Claire area school district about special education funding as part of our homeroom segment.

That's coming up next.

You're up north.

Tomorrow on the program Todd Alba, Chad Holmes, Sean O'Malley talking about your money in the markets and Joseph Ecke, all joining us on our mornings powered by UpNorth News here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Baseball tonight, Cubs.

Brewers, 630 on stations in Richland Center, Oshkosh, Racine Kenosha, Park Falls, and Hayward.

Head over to civicmedia.us to learn more.

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and pick one, two, or all three of those newsletters to get the update from the entire Up North News team.

All right, let's get to our homeroom segment for this week, and we're gonna get a bit into the weeds on the state budget.

Because again, when people go, oh, my eyes are gonna glaze over, I'm gonna fall asleep.

No, don't.

These are your state tax dollars, and you should have a better idea of where they're going.

Frankly, I think that if more people knew where their tax dollars were going, where they think they're going versus where they actually are going, they might make some different choices for their legislators in November.

So we're going to get into a particular aspect of it when it comes to education funding.

And joining us to do that is Mark Elworthy.

He's the executive director of business services for the Eau Claire area school district.

Mark, good morning.

How are you?

Good morning, Pat.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, nice to have you here because, you know, you have obviously been following this state budget debate very closely.

We understand the stakes that are involved from a general standpoint, but we also know that if you...

If you just focused on the big buckets of money that go to schools, you're kind of losing sight of how some of the smaller buckets do have an impact on our property tax bills.

And specifically, we're talking about special education funding.

The joint finance committee, which is made up of senators and state assembly reps and

essentially writes their version of the state budget bill the governor has his version and then they write their version and the parts that they were working on recently dealing with education and special education were a little concerning especially because of the gap

between the way that special education gets state help in public schools versus the voucher program, which goes to private, usually religious schools.

So Mark, with all that as a setup, what are you seeing right now from the legislature's joint finance committee that maybe concerns you about how special education funding is done by this legislature?

Right.

So.

Broadly speaking in Wisconsin, the funding formula, and I know people think it's complex, if we boil it down to a couple of things, it's revenue limits minus state aid equals property taxes.

And general aids, which was one of the most noticeable differences between the joint finance committee and the governor's proposed budget, is there's no money going into general aids.

And so that impacts all...

all aspects of education.

Why?

Because instead of the state contributing to funding of education in the next two years, any increases would be solely funded as currently written by local property taxes.

The revenue limits came into place in 1993 when local property taxes were ironically going up too quick.

in this current proposed budget by joint finance committee, it returns the funding solely to the increases solely to local property taxes.

Then you've got special education aid and it's been a hot topic.

Some proposals about increasing high cost special education in comparison to categorical aid special education or special education categorical aid.

What's really important to know is

Special Education Categorical Aid is received by every district in the state.

High cost, you know, it's for students that require and we are mandated to educate all students that attend public schools.

A certain amount above 30% minus some aides.

That only impacts about 50% of the districts.

I've heard as few as a thousand students.

So the proposal coming out was to improve the high cost.

special education aid, but what should be noted is that only impacts a very, basically half the district in a very small part.

It's about one hundredth of the actual categorical aids.

In the budget process, it's about give and take most years, and it's, I think, really important.

I appreciate the opportunity to be able to be here to educate, that special education categorical aid, state categorical aid go to all districts, and that really moves the needle.

Right now in Wisconsin, we're about 28th in the nation.

20 years ago, we used to be funding our schools that we are ranked eighth.

So that's a significant difference.

And so why are we in this place?

It's because funding has either been frozen or just addressed in very small amounts over the last 20 years.

And this is a rhetorical trick that I've seen a lot and really wanted to call out because again, you've got that big bucket of money of, you know, of categorical aids, you've got the slightly smaller bucket of special education, categorical aids, and then you've got the even smaller bucket of high cost special education aid that you were just describing.

And the tactic is that you get in this case, a certain group of legislators saying, Hey, hey, hey.

Look at how much we've put into this small bucket over here.

But as you just pointed out, that bucket is so specialized that only about 50% of school districts even need to tap into that bucket when what would really help would be either in the larger bucket of special education categorical aid or just general state aid overall.

But for one reason or another, you've got people saying, well,

We're at least putting a lot into this much smaller bucket.

So, you know, that ain't nothing but It's it's not nearly what it could be mark

Yeah, it's not surprising that has been the the decision-making voting pattern of the recent past, right and you know Again, why are we here?

It's because we've underfunded, you know, whether it's schools in general or specifically

Special Education Categorical Aid.

If we fully funded Special Education Categorical Aid, there would be no need for high-cost special education

aid.

That's a magnificent point.

That if you just fixed the small bucket of special education, you wouldn't even need the even smaller budget of high-cost special education if, again, you would just do your job.

But there's also that funding gap

of special education overall between public schools and the voucher program for private, usually religious schools.

And that's the one that I think the members of joint finance heard about from the public more than anything else.

And it's the one that blew me away when I first learned about it a couple of years ago, that voucher schools are being reimbursed by the state for special education costs at about 90%.

And

public education, which used to be way up there, what 67 to 70% or something.

It was apparently to hear Republican legislators two years ago tell it a big deal that they increased the reimbursement rate in public schools to now is it is it 32% something like that?

It's

targeted for

33.3%.

The DPI just came out with their annual calculations.

It's just under 31 because the costs to educate do not keep up.

The funding's always been some certain, so it's a fixed amount.

And get it, it's a budget, right?

And costs increase over the biannual budget.

And so it's traditionally...

Lower than than the target amount, but yeah, you know, and I think you're right.

The concept of addressing high cost special education.

How should I put it got attached to the vouchers and special ed?

I think it probably.

How should I suggest that?

The benefits of making this adjustment aren't significant enough, you know, again, the special education categorically would make the difference.

But again, it became a dialogue.

People reached out and so, you know, here's it was written in and approved by the joint finance.

We are talking to Mark Elworthy, who is the executive director of business services for the Eau Claire area school district and specifically about special education funding and some of the disparities that are involved in it.

For folks who would say, Mark, well, you know, why are we even talking about state reimbursement of special education funding?

The whole reason it was set up in the first place deals with the fact that

special education costs, you know, it costs a lot more to provide education to children with those special needs.

And so initially the state wanted to help out with that higher cost.

As that percentage has come down over time, correct me if I'm wrong, but those higher costs to take care of kids needing special education, that just then goes into the

general budget and that costs all property taxpayers rather than having the state reimburse a share of it.

Yeah, exactly.

So in Eau Claire, we are projected to have to use our general fund dollars.

$23.2 million is going to be used or projected to be used.

We're just wrapping up our budget right now to pay for special ed, which is mandated.

Correct.

And that's a direct result of underfunding of special education, categorically.

Yeah, our friend Chris Handbook Boyle puts up on Facebook, private schools are guaranteed the amount given in the budget.

Public schools are not a point that you were making earlier as well.

So here's the thing.

And I know I've been banging the strum a lot.

I'm gonna bang it again anyway.

You know, 15 years ago, we were dealing with the start of the Great Recession and a

budget shortfall of three to six billion dollars a shortfall of three to six billion dollars and we currently have a budget surplus of four billion dollars nobody's saying give the whole four billion to me even though a lot of people would like that but for a part of that four billion dollars mark what could we do to to make things better for the taxpayers of Eau Claire

and other school districts, if we somehow use some of that surplus as a way to reimburse special education costs?

Well, because the funding hasn't occurred, Eau Claire, like many school districts, has had to go back to the public for referendums, right?

So increased funding will decrease the likelihood of a district needing to go to a referendum.

Now that's, you know,

assuming that the investment is significant.

Otherwise, we're just going to be playing on the edges.

We'll live year to year or every two years or based on a referendum.

Ours is four years long.

We'll be right back there.

But it's also sustainable.

The other thing in Eau Claire is we've been frozen.

We're a low revenue ceiling limit school district.

And that was a conversation that was happening at the Capitol during budget negotiations in the.

current budget.

It was a first time in a significant increase of $800 on the revenue limit that benefited Eau Claire.

And why is that significant?

Because when revenue limits started in 1993, Eau Claire was in its own economic recession.

One of the largest employers was about to shutter.

And so

the school board purposely levied at a lower rate because that's what the community could afford.

We've been frozen in time.

We've had an adjustment, but that, you know, that's another type of state aid that would allow us flexibility and just allow us funds education in a more.

significant and longitudinal manner.

And I want to end on that note that Eau Claire had kept that level low in the early 90s because the unor oil tire plant was closing up.

And so it was to to protect property taxpayers.

But Eau Claire has been penalized ever since being frozen in for a school funding system that is grossly outdated and in need of repair with ideas coming our way this morning from Mark Elworthy of the Eau Claire School District.

Mark, thank you so much.

I appreciate your expertise.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

Thank

you.

Have a great day, too.

When we come back together in our next hour, we will be talking to Earl Ingram and Melissa Baldoff.

I'm Pac Wright.

Well, you're up north.

Okay, let's get an update now on some Western Wisconsin stories that Jimmy Kuska and others at Civic Media are working on.

Jimmy, how are you today?

I am fantastic.

Great to be back this week with

you.

You seem so refreshed.

Did you sleep in this morning?

Did you get a little extra shut eye?

Oh, I certainly did.

So in the summer, with the new WIA rules and contact days, we're allowed to have

additional workouts, voluntary, of course, in high school sports, and I'm a high school football coach.

So on Tuesdays, we are holding 5.30 in the morning conditioning practices.

So yesterday I was up five o'clock setting up cones on a very wet football field with like three inch tall grass.

So today I got to sleep in a little bit and actually, you know, I had listened to most of your show this morning, but it feels good not to do it five in the morning.

I got to sleep in to listen to an early morning radio show.

That's, that is really sane.

something and not just a coach but also a school board member so I'm sure our discussion in our last segment was not alien to you one bit in terms of the the difficulties every school district faces in putting together their budgets.

Yeah and you know the difference you know in the last segment we're talking about Eau Claire school district that I know pretty well because I lived in Eau Claire for a long time.

I'm a school board member at a small rural district in Wisconsin where as of a couple years ago the data showed

70% of rural districts in Wisconsin had declining enrollment.

So that's presenting additional challenges to the school funding mess that we're in.

It's forced a lot of schools to go to referendum, as I think you've probably discussed a million times on your show.

It is a real challenge as the budgets that were set this year in our area.

A lot of schools used to have some leeway or put some money away in fund balance for future capital projects.

They can't do that now.

We're going with a zero mistake budget for next year where if a boy

if there's a $100,000 repair, there's no...

cushion in the budget for stuff like that just to maintain services and staffing for the students because ultimately winter schools here they're here to serve the kids right and that's that's the that's where we went in our district but it is a fascinating discussion and unfortunately the current budget process is showing that it's not really a priority right now but for the legislature as it is but certainly it is a very complicated issue and I really appreciate you having guests on like like the one you just had on talking about it because it can

It's a lot to wrap your head around.

And it's good to have someone that knows the ins and outs of it.

Pat, you muted yourself.

I did, didn't I?

Sorry, I was slurping some coffee earlier here.

I apologize.

The point that I was making is that that's why we need

good people serving in local government either as elected officials on these boards or serving like as a finance director to really learn the numbers and not just you know

grouse about the system, but actually try to be part of the solution.

Another example where you see that is at the local government level, not just for schools, but cities, for counties.

You're telling me in La Crosse, you've got to note that the roof is leaking at the La Crosse Center and needs repairs.

And so the board there had to decide last night whether to allocate funding for that.

We all love talking about these shiny new buildings going up, schools and civic centers and things like that, but you still got to do the maintenance.

Yeah, and you still have to do all the planning.

You still have to do all the zoning.

I mean, there's a lot that goes into any kind of school project, right?

Well, the La Crosse Center Board, I mean, they had to know $60,000 around just to fix a leak in the roof.

but that takes multiple levels of approval to get done.

LaCrosse also had to approve rezoning a couple of areas so that the school district, which had a referendum approved last year to consolidate its elementary schools, well, they just got the last stage of approvals from the city and the common council to actually go ahead and do that, building a new elementary school at the Hogan administrative site and then adding on in another location, but also closing a couple of elementary schools.