Surplus Stalemate in Madison: A Wisconsin Update with Sen. Testin

You are listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 AM, 97.5 FM.

I'm Melissa Kaye bringing you news in our community.

During this interview, I'm talking with Senator Patrick Teston on Friday, May 15th.

Thank you for joining me, Patrick, to bring the community an update from the 24th Senate District.

Great to be on.

So one big piece of news from this week is the $1.8 billion surplus deal that failed to pass the state Senate.

The property tax and school funding package has been negotiated over the past several months between Governor Tony Evers and Assembly Speaker Robin Voss, Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemahue, and it faced opposition from all Democratic senators and three Republican senators, so it failed to pass.

What are your thoughts on this, Senator?

You know, I'm certainly disappointed at the outcome within the state Senate.

I thought we had a good deal put in place, but by no means a perfect deal.

that was negotiated between legislative leadership and Governor Evers.

So earlier this year, back in January, when new revenue estimates came out, the state was looking at a roughly $2.5 billion surplus.

And most of this accounted for one-time money.

We had a number of large increases in the capital gains tax as well as corporate taxes.

And knowing that a lot of folks out there are feeling the crunch of high property taxes, obviously with rising gas prices.

we were looking to get something done.

And so over the course of the last several months, there were ongoing negotiations and conversations that were had on how to best spend that surplus.

And where I think we ended up was a really good common sense piece of legislation that provided rebate checks for taxpayers for joint filers of $600 for individual filers 300, buying down some of the property tax increases that we've seen around the state, living up to our commitment in the state budget to

put increases into the special education reimbursement to 42% in the first year of the budget and 50% in the second year of the budget that would go a long way to help our school districts free up funds in their general fund.

And then also we added in things for disaster relief for communities that were hit hard from recent flooding events in places like southeastern Wisconsin over in the Fox River Valley area and other parts around the state.

passed out of the assembly with bipartisan support.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get a single Democrat state senator to vote for it.

And then we had several of our members, three of our members on the Republican side who couldn't support it for one reason or another.

And so ultimately the bill failed.

Now, while it's unfortunate, I still hope we can get to a point where we can get that surplus back to the taxpayers and provide some property tax relief and aid to our school districts.

But we've got to let the dust settle, and hopefully we can maybe take a look at other options to address some of these concerns here in the next couple months.

And the Republicans you mentioned, Senator Steve Nass, Rob Hutton, and Chris Cappenga, they voted no, citing a projected budget deficit in future years, a lack of refunds going to lower wage people.

And the fact that the money lawmakers are trying to spend hasn't actually hit the state's bank account yet.

Well, I know that's some of the rationality put there, but I can assure you, we do in fact have the money and even our revenue projections, both from the legislative fiscal bureau as well as at the Department of Revenue, that money is accounted for.

As far as the creation of a deficit, so the way we score these types of spend down in Madison, it's done statically, not dynamically.

So an example for every time that we have cut taxes,

going all the way back to 2011, it's always created a structural deficit.

It's viewed as a spend by our being counters down to Madison, but yet every time we've cut taxes, we have seen revenue numbers increase, which just goes to show that when you are putting more money in the hands of those who have earned it, they know what to do with it.

And the other component of this bill as well was that it

it would have been acted no tax on tips and no tax on overtime pay.

So for a lot of our blue collar workers, folks who work in the service industry and the trades, this would have been a major windfall for them to be able to take more of their hard, hard earned money when they're asked to work more than 40 hours a week.

So, you know, I think it's unfortunate.

You know, I'm not going to discredit them and they had their reasons as to why they voted for the way they did, but I do think it was a missed opportunity for us to provide some significant relief for.

residents all across the badger state.

One of the other comments from Democratic lawmakers who criticized the bill said this was a Band-Aid solution for the structural problems facing the state schools and homeowners.

What do you see as some of those?

Do you think there are structural problems facing these things?

There certainly is, especially as it relates to public education.

The way we fund public education is on a per pupil basis.

going back to the early 2000s we have 65,000 less children enrolled in K-12 education and that's that's a demographic problem and it's not a problem that's not going to get any better in the foreseeable future and so that's why in the last several budgets we have put more money into categorical aids and sparsity aids recognizing some of these districts that have seen a steep decline in enrollment they're getting less resources from from the state based on the school funding formula and so

There have been attempts in the past to make changes and recommendations on how we fund public education here in the state ranging from a number of blue ribbon commissions that have sort of nibble around the edges.

But under the current system, there just hasn't been the political will from a number of the districts because there are districts that do extremely well under the formula and others that don't.

And so there hasn't been that critical mass that's been freighted yet to.

to push any major reforms to get it across the finish line.

And so that's a ongoing problem.

And I wish I had the answer and the silver bullet to some of the challenges that are being faced, but this certainly would have been a step in the right direction had this passed and been enacted into law to provide significant relief for our districts that are found a lot of money in the special education reimbursement, but more importantly for those taxpayers, the property taxpayers that we are going to provide.

significant relief to help buy down some of the property tax that has impacted individuals, especially those on fixed incomes.

Well, on the topic of school funding, we've been having some more conversations here, especially in Wisconsin Rapids, about the voucher system and how money that people are paying on their property taxes that they think are going toward funding public schools are actually being siphoned off through the voucher program to fund.

private schools.

So essentially, I mean, we're funding two school systems here in the state of Wisconsin.

How does that figure into your, when you're figuring out what goes toward the public schools, does that, does that factor into your balance sheet?

Well, it certainly does.

I mean, but more importantly, the reason why we have a voucher schools, the voucher program and the charter programs are to provide parents opportunities in choice and education.

I mean, we have to understand that for many parents and students, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach.

And, you know, one system that may work extremely well for parents' kids, but maybe it doesn't work for others.

And so I will always be a strong component of giving parents the option and choice to send their kids to a school that provides the best education for their own

children.

Well, another issue that has been on people's minds quite a bit here in Wisconsin Rapids especially is surrounding data centers and the conversations with the local officials here in the city of Wisconsin Rapids about a conditional use permit, possible data centers coming in.

What are you hearing in other parts of the state as well about data centers?

No, it varies.

I mean, obviously these have become sort of the the lightning rod issue around the state and in some communities there's been significant pushback against these and and others.

Not so much, you know, my my primary concern is that with any of these types of projects that one there should not be any non disclosure agreements.

I mean, they should be able to negotiate these out in the sunlight with local officials to prove why or why not.

This is a good project move.

to move into a community like Wisconsin Rapids or other that we've seen.

And second, the big thing that I've heard from individuals is concerned that the potential of having the amount of electricity that they use forcing those rates onto ratepayers.

And so I think so long as the public is in the know and there is public buy-in from local officials in the community at large and that there are the assurances that people aren't going to see their electricity rates skyrocket as a result.

then I think they have the opportunity to go through that process.

But with anything, with any new development, you've got to trust but verify and make sure it's the right fit for the right community.

Are there any conversations happening at the state level about possibility of any restrictions on data centers or conversation about legislation about it?

There are several bills introduced.

A couple of them made them through.

got through the state assembly, but they not get through the state Senate.

That would have banned the use of non-disclosure agreements and the siting of data centers.

That was certainly an area of concern where a couple of these projects, I believe down in southeastern Wisconsin where NDAs were signed between the municipality as well as the developer that really hackled local residents.

And then on the flip side of that, we've seen legislation introduced by some of our colleagues on the Democrat side of the aisle that would outright ban these, which I think is probably too heavy-handed of approach.

The sad reality is that as long as there's still the development and creation of things like artificial intelligence, people utilizing their smartphones for more and more things, and the fact that even data centers are being used to help.

for applications such as GPS and monitoring for our farmers.

I mean, technology is a great tool, but at the same time, we just need to make sure that we're trying to thread the needle and that we have guardrails put in place for communities.

And again, my primary concern is making sure as it relates to electricity rates that these aren't being found in the backs of ratepayers who have already seen electricity rates in the state.

increase over $2.2 billion in the last eight and a half years.

Well, we'll pause here for a short moment to hear from our sponsors.

I'm Melissa Kay talking with Senator Patrick Teston, and you're listening to Perspective on 1320 a.m.

975 fm WFHR.

Welcome, you are listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 AM 97.5 FM.

I'm Melissa Kay bringing you news in our community.

I'm speaking with Senator Patrick Teston and where we left off we were talking about data centers and the possibility of some some guardrails to help protect rate players in the state.

Another thing that I'd like to discuss with you Patrick is our

agricultural roads improvement program funding that is still available right now.

There's still applications being accepted.

Let's talk about this a little bit and what local people can do about their roads.

Yeah, so this is a program that a number of us have been a huge proponent of in the state legislature.

So two budgets ago, we created the agricultural road improvement program, which is really, it helps to

support our farm to market roads because that has been a point of frustration that I've heard from constituents for years.

Even going back to when I first ran for the state senate back in 2016 that everyone acknowledges we need good roads, we need infrastructure, but the frustration for the rural areas of the state was the fact they were seeing their tax dollars go to these major problems.

Those projects are critically important as well, but yeah.

We were falling behind and so these grant dollars go to local communities apply for and it's a 90 10 grant split.

So 90 90% comes from the eight locals have to put in 10% and it has gone a long way.

In fact, in the original air two budgets ago when we first created this program.

There was a huge, huge demand.

And while we put aside, I think it was just over $100 million in that program, there was almost half a million dollars in grant applications, which is why we renewed this program again in this last day budget that was signed into law last summer by Governor Evers.

And communities still have the opportunity to apply for these grants for the second round of money that we strongly encourage communities to take advantage of them.

We've had several projects enumerated.

and the 24th Senate District, and it makes a difference.

And within this program, anybody can report a road to their municipality and say, hey, over here, we've got road B is in really bad shape.

It's got a lot of potholes.

They're kind of worried about this bridge.

Exactly.

And there's a grant process.

There's several committees that review the applications.

You know, a community has applied in the past and hasn't gotten that project.

They have the opportunity to resubmit those proposals and new fresh set eyes will take a look at it and see if it's a project worthwhile and has the merit to get

funded.

and from your release that you sent out a total of $150 million and APIR funding was included in the 2527 state budget.

The deadline for that is 5 p.m.

on June 29th, so there's still plenty of time.

Absolutely, so if there are any communities out there that are looking at projects and you're looking for a letter of support, feel free to reach out to my office and we're more than happy to put pen to paper.

All right, well, let's move on to talking about the enhanced prescription drug monitoring program that you want to extend.

Yeah, this has been a tool that has been around now for several years.

Earlier this session, we had legislation that extended the sunset.

So the prescription drug monitoring program has been a great tool in the opioid crisis to combat overdose deaths and making sure that physicians aren't overprescribing opioids.

And as a result of that, even though opioid overdose deaths have declined, it is still the number one leading for individuals aged between 18 and 44.

So there's still more work that needs to be done.

But as a result of that, we have seen a precipitous decline in the number of opioids that are being prescribed by physicians, advanced practice nurses, dentists.

Anyone who has prescribed an authority and so it has been one of many tools at our disposal to help deal with the opioid crisis.

And then this new law will extend that program until 2030?

That's correct.

Yeah, it was that.

I had authored the legislation several cycles ago that extended it, and it wasn't until we were working on a separate bill that.

unbeknownst to us, we had realized that we were coming up against the and immediately reached out to the office of the commissioner of insurance and asked them like, hey, were you guys aware that this was about to sunset?

And they're like, oh, no, we overlooked that too.

And so we immediately worked with their department and myself and a couple other colleagues in the assembly and we were able to get a bill through fairly quickly.

and received unanimous support in both houses and was signed into law.

And so we will still have the electronic prescription drug monitoring program in effect through 2030.

OK.

And another thing in the realm of health care is the Advanced Practiced Registered Nurses Modernization Act.

And this helps qualified nurses be able to operate at their highest scope of practice.

Can you talk about this a little bit?

This is.

One of the bills I'm probably most proud that we were able to get signed into law.

This is legislation that had been around in some form or fashion for the better part of a decade and a half.

For the last three sessions, I had authored it and it had been vetoed twice.

for different reasons by Governor Evers, but then this session, we worked with the governor and worked with a number of the stakeholder groups that were involved, and we got it done.

It simply empowers our advanced practice nurses to do the jobs that they are trained to do, which is to take care of patients at the highest level of their license.

There are about 26 other states now that have enacted this legislation and it's about increase in access and empower providers to help patients.

And so there's still a lot more work that needs to be done as it relates to helping individuals with their health care needs and helping other of our medical providers achieve the same goal of being able to operate the highest level of their smoke practice.

For starters, this was a major win for our nurses and a major win for Wisconsin

patients.

Because as many of us are aware, it's difficult to get into the doctor in rural areas.

But if you can be treated by a nurse or a nurse practitioner, a lot of times they can answer your questions just as well.

Exactly.

And that's the other component about this, too.

I mean, we face a huge physician shortage here in the state, as well as a nursing shortage.

And with our aging population, they take up a higher percentage of the medical care that's out there.

And so we need to be able to meet the needs of our...

of our patients here in the state.

And so this is just one step in the right direction and there's still a lot more work that needs to be done.

And unfortunately, another thing that is sending a lot of people to the emergency room in higher numbers this year are ticks.

We're all very aware of this.

When I was a kid, my mom, every time we come in from outside, we'd have to get checked because you don't want a tick attached to you.

But this is something that you talked about in your latest release as well.

Yeah, it's that time of year now that I think I would that was there seasons behind us and now if things warm up and people are spending more time outside.

Well, so are the creepy corollies and that includes ticks.

And so there's a number of diseases that come with with tick bite.

tick bites, whether it's Lyme's disease and other types of infections that they can spread.

So if you're out and about, just make sure you're checking yourself and checking the pets because we got to make sure we're looking after our four-legged friends as well.

Yes, because they can also contract Lyme's disease or there are several other tick-borne illnesses that have been being found more commonly here in Wisconsin now that our temperatures are a little different than they historically have been, the Alpha-Gal syndrome.

um where you you you develop an allergy to red meat that that's got to be the worst

oh i no kidding i knock on wood i i never uh contain that because as i just busted out my grill a couple weeks ago and already i've fired up some steaks and some burgers i can't think of a worse way to um you know throw the grill in retirement if you can't throw some red meat on it

Right.

And then there's also like the Rocky Mountain Fever, I believe is another one that is becoming more prominent.

But if you're interested in helping to track those symptoms, the Marshfield Clinic does have a tick collection there.

And I believe their third year.

Have you heard of this?

No, I haven't.

Oh, yeah.

That's a Marshfield Clinic that they will send you a tick collection kit for free.

And then if you do happen to find a tick on yourself or your pet, even if it's not attached, you can put it in the kit and send it back for free of charge to help them track these different ticks and their activity in the state.

Oh, that's great news.

I'll have to make sure we get that out to people.

Yeah, that would be great.

Well, Senator Teston, it is always a pleasure talking with you.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today.

Oh, happy two months.

You have a great weekend.

Yes, you as well.

And thank you to listeners joining us for news in our community on Perspective 1320 AM, 975 FM WFHR.