Rep. Scott Krug talks surplus, data centers, and flock cameras

You're 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 Representative Scott Krug on Friday, September 4th, 2026.

Thank you for joining me, Scott, to bring the community an update from the 72nd Assembly District.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love doing these calls because every time we end up in a different location.

So today, I'm actually looking

directly at the number 16 paper machine building at the YMCA parking lot.

So looking across that way to have a good conversation about what should be happening there at some point.

Oh, good, good, good.

So you're here in Wisconsin Rapids and

There's definitely a lot going on that we need to cover, but let's start talking about the surplus because this has been an issue.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau pegged the projected surplus at around 2.5 billion earlier.

But last week, the Department of Revenue announced more tax collections for 2020.

My 26 came in at 450.8 million higher than was expected.

So there's going to be an even bigger surplus.

Let's talk about this because there was a bill that was attempted to be passed that didn't to put money back into the hands of taxpayers in the state and it didn't pass

Yeah, it still drives me nuts to this day like I you know going through that and seeing a bipartisan vote in the state assembly and the governor saying hey I'm ready for it send it over to me and seeing the fall a few few votes short in the Senate was a little frustrating but I think

we have another chance right now and just to back up a little bit even is when you see that projected surplus growing I want to tell you what it means right you know when it's a 2.5 billion dollar surplus that means that we are collecting more revenue than we anticipate spending in our state budget which by the way the state budget even a step further back is a huge state budget number 115 billion dollars in our state budget which is bigger than Illinois budget

bigger than Florida's annual budget.

Like Wisconsin has a large budget to begin with.

And to say we have $2.5 billion beyond everything that was allocated to be spent.

And now an additional $400 million on top of that means that our economy is actually doing pretty well because that is all tax collections based on sales tax revenues mostly.

So consumers are fueling that growth in Wisconsin.

which A helps us with our shared revenue because we change that.

So every municipality, when you see a surplus in sales tax, every municipality is already going to be getting more money.

But B, that also means consumers are fueling our economy to the point that we have $3 billion sitting in a checking account in Madison, where it doesn't belong.

Because if you go back to civics in eighth grade, you'll understand that

government doesn't own anything.

Government operates off of your money, right?

And in the time of crazy affordability issues, I cannot see how any politician, public servant, whatever you want to call them, I cannot see how you would not want to return that money to people in our local communities, especially when they're looking at, you know, some affordability issues, whether it's housing or fuel or groceries or whatever it is.

that money's got to come back, right?

So the bipartisan deal that we had earlier this year, what have refunded about $1.8 billion of that in rebate checks, which is what the state senator had asked for, tax cuts and what the assembly Republicans asked for, and in some more school funding, which is what the governor asked for, right?

I mean, I tell people all the time, like, I've been married twice and I have six kids.

I don't get everything I want.

And this deal wasn't anything everybody wanted, but it was parts of what everybody was okay with.

So I think it's time for us to get back to the table, sit down, have a conversation about the now $3 billion in surplus, and bring that deal back.

If somebody in the state senate or somebody in the state assembly who didn't vote for it still want to vote against it, then they should have to go back to their

uh taxpayers in their communities and tell them why they're against returning their money like i just it's a no-brainer for me to say if you have three billion dollars sitting in madison it needs to be back in the hands of the people who know how to spend it better than government they know how it impacts their daily lives better uh they could buy more school supplies they could figure out a way to fund a college semester for one of their kids at this point of the year

like i just a little bit of debt

I mean, a little

bit of deck, right?

Yeah, like it's just it's mind blowing to me that the conversations are not as growing as quickly as I would hope they would on trying to get us back to the table.

So trying

to force that a

little bit.

Let's go back for a second and talk about the shared revenue because that was a really big issue here recently in recent memory of trying to get those formulas redone to get more money back to municipalities because their school districts are having to go to referendums to afford.

the infrastructure that they need to keep going.

And the same with municipalities having to apply for grants to be able to get road projects done.

There wasn't enough shared revenue coming back to municipalities is what I was hearing.

Yeah, you're right.

And for the first time in a generation, we finally revised the shared revenue formula this last session to index it to our growth in our community.

So if your sales tax collections are going up, which is what fuels our surplus right now,

That means your share of your pot of shared revenue is also going to go up by that same percentage.

If you're bringing more money to the state, the state now automatically sends back that increase to the municipalities.

So, you know, the more the consumers are visiting our economy in Wisconsin from Illinois or from Minnesota or from around the country, for me, especially a sand valley, that's what's fueling our growth in our shared revenue for our roads, for local municipal projects.

you know, whether it's park improvements or, you know, police and fire and EMS.

I mean, all of those things under shared revenue that communities count on is now finally indexed to growth in the state of Wisconsin revenue.

So everybody from around the country and around the world who visits us is finally chipping in to what our shared revenue formulas are.

So that was a very positive thing.

Do you think that the formulas are more fair now or is there still work that needs to be done?

There's still a little bit more work to do, right?

And I think you'll see it in the governor's campaign right now between Tom Tiffany and Mr. Crowley in Milwaukee, that part of that deal also was bailing out Milwaukee's pension system to try to get them off of a municipal pension and get them away from the bankruptcy situation they were facing.

It allowed Milwaukee to increase their sales tax.

So there are parts of that Milwaukee still is not satisfied with because they want to generate more income to try to help keep their best employees in their communities.

So I think Milwaukee would tell you they need to see more, but I think the rural communities are saying thank you and we'd like to keep where we're at.

So there's always going to be the argument between the largest cities of the state and the more rural communities of the.

You know, flyover country, they call it.

But I think for my purposes and my district, it is a much better system than we've had before, even if Milwaukee doesn't quite think it is just yet.

And then back to the surplus itself.

Do you see anything happening on that in the near future, like before midterms?

Well, I would hope, right?

I mean, those are the conversations I've had with leadership in both chambers in the last couple of weeks to say, hey, these numbers are out there.

Like we know that what we would have passed in May or March or April or whatever, I can't remember what month it was even, but we would have passed then was even outdated now.

So I mean, at the time, the folks who voted against it, the senators on the Democrat side, even the Republican senators who voted against it had said,

Well, if we vote for this, then we're going to create a budget deficit later on, a structural deficit it's called.

The new revenues that we just generated right now prove that that narrative is completely false because with any growth in the economy,

no structural deficit exists in any budget that we passed in the state of Wisconsin because we passed balanced budgets.

So in the last 40 years, we've had about two years of negative growth.

So the idea that we were creating a structural deficit by voting in favor of this was proven to be false on its face already.

So now I think that gives some more comfort to people who want to vote for it to say, okay, the structural is not going to happen.

We're going to be able to fund our priorities, get money back in people's pockets, get some money to schools.

We have less referendums.

So I think everybody can be a little happier knowing that we've solved that part of the crisis by showing our revenues are much better than they were anticipated.

So what is the process that needs to happen to actually get it back before legislators?

Yeah, there's two ways to go.

The governor can either call a special session or the legislature itself can call an extraordinary session where we decide that we're going to go in and pass a bill and hope the governor takes it up or the governor can tell us, hey, I'd like you guys to come back in and let's talk.

So either side can actually call that next session date and we'll

take it from

there.

And what do constituents need to do within their districts to help

you know, if they want to see this happen very soon, what do they need to do?

Man, it's an easy phone call or an email to your state rep or your state center saying, hey, I want my money back.

You just type that.

And, you know, if I get 500 people that can do that in the general Wisconsin-Hampkins area, that's a groundswell that I can take back to other legislators.

Like just type that to the emails and phone numbers that you've got for your state reps and senators.

Just say, I want my money back.

It's a pretty simple statement.

I think none of us would hesitate to say that.

Right.

Yeah, I can't make it any easier.

That's

right.

Well, let's take a pause here for a short moment to hear from our sponsors.

I'm Melissa Kay talking with Representative Scott Krug and you're listening to Perspective on 1320 a.m.

975 fm WFHR.

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

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

I'm speaking with Representative Scott Krug and where we left off, we were talking about the close to 3 billion projected surplus here at the end of this fiscal year in Wisconsin and how constituents in the state can just let their representatives know, hey, we want that money back.

As you said, an easy email to send.

Yeah, it's rep.crew.legis.wisconsin.gov.

I want my money back send.

Perfect.

And then that's something that you can take back to the legislature and say, look at all of these emails I got.

And I love printing them out individually on good Wisconsin made paper that I can take to other legislators and say, here's something we can print.

So let's make more paper.

Well, and speaking of paper, there has been some a lot of talk lately, especially here in Wisconsin Rapids about paper mill versus data center.

And with the data center proposal that is being considered right now and the possible moratorium that the city of Wisconsin Rapids is working on to get into place.

The conversation of which is the worst

What causes more harm seems to be the conversation that I am seeing?

Yeah, and I think it's fair to say there's a reason we also elect local leaders and you know one of the things that plays into this conversation more so than say solar or giant farms as the fact that data centers are completely under local control which is great because

It generates the conversations that need to happen where they need to happen, right?

People say all the time, well, why doesn't the state have one set rule for all data centers across the entire state?

And I say, well, the state has one set rule for solar farms all across the state and it doesn't work.

The state has one set rule for CAFOs across the state and it doesn't work.

You do not want the state of Wisconsin setting one size fits all rules when communities have the ability

to decide what works for them and what doesn't.

And I think that is the best part of this process is that every local decision is open for everybody to weigh in on, including me.

And even though it's not my decision or part of my process, I've lived here my whole life and I've weighed in and said, hey, I don't like this current proposal.

it doesn't make sense to me to allow somebody to come spec build a million square feet of buildings presuming they're going to have enough power to generate or transmit through the site when it's not a reality.

And these are conversations I've had with ATC and Alliance Energy and you know all the energy providers in the area that already transmit and generate power here tell me that the

you know, the application that was put in for the conditional use is just not realistic.

So it's a great opportunity for people to get back with their local leaders and just say, hey, they're saying they can do this, but they can't do this until this also happens.

So I, you know, the conversation about whether I would ever support a different data center proposal is a great conversation to have too.

When and if another proposal comes, that is another great conversation to keep having, whether somebody can come in.

with the latest technologies and show that they can fulfill promises and be a good community partner.

That might be a different story.

I'm not saying it is or isn't, but it'd be great to have these individual conversations instead of a one-size-fits-all.

You have to do this or you can't do this type of conversation.

So I'm open to hearing other proposals along the way.

This one, I don't see a way of getting behind it.

There's no proposed end user insight.

We don't know if the end user could fulfill the promises that are made in the application.

Like too many questions.

And like I said last time, bringing the former mayor of New York City to Wisconsin ramp is probably wasn't a good sign that this developer is going to make good decisions in the future.

And that was a developer decision.

Yeah,

a

lot of these, as you said, putting it into local control is.

perhaps a better fit for these individual municipalities.

Wisconsin Rapids drafted and put in place an ordinance, and had they not done that in the spring, they wouldn't have had as much control as they currently do.

Granted, this particular, which is now, they're now calling themselves DC Rapids, LLC, which as we know is PNK group.

And that is the conditional use permit that they submitted under the current ordinance.

And then the planning commission voted to draft a moratorium that hasn't in place yet, but they're working on it.

And then we do have the planning commission meeting that will take place on September 16th at 530 at the PAC at Lincoln High School.

And they'll be hearing, they'll be considering approval of an application from the DC Rapids LLC for the conditional use permit.

So that is the opportunity for people to come out and speak for three minutes at this hearing.

on the 16th.

And like I said from the beginning is I will be at every city meeting about this data center development along the way.

I was at the last planning commission, I'll be at the next one, even though it's my birthday on the 16th.

Maybe everybody can sing Happy Birthday or something.

Everybody brings cupcake.

It's something, yeah, right?

But I'll be there too and share my birthday with everybody in the community and talk about why I don't think this project is the right fit right now.

Whereas if a 12 month moratorium is put in place and the developer, whether it's this group or another, can sit down with the city and figure out if there's a better way to go about it.

It's exactly what the moratorium is meant for.

And I fully support 12 month moratoriums in any community that wants to take some time to get their zoning ordinances right so they can make their best decisions locally.

So I would love even this development to withdraw their application without even being denied and just say, hey, we're okay with you taking 12 months to decide.

We'd rather be part of the conversation a year from now than not being the conversation at all.

So I think it's

incumbent on them just to withdraw their application and just say, hey, yeah, we can wait a year.

If it's really that important to them, let them come back in a year after the city's had time to actually figure out how to do it the way they want to do it and try again then.

I don't see the harm in them just withdrawing their application and not putting the community through the angst that they're going through right now until we have time to figure out what the right path is for Wisconsin Rapids.

Well, and another issue that has been coming up a lot are flock cameras.

with politics published something here on the second that said Evers also was open to calling a special session to pass a bill limiting the use of flock cameras that he didn't know if such legislation had sufficient support.

I interviewed Wood County Sheriff Sean Becker earlier this week and he straight up said that if any staff members were caught misusing the flock cameras.

Those staff members will be fired potentially put in jail and the flock program would no longer be used in his department.

That's a pretty straightforward statement from Wood County Sheriff John Becker.

But we're seeing the misuse of these cameras throughout the country.

And even here in Wisconsin, there is also good that is happening.

There were recently here to a couple of vehicles Sheriff Becker was saying we're stolen in Marshfield.

They were able to track them through the flock system and reclaim those cars without any loss of life or damage to individuals.

So there is definitely good and bad here.

Let's talk about flock cameras.

Yeah, I think it's it's one of the most quickly emerging issues besides data centers right now and that's I love these new issues and having these conversations because I don't think there is a bill right now that anybody could say they support or don't I think every legislator has been communicating with their local departments asking

who's got what, when it was installed, where they're at.

I'm the same, right?

I mean, there's, I think there's a, there's an app out there right now that somebody had shared a flock app where you can go and locate every flock camera within a municipality.

Right.

See where it's pointed, what it's looking at.

Yeah, right.

It's also more concerned for people.

It was.

And, you know, just to see how many actually exist in my district was a surprise to me.

Because again, it's not a state-run program.

Local departments make decisions with their local budgets that

Common councils or city boards or village boards or county, you know, they all decide what's best for them too.

But I think, again, they have a one size fits all answer from the state is never the best answer.

So I think every community, first of all, should decide locally what they want to see out of a system like that that provides constant surveillance, whether good or bad, set their own policies first.

And as the state gets a chance to learn more from the municipal governments that

like them or don't like them.

Some love them.

Some have decided to end their contracts with them already.

I think those governments are going to have to make some of their own decisions first because I don't know if the statewide associations, whether it's Badger sheriffs or the state police associations are even in a similar position of their own departments.

So I think there's not really one good statewide answer right now, but

At some point, those departments have to set chain of custody issues.

They'll have to set access standards.

They'll have to create a layer of access approvals.

I think those are things that I think an eventual bill could help set.

But until communities are more so on the same page, I think it'd be hard to have a one size fits all answer.

Well, and my question, Scott, is maybe not a one-size-fits-all answer, but with some of these really big issues, flock cameras, data centers, is there a way that the state can help with just some general guidance for municipalities instead of having all of these municipalities have to struggle through and learn this on their own?

Yeah, and that's what we did with AB 840 on data centers.

We basically passed a bill that said exactly what Wisconsin Rapids is looking for in a moratorium saying, okay, you have to use a closed loop system for water or the newest technologies that exist.

We said, if you're going to use renewable energy, we don't want you putting 3,000 acres of solar panels in the town of Saratoga.

We want you to put it on your own site.

We said energy use.

If you're going to have a data center in your community, you need to build out the power yourself and not charge consumers.

We did all that within a bill in the state assembly.

It did not even get consideration in the state Senate.

The state does try to set those minimum basic guidelines from time to time.

I think that as a starting point is what most communities have taken on now in their moratorium discussions and say, okay, this is what the state started to do.

Whether they agreed on finishing or not, we gave them a template to say, okay, this is what you should at least require.

Now, some communities were even smarter than we were, and, you know, it might shock some people, but there are much smarter people in our local communities than there are in Madison.

Some communities have said, hey, we want community benefit agreements to be part of this.

Some communities have said,

you know, you can have a crypto mining business here instead of a data center here.

Like some communities can get a lot more creative than just the one set of legislators in Madison.

So I kind of like that flexibility and creativity that they can bring to the table on the discussion too.

So, you know, it's a good point to make is that we elect people at all different levels of government to make a lot of different decisions, whether it's federal, local, states, their

plenty of talented people in any of those roles that can make some decisions as well.

And yeah, you're right.

The state has a role to play.

We've done it with high capacity wells.

We've done it with wake boats.

We've done it with so many different things that we've started a policy on that maybe politically did not get signed into law, but actually started the conversation moving the right direction.

So we did same thing with data centers of the AB 840.

Well, and then our last just a couple of seconds here.

As we're heading into a rough and tumble campaign season as we know that they can be here in Wisconsin, what are your hopes of finding compromise within the state legislature to make some of these things happen for constituents?

Yeah, and I tell people this a lot in the years on this tutorial that we do is I have said that I've grown up under Tommy Thompson as the governor.

I grew up with Ronald Reagan as a president.

Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill were famously anti each other's party but were very good friends and found way to compromise.

Tommy Thompson was governor for 12 years and never had legislative majorities but still governed.

Like there is a brand, there is a path, there is a way that we can accomplish these things without being in the current model we're under right now where you have

a leader at the federal level, calling communities poor and backwards if they don't want something.

Like there's a much better way to lead than we see generated in some levels right now.

So I think that still exists.

I think people still want that.

I think that's a reason I was able to win election way back in 2010 and stay where I'm at in a very purple area to get 65 some percent of an election each time, which is because I want that.

I want the same thing that those people want is I want people to stop accusing each other of being something instead of finding ways to find solutions.

It's no different than my real estate business where somebody wants something, somebody has something and you find the middle and you get done.

So it's there.

I will never stop looking for it and every issue that we come across and

whether I get my head kicked in by both sides or not, doesn't really matter to me anymore.

I like, I say this all the time, like I love what I do, but I don't have to come back down to Madison.

If people really don't like that or want that, that's great.

Like I'm perfectly fine, but I'm always going to tell it exactly how it is.

And that's what I learned from Tommy is to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Well, I very much appreciate your take on that, Scott.

I'm Melissa Kay speaking with Representative Scott Krug of the 72nd Assembly District.

Thank you for taking the time today, Scott.

Anytime.

And thank you to listeners joining us for News in Our Community on Perspective 1320 AM, 975 FM WFHR.

You're 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 Representative Scott Krug on Friday, September 4th, 2026.

Thank you for joining me, Scott, to bring the community an update from the 72nd Assembly District.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love doing these calls because every time we end up in a different location.

So today, I'm actually looking

directly at the number 16 paper machine building at the YMCA parking lot.

So looking across that way to have a good conversation about what should be happening there at some point.

Oh, good, good, good.

So you're here in Wisconsin Rapids and

There's definitely a lot going on that we need to cover, but let's start talking about the surplus because this has been an issue.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau pegged the projected surplus at around 2.5 billion earlier.

But last week, the Department of Revenue announced more tax collections for 2020.

My 26 came in at 450.8 million higher than was expected.

So there's going to be an even bigger surplus.

Let's talk about this because there was a bill that was attempted to be passed that didn't to put money back into the hands of taxpayers in the state and it didn't pass

Yeah, it still drives me nuts to this day like I you know going through that and seeing a bipartisan vote in the state assembly and the governor saying hey I'm ready for it send it over to me and seeing the fall a few few votes short in the Senate was a little frustrating but I think

we have another chance right now and just to back up a little bit even is when you see that projected surplus growing I want to tell you what it means right you know when it's a 2.5 billion dollar surplus that means that we are collecting more revenue than we anticipate spending in our state budget which by the way the state budget even a step further back is a huge state budget number 115 billion dollars in our state budget which is bigger than Illinois budget

bigger than Florida's annual budget.

Like Wisconsin has a large budget to begin with.

And to say we have $2.5 billion beyond everything that was allocated to be spent.

And now an additional $400 million on top of that means that our economy is actually doing pretty well because that is all tax collections based on sales tax revenues mostly.

So consumers are fueling that growth in Wisconsin.

which A helps us with our shared revenue because we change that.

So every municipality, when you see a surplus in sales tax, every municipality is already going to be getting more money.

But B, that also means consumers are fueling our economy to the point that we have $3 billion sitting in a checking account in Madison, where it doesn't belong.

Because if you go back to civics in eighth grade, you'll understand that

government doesn't own anything.

Government operates off of your money, right?

And in the time of crazy affordability issues, I cannot see how any politician, public servant, whatever you want to call them, I cannot see how you would not want to return that money to people in our local communities, especially when they're looking at, you know, some affordability issues, whether it's housing or fuel or groceries or whatever it is.

that money's got to come back, right?

So the bipartisan deal that we had earlier this year, what have refunded about $1.8 billion of that in rebate checks, which is what the state senator had asked for, tax cuts and what the assembly Republicans asked for, and in some more school funding, which is what the governor asked for, right?

I mean, I tell people all the time, like, I've been married twice and I have six kids.

I don't get everything I want.

And this deal wasn't anything everybody wanted, but it was parts of what everybody was okay with.

So I think it's time for us to get back to the table, sit down, have a conversation about the now $3 billion in surplus, and bring that deal back.

If somebody in the state senate or somebody in the state assembly who didn't vote for it still want to vote against it, then they should have to go back to their

uh taxpayers in their communities and tell them why they're against returning their money like i just it's a no-brainer for me to say if you have three billion dollars sitting in madison it needs to be back in the hands of the people who know how to spend it better than government they know how it impacts their daily lives better uh they could buy more school supplies they could figure out a way to fund a college semester for one of their kids at this point of the year

like i just a little bit of debt

I mean, a little

bit of deck, right?

Yeah, like it's just it's mind blowing to me that the conversations are not as growing as quickly as I would hope they would on trying to get us back to the table.

So trying

to force that a

little bit.

Let's go back for a second and talk about the shared revenue because that was a really big issue here recently in recent memory of trying to get those formulas redone to get more money back to municipalities because their school districts are having to go to referendums to afford.

the infrastructure that they need to keep going.

And the same with municipalities having to apply for grants to be able to get road projects done.

There wasn't enough shared revenue coming back to municipalities is what I was hearing.

Yeah, you're right.

And for the first time in a generation, we finally revised the shared revenue formula this last session to index it to our growth in our community.

So if your sales tax collections are going up, which is what fuels our surplus right now,

That means your share of your pot of shared revenue is also going to go up by that same percentage.

If you're bringing more money to the state, the state now automatically sends back that increase to the municipalities.

So, you know, the more the consumers are visiting our economy in Wisconsin from Illinois or from Minnesota or from around the country, for me, especially a sand valley, that's what's fueling our growth in our shared revenue for our roads, for local municipal projects.

you know, whether it's park improvements or, you know, police and fire and EMS.

I mean, all of those things under shared revenue that communities count on is now finally indexed to growth in the state of Wisconsin revenue.

So everybody from around the country and around the world who visits us is finally chipping in to what our shared revenue formulas are.

So that was a very positive thing.

Do you think that the formulas are more fair now or is there still work that needs to be done?

There's still a little bit more work to do, right?

And I think you'll see it in the governor's campaign right now between Tom Tiffany and Mr. Crowley in Milwaukee, that part of that deal also was bailing out Milwaukee's pension system to try to get them off of a municipal pension and get them away from the bankruptcy situation they were facing.

It allowed Milwaukee to increase their sales tax.

So there are parts of that Milwaukee still is not satisfied with because they want to generate more income to try to help keep their best employees in their communities.

So I think Milwaukee would tell you they need to see more, but I think the rural communities are saying thank you and we'd like to keep where we're at.

So there's always going to be the argument between the largest cities of the state and the more rural communities of the.

You know, flyover country, they call it.

But I think for my purposes and my district, it is a much better system than we've had before, even if Milwaukee doesn't quite think it is just yet.

And then back to the surplus itself.

Do you see anything happening on that in the near future, like before midterms?

Well, I would hope, right?

I mean, those are the conversations I've had with leadership in both chambers in the last couple of weeks to say, hey, these numbers are out there.

Like we know that what we would have passed in May or March or April or whatever, I can't remember what month it was even, but we would have passed then was even outdated now.

So I mean, at the time, the folks who voted against it, the senators on the Democrat side, even the Republican senators who voted against it had said,

Well, if we vote for this, then we're going to create a budget deficit later on, a structural deficit it's called.

The new revenues that we just generated right now prove that that narrative is completely false because with any growth in the economy,

no structural deficit exists in any budget that we passed in the state of Wisconsin because we passed balanced budgets.

So in the last 40 years, we've had about two years of negative growth.

So the idea that we were creating a structural deficit by voting in favor of this was proven to be false on its face already.

So now I think that gives some more comfort to people who want to vote for it to say, okay, the structural is not going to happen.

We're going to be able to fund our priorities, get money back in people's pockets, get some money to schools.

We have less referendums.

So I think everybody can be a little happier knowing that we've solved that part of the crisis by showing our revenues are much better than they were anticipated.

So what is the process that needs to happen to actually get it back before legislators?

Yeah, there's two ways to go.

The governor can either call a special session or the legislature itself can call an extraordinary session where we decide that we're going to go in and pass a bill and hope the governor takes it up or the governor can tell us, hey, I'd like you guys to come back in and let's talk.

So either side can actually call that next session date and we'll

take it from

there.

And what do constituents need to do within their districts to help

you know, if they want to see this happen very soon, what do they need to do?

Man, it's an easy phone call or an email to your state rep or your state center saying, hey, I want my money back.

You just type that.

And, you know, if I get 500 people that can do that in the general Wisconsin-Hampkins area, that's a groundswell that I can take back to other legislators.

Like just type that to the emails and phone numbers that you've got for your state reps and senators.

Just say, I want my money back.

It's a pretty simple statement.

I think none of us would hesitate to say that.

Right.

Yeah, I can't make it any easier.

That's

right.

Well, let's take a pause here for a short moment to hear from our sponsors.

I'm Melissa Kay talking with Representative Scott Krug and you're listening to Perspective on 1320 a.m.

975 fm WFHR.

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

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

I'm speaking with Representative Scott Krug and where we left off, we were talking about the close to 3 billion projected surplus here at the end of this fiscal year in Wisconsin and how constituents in the state can just let their representatives know, hey, we want that money back.

As you said, an easy email to send.

Yeah, it's rep.crew.legis.wisconsin.gov.

I want my money back send.

Perfect.

And then that's something that you can take back to the legislature and say, look at all of these emails I got.

And I love printing them out individually on good Wisconsin made paper that I can take to other legislators and say, here's something we can print.

So let's make more paper.

Well, and speaking of paper, there has been some a lot of talk lately, especially here in Wisconsin Rapids about paper mill versus data center.

And with the data center proposal that is being considered right now and the possible moratorium that the city of Wisconsin Rapids is working on to get into place.

The conversation of which is the worst

What causes more harm seems to be the conversation that I am seeing?

Yeah, and I think it's fair to say there's a reason we also elect local leaders and you know one of the things that plays into this conversation more so than say solar or giant farms as the fact that data centers are completely under local control which is great because

It generates the conversations that need to happen where they need to happen, right?

People say all the time, well, why doesn't the state have one set rule for all data centers across the entire state?

And I say, well, the state has one set rule for solar farms all across the state and it doesn't work.

The state has one set rule for CAFOs across the state and it doesn't work.

You do not want the state of Wisconsin setting one size fits all rules when communities have the ability

to decide what works for them and what doesn't.

And I think that is the best part of this process is that every local decision is open for everybody to weigh in on, including me.

And even though it's not my decision or part of my process, I've lived here my whole life and I've weighed in and said, hey, I don't like this current proposal.

it doesn't make sense to me to allow somebody to come spec build a million square feet of buildings presuming they're going to have enough power to generate or transmit through the site when it's not a reality.

And these are conversations I've had with ATC and Alliance Energy and you know all the energy providers in the area that already transmit and generate power here tell me that the

you know, the application that was put in for the conditional use is just not realistic.

So it's a great opportunity for people to get back with their local leaders and just say, hey, they're saying they can do this, but they can't do this until this also happens.

So I, you know, the conversation about whether I would ever support a different data center proposal is a great conversation to have too.

When and if another proposal comes, that is another great conversation to keep having, whether somebody can come in.

with the latest technologies and show that they can fulfill promises and be a good community partner.

That might be a different story.

I'm not saying it is or isn't, but it'd be great to have these individual conversations instead of a one-size-fits-all.

You have to do this or you can't do this type of conversation.

So I'm open to hearing other proposals along the way.

This one, I don't see a way of getting behind it.

There's no proposed end user insight.

We don't know if the end user could fulfill the promises that are made in the application.

Like too many questions.

And like I said last time, bringing the former mayor of New York City to Wisconsin ramp is probably wasn't a good sign that this developer is going to make good decisions in the future.

And that was a developer decision.

Yeah,

a

lot of these, as you said, putting it into local control is.

perhaps a better fit for these individual municipalities.

Wisconsin Rapids drafted and put in place an ordinance, and had they not done that in the spring, they wouldn't have had as much control as they currently do.

Granted, this particular, which is now, they're now calling themselves DC Rapids, LLC, which as we know is PNK group.

And that is the conditional use permit that they submitted under the current ordinance.

And then the planning commission voted to draft a moratorium that hasn't in place yet, but they're working on it.

And then we do have the planning commission meeting that will take place on September 16th at 530 at the PAC at Lincoln High School.

And they'll be hearing, they'll be considering approval of an application from the DC Rapids LLC for the conditional use permit.

So that is the opportunity for people to come out and speak for three minutes at this hearing.

on the 16th.

And like I said from the beginning is I will be at every city meeting about this data center development along the way.

I was at the last planning commission, I'll be at the next one, even though it's my birthday on the 16th.

Maybe everybody can sing Happy Birthday or something.

Everybody brings cupcake.

It's something, yeah, right?

But I'll be there too and share my birthday with everybody in the community and talk about why I don't think this project is the right fit right now.

Whereas if a 12 month moratorium is put in place and the developer, whether it's this group or another, can sit down with the city and figure out if there's a better way to go about it.

It's exactly what the moratorium is meant for.

And I fully support 12 month moratoriums in any community that wants to take some time to get their zoning ordinances right so they can make their best decisions locally.

So I would love even this development to withdraw their application without even being denied and just say, hey, we're okay with you taking 12 months to decide.

We'd rather be part of the conversation a year from now than not being the conversation at all.

So I think it's

incumbent on them just to withdraw their application and just say, hey, yeah, we can wait a year.

If it's really that important to them, let them come back in a year after the city's had time to actually figure out how to do it the way they want to do it and try again then.

I don't see the harm in them just withdrawing their application and not putting the community through the angst that they're going through right now until we have time to figure out what the right path is for Wisconsin Rapids.

Well, and another issue that has been coming up a lot are flock cameras.

with politics published something here on the second that said Evers also was open to calling a special session to pass a bill limiting the use of flock cameras that he didn't know if such legislation had sufficient support.

I interviewed Wood County Sheriff Sean Becker earlier this week and he straight up said that if any staff members were caught misusing the flock cameras.

Those staff members will be fired potentially put in jail and the flock program would no longer be used in his department.

That's a pretty straightforward statement from Wood County Sheriff John Becker.

But we're seeing the misuse of these cameras throughout the country.

And even here in Wisconsin, there is also good that is happening.

There were recently here to a couple of vehicles Sheriff Becker was saying we're stolen in Marshfield.

They were able to track them through the flock system and reclaim those cars without any loss of life or damage to individuals.

So there is definitely good and bad here.

Let's talk about flock cameras.

Yeah, I think it's it's one of the most quickly emerging issues besides data centers right now and that's I love these new issues and having these conversations because I don't think there is a bill right now that anybody could say they support or don't I think every legislator has been communicating with their local departments asking

who's got what, when it was installed, where they're at.

I'm the same, right?

I mean, there's, I think there's a, there's an app out there right now that somebody had shared a flock app where you can go and locate every flock camera within a municipality.

Right.

See where it's pointed, what it's looking at.

Yeah, right.

It's also more concerned for people.

It was.

And, you know, just to see how many actually exist in my district was a surprise to me.

Because again, it's not a state-run program.

Local departments make decisions with their local budgets that

Common councils or city boards or village boards or county, you know, they all decide what's best for them too.

But I think, again, they have a one size fits all answer from the state is never the best answer.

So I think every community, first of all, should decide locally what they want to see out of a system like that that provides constant surveillance, whether good or bad, set their own policies first.

And as the state gets a chance to learn more from the municipal governments that

like them or don't like them.

Some love them.

Some have decided to end their contracts with them already.

I think those governments are going to have to make some of their own decisions first because I don't know if the statewide associations, whether it's Badger sheriffs or the state police associations are even in a similar position of their own departments.

So I think there's not really one good statewide answer right now, but

At some point, those departments have to set chain of custody issues.

They'll have to set access standards.

They'll have to create a layer of access approvals.

I think those are things that I think an eventual bill could help set.

But until communities are more so on the same page, I think it'd be hard to have a one size fits all answer.

Well, and my question, Scott, is maybe not a one-size-fits-all answer, but with some of these really big issues, flock cameras, data centers, is there a way that the state can help with just some general guidance for municipalities instead of having all of these municipalities have to struggle through and learn this on their own?

Yeah, and that's what we did with AB 840 on data centers.

We basically passed a bill that said exactly what Wisconsin Rapids is looking for in a moratorium saying, okay, you have to use a closed loop system for water or the newest technologies that exist.

We said, if you're going to use renewable energy, we don't want you putting 3,000 acres of solar panels in the town of Saratoga.

We want you to put it on your own site.

We said energy use.

If you're going to have a data center in your community, you need to build out the power yourself and not charge consumers.

We did all that within a bill in the state assembly.

It did not even get consideration in the state Senate.

The state does try to set those minimum basic guidelines from time to time.

I think that as a starting point is what most communities have taken on now in their moratorium discussions and say, okay, this is what the state started to do.

Whether they agreed on finishing or not, we gave them a template to say, okay, this is what you should at least require.

Now, some communities were even smarter than we were, and, you know, it might shock some people, but there are much smarter people in our local communities than there are in Madison.

Some communities have said, hey, we want community benefit agreements to be part of this.

Some communities have said,

you know, you can have a crypto mining business here instead of a data center here.

Like some communities can get a lot more creative than just the one set of legislators in Madison.

So I kind of like that flexibility and creativity that they can bring to the table on the discussion too.

So, you know, it's a good point to make is that we elect people at all different levels of government to make a lot of different decisions, whether it's federal, local, states, their

plenty of talented people in any of those roles that can make some decisions as well.

And yeah, you're right.

The state has a role to play.

We've done it with high capacity wells.

We've done it with wake boats.

We've done it with so many different things that we've started a policy on that maybe politically did not get signed into law, but actually started the conversation moving the right direction.

So we did same thing with data centers of the AB 840.

Well, and then our last just a couple of seconds here.

As we're heading into a rough and tumble campaign season as we know that they can be here in Wisconsin, what are your hopes of finding compromise within the state legislature to make some of these things happen for constituents?

Yeah, and I tell people this a lot in the years on this tutorial that we do is I have said that I've grown up under Tommy Thompson as the governor.

I grew up with Ronald Reagan as a president.

Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill were famously anti each other's party but were very good friends and found way to compromise.

Tommy Thompson was governor for 12 years and never had legislative majorities but still governed.

Like there is a brand, there is a path, there is a way that we can accomplish these things without being in the current model we're under right now where you have

a leader at the federal level, calling communities poor and backwards if they don't want something.

Like there's a much better way to lead than we see generated in some levels right now.

So I think that still exists.

I think people still want that.

I think that's a reason I was able to win election way back in 2010 and stay where I'm at in a very purple area to get 65 some percent of an election each time, which is because I want that.

I want the same thing that those people want is I want people to stop accusing each other of being something instead of finding ways to find solutions.

It's no different than my real estate business where somebody wants something, somebody has something and you find the middle and you get done.

So it's there.

I will never stop looking for it and every issue that we come across and

whether I get my head kicked in by both sides or not, doesn't really matter to me anymore.

I like, I say this all the time, like I love what I do, but I don't have to come back down to Madison.

If people really don't like that or want that, that's great.

Like I'm perfectly fine, but I'm always going to tell it exactly how it is.

And that's what I learned from Tommy is to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Well, I very much appreciate your take on that, Scott.

I'm Melissa Kay speaking with Representative Scott Krug of the 72nd Assembly District.

Thank you for taking the time today, Scott.

Anytime.

And thank you to listeners joining us for News in Our Community on Perspective 1320 AM, 975 FM WFHR.