Welcome, everyone, to Midday magazine for this December 15th, 2023.
Have your host, James J. mail up in part two.
We're looking forward to talking with our friends over the Wood County Parks and
Forestry Department.
Chad and Stacey will be joining us.
We'll talk about all things winter in this Wood County area.
But right now, talking to Senate District 24 representative,
Wisconsin State Center, Patrick Teston.
Good morning, sir.
Good afternoon, I should say.
Hey, James.
Hey, how are you?
I'm doing good.
How have you been?
Well, staying busy.
It's been a flurry of activity down Madison, as we close out the fall session.
And you're up for the new year and yeah, I can't complain.
I want to, it's a perfect place for us to start, sir.
I'd like to go right there.
It December hits or maybe even it happens around Thanksgiving or so.
We all understand the holiday marathon that kicks in right around, you know,
Halloween and kind of goes right to the end of the year.
Any no matter what business you're in or what you do for a living, chances are,
it you're busy this time of year.
But it seems a little different for you guys.
What is the vibe like?
What is the, is there a rush to get bills done to get things in place?
Or is it more so kind of like a, I don't want to say coasting because I don't
think you guys ever coast at your job necessarily.
But what is the mood like there in Madison this time of year?
Well, this time of year, it is always chaotic down in Madison.
It seems like once we kick up a fall session, it is just a flurry of activity.
You've got constant committees who are in work trying to get bills through the committee
process and so they can get ready and scheduled for the floor when we reconvene in early
January.
And so that same trend has continued.
And so we've been extremely busy down in Madison.
In fact, even just about a week and a half ago, the governor signed a number of dozens
of different bills.
And I was really proud to have five bills signed into law, one of which is a product
of, and we've talked about this in the past.
That was brought to our attention from the DA and assistant DA down to Adams County,
closing a loophole in the statues that relates to sexual conduct and, and
really glad we got that one passed.
It was not a comfortable one to discuss or talk above, but one I'm glad that we got
across the finish line with unanimous support.
And again, it was really thanks to the folks, the DA's down in Adams County,
who brought this to for attention.
And we've closed a significant loophole within our statutes as it relates to sexual contact.
And again, thankful that we are able to get this one done.
Yeah, that's a really important one.
I appreciated not only your work and your colleagues work on that one, but being able to talk
about it and address those things as we did in previous interviews.
You mentioned five bills.
What were apart?
What were some of the other bills that you were happy to get through?
Another one that was really, I was really pleased to get done was the Farmland
Preservation Tax Credit bill.
This was legislation that we have worked on for the past three sessions that for one
reason or another just sort of died on the vine every time it was introduced.
But thankfully, we kind of regrouped and we calibrated, made some tweaks and changes to it.
But again, another bill that is going to help our farmers, which is really great
because it's not just going to help our farmers.
It's good for our natural resources and give them the fact that we've lost nearly a million acres
of farmland over the last 10 to 12 years.
This is going to go a long way to ensure that we still have viable eggland here in the state.
And more importantly, it's going to help farmers incentivize to be good stewards
and take care of our natural resources.
So it's good for our soil.
It's good for our clean water and more importantly, it helps our egg industry out.
And so that was another one that got signed.
A third bill that I was really pleased to see get done deals with some of the third party
delivery apps that people have really come to utilize and find popular.
But one of the challenges that's that's occurred is that a lot of restaurants have found
their menus and their proprietary information on some of these platforms that they didn't
have their consent.
And so we worked with the Restaurant Association along with the third party delivery platforms
like Uber Eats and GrubHub to come up with a really good compromise that just put some
place, some standards in which they have to get approval and the consent of these restaurants
to have that information posted on their website because oftentimes when there are issues
with deliveries, it may not have been the fault of the restaurant because they had no idea
that their information was even posted on this platform.
So put it in place and good consumer protections, making sure that the delivery drivers have
some basic knowledge of basic sanitary and food safety.
And I was really glad that another one that we introduced last session and sort of
installed and brought it back this time around again with a few tweaks and changes and
it became law.
It's we're only going more into the, you know, food delivery services, whether it's getting
the foods delivered to ourselves or people working in that industry.
Addressing those things is vital, going forward, that's an important one to be addressed
and that's good to hear.
I want to, you had some other bills that you were going to mention there, I want to interrupt
you.
Yeah, a couple of the other smaller ones were just some, not monumental bills, but one
deal with our lake districts where essentially they can send out notifications, the email,
current state statute basically says you have to send out a, be a first class MATLA notification
when the lake districts meet, but again, I think one of the, one of the silver linings
if there were any during COVID in the pandemic was that look, we live in a modern age, people
are able to communicate via email via Zoom.
And so just making a minor update there to, for no, up to nail nail.
And again, it's not a revolutionary bill by any means, but just trying to modernize some
of our things and how some of our governmental bodies can communicate with their constituents
within that area and, and for lake districts, this is, this was one that they were really
helping to see done and it became law.
As a side note, it, it seems in the time talking with you, Congressman Kind, Representative
Krueger, Katrina Shankland, it often seems sometimes that the, you know, quote unquote,
smaller bills are, make the biggest impacts.
Well, that's just it.
I mean, I, I don't think if any secret out there that oftentimes technology moves faster
than what government can keep up with.
And so a lot of times, many of the bills that you see is just trying to keep pace because
oftentimes we are behind the eight laws relates to our, our statues and trying to modernize
some of those.
And so this is one of those prime examples where just trying to update things.
So our laws, our statues reflect the change in how people communicate and, and just sort
of evolve with the technology of the time.
I want to go back to the, protecting our farmland bill, just going a little bit into the,
the details of that one, the, the heart of the bill is an increase to their per acre tax
credit for farmers.
This is one of those chief concerns that goes back to the 2018 with this, just a couple
of quick stats from this, an increase from $750 to $10 per acre for farms that are in
the farmland preservation, preservation zoning district.
There's an increase of five to $10 per acre for farms that are subject to a preservation,
there's a very, a preservation agreement.
So a lot of these things seem to be attached to conservation.
Is that effort to not only obviously keep our, our, our state healthy, but to also make
sure that we, we got people coming here to want the, can fish that can, you know, ski
and, and, you know, hunt and all these things.
Oh, absolutely.
It's not a, it's not all one or the other approach.
I mean, I think we've proven that we can walk and shoot gum at the same time and one of
the reasons why this was so critical is based on survey, survey results like it had been
sent out by the Department of Agriculture, Trading and Sumer Protection over the last several
years.
We've seen, we saw a huge decline in the, in the farmland preservation tax credit program.
And one of the reasons why we've seen it decline is one, the tax credits hadn't been increased
in many years, nearly 20 years for that matter.
And also the, the time commitment was 15 years, which is a long time for someone to
try and utilize these tax credits.
And so based on some of the feedback and survey, survey results that came back into that
cap, really showed that, you know what, this is a really well-intentioned program.
Wisconsin's been a leader on this going back to the 1970s.
However, as we all know, with inflationary costs, it really wasn't cost, cost the
efficient for people to continue in this program.
And so that's why we increased the tax credits, created a fourth one.
And really this is about making sure that we have healthy soil, that we have clean water,
and still being able to help our farmers who have been dealing with a lot of challenges
over the last several years, input costs are through the roof.
And so this is just another way to give them another tool and their toolbox to, you
know, use best management practices that, again, preserve our clean water, but also still
allow our farmers to farm and ensure that, you know, Wisconsin is a national leader in the
egg economy.
And it does seem like that's another layer to this of helping, not only helping our
farmers, but maybe incentivizing farmers staying in the industry, maybe making new farmers.
We get people out there starting new farms and that.
There's a number of layers to that and encourage people to look into this bill and all these
bills and the depth and the details of them.
For speaking with Wisconsin State Senator Patrick Teston, sir, as long as we've been
talking and doing this and you've been doing this a long time, I don't believe in the
last couple of years I've ever seen more, almost every article I read or any research
I do on a bill in this state, it usually starts with bipartisan support.
Do you feel we've seen more of that than ever in the last couple of years of this state
becoming much more of a purple state than a red or a blue state?
Well, I think that's been a common trend for the last several sessions, especially, you
know, in my time down in Madison, this is going on my fifth legislative session and six
legislative session, I should say, and, you know, every time that, every session we normally
pass about 90 to 95% of the bills with bipartisan support, even more so now in divided government.
And I think that the testament to the fact that we realize, look, we understand that there
are going to be some big differences between the Republican legislature and, you know,
having Tony Evers in the governor's office.
And so, you know, we tried to navigate that as best that we can and find areas of compromise
where we can hopefully advance some good legislation, knowing that maybe there are some other
items that we really love to get done, but we just know that the governor has a difference
of opinion, which is, which is to be expected, but, you know, trying to still be able to
get things done for our respective districts is at the front of mind for all of my colleagues
and trying to figure out, okay, we can find areas of agreement here, maybe not, maybe
not in other areas, but again, trying to put our best work forward to advance good public
policy.
And, you know, I, you know, I often say I think our folks at the federal level could probably
think no, and we probably, we could probably be able to get a lot more done as opposed
to folks to not on the hyperpowers and flights that seem to dominate our headlines, but we've
found a Madison for the most part while we've had some dust-ups to be sure, and no one's
perfect, and no, no one has a halo above their head, but, you know, that's been a huge focus
on us is try and find the winds where we can and find the agreement as opposed to just
be at loggerheads 24-7, which frustrates everyone, including myself, and so, you know, I think
we found a really good place, and as a result, just based on about a week and a half ago
having the governor sign nearly 60 bills, all of which had bipartisan support, I think
it's done a really good message to the folks, to people out there.
I've said before, and I stand on this.
I genuinely believe that Wisconsin can be a beacon, can be an example to the rest of
the union of how these things work.
We got away from a, we didn't, when we started this country, we didn't want one voice.
That was the point.
We create these three branches of government, so there's no king.
There's no, you know, monarchy or anything like that.
We understood early on that this country is going to have many voices and many opinions,
and they all matter.
They all are important, and I bring this up because I want to get into a bipartisan
group of Wisconsin lawmakers last Wednesday.
This Wednesday received a push to implement ranked choice voting and nonpartisan blanket
primaries in the battleground state.
So I don't know how much you and I have gotten a chance to talk about ranked choice voting,
but I'd like to know one, how you feel about it, and two, the, the chances you think of
that happening here in this state, one way or the other.
Yeah, so this, this legislation is obviously garnered a lot of attention.
There was a very lengthy year in the Senate elections committee this week, and, you know,
I, I think it's well intentioned, and I, I can understand where the authors are coming
from.
One point is I have great concerns about it, and, you know, I think our, our system's
pretty clear.
You get one vote, and I think the problem with the bill and its current form is that I
think it's going to cause a lot of confusion.
And, you know, so from my standpoint, I, I think it's a, it's a, it's problematic.
And so I, I just, I can't get there on it.
I don't understand why we dramatically changed the way we are set up, and again, I, I
think it were the coming from some of the arguments for it, but I just think it's too
much of a dramatic change is going to cause too much confusion, and, and I just, I can't
get behind it.
I will say this, and, and I'm not big on the whole debate thing.
You take this side.
I take that side and go.
I don't like that.
I don't, I think that's a very boring radio and very boring entertainment.
But I do want to say that I, I, what I, what put, what I, my big pushback on this is
something that you said there about confusing.
Number one, I, I think the American people are smart enough to be able to handle this,
and, and I think that they can work this out.
I think that also this has been, this has happened.
This has been created, and this has become more of a topic, mainly because of you, and
not you, sir, in general, specifically, but politicians in general, we've seen more
than ever, politicians kind of leaning into their party, and, and almost not knowing
a lot of what they represent, but what their party represents, which is great for the
party, but not necessarily great for a district.
We've already had to do a number of things when it comes to voting that are, that, that push
the envelope, if you will.
But one thing I think that it needs to be really addressed here, I, the act of voting should
not be difficult.
That, you know, once you getting somebody to a ballot box should be difficult.
I think we, I think we've, we've gotten away from though the idea of, you should have
to think about your vote.
You should have to, there's some thought that you have to go into this.
It shouldn't be that easy to just decide, okay, I want this person because there are
that party.
Like, we've, we've gotten such so party centric that has become people are treating their
party like it's a sports team.
Something like this separates that.
All of a sudden you have to stand on your morals on your, what you are representing.
Well, and that's really only one of the arguments that the proponent of this push had been
pushing, and so it was interesting.
I was down in Madison when the public here was taking place, and I had it on the background
of my office watching it, and what was really unique is that they had a former congressman
from Maine, Maine's second district, and Maine recently implemented a version of this
felt there.
And, you know, one of the arguments that he had against this proposal, and it stems from
one of the arguments in favor of this proposal is that it toned down our, our politics and
the hyper-partisanship in, you know, from his experience having lived through it.
I mean, he said that in his campaign, first campaign where this was implemented, the
next campaign as didn't go away, the partisanship didn't disappear and, and that it did cause
a lot of confusion for voters out there.
And so, you know, I, I thought it was a really interesting take here from someone who's
been through this and, and ironically on, on the other side of it, former congressman
Reed Ripple from Wisconsin's eighth congressional district was there to testify in support.
So, it was a really interesting dynamic where you had two former congressmen both of the
same party, one who was in favor of this, and then one who was opposed to this in a state
where they had implemented rain choice voting.
So, you know, it's certainly an interesting concept, no question about it, there, there
is a lot of interest from some very influential folks from around the state, many business leaders,
who I would probably describe as Senator Wright who had been pushing this, but again, based
on some of the feedback I've seen from some of my other colleagues, I think it's going
to be a really tough sell to, let's see, this one get through and, and again, I, I've
got my concerns about it.
And I guess from my perspective, you know, when, when I go on campaign, I'm out there
knocking on doors every single day during the campaign season and having real conversations
with people, and, and so that way they get to know me personally, and, you know, to
have that dialogue and have that relationship, and it's the same approach that, you know,
we take in the off years where you're out in the community, people get to know who you
are personally and understand where you're coming from, and, you know, yes, I'm a Republican,
I came up with my political time through a county party system, you know, starting
at the grassroots level, and, you know, I agree with 100% of what, you know, where
are the Republican parties that today, of course not, and I wouldn't expect anyone to,
and so, you know, ultimately when people go to the ballot box, I don't necessarily, and
I think this is especially true for, for Wisconsin, where people don't necessarily automatically
look at the letter that's behind their name, they look at the person that they know that
they trust, and that's where I, I have faith in our system as it stands currently, despite
all the partisanship that we see out at DC, is that, at least here in Wisconsin, I represent
a district that, you know, is voted that Scott Walker is carried, that Tammy Baldwin is also carried,
or, you know, that Donald Trump is carried, but yet, you know, we've, we've elected this district
carried Janet, of course, they, which so, you know, I would say it's a purple district, much
like many districts here in the state, and so, you know, I think that to me tells me I have
to work hard to go out there and justify why voters should send me back, and that's the approach
I've always taken. I, I think that we can both agree, though, that this topic, one way or another,
is not going away, and, and if the divisiveness continues, and, and continues to push people
to something like this, it's, it's going to be on the ballot box many times, this conversation
is not going to stop with that, if, if we see that increase, although we see, I think we see
a pullback from that, and you could see this topic possibly go away, but right now it doesn't look
like it's going anywhere anytime soon. Sir, we only got a couple minutes left. I wanted to touch on
a couple of things with you before we wrap up. The, Christmas at the Capitol, the Christmas tree
got there earlier this month. I'm, I'm curious to know, because we don't get a chance to just have
fun much, you know, we, we get into really serious stuff and everything. Last couple of minutes,
want to be able to have a little fun with you, last time we're talking for the year. When,
it comes to Christmas and Madison Christmas at the Capitol, what is one of your favorite things about it?
I, I think, honestly, this, this time of year, it's so great. And every time the, the,
Christmas tree, it's brought into the Rotunda this year. I mean, this tree is massive. I,
I have no idea how they got this in through the doors. I think it's probably one of the biggest
trees that we've ever had displayed in the Rotunda. And what's so great about it is that it gets
decorated from, with ornaments from elementary students all across the state. And we get to see
some of the creativity and just some of the things that they've, some of the decorations that they
made. And it's really great time. It's not just about the Christmas tree too. In the Rotunda,
as well, there's a Hanukkah display and, and it's just great to recognize all the different
holidays that are, are taking place this time of year. And it just, it really is an opportunity
for us to kind of dial back and, you know, take off the parts and caps and really just be thankful
for what we have. And, you know, that's the one message I can relate to folks is, take some time,
this holiday season, regardless of what holiday, celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza,
and really just be thankful for what we have because we really are fortunate to live in such a
tremendous state, a, well, it's going on across the globe. Let's just reflect and be thankful
for everything that we have and we've been given and, and get off the new year and hopefully put
our best foot forward and, and we'll see what 2024 brings. Do you got a favorite thing about this
time of year as far as Christmas cookies, Christmas songs, music, anything like that? What's the
testing household like? Well, even though my wife and I have, we've been kind of two ships passing
through the night as we've been bouncing back and forth between Madison and, uh, her office
down in, in Wakashaw, but, you know, we, uh, was the last Friday, took some time to decorate the
house and, and watch Christmas movies and, and, uh, yeah, so we, we kind of do a his and hers,
you get to pick the movie, I get to pick the movie and, uh, and, uh, it was fun. And so, uh,
we really enjoyed it and even last night we had the chance to, uh, go to the, the holiday,
night party with a bunch of young professionals and just kind of kick back, relax, and, uh, again,
just be thankful for, for what we have. Uh, favorite Christmas song do you got one? I'm a big
Jingle Bell Rock guy. I love Jingle Bell Rock. Yeah, Jingle Bell Rock's a great one. Um, you know,
I, I can't say, I'm a huge fan of Manheim's Theme Roller. Oh, I don't know what it is, but
ever since I was a little kid, I'd be in their entire album. It's just, it's one. If it's,
if it's on, I got my ear tune to it. Right, right. Uh, sir, we always appreciate talking to you.
It's been a great year of conversations with you as always. If people have follow up questions,
want to know more about some of the things we've talked about, how can they get in touch with you?
Yeah, if anyone needs to get hold of my office, or if you're having any issues with state
government or various agencies, or you get ideas on bills, legislation that is pending currently
or thoughts, uh, reach out to my office at f-e-n dot testin at l-e-g-i-s dot w-i dot gov, uh,
follow us on social media, give us a call at 608266 3123. And, uh, yes, the main touch and, as, uh,
you know, we kicked off the new year, or we're going to be out there making the rounds,
and so stay tuned. And, and I hope to see folks as we cross the 24th Senate district.
Always a good talking with you, sir. Happy holidays to you and yours. We'll talk next year.
Thank you. Thank you, James. Thank you. We'll be back with more midday magazine right here on WFHR,
locally grown radio.
