Wisconsin District 72 State Representative Scott Krug – September ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support.

Probably brought to you by crack septic for the September 5th, 2025.

Have your host James J. Mailoff behind the mic, and I am joined by our good friend around

here.

Representative Scott Krueve joins us once a month, and so is good to hang out with you

Scott, especially.

It's been a while.

How are you doing?

It is.

I think we kind of took the summer off.

I got so good.

Traveled.

I got over to Taiwan for about a week, and then we're off to Boston after that.

Been all over the globe here in this last couple of months.

It's nice to be home.

Well, I got to pull an audible here.

We got plenty to talk about.

I forgot about that.

I never even told you about Taiwan.

Yeah.

What brought you to Taiwan?

So the government of Taiwan actually every year or so comes to the capital and asks us

to, you know, if we would support a resolution strengthening the bond between Taiwan and

Wisconsin, since we work together on so many things on exports and imports.

So we work with them for quite a few years on making sure we have that bond.

And they turned around and invited myself and other legislators to come visit them in

person in Taiwan and have meetings with their governments and with their manufacturers

and you've got to see all the things that Taiwan's into on AI and semiconductors and, you

know, develop ways that Wisconsin can work with them.

So it was quite a whirlwind week.

So besides the 95 degree temperatures of 95% humidity, it was a trip of a lifetime.

I was going to say, I mean, you know, how often are you going to be brought to Taiwan?

That's one that's really cool to hear that it was a good experience.

Awesome.

Also, really great to hear about that strengthening of that relationship.

That's a win-win for both places.

It was.

And it was, you know, a double-edged sword on the way back home as we got a nice threatening

letter from the People's Republic of China saying, hey, you should have done that.

Right.

Yeah.

You know, glad you're watching where I am at.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We got to visit the entire country from south to the north, got on the high-speed rail

that connected between China and city and the south to Taipei where we spent most of

the week.

And it was, it was kind of, you know, there were some meetings that were less interesting

than others.

You know, it was a little bit of a sweet to walk into Fox guns world headquarters in Taipei

and talk to them about the Wisconsin experience.

And so they invited me back to the Fox kind of, we still got a chance to talk to just

about anybody that had any connection to Wisconsin or even more importantly to companies that

wanted to have a connection with Wisconsin.

So we spend back here the last six weeks here, just developing ideas and what we can do

and the legislature to try to do more outreach and be more accepting of all the offers that

Taiwan wants to, you know, have inroads into Wisconsin with and, you know, kind of a,

kind of a double bonus as it gets to take off the Chinese a little bit.

So I guess it helps.

It's a win-win right there.

And that being said, you know, any chance to strengthen any relationships we have with

some of our, you know, key contributors to both of our country and what we do to them

with, for them, with export, import, all of these, you know, every five seconds you're

here in the word tariff and some of that conversation, anything to strengthen those relationships.

That's a great thing for all of us.

That's really good to hear.

Yeah, it is interesting because, you know, global politics do come up when you're, you

know, when you're representing the states, you don't necessarily deal with federal issues

too much, but, you know, tariff did come up a lot.

And honestly, it was one of those things that actually, I know people have different opinions

about it sometimes, but in tariffs, we're one of the driving reasons a lot of the companies

in Taiwan, and we're looking to get the footprint in Wisconsin.

So it, it, that bloodsort, you know, it's hard to hear and go through the consternation

of what, you know, national politics has on our daily lives and listening to the noise

sometimes.

Yeah.

I think for Taiwan and other countries to start looking at the U.S.

to bring manufacturing back, because if you look at Wisconsin historically, we are

one of the champions of manufacturing in the United States over the, over our history,

right?

We, we have more manufacturing jobs per capita in Wisconsin than most other states across

the entire country.

So, you know, if we're not building things and making things here in Wisconsin, you know,

we're, we're shrinking and contracting.

So we're, we look at for partners all over the country and all over the world and that,

that national conversations draws that, I guess, that's the one benefit of it, I think.

Well, and, you know, one of the, one of the things I think certainly that we've been

able to do at this show and part of the reason we appreciate the time from you every month

from you and Senator Teston is being able to talk about the difference of what's happening

on a federal level and if it, or if it does or not affect you on a state level specifically

here in Wisconsin, we find more and more when talking with you guys that, okay, well,

this thing that's going on, it really doesn't affect us or maybe this does or how it

does and being able to really get into that stuff.

More times than not, I think both of us have found in our particular fields when people

have concerns or fears even, it tends to be because they don't have the information.

They just don't know, you know, certain things and I don't begrudge them for that.

I just am thankful that we're able to get the info out there and speaking of all of this

kind of conversation and kind of segue into the state budget passing, we haven't been

able to talk since then.

Honestly, it's a perfect segue for the state budget.

Just like we planned it.

Just like that.

Right.

What are your thoughts on that budget passing?

Now, I will tell everybody that if you get Scott's newsletter, you kind of already know

a little bit of his feelings on this one, encourage you to sign up for it if you haven't

already.

But for those that did not, Scott, tell us your takes on this, your first impressions

of the state budget passing.

Yeah, you know, I knew at some point these last couple of sessions that there's going

to be what I've been calling this grand bargain session, right?

Or both sides are finally going to say, okay, we have had enough arguing like me.

I'm going to be 50 in a couple of weeks, right?

And I'm to the point where I'm just, I'm done arguing about stupid crappy people.

God, do I hear you?

Yes.

I know.

Right?

So it's what the state budget really came down to is like, both sides are finally saying,

hey, you know what?

Why would you just get these things done?

They're happy to get done with the state.

You can argue about all the other, you know, in constant questions stuff later.

But this was pretty important.

So for the first time in my legislative career, we had a bipartisan state budget, past

the legislature, and signed by the governor within two hours of the legislature passing

it.

I mean, and it goes into the work.

And when I say work, I mean, it goes into every single conversation of every little

aspect of the budget and getting agreement on that ahead of time.

I said, I'm just thrown in at the wall and seeing what's six.

We finally had these deeper conversations and saying, okay, we want to do this.

You know, you want to do this.

Are you okay if we did it this way or if we did it that way?

And again, another example here is the federal, you know, the one big bill that Trump and

Congress had passed did have a really big impact on that budget being passed and signed

as quick as it did because the federal government was looking at a way to take away our ability

to find some more money in our Medicaid program.

And if Congress had signed, or if Congress had passed and the president signed the one

big, beautiful bill before the state budget got done, we would have lost out on an opportunity

to recapture about a billion dollars in funding for our Medicaid program.

So I think that that race that we had between the state government and the federal government

kind of brought us together on the state governments and, hey, this is where policy needs

to happen most.

Feds, I get you have your ideas, but as a state, we want to make sure we're protecting

our people first.

So I think that's what really drove the conclusion of the state budget that first we could

July, saying, hey, we really got to get all these things done.

So it was great to have that.

It's nice to be back home after the budget passed.

And I think people take away from that fact, whether if they liked an individual thing in

the budget or not, I think the thing that's sticking to people the most about the budget

is bipartisan.

And there were fewer videos and there were some big local wins.

I mean, we got a huge local win to keep Don Tarr and acoustic operated.

So that's just, there's a great budget for the first time in 15 years.

I can actually say it was a great, great budget.

So.

Scott, one thing that I think that I was noteworthy of me during this whole process as we're going

back and forth about it and you and I were talking about the budget and the possibility

of it passing and all that and I like you a lot of people.

We knew it was just a matter of time.

But one thing that I really implore listeners and I imagine that you and your colleagues

to Republican, Democrat, all alike, none of you go into this expecting a perfect budget.

I don't know that I don't know we do ourselves as citizens or you yourselves.

We go in with the best of intentions.

We go in with certain things we want.

But everybody has negotiated in life and knows how this works.

It's a good negotiation if both parties leave and you're a little happy and a little

a little frustrated.

That's kind of how this works.

It is.

It is.

It's exactly how it works and being in real estate for the last 10 years, the state budget

was almost exactly like a real estate transaction.

You know, you've got one side that wants something, the other side that wants something and

you figure out in the middle, whatever that in between might be, whereas the most important

people who walk away from it happier, the ones that are actually deeply involved in it

and for us, that's the taxpayers, right?

So if they feel like they've gotten what they want out of it, why should our personal

feelings as representatives and senators or the governor for that matter really weigh

into it at all?

Right?

If you feel hurt, if my priority did not get done, if the bigger scheme and the bigger

picture is that we've kept our tax rate down, we invested in our priorities and we, you

know, spent more money on roads, we spent more money on school and so my individual feelings

of the state rep that I think we spent too much really shouldn't matter if those are the

priorities that we heard from people and then our budget survey, these are the exact things

we heard from people who say, need to make sure we're taking care of our roads.

Hey, you need to make sure you're really getting our school's funded at an appropriate

level.

Take, you know, take notice of these things from us and that's why we do those surveys

and do the outreach is so we know what people want and then that's what we deliver and

in the end, if it's not, you know, perfect for me, that's great.

I've been, I've been married twice, I have six kids.

There's no perfect in my life.

I tell it, you know, I can relate to that so much.

When you mentioned the survey results, when you got those and now we have the budget,

are you seeing some correlation there with the spring survey results?

That's perfect, right?

I mean, it lines up exactly how we wanted to line up and that's why we did list

successes before we did the survey and that's why we took the survey and the listing

sessions on the road and talked to everybody and brought all that back to our joint

finance team here and just took those priorities through and some of the things

that I don't know if people necessarily realized we're an issue that we could put in

on top of their needs and then, you know, put it all together to a package to our

finance team and say, hey, these are the things that we want, right?

And I think, you know, from everything, like I said, the $42 million to Don Tart

and make sure that the Dam and Roth's child's repaired, but also brings back $100 million

from Don Tart and the best of them, the Kustin Mill and the Roth's child mill.

I think both things add on top of our constituents and needs for roads and schools and safety

and, you know, the typical things that, you know, everybody really wants in their daily lives.

I think that's what made this budget.

The biggest win is that we had to go into the state senate.

We had to find Democrat votes in the state senate and those things, you know, brought

on even further priorities that maybe were lower on our list in a more Republican area,

but still made the list for people who don't necessarily vote Republican, but responded

to us.

So even the priorities of both sides in my district were well represented in this budget

discussion.

And there, as always, as soon as the budget passes, there's a work to be done.

There are gray areas that might have been missed or things that could use more funds

or more attention, and I'm sure that you and your colleagues are working diligently

on those and certainly listening to constituents about those concerns.

And again, there is no perfect bill.

There is no perfect, you know, a budget or anything.

I think that coming out of it, you know, I think whatever, you know, however you vote,

you're feeling very similar to what Scott's pointing to and everything that there are positives,

there are negatives, and that's kind of how this world works.

I, you know, we keep moving.

And to that point, Scott, you have so many bills that you're a part of whether you're

championing and trying to get past or have gotten past.

It's another reason why I remind everybody to go to Scott's, get his e-letter.

It really, you guys do a great job breaking these down.

And not bogging things down, I would say, where it's just endless talking.

You really cover these bills really well.

There is one in particular that I wanted to bring some more attention that I, I don't

know, it could ever get all the attention it deserves.

And that's assembly bill 201, also known as Braden's Law.

This establishes strict criminal penalties for sexual extortion.

This is a topic that is very sensitive to me.

This is one that I care about very much, and it's part of the reason I'll be honest.

I wanted to talk about it, but I know for you, this was just as important.

You know, and this is one of those that kind of crosses over party lines, right?

We've seen some of these bills from time to time, and you know, it's something that

happened in the real life in Central Wisconsin that really affected a family to the core, right?

Then you've got these circular stances where individuals can basically sit behind a keyboard

and say and do an act however they want with minor-ish consequences.

It's not fair to anybody involved.

And I think it, you know, in the assembly bill 201 that Representative Jacobson, from

the most in the area, really spearheaded with Pat Snyder and Lassa, I was glad to jump

on to their cause because this affected a family actual life, like there are children

in our communities who are so affected by what others say to them or do to them that

it ended up causing a death in Central Wisconsin, right?

I mean, and those bills really hit home, and it's really hard when you have those families

come testify on a bill, and then you have somebody who's not politically necessarily attached

to it or doesn't feel the same pain from their district, have to educate them on what

it means and why we're doing it.

So I'm thankful that we finally came to, you know, some agreement within our own caucus

to say that we've got to get this bill down.

We have amended it to make sure it's gotten enough support in the state assembly, and

now it's over to the state's Senate to finish the job.

But it's imperative that we get those things done for public safety, which is literally

the number one reason that government exists is providing for the safety of welfare and

the residents of our community.

So this is one of those issues that cuts down to the core of why government even exists.

I agree with every word.

Just piggybacking on what you're saying.

I would like to credit everybody involved with this bill of the insight, you know, the

older we get, the harder it gets to remember what it's like to be in school.

And then you find out about what it's like for kids nowadays in school, and it's, there's

no, we can't relate to it at all.

There's no way that we can possibly even come close to relating to it for generations

like your ours and everything.

The idea that you get that, the idea that you and those that didn't put behind this bill

understand that there's a lot more going on nowadays with kids than we realize.

Trying to cover their cover these bases, trying to help these kids out, help these families

out.

I think it's, it's to your point, it's the purpose of government.

I don't mean to give you credit for doing your job necessarily, but I do, I do because

this is one of those things that, look, we know how this goes oftentimes.

We saw this with a lot of sex crimes, with a lot of drug issues early on in the 80s.

We're late on these things.

We're way, way late on these things where we're, I don't know that you could ever be early

enough with a topic like this, but at the very least, we're getting on this earlier

than most times we do with subjects like this.

I'm proud of our state.

I'm proud of that.

I appreciate that.

I think, you know, it's funny for me because when my older kids I call them, my five

adult children, you know, when they were in school, the biggest issues they faced were

literally person-to-person bullying, right?

I mean, and now I have an 11-year-old who is a sixth grader who is more open to cyber

bullying, to sex-stortion messages, to things that you would never have thought the kids

in our communities were ever going to have to face before, it is scary as a parent.

So I mean, that is the biggest benefit I've seen to have in a child later in life, getting

to see like a second-generation problem come up where my older kids didn't have to deal

with this.

Where Jack asked you on a daily basis where, you know, I have to worry about what's coming

across to the screen at any point in any given day, but I still have to be open enough

as a parent to let him go experience life, right?

So I mean, just the confusion that parents have to have nowadays is just to muddle their

way through.

It's scary, but it's manageable if you've got the right people in place to do the right

things as partners.

And I think not just government, you know, government's never the solution, but all of our community

partners who have come to us with these concepts and ideas saying, hey, maybe we should talk

about doing this statewide level or maybe we should take some time and have a conversation

of this or a task for a certain, it doesn't come from us necessarily.

I mean, it's all of the partners who came to us to start, we started on the ground before

we ever did, who bring us these ideas and whether it's the sex torsion that we're talking

about now or the epi-pandido that we're working on, that based on lives that were affected

back home, those are things you got to take our time and actually do.

And so I just say, okay, we're looking for the next headline, you know, these may not

be headline stories, but these are definitely things that affect people, ways to help more

than fixing a pothole, you know, highway 54.

Right.

You know, and as we go along here, the next probably next month when we get together, another

one of those kind of topics I want to get into, you know, voters and their confidence in

their vote, voter integrity, some of those topics, I know that you've been a part of some

panels and some listening sessions over the last couple of months.

We have some stuff in the news as well with that.

So I think next time we get it together, we'll get into that one when we have a little

more time.

I did want to remind everybody-

We got a ton of bills coming out of those and we'll definitely die deep into that next

session.

Look forward to it.

Appreciate that.

Also, appreciate that you have these listening sessions going on.

I wanted to remind everybody about that you have one coming up on this coming Monday

of September 8th.

Yeah, we got three.

Yeah, three of them.

That's right.

Yeah.

So we're going to be September 8th, 10 o'clock in the morning and start down on Adams

at the Trinity Center.

It's usually one of the most better attended ones actually when we get down to Adams and

hang out at the Trinity Center there at County Market.

So 10 o'clock there and then from there heading back up to Nicosah to hit the Turtles

and Joanne Lester Library at noon.

We don't get a lot of folks in Nicosah, so we got to drive some of that attendance.

We could just do in this one in Nicosah.

And then after that, we'll be heading up to Rapid to the McMillan Memorial Library

2 o'clock.

10 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 2 o'clock.

And then even on the 15th, as you can't make it on the 8th, you've got a couple more

coming up on the other side of the lake.

I call it.

The main camp goes from the sheet on the 15th.

I mean, they're all in our e-update.

I would really encourage people just to get on the e-update, whether you agree with us

politically or not.

You just send an email to us at repREp.crugekarug at legeslegis.wisconsin.gov and just

say, hey, please subscribe me to the e-update.

It is all in there every week.

You're going to do a two-minute video just to recapture everything.

You have to read it all sometimes.

I think it's probably the best way we've had to get information on people before the

convention.

I encourage you to be a part of those, everybody.

As always, treat each other right, act like adults.

But certainly, if you have feelings and thoughts and questions, that's why Scott does this.

He wants to hear from you.

Just do it with some respect, treat each other right, and look forward to seeing how those

go and talk with you about them next month.

Scott, we did our homework.

We did our job.

Now, we could talk a little sports.

I, of course, want to talk with yours with you as the best team in baseball, but then

the Packers and Dallas made this gigantic trade that we can't, as sports fans, we have

to address the Micah Parsons trade a little bit.

So, it was kind of nice watching the game a little bit last night with Philadelphia and

Dallas.

The knowing that whoever lost the game was going to be complained about not having their

top pass pressure.

Carter got kicked out for spinning a back press guy, and then also the Micah Parsons

was gone for Dallas and gets who lost.

Right?

Yep.

No one for Dallas.

So now, now Green Bay is going to step up and get the win on Sunday against Detroit.

So hopefully Micah gets the play.

And then the Brewers, I mean, I, I've almost avoided talking about them this entire year

because every time I do, I get disappointed in September, but I think we're going to

be safe now with the 16 lead over the Cubs in a couple of weeks ago.

I mean, just the incredible teams, it's a bunch of workmen, journeymen, utility guys,

they're just pulling together and getting it done under a scrappy blue-brown type manager,

you know?

I mean, it's Cinderella story and the Micah I tell you.

I think that, you know, when it comes to what the Brewers have going for them, speed,

defense, certain things like that, that's not a rhythm, that's not something that goes

away, you know, that's not a trend, that's not, there are things you can, you can win a world

series on that.

You've seen teams do it.

And I don't believe that there's any team to be scared of in baseball right now, except

for maybe the Brewers.

So yeah.

The thing you saw, I mean, if you look at all the, what they've done against every division

leader this year, I mean, they just took two out of three completely, they swept the

seedless area with the Dodgers, they've handled the Cubs really well, I mean, so no wild

character division leader in the National League has really challenged that.

I mean, as long as they're pitching holes together, it could be a really, really, really

good.

We'll be following it.

We'll be talking about it again next month, looking forward to Scott.

If people want to reach out to you, how can they do that?

Cell phone is almost always on 715, 323, 3293.

If you don't get me there, obviously people send me a message on Facebook all the time

with a messenger.

Feel free to do that.

I mean, we really try to get back to everybody quickly because we can, but if I don't get

back to right away, it's always by the next Thursday, which is the day that my staff

drives me to do every phone call that's coming in and answer everybody by that day.

So you don't hear from you right away.

You'll hear from me by the following Thursday.

Appreciate that.

I appreciate the time Scott.

Safe travels out there.

We'll talk again soon.

Yeah, you'd better not take care.

And thank you all for joining us for another edition of Crocket Sceptics, the WFHRs.

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Appreciate you being here, everyone.