Wisconsin Legislative Update

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Welcome to our morning show get together today as we kick off a very busy week here on the morning show Representative Tony Kurtz is here of Wisconsin's 41st Assembly District and State Senator Howard Markline is back representing the 17th Senate District

So we say good morning.

Both of you guys have been pretty busy.

Haven't you?

Good morning.

How are you?

Good to see you guys.

Well, Tony, you were at a meeting in the Dells on Friday night about power lines.

Maybe you could talk about that and

what was.

So just to kind of give you a little background, um, the no, uh, 765.org group.

put this on.

And basically it was open to the public, anybody that was concerned.

I would imagine there's probably around 400 people there.

Congressman Tom Tiffany was there.

I was there.

Senator Kieske was there.

Also Representative DeSantis was there.

David Crowley was invited.

His schedule wouldn't permit, but basically it was billed as a nonpartisan and basically just show the joint.

You know, the joint collaboration that, you know, basically everybody that I know of politically is against the 765 line.

And so it was a good discussion.

There was a couple of things that I put out that I think your listeners should know.

I think the people up there on, on Friday, um, and we, we talk about it later, but no, it was very good, very well attended.

Um, and I, I know, uh, some of those organizations also taped it so people could go back on that, on that, uh, website, no 765.org, uh, uh, website or Facebook page.

And I'm sure they could watch the details of it.

So.

Yeah.

Hot topic.

That's for sure.

Howard.

This is a topic that really brings, uh, both sides together a little bit, doesn't it?

It does.

I mean, I've heard, uh, obviously that.

proposed line goes through Crawford County, which is in my district.

And, you know, I've heard for months now from constituents in that area that

Just just opposed to it.

And you're right.

It doesn't political stripes don't matter on this issue.

Very broad based opposition to it.

And so it's, you know, it's personal.

It's through people's land and some of the most beautiful land in the state of Wisconsin.

And, you know, I, you know, if the

proposal was, was different if it was along a interstate or along, you know, you know, I don't think we have the opposition that we're seeing right now.

But the fact that there, the least the proposals are cutting through just some beautiful, beautiful countryside.

And I don't know, it's, it's not good.

It's not good.

And they feel, you know, kind of helpless.

A lot of the

decisions on this is with the Public Service Commission and which

Nobody votes for the Public Service Commission.

Those are three commissioners that are appointed by the governor.

And so they're kind of insulated from the pressures that Tony and I feel out here from our constituents.

And then that was all changed back under the Doyle administration when they took the control away from the legislature and put it solely with the Public Service Commission.

You know, the PSC is pretty well insulated on this thing, unfortunately, but they, um, as I've shared with people, um, when I've been in Crawford County and Eastman and Seneca and some of those places is, um, don't give up, you know, don't give up, continue the fight.

Um, it may look like an uphill battle, but don't give up.

Cause, uh, if you do, we'll end up.

with the worst possible outcome, the worst possible sightings.

So just keep, we need to keep engaged and, you know, again, just don't give up.

One of the things I was going to ask you about though, I know you signed a letter to Governor Evers, you and several other officials, but saying the governor might be able to.

turn away or say no to it, but the governor is saying that he can't legally put a stop to it.

Is that true, Tony?

So, I mean, I'm on that letter as well, you know, and the fact of the matter is, what we were referring to is, is this as far from over?

So there is going to be the roles for the Department of Natural Resources.

Believe it or not, there's actually a role for DOT, Department of Transportation, as well as we go down this track.

And so what the governor basically is saying, Howard's right about the PSE.

Okay, they're unfortunately are kind of untouchable, whereas the DNR is not.

Okay, the DNR is going to have a role in this.

As this goes further down the line, the DNR is going to do a lot of permitting, and so they control the permit.

So when the governor, and just kind of a little, the governor's basically saying he's hands off, and he doesn't have any control on the DNR, that is all due respect.

That's BS.

He appoints the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.

The secretary works at the pleasure of the governor.

So there are going to be opportunities down the line, not necessarily maybe right now, but there are opportunities down the line that the Department of Natural Resources can step in and say, you're not following these permits or we're not going to allow you.

And to Howard's point, the driftless region, and everybody knows, because you all live here in the driftless, it is a very unique

you know, environmentally sensitive area.

I mean, not only in the state, but in the country, there's nothing quite like the drift list.

And so I personally think the DNR is going to scrutinize this.

They could be doing this now because you've already seen the proposed route.

adamantly disagree with the governor because he does control the Department of Natural Resources.

Now, let's be honest, obviously we have a governor's race going on.

The next governor, you know, whoever that is will appoint the next DNR secretary.

That DNR secretary, this is something that he or she could have front and center on at their agency.

So, what the governor's saying, you know, I'll do respect, that's not gonna...

That's not going to fly with me.

And I do want to echo one of the things is, you know, I was driving when I drove down here from Wonny Walk this morning, you know, I went by the, by the Democrat headquarters and there was a no 65 sign in the thing.

I drive by the Republican headquarters, no 765 line.

How often, Phil, do you drive by both political parties and actually see one sign that we agree on?

And so I want to echo what Howard says.

This is a probably a, I kid you not a 95% issue that collectively, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, we all agree we oppose this.

And all I'm asking is as this goes on, you know, we get very, I don't want to say tribal, but we get, oh, it's a Republican thing or it's a Democrat thing.

Please.

If at all possible, let's say unified on this one topic.

I mean, yes, are there things we adamantly disagree on?

Absolutely.

But let's collectively stay unified on this one issue.

Because that's all I'm asking.

To Howard's point, this is far from over.

I know you're going to have some reps in from MGS.

I'm being told that you can still do your public comments.

So please do that.

I know the deadline on some things was seven.

the 7th of September, the key thing about putting your comments in, either email in writing or however you want to submit those, they are literally tracking those right now.

They have their big old planning board and they are mapping where the biggest resistance is versus where aren't we getting any pushback on this route.

That's what they're doing right now.

They're gathering all this data and they're seeing where's the resistance or non-resistance.

So it is critical.

It is critical.

that people stay engaged on this.

I cannot emphasize that enough.

Oh,

or

anything?

Yes, you know, as Tony said, like the, you know, we all know that regulatory agencies, the DNR primarily, DOT also, but you know, they can make on a project, they can make life easy, or they can make a life of living hell.

And I guess what I'm like, just echo what Tony said, I mean, the governor, he could

he could make sure that this project does not go as smoothly as the developers wanted to go.

Okay.

The other thing I would ask your listeners to think about this.

So we've got a governor election coming up here in six weeks or so.

And I would be, and I've told this to many, many people, I'd be asking our governor candidates their opinions on this whole issue is energy,

um policy and uh renewables and transmission lines and all that stuff because the next governor and we we are going to have a new governor is going to be appointing the next uh commissioners to the public service commission so you know and the first one could happen you know early in in that in that term and so yeah so you know and again does one person on the the psc is that going to change the the direction no but i'll tell you what if you get somebody

who's vocal on that three-member PSC, I think they could have a significant impact, you know, just in terms of the direction that this thing goes.

And I just, I don't mean to reiterate about the DNR.

So in Juneau County, Highway J up there, we got an ARIP grant, a grant that, you know, 150 million that we got in the budget to help with agricultural roads.

That project was supposed to be done this year.

The DNR actually is holding a permit back because there's a lizard up there that has to be mitigated.

So that project now may not even get done until next year.

And it wasn't me.

This was something that Senator Kisky and I's office both worked on to see, okay, what's going on.

And so the DNR does have a heck of a lot of power.

The other thing I do want to, I know you haven't mentioned this, but

MGS right now, they have a docket in front of the Public Service Commission.

It's not open yet.

Basically, it's an application.

So MGS is going to ask the Public Service Commission to be a public utility.

In other words, to have a public utility status.

The interesting part about that is when they submitted their application to be a public utility status in the state of Wisconsin, they're also asking for a whole bunch of exceptions to the law.

There are over 30 exceptions they're asking for.

So in other words, they want to be a utility in the state of Wisconsin, but yet they don't want to follow the rules that every other utility in the state of Wisconsin has to follow.

And so once again, it's up in front of the Public Service Commission.

It has not been opened yet, the docket, in other words, where people can have public comments.

But just that's another opportunity that not only are utilities, but constituents, everybody has an opportunity to chime in on that when those public comments open to say, wait a minute, you're going to allow an outside company to come into Wisconsin.

You're going to maybe give them a

a license, a status to be a utility operator, but yet not follow the rules that everybody else in the state of Wisconsin has to follow.

That right there is not right either.

Comments of Mr. Ade will play tomorrow in the morning show representing that organization.

But it was stopped in Iowa.

Isn't that true?

Didn't I hear that they were proposing this in Iowa and it didn't go through?

I don't know for

sure.

I know there was a project that was stopped and there was another project that actually they got it to go underground.

Um, I couldn't remember if that was Iowa or Minnesota.

I'm not going to lie to you.

So I can't remember which one that was in.

Sounds good.

Um, and in terms of, I know what they say, they've talked about it being inevitable.

It's going to happen.

You know, um, you know,

and once again, I don't mean to digress on this, but it, this is so personal to so many people.

You know, I look at our grid,

And yes, people are saying our grid needs to be upgraded.

The interesting part about the grid, the 765, let's be honest, what the purpose of this is, there's a tremendous amount of wind energy in the Dakotas.

This is basically to move the wind energy out of the Dakotas into the Midwest.

Basically, somebody coined this on Facebook, and I would love to remember who did it, basically said, they want to run an extension cord.

across our area basically to power Chicago.

That's all this is.

Now, does our grid need to be upgraded?

It does, but I think to Howard's point, there's much better ways to do that.

Maybe we expand and increase the capacity on existing lines.

To Howard's point, if this is inevitable, then run it down the doggone interstate.

I mean, people are still not going to be happy about that, but at least when I talk to our constituents about this,

It's a little bit more palatable for them.

Okay, then run it down the interstate that they get that you still may not like it It's still gonna impact people, but I think most people understand That that's a reasonable compromise if it has to be done.

Oh, no Moving on some other things that we talked about of course a state surplus anything changed since the last time you were in with that Howard

Yeah, things have have gotten even better so

The state ends its year on June 30th.

And the last time I was here, we didn't have final numbers, but we have received the final tax collections from the Department of Revenue since then.

And the bottom line is things are better than what we had expected, which is a good thing.

surpluses are not a bad thing.

So we've had strong growth in corporate taxes, sales taxes, income taxes.

And so we just from a percentage standpoint, our tax collections, actual tax collections were 2% greater than what we had expected.

2%.

It can't be that much, right?

That's $400 billion.

Okay.

I mean, it's significant.

So and so

Um, that means that our surplus for the, the, the biennium will be, uh, instead of like two and a half billion, which we had expected to be around a $3 billion.

So, um, so again, and we had a bill that we Tony and I both voted for and advocated for, uh, back in April, that would have, um, sent some of that money back, would have helped our schools, would have cut our property taxes, would have done a lot of stuff right now.

And the money, you know, they got shot down for political reasons and the money's sitting in Madison now.

So it doesn't do anybody out here any, any good at all.

So also embedded in these tax numbers, I did want to highlight the, the sales tax collections for the state were up over 4% over the prior year.

And the importance for our local communities, for our counties, cities, villages, and townships is that they all share in the tax collections in their shared revenue formula.

So once we have a 5 cent state sales tax rate,

One penny of that goes back to our local community.

And so the fact that our sales collections are up, 4% means next year that they will get an increase of about 4% in their shared revenue.

So they can start kind of banking on that now as they prepare their budgets here this fall.

And that was one of the things that was kind of a fundamental

principle when we talked about the shared revenue formula was that we provide them with some inflation protection, they being our municipalities, our townships, counties, because in the past those numbers were locked in.

They hadn't changed for 25 years.

And you know, if you got

10,000 last year, we're getting 10,000 this year.

And so those were adjusted significantly and fairly.

And now, in addition to resetting those shared revenue amounts, they're also going to be getting a inflationary increase, which is tied to the sales tax collections.

That will help,

Tony.

Anything you

want to

add?

Oh, no.

I mean, that just gives a lot of our locals

They're kind of now tied to the Wisconsin economy.

And to Howard's point, it was 20, 25 years.

They were flat.

And now they, as Wisconsin's economy grows, like I said, it's healthy.

It is growing.

Our local...

Local governments now get a get an increase as well So that was something I was very proud that Howard and I got done in the shared revenue bill.

It's a lot of the cities a lot of the counties are struggling in terms of trying to Well,

it's it's it's it's a well, it's fuel.

It's just like, you know, I'm not

I'm not happy with the fuel prices, either.

It's all show insurance costs.

I mean, when I talked to our locals, I was just the other day talking the mayor of Wisconsin Dells and the city administrator.

Boom, the health insurance costs.

That was one of the biggest clips that they got.

And so that's some of the big struggles for a lot of locals for that.

And let's be honest, also our local businesses as well, they're struggling with that as well.

on the farm a little little expensive to put in fuel to it is

uh... it is you know i filled up a couple i got i got a fifty five gallon fuel barrel on the farm and uh... i filled that up i didn't fill it up only put two hundred gallons in it uh... like a ten days ago was four dollars and eighty eight cents i'll probably have to fill it up again next week put or put two hundred gallons and that's going to be probably well over it's going to be close to probably six as well and the worst part is a lot of our farmers uh...

They didn't lock in prices, and they thought, obviously, gas, and if you think about it, you know, your listeners, you know, in the spring, gas was pretty close to almost $2 a gallon.

And I think, like a lot of people, we were anticipating that and looking forward to that.

And unfortunately,

The warren Iran is not helping on this, that's for sure.

And let's be honest, I'm not gonna lie either.

I'm not real happy with the imported.

I was at the Richland County Fair a few weeks ago and this beef from Argentina has really made a lot of beef farmers and dairy farmers pretty upset because a lot of people, I mean, you understand the beef side of the house, but for a lot of our dairy farmers,

You know, the cow, the call cow market was actually quite strong and that was actually helping a lot of our dairy farmers as well.

And, you know, they caught them by surprise and I personally am just a little disappointed in that.

When

you're out in the public, I'm sure you hear that

every time.

I

mean, it doesn't matter where I go.

That is number one issue on people's mind is just how the cost of living and how it's putting a strain on everybody's pocketbook.

There is no doubt.

And that's one thing Howard talked about in April when we came in.

And unfortunately, the rebate checks, the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime, the more funding special education for our schools, and also help

putting a lower in your property taxes that was all part of that package and that that that failed because that would be that would have took effect now and so it is a little disappointing because now the money is in Madison not in people's pockets not in our school districts so it's a little little disappointing.

Can you see that changing maybe with the new governor and everything coming up Howard?

Well I mean you got to be optimistic I'm you know we will have a new governor.

And, you know, we're not sure who that's going to be at, obviously.

So, but, you know, I'm hopeful that, you know, we can revisit the surplus thing.

You know, what's to emphasize what Tony said, you know, the deal, the bipartisan deal that we had with the governor back in May, that would have been in effect now.

So I think what

the the other party is saying is hey just give give us a chance and we'll we'll we'll do it better next year well the budget won't be done till end of June at the earliest okay so then like for our school districts and for you know it's going to sit for at least one whole year in Madison not doing anybody any good at all so anyway and so going back to the to the diesel you know I've

I talked to a lot of farmers, and a lot of the farmers I've talked to were locked in, okay?

They're diesel this year, and 278, 265, and you know, so, you know, as worried about 2026, but boy, next year, you know, they're, you know, and talk to one farmer who's got 8,000 gallon tank, you know, and you start doing the math on,

Yeah, you know We bought farms for that for For what they're gonna pay for for diesel fuel, you know, so yeah, there's a lot of certain uncertainty about about 2027, you know, and so There's a lot of things I hope that uh At a national level they get squared away here pretty darn quick

sounds good.

Mr. Mark line.

Mr. Kurt's in the studio with us We'll have more coming up after the break on the morning show

Well, that's a lot of people don't

realize the significance of that.

So the federal government, and Howard can help me explain how this actually works, it's an assessment that the federal government will help pay for, it's basically a rebate back to hospitals.

And it was more designed years ago to help more rural hospitals, you know, critical access hospitals, some of our smaller hospitals.

That assessment was always at 1.75%.

A lot of the other states around us went up to 6%.

It was probably what, maybe four or five years ago, the hospital association came to us and they said, hey, this is something we want to look at.

It's an availability to actually pull more money down from the federal government and help more with communities that have higher rates of Medicaid, which met this area.

We do have more people on Medicaid, and so that is a mechanism for our hospitals.

It was something that we said, hey, we need to do this.

We need to pull more money down to help our rural hospitals.

Just to let you know, several years ago, we did this for ambulances as well.

Before, we did not have this for our EMS providers.

So it was two budgets ago that actually a lot of our EMS providers got money last year and increased because we pulled, we increased the assessment for the EMS as well.

So basically, when the Trump administration came in, they were going to cap that at 6% and basically lock in every state in what their number was.

So we in the state of Wisconsin would have been locked in at 1.75% compared to 6% for a lot of other states.

So working with the governor, this is something, if somebody may or not remember, last July, there was a rush

to get this done by the 4th of July because that's when President Trump signed the big beautiful bill.

We were told by the administration, by CMS, which is Center for Medicaid and Medicare, told that as long as we as a state have it signed into law before the big beautiful bill was signed, then we would, as a state, get the 6% from here on out.

Well, we did the governor, you know, we got the budget done the governor signed the budget on the 3rd of July And then it went up to DC because the law was in place on the 3rd of July obviously the President Trump signed the big beautiful bill on the 4th of July And we thought we were good and just to let you know is about a billion dollars That we were planning on from the federal government that would help our

our hospitals, particularly our rural hospitals, per year.

It was a huge amount of money.

Unfortunately, it was probably what, August?

Somewhere like that?

We were told that CMS, Center for Medicaid and Medicare,

wasn't going, they didn't interpret it that way.

They basically said, well, no, your law had to be in effect and you had to be pulling down the 6% before 4th of July.

And that's where basically everybody started going to work.

And I will have to say, you know, Congressman Van Orton, Brian Stiles, all our congressional, you know, Senator Baldwin, Senator Johnson, everybody got involved and we

And the state legislature also got involved to petition CMS to say, wait a minute, that's not how the law is.

That's not how it interpreted it.

So I'll let Howard explain a little bit more too, because it's a big deal.

It would have literally, it would have took a billion dollars a year off the table for a lot of our rural hospitals.

And anyway, go ahead, Howard.

Yeah, I mean, it was huge impact.

I mean, a lot of the budget was kind of based on pulling this additional federal money down.

So it kind of a shock to most of us because we and we were communicating throughout the budget process with our congressional delegation because we were thinking about because we weren't sure if we're going to get it done before.

July 4th.

And, uh, so can you get us an extra, can you maybe a week, you know, in case we need a week to, you know, and basically I won't repeat what some of the Congress delegation said, but you better get it done, uh, on time.

So that's why we were, we, uh, worked hard and the governor was on board with this, you know, we, the Senate passed the, uh, the bill, uh, at, uh, I don't know, 10 or 11 at night.

And then I think the assembly was like at one in the morning, one, one 30 in the morning.

And then the governor signed it right away.

on the morning of July 4th to make sure that it was enacted before the one big beautiful bill was signed.

So anyway, the Wisconsin Hospital Association reached out to us in late winter about this and they were very concerned.

you know, and about the impact to all of their hospitals.

And I mean, to my, the number, I've got a lot of rural hospitals in my district and he would had a.

big, big, big impact on them.

So anyway, so we were in, we had meetings in DC and the Wisconsin Hospitals Association requested that that myself, Tony Kurtz, Mark Bourne and Pat Testin meet with the White House back in April.

And we met there and, you know, and I

thought the meeting went, you know, I walked out of there feeling really, really, really good, explaining what the impact would be to the state and, and all that.

And anyway, so, you know, again, I walked out of there, you know, you never know how these meetings are going to go.

But anyway, and we found out later on that they they with this

New information and new explanation that they they said we're you know, we're okay with you know that Wisconsin you're fine.

So so anyway, and that's something that I don't you know It's kind of inside baseball, but I'll tell you what you know a billion dollars per year and this is you know kind of goes on forever It isn't like a one-time deal where you get a billion and this is every every year now.

So anyway, it was a big deal and

And I'll tell you, you know, when, uh, and Tony was sitting in the room, you know, where that swimming met.

And, uh, I can tell you like the, the night before, um, um, I did a lot of prepping for that meeting.

Cause, uh, kind of knew what was that, what was that steak there?

And, um, you know, again, it was a, I thought it was a very, very good meeting by, by everybody in that room.

Good.

You get one shot in those meetings, and so they shuffle you in, and you get a set time, and you got to make your points.

And I was just proud how we all came together.

And once again, it was a team effort, the Congressional, Congressman Dan Orton, Congressman Stiles.

Once again, Senator Baldwin, Senator Johnson's office.

You know, you know, the governor was advocating and then, you know, we personally went there.

So it truly was a team effort.

And, and I just want to, it was, it was incredibly important for the state to make sure we pulled that down.

Campaign season going on right now.

And I know, you know, there's swings going on from both sides, but give you a chance to answer.

Howard, what's, what's the status of data centers?

What's, what's your stance on data centers?

Well, I think data centers, I think probably three things.

Number one,

They need to pay for their own electricity.

They should not be sucking anything off the grid.

Whatever they use, they got to be paying for themselves.

Secondly, there should be local control, much like we advocated for with the wind and solar projects.

Again, if your community doesn't want a data center, they shouldn't.

Shouldn't have it.

They ought to be able to veto the a data center locating in their community.

So, and then finally, I guess, you know, I think that they got to make sure that they don't impact our future, you know, whether it's the environment or, or any other aspects of our future.

So I'm, I think probably in some communities, they may decide it's something that they want to want to have.

But again, that should be a local decision.

by our local communities.

It appears that really not very many communities want them.

No, there are.

And it's just interesting.

And just like, you know, I agree wholeheartedly with Howard, you know, the assembly actually passed a bill this session that, you know, once again, utilities have to pay their own.

If they got to run a line to their place, they're paying for that.

They got to get a new generation plan to pay for that had to be a closed loop system.

In other words, you know, I know there is a genuine concern about water usage.

This would be, okay, you have to have a closed loop.

loop system once you have that water in there that it recycles itself and that was part of the bill also local control local leaders will make that decision but also the other thing we had in there was basically if you're gonna rely on a lot of green energy it had to be

on premise.

In other words, one thing I'd like to see us do a little better job of is instead of using some pristine farmland, let's, you know, rooftops, you know, parking garages, you know, you know, building surfaces, let's be a little bit more creative on, on where we're putting the solar panels.

That's just my, my position on that.

And so I am going to say this, and this is, I don't want to stir the pot, but I do think

As far as the data centers, I do think I would like us to maybe have a conversation about if we are going to do some, where would they go?

And what I mean by that is, so, Janesville.

Janesville has an old GM plant there that's basically vacant.

You know, it's got a lot of the infrastructure there.

You know, if the data center wants to come in, to me, let's try to steer them to something like that, a brownfield site that has no further use, instead of maybe taking over

900 acres of farmland to build something new.

Why don't you go to an existing facility that's not in use?

Like up in Wisconsin Rapids, there's an old paper plant.

I think they turned it down though, didn't

they?

They

did.

That's the thing.

The locals turned it down.

And once again, they can do that.

It's just, I hope we can have a better discussion one day about if we are going to get them and if people don't want them, that's fine.

I support that.

if you're going to do the siting, let's do areas that basically like the one at the paper plant, that will be, now that will always be vacant.

That's the thing.

And so that's, that's my only concern is, you know, you have an opportunity maybe to redevelop an area, but if the community, just like you said, Jamesville voted it down and so did Rapids.

So.

I know you have a really cool thing going on the Senate scholar program.

We had a story on about that earlier, but I know that's something that excites you, Howard.

Yeah and the Senate scholar program is something that's been going on for for many many years and essentially it's an opportunity for high school juniors and seniors to apply for this and then to they come down if selected they come down to to Madison for a week and we've had

people from my district over the last number of years.

And there's one selected from each Senate district.

So there's 33 students and they come in in different waves.

And so the application period is open right now.

And the website is www.Senate

They have until November 6th to submit an application for consideration.

We've had a number of, obviously over the last several years, students from my district and some just great young men and women that come in and stuff.

And one of them, we're offline, Tony has mentioned Connor Harchie was one of our Senate scholars and who's now working in the Capitol.

Yeah.

So anyway, so, um, and, you know, it exposes these students to, to government, kind of an inside look.

And, uh, they, they visit the branches of government and they, uh, probably sit in on some committee meetings.

They spent some of the, uh, week in, in my office.

seeing kind of what we do and get involved with some of the stuff that we do in the office.

So anyway, I guess I encourage your listeners, if they got a junior or senior that might be interested in something like this to submit an application.

Not just about politics.

It's about learning and learning about what

happens.

It's about the process.

Here's how things...

move and everyone that I've talked to after they've been through the process, we're very, very happy with it.

And there's a chance also in part of the segments where they get a chance to sit down with a few of us and ask us senators.

just questions sit out in a room and say, Hey, you know, what is your, you know, and usually they have a Republican and Democrat Senator there.

So they, you know, um, and, and again, these are, you know, legislators or these are students from, um, Milwaukee and Green Bay and, and Potosi, you know, from all over the state.

So urban, rural, and, uh, so it's, it's a good opportunity for, for students.

Anything new on expanding, uh, broadband in?

rural communities either.

Yeah.

Well, I know there's a lot of federal money that's still coming down.

That's still actually working through the system.

And I know there's been a little frustration with some of our carriers about the.

the bureaucracy in getting some of that federal money.

But no, they're still expanding.

I mean, obviously, as you know, Phil, there's a need.

And until it's completely been out, I mean, or put out, you know, I know that Starlink is getting a little more prevalent.

I mean, you're seeing more people just to get that, but no, it's still needed and there's still money available.

And I know all our providers in the area are still working hard to get it.

Sometimes

I can't make a phone call though.

You know that you know that it's interesting you bring that up I've we've actually got a lot of complaints about that.

Yeah, I'm being told it's because of the upgrade to the 5g and then obviously like I am I'm a u.s.

Seller or was now that got bought out by T-Mobile and there was some issues with

The antenna that the different antennas around and actually the relationship of the contract on that kind on the backside of that.

So I know that's been very frustrating because I'll, you know, before I could be in an area, I get, I get, you know, four bars or five bars.

Now it's an SOS.

So it's, it's frustrating, but I know they're working through, through that right now.

So dropping calls is

always frustration.

Yeah.

Very much so.

So, uh,

You're right in the middle of the campaign.

As you mentioned, uh, some things you want to talk about, uh, down the stretch here, Howard, is you looked toward November.

Well, just, uh, I've been out, uh, working hard, knocking on doors, um, knocking a lot of doors.

So I'll be in, uh, Muscatty, um, later today, um, knocking on doors, um, you know, but having said all that, you know, the, the legislature, um, you know, we're still, um, in, in, in session, I should say in session, I guess we're not.

Like the Joint Finance Committee, still is meeting.

We met earlier this month and took up a number of initiatives.

So Joint Finance Committee is one of those committees that we never really adjourn, you know, because we've got requests coming in for new positions in an agency, transfers of money, you know, from one line item to another.

uh, approving settlements, uh, with the, uh, with the government.

Uh, so, um, one of the things earlier this month that we did was we, uh, approved the sale of a couple of, um, Madison office buildings.

Um, and, uh, which, you know, the, um, the impact, uh,

whatever the proceeds were from that goes to pay down debt, which is a good thing.

And that will, the two buildings that we had, the deferred maintenance on those two buildings was over $200 million.

So, I mean, it was just stuff that they're older buildings and, you know, we either had to spend a lot of money refurbishing these older buildings and they're empty.

there's not a person in them or we want to sell them.

And so we decided to sell them, which I think is a smart move for the taxpayers.

And all that property will now go on the tax rolls as taxable property, which isn't a bad thing.

Tony still have the fire in the belly since you took office.

I mean, or, you know, what makes you want to go to do this instead of staying home and farming?

No, it's just,

uh, you have your days.

I'm not going to lie about that.

And so, but no, I mean, just listening to people, you know, one thing in my, you know, I got elected in 18.

People just want to be heard.

I mean, they truly do.

They just, and you know, at many times we're a sounding board and because they are, they're frustrated.

And I just hope people understand there is a difference between the federal level, which, you know, we, we, we have very, very limited, you know, control over.

Um, but the state, I just want people to realize just how much state

government actually does influence our lives and it is.

I mean it and you know we've got a lot of work to do.

I'm proud of the things what I enjoy is you know you work on something like shared revenue.

I don't mean keep bringing that up that that that was a monumental lift and we got that done and it is helping locals.

I know to your point maybe not enough but it seems like it's never enough but it's you also don't want to

below the budget either.

You got to be very smart.

Just like everybody listening, you know, you, you got a budget that you need to live within our means.

Um, and you know, we have the same thing.

We have costs that are going up just like all our constituents are dealing with.

So, but, uh, no, I still got to fire in my belly and now there's still a lot of work to do and a lot of things to get, get solved.

And circulating back around, uh, uh, power lines.

So what's the best process that people can do?

Keep

Putting in their two cents

keep just stay engaged though.

So on Friday night when I had my, you know, my final spit stay, say a stay or say, I just said, stay engaged.

You know, stay, you know, stay on, you know, the stuff on faithful.

And once again, just go make sure you're in a site that's reputable.

Okay.

But just, uh, make sure that you were, you're staying vigilant, you're paying attention because this is far, far from being over.

I mean, we are literally at the beginning.

If it's a baseball analogy, we're in the first inning right now.

So it's a long process.

There's going to be a lot of opportunities to say, I don't want this, or is there a better way to do it?

And I don't mean to reiterate what I said earlier.

regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of that, can we at least try to focus and stay on the same page as we go down this process, regardless of your political affiliation or whatever you like or don't like.

Let's just say focus on this one issue and stay together because we will be much stronger together than if we divide.

Howard, anything else you want to say in closing?

No, I just, you know, again, we've got a lot done.

We've got a lot done since I've been in legislature.

I look around to, you know,

some of the, you know, rural EMS, rural hospitals, actually the broadband thing.

I shared the study committee and rural broadband back in 2015, which initiated a lot of this development back then.

So I'm very connected to the ag community.

I'm from this area.

And I, Tony talked about being, being, being out there and stuff.

And I,

Rarely am I ever home at night, you know, it doesn't matter whether it's Doesn't matter yet.

We want year it is I am at a Farm Bureau meeting or a furnishing Chamber of Commerce meeting or I'll be at you know every night this week I got something going on With in my district so and I you know, I enjoy that and and like Tony said people appreciate that people want to Have a connection to come up share, you know

You know share their their opinions with this so We've gotten a lot done and but there's there's always a lot more work to be done

River Valley school fair on Friday.

Can you still fit in your letter jacket or I think

I'm not sure if I could even find the thing

You know, I know people always complain about the roads.

I do want to emphasize over the last four budgets We have put a tremendous amount of money in roads a rip the agricultural road improvement program.

That's something that Howard Was very instrumental in so, you know, I understand I'm not I'm not taking a victory lap on don't you think I'm not taking a victory lap on roads There's a lot more work to be done.

I get that but we have

really got the message from folks that our roads need fixed and we have put a lot more money and we will continue to do that because we are woefully behind on road maintenance and I mean you see what's going on in front of your studio.

I mean that was all in several budgets a couple budgets ago and that investment particularly in our part of the state needs to continue.

Yeah,

it'll be good when it's all finished.

Oh, yeah, it's

just it, you know, to your point, Phil, it just it's horrible as it's going on.

I know it's very inconvenient, but once again, it needs to be done right at the end of the tunnel.

November, I think they said

that on roads.

A couple of years ago was that 20 when we walked out of the studio and met with the highway commissioner and talked about county.

Oh, that's right.

And because that project was 20 years dead and, you know, it had been

uh been going on for for years in the planning stage and all that stuff and it was it was basically dead and uh Tony and I met with the highway commissioner and um we made a few phone calls uh and uh we're able to get uh money in in the budget for that and as you know county owe is a reality here so I mean it's just stuff like that that um you know um I enjoy I enjoy I like fixing problems you know and um

Sometimes the bigger the challenge, the more exciting it is.

Thanks for the good conversation this morning,

gentlemen.

Representative Tony Kurtz, State Senator Howard Markline for their monthly visit here on our morning show.

you

Welcome to our morning show get together today as we kick off a very busy week here on the morning show Representative Tony Kurtz is here of Wisconsin's 41st Assembly District and State Senator Howard Markline is back representing the 17th Senate District

So we say good morning.

Both of you guys have been pretty busy.

Haven't you?

Good morning.

How are you?

Good to see you guys.

Well, Tony, you were at a meeting in the Dells on Friday night about power lines.

Maybe you could talk about that and

what was.

So just to kind of give you a little background, um, the no, uh, 765.org group.

put this on.

And basically it was open to the public, anybody that was concerned.

I would imagine there's probably around 400 people there.

Congressman Tom Tiffany was there.

I was there.

Senator Kieske was there.

Also Representative DeSantis was there.

David Crowley was invited.

His schedule wouldn't permit, but basically it was billed as a nonpartisan and basically just show the joint.

You know, the joint collaboration that, you know, basically everybody that I know of politically is against the 765 line.

And so it was a good discussion.

There was a couple of things that I put out that I think your listeners should know.

I think the people up there on, on Friday, um, and we, we talk about it later, but no, it was very good, very well attended.

Um, and I, I know, uh, some of those organizations also taped it so people could go back on that, on that, uh, website, no 765.org, uh, uh, website or Facebook page.

And I'm sure they could watch the details of it.

So.

Yeah.

Hot topic.

That's for sure.

Howard.

This is a topic that really brings, uh, both sides together a little bit, doesn't it?

It does.

I mean, I've heard, uh, obviously that.

proposed line goes through Crawford County, which is in my district.

And, you know, I've heard for months now from constituents in that area that

Just just opposed to it.

And you're right.

It doesn't political stripes don't matter on this issue.

Very broad based opposition to it.

And so it's, you know, it's personal.

It's through people's land and some of the most beautiful land in the state of Wisconsin.

And, you know, I, you know, if the

proposal was, was different if it was along a interstate or along, you know, you know, I don't think we have the opposition that we're seeing right now.

But the fact that there, the least the proposals are cutting through just some beautiful, beautiful countryside.

And I don't know, it's, it's not good.

It's not good.

And they feel, you know, kind of helpless.

A lot of the

decisions on this is with the Public Service Commission and which

Nobody votes for the Public Service Commission.

Those are three commissioners that are appointed by the governor.

And so they're kind of insulated from the pressures that Tony and I feel out here from our constituents.

And then that was all changed back under the Doyle administration when they took the control away from the legislature and put it solely with the Public Service Commission.

You know, the PSC is pretty well insulated on this thing, unfortunately, but they, um, as I've shared with people, um, when I've been in Crawford County and Eastman and Seneca and some of those places is, um, don't give up, you know, don't give up, continue the fight.

Um, it may look like an uphill battle, but don't give up.

Cause, uh, if you do, we'll end up.

with the worst possible outcome, the worst possible sightings.

So just keep, we need to keep engaged and, you know, again, just don't give up.

One of the things I was going to ask you about though, I know you signed a letter to Governor Evers, you and several other officials, but saying the governor might be able to.

turn away or say no to it, but the governor is saying that he can't legally put a stop to it.

Is that true, Tony?

So, I mean, I'm on that letter as well, you know, and the fact of the matter is, what we were referring to is, is this as far from over?

So there is going to be the roles for the Department of Natural Resources.

Believe it or not, there's actually a role for DOT, Department of Transportation, as well as we go down this track.

And so what the governor basically is saying, Howard's right about the PSE.

Okay, they're unfortunately are kind of untouchable, whereas the DNR is not.

Okay, the DNR is going to have a role in this.

As this goes further down the line, the DNR is going to do a lot of permitting, and so they control the permit.

So when the governor, and just kind of a little, the governor's basically saying he's hands off, and he doesn't have any control on the DNR, that is all due respect.

That's BS.

He appoints the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.

The secretary works at the pleasure of the governor.

So there are going to be opportunities down the line, not necessarily maybe right now, but there are opportunities down the line that the Department of Natural Resources can step in and say, you're not following these permits or we're not going to allow you.

And to Howard's point, the driftless region, and everybody knows, because you all live here in the driftless, it is a very unique

you know, environmentally sensitive area.

I mean, not only in the state, but in the country, there's nothing quite like the drift list.

And so I personally think the DNR is going to scrutinize this.

They could be doing this now because you've already seen the proposed route.

adamantly disagree with the governor because he does control the Department of Natural Resources.

Now, let's be honest, obviously we have a governor's race going on.

The next governor, you know, whoever that is will appoint the next DNR secretary.

That DNR secretary, this is something that he or she could have front and center on at their agency.

So, what the governor's saying, you know, I'll do respect, that's not gonna...

That's not going to fly with me.

And I do want to echo one of the things is, you know, I was driving when I drove down here from Wonny Walk this morning, you know, I went by the, by the Democrat headquarters and there was a no 65 sign in the thing.

I drive by the Republican headquarters, no 765 line.

How often, Phil, do you drive by both political parties and actually see one sign that we agree on?

And so I want to echo what Howard says.

This is a probably a, I kid you not a 95% issue that collectively, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, we all agree we oppose this.

And all I'm asking is as this goes on, you know, we get very, I don't want to say tribal, but we get, oh, it's a Republican thing or it's a Democrat thing.

Please.

If at all possible, let's say unified on this one topic.

I mean, yes, are there things we adamantly disagree on?

Absolutely.

But let's collectively stay unified on this one issue.

Because that's all I'm asking.

To Howard's point, this is far from over.

I know you're going to have some reps in from MGS.

I'm being told that you can still do your public comments.

So please do that.

I know the deadline on some things was seven.

the 7th of September, the key thing about putting your comments in, either email in writing or however you want to submit those, they are literally tracking those right now.

They have their big old planning board and they are mapping where the biggest resistance is versus where aren't we getting any pushback on this route.

That's what they're doing right now.

They're gathering all this data and they're seeing where's the resistance or non-resistance.

So it is critical.

It is critical.

that people stay engaged on this.

I cannot emphasize that enough.

Oh,

or

anything?

Yes, you know, as Tony said, like the, you know, we all know that regulatory agencies, the DNR primarily, DOT also, but you know, they can make on a project, they can make life easy, or they can make a life of living hell.

And I guess what I'm like, just echo what Tony said, I mean, the governor, he could

he could make sure that this project does not go as smoothly as the developers wanted to go.

Okay.

The other thing I would ask your listeners to think about this.

So we've got a governor election coming up here in six weeks or so.

And I would be, and I've told this to many, many people, I'd be asking our governor candidates their opinions on this whole issue is energy,

um policy and uh renewables and transmission lines and all that stuff because the next governor and we we are going to have a new governor is going to be appointing the next uh commissioners to the public service commission so you know and the first one could happen you know early in in that in that term and so yeah so you know and again does one person on the the psc is that going to change the the direction no but i'll tell you what if you get somebody

who's vocal on that three-member PSC, I think they could have a significant impact, you know, just in terms of the direction that this thing goes.

And I just, I don't mean to reiterate about the DNR.

So in Juneau County, Highway J up there, we got an ARIP grant, a grant that, you know, 150 million that we got in the budget to help with agricultural roads.

That project was supposed to be done this year.

The DNR actually is holding a permit back because there's a lizard up there that has to be mitigated.

So that project now may not even get done until next year.

And it wasn't me.

This was something that Senator Kisky and I's office both worked on to see, okay, what's going on.

And so the DNR does have a heck of a lot of power.

The other thing I do want to, I know you haven't mentioned this, but

MGS right now, they have a docket in front of the Public Service Commission.

It's not open yet.

Basically, it's an application.

So MGS is going to ask the Public Service Commission to be a public utility.

In other words, to have a public utility status.

The interesting part about that is when they submitted their application to be a public utility status in the state of Wisconsin, they're also asking for a whole bunch of exceptions to the law.

There are over 30 exceptions they're asking for.

So in other words, they want to be a utility in the state of Wisconsin, but yet they don't want to follow the rules that every other utility in the state of Wisconsin has to follow.

And so once again, it's up in front of the Public Service Commission.

It has not been opened yet, the docket, in other words, where people can have public comments.

But just that's another opportunity that not only are utilities, but constituents, everybody has an opportunity to chime in on that when those public comments open to say, wait a minute, you're going to allow an outside company to come into Wisconsin.

You're going to maybe give them a

a license, a status to be a utility operator, but yet not follow the rules that everybody else in the state of Wisconsin has to follow.

That right there is not right either.

Comments of Mr. Ade will play tomorrow in the morning show representing that organization.

But it was stopped in Iowa.

Isn't that true?

Didn't I hear that they were proposing this in Iowa and it didn't go through?

I don't know for

sure.

I know there was a project that was stopped and there was another project that actually they got it to go underground.

Um, I couldn't remember if that was Iowa or Minnesota.

I'm not going to lie to you.

So I can't remember which one that was in.

Sounds good.

Um, and in terms of, I know what they say, they've talked about it being inevitable.

It's going to happen.

You know, um, you know,

and once again, I don't mean to digress on this, but it, this is so personal to so many people.

You know, I look at our grid,

And yes, people are saying our grid needs to be upgraded.

The interesting part about the grid, the 765, let's be honest, what the purpose of this is, there's a tremendous amount of wind energy in the Dakotas.

This is basically to move the wind energy out of the Dakotas into the Midwest.

Basically, somebody coined this on Facebook, and I would love to remember who did it, basically said, they want to run an extension cord.

across our area basically to power Chicago.

That's all this is.

Now, does our grid need to be upgraded?

It does, but I think to Howard's point, there's much better ways to do that.

Maybe we expand and increase the capacity on existing lines.

To Howard's point, if this is inevitable, then run it down the doggone interstate.

I mean, people are still not going to be happy about that, but at least when I talk to our constituents about this,

It's a little bit more palatable for them.

Okay, then run it down the interstate that they get that you still may not like it It's still gonna impact people, but I think most people understand That that's a reasonable compromise if it has to be done.

Oh, no Moving on some other things that we talked about of course a state surplus anything changed since the last time you were in with that Howard

Yeah, things have have gotten even better so

The state ends its year on June 30th.

And the last time I was here, we didn't have final numbers, but we have received the final tax collections from the Department of Revenue since then.

And the bottom line is things are better than what we had expected, which is a good thing.

surpluses are not a bad thing.

So we've had strong growth in corporate taxes, sales taxes, income taxes.

And so we just from a percentage standpoint, our tax collections, actual tax collections were 2% greater than what we had expected.

2%.

It can't be that much, right?

That's $400 billion.

Okay.

I mean, it's significant.

So and so

Um, that means that our surplus for the, the, the biennium will be, uh, instead of like two and a half billion, which we had expected to be around a $3 billion.

So, um, so again, and we had a bill that we Tony and I both voted for and advocated for, uh, back in April, that would have, um, sent some of that money back, would have helped our schools, would have cut our property taxes, would have done a lot of stuff right now.

And the money, you know, they got shot down for political reasons and the money's sitting in Madison now.

So it doesn't do anybody out here any, any good at all.

So also embedded in these tax numbers, I did want to highlight the, the sales tax collections for the state were up over 4% over the prior year.

And the importance for our local communities, for our counties, cities, villages, and townships is that they all share in the tax collections in their shared revenue formula.

So once we have a 5 cent state sales tax rate,

One penny of that goes back to our local community.

And so the fact that our sales collections are up, 4% means next year that they will get an increase of about 4% in their shared revenue.

So they can start kind of banking on that now as they prepare their budgets here this fall.

And that was one of the things that was kind of a fundamental

principle when we talked about the shared revenue formula was that we provide them with some inflation protection, they being our municipalities, our townships, counties, because in the past those numbers were locked in.

They hadn't changed for 25 years.

And you know, if you got

10,000 last year, we're getting 10,000 this year.

And so those were adjusted significantly and fairly.

And now, in addition to resetting those shared revenue amounts, they're also going to be getting a inflationary increase, which is tied to the sales tax collections.

That will help,

Tony.

Anything you

want to

add?

Oh, no.

I mean, that just gives a lot of our locals

They're kind of now tied to the Wisconsin economy.

And to Howard's point, it was 20, 25 years.

They were flat.

And now they, as Wisconsin's economy grows, like I said, it's healthy.

It is growing.

Our local...

Local governments now get a get an increase as well So that was something I was very proud that Howard and I got done in the shared revenue bill.

It's a lot of the cities a lot of the counties are struggling in terms of trying to Well,

it's it's it's it's a well, it's fuel.

It's just like, you know, I'm not

I'm not happy with the fuel prices, either.

It's all show insurance costs.

I mean, when I talked to our locals, I was just the other day talking the mayor of Wisconsin Dells and the city administrator.

Boom, the health insurance costs.

That was one of the biggest clips that they got.

And so that's some of the big struggles for a lot of locals for that.

And let's be honest, also our local businesses as well, they're struggling with that as well.

on the farm a little little expensive to put in fuel to it is

uh... it is you know i filled up a couple i got i got a fifty five gallon fuel barrel on the farm and uh... i filled that up i didn't fill it up only put two hundred gallons in it uh... like a ten days ago was four dollars and eighty eight cents i'll probably have to fill it up again next week put or put two hundred gallons and that's going to be probably well over it's going to be close to probably six as well and the worst part is a lot of our farmers uh...

They didn't lock in prices, and they thought, obviously, gas, and if you think about it, you know, your listeners, you know, in the spring, gas was pretty close to almost $2 a gallon.

And I think, like a lot of people, we were anticipating that and looking forward to that.

And unfortunately,

The warren Iran is not helping on this, that's for sure.

And let's be honest, I'm not gonna lie either.

I'm not real happy with the imported.

I was at the Richland County Fair a few weeks ago and this beef from Argentina has really made a lot of beef farmers and dairy farmers pretty upset because a lot of people, I mean, you understand the beef side of the house, but for a lot of our dairy farmers,

You know, the cow, the call cow market was actually quite strong and that was actually helping a lot of our dairy farmers as well.

And, you know, they caught them by surprise and I personally am just a little disappointed in that.

When

you're out in the public, I'm sure you hear that

every time.

I

mean, it doesn't matter where I go.

That is number one issue on people's mind is just how the cost of living and how it's putting a strain on everybody's pocketbook.

There is no doubt.

And that's one thing Howard talked about in April when we came in.

And unfortunately, the rebate checks, the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime, the more funding special education for our schools, and also help

putting a lower in your property taxes that was all part of that package and that that that failed because that would be that would have took effect now and so it is a little disappointing because now the money is in Madison not in people's pockets not in our school districts so it's a little little disappointing.

Can you see that changing maybe with the new governor and everything coming up Howard?

Well I mean you got to be optimistic I'm you know we will have a new governor.

And, you know, we're not sure who that's going to be at, obviously.

So, but, you know, I'm hopeful that, you know, we can revisit the surplus thing.

You know, what's to emphasize what Tony said, you know, the deal, the bipartisan deal that we had with the governor back in May, that would have been in effect now.

So I think what

the the other party is saying is hey just give give us a chance and we'll we'll we'll do it better next year well the budget won't be done till end of June at the earliest okay so then like for our school districts and for you know it's going to sit for at least one whole year in Madison not doing anybody any good at all so anyway and so going back to the to the diesel you know I've

I talked to a lot of farmers, and a lot of the farmers I've talked to were locked in, okay?

They're diesel this year, and 278, 265, and you know, so, you know, as worried about 2026, but boy, next year, you know, they're, you know, and talk to one farmer who's got 8,000 gallon tank, you know, and you start doing the math on,

Yeah, you know We bought farms for that for For what they're gonna pay for for diesel fuel, you know, so yeah, there's a lot of certain uncertainty about about 2027, you know, and so There's a lot of things I hope that uh At a national level they get squared away here pretty darn quick

sounds good.

Mr. Mark line.

Mr. Kurt's in the studio with us We'll have more coming up after the break on the morning show

Well, that's a lot of people don't

realize the significance of that.

So the federal government, and Howard can help me explain how this actually works, it's an assessment that the federal government will help pay for, it's basically a rebate back to hospitals.

And it was more designed years ago to help more rural hospitals, you know, critical access hospitals, some of our smaller hospitals.

That assessment was always at 1.75%.

A lot of the other states around us went up to 6%.

It was probably what, maybe four or five years ago, the hospital association came to us and they said, hey, this is something we want to look at.

It's an availability to actually pull more money down from the federal government and help more with communities that have higher rates of Medicaid, which met this area.

We do have more people on Medicaid, and so that is a mechanism for our hospitals.

It was something that we said, hey, we need to do this.

We need to pull more money down to help our rural hospitals.

Just to let you know, several years ago, we did this for ambulances as well.

Before, we did not have this for our EMS providers.

So it was two budgets ago that actually a lot of our EMS providers got money last year and increased because we pulled, we increased the assessment for the EMS as well.

So basically, when the Trump administration came in, they were going to cap that at 6% and basically lock in every state in what their number was.

So we in the state of Wisconsin would have been locked in at 1.75% compared to 6% for a lot of other states.

So working with the governor, this is something, if somebody may or not remember, last July, there was a rush

to get this done by the 4th of July because that's when President Trump signed the big beautiful bill.

We were told by the administration, by CMS, which is Center for Medicaid and Medicare, told that as long as we as a state have it signed into law before the big beautiful bill was signed, then we would, as a state, get the 6% from here on out.

Well, we did the governor, you know, we got the budget done the governor signed the budget on the 3rd of July And then it went up to DC because the law was in place on the 3rd of July obviously the President Trump signed the big beautiful bill on the 4th of July And we thought we were good and just to let you know is about a billion dollars That we were planning on from the federal government that would help our

our hospitals, particularly our rural hospitals, per year.

It was a huge amount of money.

Unfortunately, it was probably what, August?

Somewhere like that?

We were told that CMS, Center for Medicaid and Medicare,

wasn't going, they didn't interpret it that way.

They basically said, well, no, your law had to be in effect and you had to be pulling down the 6% before 4th of July.

And that's where basically everybody started going to work.

And I will have to say, you know, Congressman Van Orton, Brian Stiles, all our congressional, you know, Senator Baldwin, Senator Johnson, everybody got involved and we

And the state legislature also got involved to petition CMS to say, wait a minute, that's not how the law is.

That's not how it interpreted it.

So I'll let Howard explain a little bit more too, because it's a big deal.

It would have literally, it would have took a billion dollars a year off the table for a lot of our rural hospitals.

And anyway, go ahead, Howard.

Yeah, I mean, it was huge impact.

I mean, a lot of the budget was kind of based on pulling this additional federal money down.

So it kind of a shock to most of us because we and we were communicating throughout the budget process with our congressional delegation because we were thinking about because we weren't sure if we're going to get it done before.

July 4th.

And, uh, so can you get us an extra, can you maybe a week, you know, in case we need a week to, you know, and basically I won't repeat what some of the Congress delegation said, but you better get it done, uh, on time.

So that's why we were, we, uh, worked hard and the governor was on board with this, you know, we, the Senate passed the, uh, the bill, uh, at, uh, I don't know, 10 or 11 at night.

And then I think the assembly was like at one in the morning, one, one 30 in the morning.

And then the governor signed it right away.

on the morning of July 4th to make sure that it was enacted before the one big beautiful bill was signed.

So anyway, the Wisconsin Hospital Association reached out to us in late winter about this and they were very concerned.

you know, and about the impact to all of their hospitals.

And I mean, to my, the number, I've got a lot of rural hospitals in my district and he would had a.

big, big, big impact on them.

So anyway, so we were in, we had meetings in DC and the Wisconsin Hospitals Association requested that that myself, Tony Kurtz, Mark Bourne and Pat Testin meet with the White House back in April.

And we met there and, you know, and I

thought the meeting went, you know, I walked out of there feeling really, really, really good, explaining what the impact would be to the state and, and all that.

And anyway, so, you know, again, I walked out of there, you know, you never know how these meetings are going to go.

But anyway, and we found out later on that they they with this

New information and new explanation that they they said we're you know, we're okay with you know that Wisconsin you're fine.

So so anyway, and that's something that I don't you know It's kind of inside baseball, but I'll tell you what you know a billion dollars per year and this is you know kind of goes on forever It isn't like a one-time deal where you get a billion and this is every every year now.

So anyway, it was a big deal and

And I'll tell you, you know, when, uh, and Tony was sitting in the room, you know, where that swimming met.

And, uh, I can tell you like the, the night before, um, um, I did a lot of prepping for that meeting.

Cause, uh, kind of knew what was that, what was that steak there?

And, um, you know, again, it was a, I thought it was a very, very good meeting by, by everybody in that room.

Good.

You get one shot in those meetings, and so they shuffle you in, and you get a set time, and you got to make your points.

And I was just proud how we all came together.

And once again, it was a team effort, the Congressional, Congressman Dan Orton, Congressman Stiles.

Once again, Senator Baldwin, Senator Johnson's office.

You know, you know, the governor was advocating and then, you know, we personally went there.

So it truly was a team effort.

And, and I just want to, it was, it was incredibly important for the state to make sure we pulled that down.

Campaign season going on right now.

And I know, you know, there's swings going on from both sides, but give you a chance to answer.

Howard, what's, what's the status of data centers?

What's, what's your stance on data centers?

Well, I think data centers, I think probably three things.

Number one,

They need to pay for their own electricity.

They should not be sucking anything off the grid.

Whatever they use, they got to be paying for themselves.

Secondly, there should be local control, much like we advocated for with the wind and solar projects.

Again, if your community doesn't want a data center, they shouldn't.

Shouldn't have it.

They ought to be able to veto the a data center locating in their community.

So, and then finally, I guess, you know, I think that they got to make sure that they don't impact our future, you know, whether it's the environment or, or any other aspects of our future.

So I'm, I think probably in some communities, they may decide it's something that they want to want to have.

But again, that should be a local decision.

by our local communities.

It appears that really not very many communities want them.

No, there are.

And it's just interesting.

And just like, you know, I agree wholeheartedly with Howard, you know, the assembly actually passed a bill this session that, you know, once again, utilities have to pay their own.

If they got to run a line to their place, they're paying for that.

They got to get a new generation plan to pay for that had to be a closed loop system.

In other words, you know, I know there is a genuine concern about water usage.

This would be, okay, you have to have a closed loop.

loop system once you have that water in there that it recycles itself and that was part of the bill also local control local leaders will make that decision but also the other thing we had in there was basically if you're gonna rely on a lot of green energy it had to be

on premise.

In other words, one thing I'd like to see us do a little better job of is instead of using some pristine farmland, let's, you know, rooftops, you know, parking garages, you know, you know, building surfaces, let's be a little bit more creative on, on where we're putting the solar panels.

That's just my, my position on that.

And so I am going to say this, and this is, I don't want to stir the pot, but I do think

As far as the data centers, I do think I would like us to maybe have a conversation about if we are going to do some, where would they go?

And what I mean by that is, so, Janesville.

Janesville has an old GM plant there that's basically vacant.

You know, it's got a lot of the infrastructure there.

You know, if the data center wants to come in, to me, let's try to steer them to something like that, a brownfield site that has no further use, instead of maybe taking over

900 acres of farmland to build something new.

Why don't you go to an existing facility that's not in use?

Like up in Wisconsin Rapids, there's an old paper plant.

I think they turned it down though, didn't

they?

They

did.

That's the thing.

The locals turned it down.

And once again, they can do that.

It's just, I hope we can have a better discussion one day about if we are going to get them and if people don't want them, that's fine.

I support that.

if you're going to do the siting, let's do areas that basically like the one at the paper plant, that will be, now that will always be vacant.

That's the thing.

And so that's, that's my only concern is, you know, you have an opportunity maybe to redevelop an area, but if the community, just like you said, Jamesville voted it down and so did Rapids.

So.

I know you have a really cool thing going on the Senate scholar program.

We had a story on about that earlier, but I know that's something that excites you, Howard.

Yeah and the Senate scholar program is something that's been going on for for many many years and essentially it's an opportunity for high school juniors and seniors to apply for this and then to they come down if selected they come down to to Madison for a week and we've had

people from my district over the last number of years.

And there's one selected from each Senate district.

So there's 33 students and they come in in different waves.

And so the application period is open right now.

And the website is www.Senate

They have until November 6th to submit an application for consideration.

We've had a number of, obviously over the last several years, students from my district and some just great young men and women that come in and stuff.

And one of them, we're offline, Tony has mentioned Connor Harchie was one of our Senate scholars and who's now working in the Capitol.

Yeah.

So anyway, so, um, and, you know, it exposes these students to, to government, kind of an inside look.

And, uh, they, they visit the branches of government and they, uh, probably sit in on some committee meetings.

They spent some of the, uh, week in, in my office.

seeing kind of what we do and get involved with some of the stuff that we do in the office.

So anyway, I guess I encourage your listeners, if they got a junior or senior that might be interested in something like this to submit an application.

Not just about politics.

It's about learning and learning about what

happens.

It's about the process.

Here's how things...

move and everyone that I've talked to after they've been through the process, we're very, very happy with it.

And there's a chance also in part of the segments where they get a chance to sit down with a few of us and ask us senators.

just questions sit out in a room and say, Hey, you know, what is your, you know, and usually they have a Republican and Democrat Senator there.

So they, you know, um, and, and again, these are, you know, legislators or these are students from, um, Milwaukee and Green Bay and, and Potosi, you know, from all over the state.

So urban, rural, and, uh, so it's, it's a good opportunity for, for students.

Anything new on expanding, uh, broadband in?