(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin bill would allow municipal courts to increase court fees from $38 to $48.
The allowable fees haven’t been increased since 2013 and Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, said the fee increase is crucial to ensure that offenders are paying for municipal courts, not taxpayers.
“Many municipal courts are finding it increasingly difficult to fund their courts with the existing fee structure,” Kaufert told the Assembly Committee on Local Government on Wednesday.
The municipal court process costs less than hearing minor cases in circuit court and the courts do not receive state money.
“Most small municipalities lose money on their municipal court,” said Maria Davis, General Counsel for the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.
Kaufert acknowledged that state lawmakers do not generally like to see fees that automatically rise with inflation, such as gas tax indexing, but that the fee structure needs to be adjusted occasionally due to inflationary costs.
“I believe it is good to review these things every once in awhile,” Kaufert said. “The Legislature is hesitant many times to just allow for government to grow.”
The fees are only assessed when a defendant is found guilty, not in all cases. For those without the means to pay, courts can offer alternatives such as community service, payment plans or fee deferment.

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Assembly approved its housing plan, but without a carve-out for communes.
State representatives voted on a series of plans they say will make housing more affordable and accessible across the state. Most of them make technical changes, but one plan got plenty of attention.
AB 455 would set aside $7 million in state taxpayer money to help take apartment buildings or other multi-family homes and turn them into condos.
Originally, it included language that made references to communes as
well.
That angered Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whiewater.
“What the hell is going on,” Nass wrote when four Republican lawmakers voted for the housing package, including the commune language.
The Republican-controlled Assembly eventually voted at the last minute to cut the commune language.
One of the Republicans who voted for the housing-plus-commune language, state Rep. Jim Piwowarczyk, R-Hubertus, said he idea of the
entire package is to make housing more affordable.
“Wisconsin’s lagging behind the national average when it comes to new
housing units per capita,” Piwowarczyk said. “It’s time to turn that around.”
He said the median home price has jumped from $160,500 in 2015 to
$338,000 today and homeownership has “become out of reach for many
people just starting out.”
Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesean, said the other focus on the housing package is to get government out of the way.
“Government red tape almost always leads to more problems, especially when it comes to housing,” Dallman said. “By removing unnecessary barriers at the local level and creating a more transparent, accountable permitting process, we can help grow Wisconsin’s housing market and give more families a place to call home.”
The whole housing package now heads to the Wisconsin Senate.

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee’s mayor is looking to bring in millions of dollars in new money by charging drivers and reckless drivers more.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson put a proposed wheel tax increase into his new city budget last week.
His proposal would raise the wheel tax, which is Wisconsin’s optional, local tax on license plate renewals, from $10 to $40. Johnson’s office says the hike would bring in $2.7 million to Milwaukee each year.
But the higher wheel tax would also push the cost to register a car in Milwaukee more than $150.
Some Milwaukee aldermen, however, are not thrilled about the mayor’s
plan.
“In a move that surprised absolutely no one, the mayor took one look at the structural deficit that lies at the heart of city finances these days and did what he did last year: he punted,” Alderman Scott Spiker said in a statement.
Milwaukee will need to notify the state if it intends to raise its wheel tax, but it can move ahead on its own.
Milwaukee, however, will need state permission to pursue the mayor’s other idea.
Johnson said he wants to bring red light cameras to the city as a way to fight reckless drivers.
“It’s not just people who are fleeing law enforcement officers, it is those people that are speeding through red lights, it is those people who go through stop signs,” the mayor said. “All those things amount to reckless driving.”
Johnson’s proposal would allow for 75 cameras, five in each of the city’s 15 wards.
State lawmakers would have to change state law to allow the mayor to move ahead with red light cameras. There’s already plenty of opposition in the Republican-controlled legislature.
“This is a cash cow,” Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, said. “You’re going to tell me that a speed camera that clicked onto a vehicle with a stolen license plate, or with no license plates? You think that’s going to stop that guy from doing 100 miles an hour in a 30-mile zone five blocks up? It’s not!”
Lawmakers held a special hearing in Milwaukee on Johnson’s red light camera proposal Tuesday morning.

(The Center Square) – Those pushing further vetting of Wisconsin’s voter rolls will face another hearing when Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul’s appeal of a Waukesha County ruling is heard at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 31.
Groups such as The MacIver Institute have been working with the Election Integrity Network Coalition to push for stronger requirements to verify that only those eligible to vote are allowed to do so in Wisconsin.
Attorneys Mike Dean and Kevin Scott of Waukesha County are representing petitioners Ardis Cerny and Annette Kuglitsch in the case against the Wisconsin Elections Commission, saying their votes can be negated if the WEC is not properly vetting voter rolls in the state.
“Mike and I appreciate the Judge’s courage in taking a stand for the law and the constitution of our state,” Attorney Kevin Scott said about the case. “We believe this is a decision that all citizens of the state can get behind as fair and accurate elections are favored by a vast majority of the state,”.
MacIver Institute CEO Annettee Olson and others are hoping the ruling will be a model for other states.
“This decision is a resounding affirmation of the principle that only legal votes should count in our elections,” Olson said in a statement. “For too long, Wisconsin’s system has relied on self-affirmation without verification, risking the dilution of lawful votes by ineligible individuals. This ruling upholds the recent Wisconsin Constitution Amendment passed by 70% of Wisconsin voters last November, protecting the sacred right to vote for only U.S. citizens. We’re grateful the court recognized the irreparable harm at stake.”
The ruling comes after Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires only citizens can vote in elections last November.
“This ruling is a triumph for every Wisconsin voter whose voice deserves protection from dilution by unlawful ballots,” Sharon Bemis, President of the Election Integrity Network, said in a statement. “It vindicates our relentless push for transparency and accountability, proving that courts will uphold the people’s will when agencies like WEC fall short.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul will run for reelection rather than joining the race to become the state’s next governer, Kaul announced Tuesday.
Kaul made news Monday by appealing a Waukesha County ruling that would require the Wisconsin Election Commission to check its voter rolls with available information from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
“This is a pivotal time for our nation,” Kaul said in a statement announcing his decision to seek reelection. “Some of our most basic rights are under threat. Severe cuts have been made to programs that provide opportunities and have helped communities move forward. It’s critical that we continue to have an AG who will stand up for our freedoms and the rule of law.”
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Devin Remiker applauded the decision, saying that Kaul is standing up to President Donald Trump.
“Josh Kaul has been a champion for Wisconsin and a bulwark against the MAGA extremist politicians and the Trump administration who have been trying to subvert our democracy, attacking our personal freedoms, and stealing from everyday working people.”
A recent poll showed that Republican Tom Tiffany has a huge lead in the Republican race and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who has not yet announced he is running, is leading amongst Democrats.
Tiffany’s campaign announced Monday that he had raised $1 million, less than two weeks after officially entering the race.
“Wisconsinites are fired up to save our state and restore commonsense leadership,” Tiffany said in a statement. “While Democrats are propped up by Hollywood millionaires and coastal elites, we are building a grassroots movement right here at home that will deliver a Republican victory for Wisconsin.”Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. head Missy Hughes, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, state Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and former Democrat State Rep. Brett Hulsey have entered the race.
Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann has joined Tiffany on the Republican side.

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Elections Commission must check the state’s voter rolls against information from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, a Waukesha County judge ruled.
The state’s election authority must check voter registration information with state identification information to ensure the voter rolls are accurate.
“WEC is failing in the most basic task of ensuring that only lawful voters make it to the voter roll from where lawful votes are cast,” Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Maxwell wrote.
Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires only citizens can vote in elections last November.
Election officials claimed that they could not check the voter rolls against WisDOT information previously.
But groups such as the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty have been pushing the state to do exactly that.
“Shockingly, the agency that Wisconsin’s citizens rely upon to ensure the integrity of our electoral process claims Wisconsin statutes ‘do not require the Commission to prevent non-U.S.citizens from appearing on the list or to remove non-U.S. citizens from the list,’” Maxwell wrote. “WEC is wrong. Wisconsin statutes are replete with requirements that only lawful voters are allowed to cast a vote.”
WILL recently wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice asking the department to find out why WEC said that it uses a different process to match voter registrations with DMV information for online and mail-in or in-person registrations.

(The Center Square) – A Democratic committee member has been removed from the Committee on Licensing, Regulatory Reform, State and Federal Affairs after a dispute over a bill on blocking state funds from being used toward health care for those in the country illegally.
Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, said that he was removed after speaking out on Senate Bill 341, which he says contradicts the teaching of Jesus.
The Wisconsin Assembly passed the bill 51-44 on Sept. 11 and Carpenter’s objections came during a public hearing on Sept. 18.
Bill sponsors say it is aimed at preventing the state from adding undocumented immigrants to BadgerCare like occurred in recent years in Minnesota and Illinois, with Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, saying it would prevent the state from being the next “test dummy.”
But the bill goes further than those programs, as evidenced by fiscal notes from state departments including the Department of Corrections, which believes it could be unconstitutional to deny state-paid care to inmates who are undocumented.
Carpenter commented during the hearing that people are being detained under the guise of immigration officials going after violent criminals.
“That is a small percentage compared to innocent people, on technicalities, that are being sent out to El Salvador, maybe some Middle East country,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter added during the public hearing that the intent of the bill was “wrong” and “immoral” before committee chair Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, hit his gavel and said “you can not negatively talk about him.”
“If you’re going to speak out of line, I’m not going to allow it,” Kapenga added.
Kapenga then hit his gavel again while Carpenter spoke about immigration policy from the 1950s and Carpenter reach to grab the gavel, which was sitting on the table.
Carpenter cited his Catholic faith and responsibility to acknowledge right and wrong.
“I was wrongly accused of insulting the authors’ character when I was referring to the policy before us, which can be seen in the record,” Carpenter said in a statement. “I should not have been gaveled down for debating the morality of the bill.
“I was gaveled down again when I dared to speak about one of the saddest chapters in American history when over one million people of Mexican descent were deported, including thousands of U.S. Citizens. I have a right and responsibility to raise legitimate concerns about legislation that scapegoats people across Wisconsin.”
Kapenga said in the meeting that Carpenter could ask questions about the bill in the public hearing but not continue to make statements outside of the bill.
“Public hearings are an opportunity to question and debate the legislation brought forward, not to act out and attempt to rip the gavel out of the Chairman’s hands,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a statement to The Center Square. “Actions have consequences and due to Sen. Carpenter’s outburst and lack of decorum I have removed him from the Senate Committee on Licensing, Regulatory Reform, State and Federal Affairs.”
Carpenter noted during the public hearing that, while Republicans are trying to pass the bill, he believes that Gov. Tony Evers will veto it.
The Center Square was unable to obtain additional comment from Kapenga or Senate Minority Leader Diane Hesselbein.

(The Center Square) – It’s really early, but a new poll for next year’s race for governor has two early leaders.
Platform Communications is out with a new poll that gives Republican Tom Tiffany a huge lead in the race, while it shows Mandela Barnes out in front for the Democrats.
“Barnes opens as a potential candidate with the highest marks among poll respondents, with 16% saying they would support him in a primary,
while declared candidate Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is in second at 8%,”
pollsters wrote. “Nearly 38% of Democrats remain undecided in the race.
Barnes has not yet launched a campaign, but he’s expected to. His last campaign was in 2022, when he ran and lost the election for U.S. Senate.
Plattform’s poll gives Tiffany 30% of the Republican vote.
“The nearest prospective candidate, Eric Hovde, garnered 14% from voters, while 34% of the Republican electorate remained undecided,”
pollsters noted. “The poll also included candidate and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, and prospective candidates Tim Michels and Mary Felzkowski.”
Hovde, Michels and Felzkowski have not jumped into the campaign yet.
The poll comes nearly 11 months before voters in Wisconsin will pick the next candidates for governor.
Gov. Tony Evers decided against running for a third term in July that set-off the first open primary for governor in Wisconsin since 2010.
Beyond the horse race, Platform’s poll offers some insight into where voters are this early in the race.
“Head-to-head, Republicans open with a narrow lead on a “generic” ballot. Forty-three percent of voters say that if the election for governor were held today, they would support a Republican candidate, while 40 percent would support the Democrat,” the pollsters added.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill on Friday that will make using artificial intelligence to create pornography of a person a misdemeanor and using an AI-generated nude or sexual image of a person to intimidate, coerce or harass them a felony.
Wisconsin Act 34 was authored by Rep. Brent Jacobson, R-Mosinee, and Sen. Andre Jacque, New Franken.
The law, which goes into effect on Saturday, came after D.C. Everest Junior High student Bradyn Bohn died by suicide after he was the victim of sextortion.
“Recent events like the tragic death of DC Everest student Bradyn Bohn demonstrate how vulnerable we can be to online coercion and intimidation,” Jacobson said in a statement. “I am proud that my colleagues in the Legislature and Governor Evers could come together to proactively update our laws and keep Wisconsinites safe!”
The law is an expansion of prior crimes related to the depiction of nudity.
Jacque cited a study from Deeptrace which showed that 96% of “deep fake” material is non-consensual pornography, and “exclusively targets and harms women.”
Jacque cited another case in Milwaukee where an artificial image was created by a former police officer who then used the image to harass an ex-girlfriend.
“As the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) become more and more advanced, bad actors are increasingly using artificially generated sexually explicit images to harass and intimidate innocent people online,” Jacque said in a statement. “Act 34 will protect citizens against a new and disturbing form of cyber-abuse and ensure that all Wisconsinites can feel comfortable sharing regular images of themselves online without fearing that those images will be manipulated or corrupted into pornography.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, sees an E-Verify bill that he has co-authored as a step toward requiring E-Verify for all employers in the state, like 10 other states require.
For now, however, Assembly Bill 281 would require state government employees and state contractors with contracts more than $50,000 to use E-Verify for employees.
“This is a commonsense measure that promotes transparency and accountability in public contracting and state employment,” said Rep. Jim Piwowarczyk, R-Hubertus.
Hubertus told the Assembly Committee on Commerce that, had Iowa used this requirement, it would have avoided the situation where Des Moines Public School Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts was arrested after it was found that he had weapons charges and was in the country illegally.
“This bill would make sure this does not happen here in Wisconsin,” Piwowarczyk said.
Wimberger said that he knows and has experienced how difficult it can be to find employees.
“The fact that we struggle to find labor does not justify doing something that is destructive to our society,” Wimberger said.
He compared it to before the Civil War when cotton farmers said that they wouldn’t have anyone to pick cotton if they could not have slaves.
“The answer is that we’re going to figure it out,” Wimberger said. “… Advance as a society and not be luddites.”
Christine Neumann-Ortiz of Voces de la Frontera registered against the bill, saying it would make some undocumented workers go the extra steps of buying a Social Security number from someone else in order to work and then it would raise the charges that could be brought against the worker if they are found to have used false information.
“We need to make sure that, here in Wisconsin, people are made to feel welcome and their contributions are welcomed,” Neumann-Ortiz said.”… In the absence of immigration reform, it is what people are coerced to do.”
David Ortiz Whittingham, of Worker Justice Wisconsin, said that the requirement will lead more contractors to heavily use subcontractors who do not have the E-Verify requirement to do the actual contracted work and shield “brazenly illegal practices.”
“The prime contractor on the project will only employ a small fraction of the workers on the project,” he explained.
Wimberger said that the use of illegal immigrant labor undercuts the value of an hour of labor for those in the country illegally, citing Cesar Chavez.
He called the employment of workers in the country illegally “corrosive.”

(The Center Square) – The pushback to a housing cooperative plan at the Wisconsin Capitol is not just because of what’s in the bill.
Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, asked “what the hell is going on” after four Republicans joined Wisconsin Socialist Caucus member Ryan Clancy in voting for the plan.
“In what world would a majority Republican committee agree to spend up to $10 million for the renovations of, legal costs and startup costs for COMMUNES?,” Nass said.
The legislation says the idea is to have the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority start a “condominium conversion grant program for the purpose of awarding grants to owners of multifamily housing for the costs associated with converting multifamily housing to condominiums,” the bill states.
There’s no specific mention of what Nass calls communes.
Clancy, D-Milwaukee, said the idea is to find ways to provide more affordable housing across the state.
“Housing co-ops are an important alternative for households in our communities that lack the means to individually purchase and maintain stable housing. They provide the assurance of predictable costs, create the potential for innovative forms of cost sharing and cost reduction, and help strengthen the communities that embrace this well-proven model,” Clancy said in a statement. “There is nothing inherently conservative, liberal, or socialist about housing co-ops as an alternative to traditional, for-profit single-family housing and renting. It’s simply a means to housing security, affordability and equity for people who face spiraling rent costs and profound barriers to home ownership, profound problems in my district and statewide.”