(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Republican Congressman Scott Fitzgerald says he’s willing to talk about Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act subsidies, but he says Democrats must reopen the government first.
Fitzgerald was on UpFront over the weekend, and he said Democrats could vote at any time to reopen the government, and then there can be talks about how to deal with the healthcare system in this country.
“The [continuing resolution], it’s such a layup at this point,” Fitzgerald said. “If you want to have a discussion about health care, let’ss have that discussion. It’s a massive, complex issue that touches all Americans. And if they think we’re going to be able to sit at a table and negotiate something related to health care under the duress of a government shutdown, they’re just out of their minds.”
Fitzgerald said once the government is back open, there is certainly room for compromise.
“I’m all ears,” Fitzgerald said. “Extending Obamacare subsidies]] is something I think that has been frustrating for many of us who have watched the discussion, and I wasn’t necessarily part of that, but we can talk about Medicaid, Medicare, we can talk about all of it if you want.”
But Fitzgerald said it’s “outrageous” that Democrats think the best way to get to those talks is to now pay the troops.
Fitzgerald says he hopes the shutdown doesn’t last until next month, and said he’s worried about what will happen if it does. Specifically, he’s wondering about furloughs and federal layoffs.
“There’s kind of different set-ups for who’s working full-time and who isn’t, but yeah, I mean, all that’s going to have to be addressed at the end. I think It’s something that Congress has agreed on for many years,” Fitzgerald said. “So, we’ll wait, if this drags into November, though, good God, I just. an’t imagine that we aren’t going to do something to address some of these specific issues related to the shutdown.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin has 421 public school districts. It also has clearly documented dropping enrollment both now and into the future.
Those two factors have combined to create an untenable reality for public schools in the state.
“That number is going to have to drop,” Wisconsin state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie said about the number of districts.
One problem is that not all of the smaller districts understand the scope of the coming public school enrollment and taxpayer funding issues coming their way.
“A lot of school districts don’t even really realize the position that our state is in when it comes to declining enrollment,” Nedweski aide Eric Brooks told The Center Square on Friday.
A group of bills proposed by Nedweski in the Wisconsin Assembly are aimed at fixing that.
School consolidation is a contentious issue as communities fight to retain sports teams and buildings and grapple with the difficulties in matching different teacher contracts and millage rates to make consolidation make sense. But the numbers don’t lie.
Wisconsin’s population is shrinking, it’s projected to continue to shrink. Student enrollment figures are some of the first places that decrease due to lower birth rates, and fewer students mean less teachers, schools and administrators will be needed to educate them.
Public school enrollment in Wisconsin is expected to decline by 10,000 students annually for the five-year period that began in 2023-24 and the trend is expected to continue beyond then.
Nedweski announced a month ago that she planned to introduce legislation to encourage school districts to consolidate.
In her district alone, she noted, there are nine single-school districts, some that only serve K-8 students.
Nedweski and her staff are meeting with educator, administration and school board groups before finalizing language on the set of bills, which they hope to bring forward before the end of the year.
One bill will involve the details on the process for districts to consolidate, including how school board positions would be distributed, what needs to happen to consolidate and what happens in three schools, for instance, look at consolidating and only two agree.
Another set of bills would help fund feasibility studies for schools to examine the impact of consolidation or shared services between districts. The scope is being determined for a few more bills set to be included, according to Brooks.
“We want school districts to be able to realize these efficiencies internally because then those efficiencies could get poured back into classroom resources,” Brooks said.
Details in the bills came from a 2023 study committee on shared services, Brooks added.
The lowering enrollments are impacting how much state funding districts receive, a number based partly on per-student funding, and districts are reaching their levy maximums, leading a record number of districts to go to referendum for more funding.
Consolidation would create larger districts and more overall funding with the goals of efficiency of scale and benefits of a larger range of course availability for students across the issue.
The statewide groups Nesweski and staff have met with understand the enrollment drop issues while not all individual districts understand the scope of the issue and how it will impact schools in coming years, Brooks said.
“We are seeing the enrollment decline pretty consistently,” he said. “It’s not just a regional issue.”

(The Center Square) – There won’t be any bird shows in some parts of
Wisconsin for the rest of the year.
The state’s Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection issued a suspension order for all poultry shows in Jefferson, Waukesha, Walworth and Rock counties.
“All persons are prohibited from moving live domestic birds to, or participate in, any shows, exhibitions, swap meets, and other events in Jefferson, Waukesha, Walworth and Rock counties where domestic birds are brought together and then disperse,” DATCP said in its order.
The order comes after more than 3.5 million birds had to be culled in
Jefferson County because of a bird flu outbreak there.
Wisconsin says just over 3 million birds were culled in late September, and another 520,000-plus had to be put down earlier this month.
“Poultry owners and those working with poultry are strongly encouraged to continue practicing strict biosecurity to protect their flocks. When possible, poultry owners are asked to keep their flocks indoors to prevent contact with wild birds,” DATCP said in a news release.
Wisconsin has been dealing with the bird flu in its commercial and
backyard bird flocks for years. But the outbreak in Jefferson County this fall is larger, and has ended with more culled birds than all of Wisconsin’s previous bird flu cases combined.

(The Center Square) – Microsoft backed out of a 240-acre data center plan in Caledonia.
Hundreds showed up to object to a large-scale data center planned for Port Washington.
Another proposed data center was recently rejected by Menomonie Mayor Randy Knaack.
Opposition is growing across Wisconsin to the large-scale projects as residents learn about the taxpayer costs, impact on electrical rates, water use and lack of benefits of the projects.
The Center Square has exclusively reported on taxpayer incentives given to the projects, including $70 million in sales tax that has been waived on project construction in the first two years of a state exemption, far exceeding Department or Revenue estimates of the exemptions.
Wisconsin comedian Charlie Berens has become actively outspoken on the issue, pointing out when meetings occur like Tuesday’s Common Council in Port Washington, a project expected to use the same amount of electricity as the city of Los Angeles as it will be the largest energy user in Wisconsin history with Vantage asking for 1.3 gigawatts of energy to be available by 2027 and ultimately 3.5 gigawatts of power.
“AI data centers are sending local power bills higher than Uncle Joe when he goes to Illinois for ‘groceries,’” Berens said in a recent post, citing a Bloomberg report on electric bill increases in areas near data centers.
The Center Square has been reporting on those projected electric bill increases – between 25% to 70% in the next 10 years without intervention from policymakers – over the past year, along with the tax breaks given on both sales and property taxes that often negate the proposed positive impacts of the projects.
Other states, such as Minnesota, have lowered sales tax exemptions for data centers after the actual exemptions have far exceeded projections.
Wisconsin lawmakers, however, have been working on expanding the sales tax exemptions that apply to much of the project building materials and computing materials along with equipment replacement at certified data centers.
Voters across the U.S. have said they don’t want data centers built in their community and even more oppose the data centers if tax incentives are awarded to have them built, according to a poll by Libertas Network conducted based on questions from The Center Square.
Microsoft is still working to build a pair of data center projects worth a combined $7 billion in a tax increment district at the former Foxconn site in Racine County. State lawmakers have passed TID exemptions to allow the projects to go beyond the 12% of overall property value allowed for TIDs in a municipality.
“The cost estimates in the tax expenditure report might be way higher than what they predicted in the budget in 2023. It’s safe to assume that most of that lost revenue went to Microsoft,” Good Jobs First Senior Research Analyst Kasia Tarczynska told The Center Square
Berens went on to point out that the AI data centers will employ more robots than people once built, pointing out that promises related to employment should be written into a contract, not be just words.
Berens encouraged the public to reach out to state lawmakers to make rules on what data centers can do.
“Right now data centers are like roundabouts, there are no rules,” Berens said.
Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos did not immediately respond to questions from The Center Square regarding the benefits of the sales tax exemption and other tax breaks for data centers.
Lawmakers spoke about the benefits in a committee meeting last week pushing the expanded sales tax exemptions without talking about specifics. Many have pointed to construction jobs that will be necessary as the data centers are built but employment after the data centers open will be lower.
The projects also have heavy requirements of water for cooling and electricity. The first Mount Pleasant data center and Port Washington combined will require far more electricity than every Wisconsin household combined, according to Clean Wisconsin.

(The Center Square) – One Wisconsin lawmaker is openly chastising the University of Wisconsin for its silence about Charlie Kirk’s death.
State Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesan, wrote an open letter Wednesday, asking the university’s president and campus chancellors why no one has said anything official about Kirk’s killing last month on a college campus in Utah.
“One would hope that there would be some kind of statement from our university leaders here in Wisconsin,” Dallman wrote. “A statement about how our taxpayer-funded universities are going to make sure that students in Wisconsin can freely express their views. A statement about how political violence – regardless of ideology – is wrong and should be condemned. A statement about how students can respectfully disagree with each other civilly. But instead, nothing.”
Dallman is not the only one who noticed UW’s silence.
UW-River Professor Trevor Tomesh wrote an open letter of his own last month, logging many of the same complaints.
“The fact that Charlie was killed on a college campus for expressing his opinions and ideas — the one place in society what’s sole purpose is to express opinions and ideas — should be a watershed moment for all universities. Every single member of every single university community — faculty, administrators, staff and students — should be lamenting this as it spells the death of the university,” he wrote. “To date, there has been no statement from my university or the university of Wisconsin system.”
Tomesh said conservative students on UW campuses see the university’s silence as an endorsement of political violence.
Dallman said the UW needs to make it clear that no one on campus supports violence, political or otherwise.
“I can already tell you what UW System chancellors and President Rothman will say: UW’s new policy prohibits university leaders from making statements that are political. The purpose of this new policy is, uphold and protect academic freedom, freedom of expression, and an environment in which competing ideas can be freely discussed and debated by all members of the university community,” Dallman added. But he said that’s not enough.
“I challenge our university leaders to not only engage students in open dialogue, but to actively invite speakers across all sides of the political spectrum to engage in civil discourse on every campus in Wisconsin,” he wrote. “Charlie said it best, ‘when people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.’ It’s time for our universities to start talking – our future generations depend on it.”

(The Center Square) – Federal bureaucrats are influencing Wisconsin policy through guidance and federal requirements, with 14 specific examples of this taking place since 2011, according to a new report.
Those findings from the Institute for Reforming Government will be reported by IRG General Counsel Jake Curtis at 10 a.m. on Thursday in front of a joint meeting of Wisconsin’s Senate Committee on Licensing, Regulatory Reform, State and Federal Affairs and Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability, and Transparency.
The report pointed out that sometimes, the alignment of federal and state policy can be helpful. But it is crucial that state lawmakers are made aware of when federal policy is influencing state rulemaking and policy in order to have oversight over when that occurs.
The 14 examples include federal guidance on drop boxes before and after the 2020 election. The drop boxes were determined to be unconstitutional in Wisconsin after the 2020 election, but that ruling was later reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court after its political makeup changed before the 2024 election.
“Unelected federal bureaucrats often set policy for Wisconsin from behind the scenes, often unbeknownst to the people’s duly elected representatives,” Curtis said in a statement. “Our elected officials, not bureaucrats in Washington, should be calling the shots. Wisconsin must lead the way in reminding Washington and state leaders that our Constitution starts with the states, not the other way around.”
The report highlights IRG polling from earlier this year which showed that 32% saying that the Legislature should be making the state’s policy decisions while 8% favored bureaucrats at state agencies make those decisions. The poll showed that 76% of Wisconsin voters believe vote4rs and elected officials should be able to overturn burdensome regulations.
The examples of federal influence on state policy included Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources climate-related policy including pollution guidance, air permits and audit thresholds along with groundwater standards.
Medicaid renewals and standards along with standards on items such as raw milk, public pools, camps and even bridge funding came from federal guidance and requirements.
“Crafting a mechanism for legislative oversight of federal guidance documents must be done carefully so as not to raise separation of powers issues,” the report said. “In Wisconsin, courts have struck down laws which sought to control how state agencies publish guidance documents, and legislation seeking to control how state agencies interact with federal guidance documents received by the agency could likely suffer the same fate.”

(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.