Latest news with #WisconsinExaminer
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2 days ago
- General
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Evers raises Pride flag over Wisconsin State Capitol
The Progress Pride Flag flies over the Wisconsin Capitol. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner) For the seventh time, Gov. Tony Evers ordered the Progress Pride Flag to fly over the Wisconsin State Capitol for LGBTQ Pride Month. This year, Pride Month begins on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which gave same-sex couples the right to get married in 2015. But Evers' celebration of LGBTQ pride is occuring as the administration of President Donald Trump attacks the rights of transgender people and a recent Gallup poll found that Republican acceptance of same-sex marriage has fallen to its lowest level in nine years. 'When the Pride Flag flies above the People's House, it sends a clear and unequivocal message that Wisconsin recognizes and celebrates LGBTQ Wisconsinites and Americans,' Evers said in a statement. 'Every day, but especially today and this month, we reaffirm our commitment to striving to be a place where every LGBTQ kid, person, and family can be bold in their truth and be safe, treated with dignity and respect, and welcomed without fear of persecution, judgment, or discrimination. I promised long ago that, as governor, I would always fight to protect LGBTQ Wisconsinites with every tool and every power that I have. I will never stop keeping that promise.' In the executive order Evers signed Friday, he notes that the LGBTQ has been under attack in recent years, including in Wisconsin where Republicans have tried more than once to pass legislation attacking transgender children. 'Despite historic victories, in the last several years, there has been a significant increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced in state Legislatures across the country, including in Wisconsin, that have targeted LGBTQ kids and people and increased dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, as well as efforts on a state and national level to erase LGBTQ history and stories.' The Progress Pride Flag flying above the Capitol includes the recognizable LGBTQ rainbow colors and a chevron of additional stripes that represent LGBTQ people of color, the transgender community and people with HIV/AIDS. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
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The baffling B.S. of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson
Sen. Ron Johnson at the Newsroom Pub on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner You have to hand it to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson. As Republicans across the country run in fear from their constituents, refusing to hold town halls lest they be asked to answer for brutal federal budget cuts and threats to health care, nutrition assistance and Social Security, Johnson showed up at a Milwaukee Press Club event Wednesday and appeared cheerfully unperturbed as he took questions from journalists and a skeptical crowd. Not that his answers made sense. People sitting in front of the podium at the Newsroom Pub luncheon crossed their arms and furrowed their brows as Johnson explained his alternative views on everything from global warming to COVID-19 to the benefits of bringing the federal budget more in line with the spending levels of 1930 — i.e. the beginning of the Great Depression, before FDR instituted New Deal programs Johnson described as 'outside [the president's] constitutionally enumerated powers.' A handful of protesters chanted in the rain outside the Newsroom Pub, but overall, the event was cordial and reactions muted. In part, this was attributable to Johnson's Teflon cockiness and the barrage of misinformation he happily unleashed, which had a numbing effect on his audience. Johnson fancies himself a 'numbers guy.' In that way he's a little like former House Speaker Paul Ryan, his fellow Wisconsin Republican who was once considered the boy genius of the GOP. Ryan made it safe to talk about privatizing Medicare by touring the country with a PowerPoint presentation full of charts and graphs, selling optimistic projections of the benefits of trickle-down economics, corporate tax cuts and the magic of the private market. But Ryan couldn't stomach Trump and he's been exiled from the party. Johnson is the MAGA version. While he doesn't dazzle anyone with his brilliance, he does a good job of baffling his opponents with a barrage of B.S. that leaves even seasoned journalists scrambling to figure out what question to ask. Where do you begin? Back in 2021, YouTube removed a video of Johnson's Milwaukee Press Club appearance because he violated the platform's community standards by spreading dangerous lies about COVID, the alleged harm caused by vaccines and the supposed benefits of dubious remedies. But this week he was back, proudly endorsing DHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.'s decision to eliminate federal COVID vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children. While he hopes Kennedy goes further in rolling back vaccinations, he said, 'at least we're not going to subject our children to them anymore.' A woman in the audience who identified herself as a local business owner seeking 'common ground' thanked Johnson for saying 'we don't want to mortgage our children's future,' but expressed her concern that besides the deficit spending Johnson rails against, there's also the risk that we're mortgaging the future by destroying the planet. Johnson heartily agreed that everyone wants a 'pristine environment.' 'I mean, I love the outdoors,' he declared. But then he added, 'We shouldn't spend a dime on climate change. We'll adapt. We're very adaptable.' He claimed that 'something like 1,800 different scientists and business leaders' have signed a statement saying there is no climate crisis. (The overwhelming consensus among scientists is that climate change is real and caused by people and the statement he referred to has been debunked.) 'So if it's climate change you're talking about, we're just at cross-purposes,' he added. 'I completely disagree.' Most of Johnson's talk consisted of a fusillade of hard-to-follow budget numbers and nostrums like 'the more the government spends the less free we are.' Charles Benson of TMJ4 News tried to get the senator to focus on what it would take to get him to go along with Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill. 'So, a lot of numbers out there,' Benson said. 'Can you give me a bottom line? Do you want 2 trillion? 3 trillion?' 'Your reaction is the exact same reaction I get from the White House and from my colleagues,' Johnson chided, 'too many numbers. It's a budget process. We're talking about numbers. We're talking about mortgaging our kids' future.' Like his alternative beliefs about vaccination and climate science, Johnson's budget math is extremely fuzzy. He asserted, repeatedly, that Medicaid is rife with 'waste, fraud and abuse.' But the Georgetown University School of Public Policy has published a policy analysis dismantling claims that there is rampant waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid that concluded, 'This premise is false, and the thinking is dangerously wrong.' More broadly, Johnson claims that balancing the budget and reducing the federal deficit is his No. 1 concern. But he's committed to maintaining historic tax cuts for the super rich. The only way to reduce deficits, in his view, is to enact even deeper cuts than House Republicans passed, increasing hunger, undermining education and rolling back health care — because he's totally unwilling to increase revenue with even modest tax increases on corporations and the very wealthy. Those cuts, not a deficit that could be resolved by making the rich pay their share of taxes, are the real threat to our children's future. 'I'm just a guy from Oshkosh who's trying to save America,' Johnson said at the Press Club event. He recapped, in heroic terms, his lone stand against the 2017 tax cut for America's top earners, which he blocked until he was able to work in a special loophole that benefitted him personally. He told the panel of Wisconsin journalists he will also block Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill unless he sees deeper cuts, which he insisted would be easy to make. The 40 states that have taken the federal Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (which Johnson still calls 'Obamacare') are 'stealing money from federal taxpayers,' he declared. Slashing Medicaid will be easy, he suggested, since 'nobody would be harmed other than the grifters who are sucking down the waste, fraud and abuse.' Grifters? Wisconsin has 1.3 million Medicaid recipients. One in three children are on BadgerCare, as Medicaid is called here, along with 45% of adults with disabilities and 55% of seniors living in nursing homes. Our state program faces a $16.8 billion cut over 10 years under the House plan. During the Q&A session, I asked Johnson about this — not just the numbers, but the human cost. I brought up Shaniya Cooper, a college student from Milwaukee and a BadgerCare recipient living with lupus, who spoke at a press conference in the Capitol this week about how scary it was to realize she could lose her Medicaid coverage under congressional Republicans' budget plan. 'To me, this is life or death,' she said. She simply cannot afford to pay for her medicine out of pocket. When she first learned about proposed Medicaid cuts, 'I cried,' she said. 'I felt fear and dread.' What does Johnson have to say to Cooper and other BadgerCare recipients who are terrified of losing their coverage? 'I'll go back to my basic point,' Johnson replied. He quoted Elon Musk, whom he said he greatly admires for his DOGE work slashing federal agencies. 'If we don't fix this, we won't have money for any of this [government in general],' he said Musk told him. 'Nobody wants the truly vulnerable to lose those benefits of Medicaid,' Johnson added. 'But again, Obamacare expanded the waste, fraud and abuse of Medicaid, you know, expanding the people on it when, you know, when a lot of these people ought to be really getting a job.' Some of Johnson's Republican colleagues are worried about withdrawing health care coverage from millions of their constituents. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called it immoral and 'political suicide.' He said he won't vote for the Medicaid cuts that passed the House because they will put rural hospitals out of business, and because too many hard-working, low-income people rely on the program for health coverage and simply cannot afford to buy insurance on the private market. But Johnson remains untroubled. He's pushing for bigger and more damaging cuts. And when asked what he can tell his constituents who are afraid they're about to lose life-saving health care, his answer is simple and unapologetic: Get a job. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nurses launch strike at Meriter hospital, the first in the facility's history
Striking nurses and supporters circle the UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital in Madison on the first day of a five-day walkout Tuesday. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) With a spirited rally, a picket line march around the building and a small brass band, nurses at UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital in Madison launched a five-day walkout Tuesday, reiterating their demands for changes in safety practices, minimum ratios of nurses to patients and improved pay. The strike — the first ever by nurses at Meriter hospital — is scheduled to run through Saturday. It follows the end of bargaining on Monday, May 19, when the nurses' union bargaining team turned down the hospital management's latest proposal. Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin and UnityPoint Health-Meriter have been in negotiations since earlier this year on a new contract covering about 950 nurses. The nurses' most recent two-year agreement expired in late March and they have since been working without a contract. The nurses' contract demands include establishing required ratios of nurses to patients, improved safety for hospital employees and pay increases — particularly for senior nurses, according to union officials. 'Time and time again, Meriter's management refused to meet us halfway,' said nurse Lindsey Miller, one of three bargaining team members who spoke at the strike's opening-day rally Tuesday morning. 'At our last bargaining session, it was management, not nurses, who walked away from the bargaining table.' Miller said the most recent management officer included 'an unacceptable raise that doesn't cover the cost of living' and made 'no progress' towards the nurses' union's demands for staffing commitments or security improvements. 'I am striking because I love working here,' said Madison Vander Hill, a birthing center nurse and one of six union speakers at the rally. 'I love getting to walk alongside and care for families as they go through one of the most transformative experiences of their lives.' Vander Hill said she and other nurses were striking 'because we must see tangible change from management in order to ensure that safety and security are prioritized and the things we love about the work that we do are protected.' Her coworker, Audrey Willems Van Dijk, said the nurses' concerns extended to concerns for the hospital's patients. 'We are fighting for every single person who walks through Meriter's doors,' she said. 'Yes, we deserve adequate compensation, but more than that, we deserve safety and security for ourselves and our community. We deserve respect.' Dane County Executive Melissa Agard declared her support for the nurses and connected their dispute with former Gov. Scott Walker's signature legislation after he took office in 2011 — Act 10, stripping most public workers of most union rights. 'It was his mission to crack the foundation of union rights in the state of Wisconsin. And that crack has continued not only in Wisconsin but across our nation, and you guys are here to say, 'No more,'' Agard said. As the strike got underway this week, Meriter told nurses that health benefits — including health insurance — would be cut off as of June 1 for nurses who do not report for their first scheduled shift during the strike this week. A union spokesperson said the effect of the order would be to cut off benefits for strikers for the month of June if the two sides don't reach a tentative agreement on Thursday, when their next bargaining session is scheduled. Meriter spokesperson Nicole Aimone confirmed in an email message Tuesday that nurses who do not report for their first shift during the strike will be put on 'inactive status' through Sunday, June 1, with their benefits ending as of that date. Nurses whose benefits are cut off would have to use the federal law known as COBRA to maintain their coverage, paying for their insurance out of pocket. The law, enacted in the 1980s, enables fired or laid-off workers to maintain their employer's health insurance temporarily at their own cost. 'They will have the ability to re-enroll once they are placed back into active employee status,' Aimone said. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board over the hospital's action. 'It is outrageous and it is disgusting,' said Ben Wikler, the outgoing chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, addressing the rally. Wikler went on to lead hundreds of sign-carrying nurses and supporters in chanting, 'Union busting is disgusting!' 'When management says you'll lose your health insurance if you insist that there [should be] enough nurses on the floor to make sure that everyone is taken care of — it is disgusting,' Wikler said. He described the dispute in the larger context of President Donald Trump's return to the White House. 'They think that the Trump administration and the National Labor Relations Board that this administration has gotten is going to turn its back on working people,' Wikler said. 'They will still have to come back to the negotiating table and they will have to do what's right, because you are building the power to make them do what's right,' he added. The hospital is continuing to operate during the strike. Aimone said that the hospital has contracted with an outside agency for replacement 'travel nurses' to support ongoing patient care. She said she did not have information on the cost for the contract nurses who are filling in during the walkout. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
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Joining national efforts, Wisconsin Republicans support ‘junk food' bans
Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) looks at the root beer float made by Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) during the Assembly Public Benefit Reform Committee. Clancy made it as he was arguing the definitions in the bill were arbitrary and unclear. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner) Republican lawmakers are seeking to implement a pair of bills that would prevent low-income Wisconsinites from buying 'junk' food and ban certain ingredients in school meals, taking inspiration from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda. Rep. Clint Moses (R-Menomonie), the lead author on both of the bills, has said he wants to help ensure the food children and others are eating is healthy. AB 180 would bar participants in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — or, as it's known in Wisconsin, FoodShare — from purchasing soda and candy with their benefits. Under the bill, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) would need to submit a waiver to the federal government for approval to make the change to the program. Kennedy wants a similar policy implemented nationwide, and so far several states, including Arkansas and Indiana, have asked the Trump administration for a waiver that would remove soda and candy from SNAP eligibility. Moses said at a hearing on the proposal earlier this month that by allowing people to purchase those items with FoodShare, Wisconsin is 'facilitating consumption of harmful, additive-filled foods' and that 'instead, we should be supporting healthy, sustainable food choices for [people's] overall health of individuals, the health of our society as a whole.' Moses argued the restrictions wouldn't be a novel idea, since people already can't use their SNAP benefits to purchase alcohol, pet food and other items. SNAP currently also can't be used for hot foods (such as a meal at a restaurant), supplements and vitamins and nonfood items. He also compared it to the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program, the assistance program that provides free healthy foods, breastfeeding support, nutrition education and referrals to other services to income-eligible pregnant and postpartum women, breastfeeding moms and children under 5. 'Most government money has strings attached to what that money can be used for,' Moses told the Assembly Public Benefits Reform Committee. 'Adding this provision is no different than the special supplemental nutrition program for the WIC program… WIC basically includes a list of good items or essentials that people can buy that does not include any of this other stuff.' UW-Madison food insecurity expert Judith Bartfeld says, however, that the programs are fundamentally different. WIC serves as a narrowly targeted nutrition program that provides specific foods for a defined group of nutritionally at-risk people. The SNAP program, meanwhile, is designed to serve as a 'supplement to existing income' and 'to fill the gap between a USDA estimate of what is needed to meet a household's food needs and the amount a given household is assumed to be able to spend on food out of current income,' Bartfeld wrote in an email to the Examiner. She said periodic state and federal attempts to restrict SNAP have been unsuccessful in the past, in part because of a 'reluctance to upset the balance for a program that is a backbone of the safety net.' According to DHS, the SNAP program helps nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites put food on their tables annually. A USDA study from 2016, the most recent year, found that 'there were no major differences in the expenditure patterns of SNAP and non-SNAP households, no matter how the data were categorized,' and that similar to other families, SNAP recipients spend about 20 cents of every dollar on sweetened drinks, desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar. 'It's intended to provide extra resources to support buying food at the store — and its effectiveness in reducing food insecurity is well documented,' Bartfeld said. 'There have long been concerns that restricting how benefits can be used would make things more complicated for retailers, more stigmatizing for participants, unlikely to translate into meaningful health improvements, and would risk reducing participation and jeopardizing the well-documented benefits of SNAP on food security.' In addition, she said, 'identifying specific foods that are healthy or unhealthy is much more complicated in practice than it sounds.' Bartfeld said SNAP combats food insecurity because it provides additional resources to low income people and has become 'less stigmatizing and easier to use.' Restrictions, she said, could end up having a negative effect. 'If putting restrictions on SNAP ends up making it stigmatizing for participants, more complicated for retailers or opens the door to an increasingly constrained program, there are real concerns it may become less effective as an anti-hunger program — which of course would have negative health outcomes; this is why the anti-hunger community has long opposed bans such as this, and considered food bans as a line better not crossed,' Bartfeld said. FoodShare cuts would cost Wisconsin $314 million a year, state health department reports Bartfeld said it's also unclear if a ban would improve health. Despite attempts to model health effects of a SNAP soda ban, she said, there is no empirical evidence proposed bans would meaningfully change diets or improve health outcomes. 'In contrast, there is real-world evidence that incentivizing healthy food purchases can modestly impact food choices,' Bartfeld said. 'And SNAP has a nutrition education program (SNAP-Ed, which goes by FoodWise in Wisconsin), that appears to increase healthy eating — even as, ironically, that funding is currently at risk.' The GOP-bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday included 'some of the largest cuts in the program's history' the SNAP program, according to CNBC. The bill would expand work requirements to qualify for benefits, likely leading to reduced participation, cut federal funding and leave it up to states to fill in the gaps and it would entirely eliminate funding for the education program. According to Wisconsin DHS, the cuts would cost the state approximately $314 million every year and would put 90,000 people at risk of losing benefits. The bill now goes to the Senate. Bartfeld said this is one of the challenges with some of the recent 'health-focused' SNAP proposals across the county as the other proposed cuts and restrictions to the program are unrelated or 'often run counter to health.' 'That interest in benefit cuts is happening in tandem with increasing attention to food choices does mean that food programs are at the center of the action, and it can make it challenging to differentiate proposals that are really about health from those that are more fundamentally about regulating the low income [population] and paring back assistance,' Bartfeld said. Moses during his testimony described the proposal as part of a 'national movement basically to really make our food supply healthier.' He said it shouldn't be partisan and noted former First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to improve school meals. 'I expect to receive full support from not just the Legislature but the governor as well,' Moses said. Democrats on the committee didn't appear on board with the legislation. Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) expressed concerns about the legislation focusing on low-income Wisconsinites and including unclear, arbitrary definitions. Clancy asked Moses about low-income families using benefits to celebrate Halloween and special occasions. Moses replied that 'if their kids really want candy, they can go into the neighbor's house then they could trick or treat, and they'd probably get all the candy they want, but the benefit would be that the taxpayers wouldn't be paying for it.' 'People that are on SNAP… they are taxpayers as well,' Clancy said, 'so I don't want to categorize folks who are experiencing, hopefully, temporary poverty from being taxpayers. They're chipping in for, you know, health care benefits and everything else.' He added, 'We're, I think, just targeting low-income people with this.' Clancy demonstrated his point by pulling out a bottle of Snickers-flavored iced coffee, a seltzer water and, at one point, a cup of ice cream and a bottle of root beer. He poured the root beer into the ice cream, saying the milk in it would make it acceptable to purchase under the definitions in the bill. The definition for 'soft drink' is 'a beverage that contains less than 0.5 percent of alcohol and that contains natural or artificial sweeteners' and 'does not include a beverage that contains milk or milk products; soy, rice, or similar milk substitutes; or more than 50 percent vegetable or fruit juice by volume.' 'A root beer float is totally fine right? By taking this sugary thing, adding it to another sugary thing, this is now legal for somebody to use their FoodShare benefits,' Clancy said. Committee Chair Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) told Clancy to stop, saying that the hearing 'isn't a cooking show.' Another bill — AB 226 — would target 'ultraprocessed' foods in schools by banning certain ingredients from meals, 'Ultraprocessed foods' were one of the top concerns recently outlined by Kennedy and a report the Trump administration commissioned, and Kennedy has expressed interest in banning other additives as well. Among the additives the bill identifies are brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, azodicarbonamide and red dye No. 3, which can be found in candy, fruit juices, cookies and other products. Moses told lawmakers on the Assembly Education Committee that additives named in the bill are either in the process of being banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or have been subject of peer-reviewed studies that found links to adverse side effects if consumed in significant enough amounts. For example, Red No. 3 and brominated vegetable oil are both no longer approved for use in food by the FDA. 'Our school lunches should not be filled with substances that negatively affect our students' health, even including their mental health,' Moses told the committee. Moses said the bill would 'bypass the need for federal action while not forcing schools to risk loss of federal funds to pay for existing school lunch programs.' He also noted that other states, including California, are also working to ban the ingredients. The bill would go into effect on July 1, 2027. An earlier version of the bill only included free- and reduced-price meals, but it was amended after concerns from the Department of Public Instruction and the School Nutrition Association of Wisconsin. Both now support the bill. The Department of Public Instruction said the legislation aligns with positive trends in nutrition. 'With an increased focus on farm-to-school programs and the use of local food, school nutrition programs are helping to improve the nutritional value of meals,' Kim Vercauteren, policy initiatives advisor for the DPI Division for Finance and Management, said in testimony. 'Many schools and school nutrition vendors are already committed to providing meals that utilize unprocessed foods, which can be enjoyed without harmful, nutritionally useless additives. These programs not only encourage the use of healthy food, but educate students on healthy lifelong choices.' Members of the Healthy School Meals For All Coalition told the Wisconsin Examiner that they support the proposal, but also they hope it isn't the only thing that lawmakers do to help improve school meals. The coalition of school food stakeholders has been advocating for free school meals for all Wisconsin students and for improving the quality of food served to students. 'We appreciate the fact that they're looking out for the well-being of our students and see the work that we do,' School Nutrition Association of Wisconsin President Kaitlin Tauriainen said in an interview. 'We're hoping that some of these steps will allow us to build more of a bridge so we can understand each other's point of view — whether that means taking steps to grant more access to food for kids or jumping right into the full meals for all free meals for all, which is something you know we certainly want.' Tauriainen said that school nutrition professionals are focused on feeding students the healthiest food possible, although the ingredients listed in the bill already aren't common in school meals. 'I would say the majority of our manufacturers that we've talked to don't have those additives in their food,' Tauriainen, who is the child nutrition coordinator for the Ashwaubenon School District, said. 'So it's really kind of a non-issue.' Allison Pfaff Harris, farm to school director with REAP Food Group, a Madison-based nonprofit, said she appreciates that the bill is trying to address the school food 'supply side.' She said, however, that school nutrition programs need support in moving away from other processed ingredients not mentioned in the bill. Operating on limited budgets, school nutrition programs 'turn to those quicker ingredients, which are going to be more processed foods,' Pfaff Harris said, adding that 'not all processed foods have those food additive ingredients.' Pfaff Harris suggested pairing Moses' bill with other improvements. She said the 'big ask' for the coalition is no-cost school meals, but smaller steps would also be significant. Guaranteeing that the breakfast reimbursement for schools is 15 cents per meal could improve the supply chain and nutrition programs, she said. DPI prorates payments because it lacks funding to pay the full cost; Pfaff Harris said the current reimbursement rate is about 7 cents. 'This is one piece of the puzzle, but it's a small piece in the giant puzzle,' Pfaff Harris said. Pfaff Harris said the discussion about healthy meals is also challenging because there have been recent federal decisions cutting resources that help schools serve fresh ingredients. Wisconsin was set to receive $11 million in funding for 'Local Food for Schools' programs, but it was cut by the Trump administration. 'You're having these bills introduced, which is a good thing, but … from my perspective, if we really wanted to make a difference in school nutrition programs and help them to be able to do more scratch cooking and semi-scratch and fresh ingredients, it's getting that funding back,' Pfaff Harris said. Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) asked Moses about free school meals and other proposals, saying it could improve his bill. Moses said her suggestions seemed like a completely different bill altogether. 'It doesn't matter to me if it's reduced or people are paying for it. I want [the meals] to be safe …' Moses said. 'Essentially, it's not the intent of this bill.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
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Republican Josh Schoemann criticizes Evers, says he'll ‘outwork' others in governor's race
Schoemann spoke at the Dane County Republican's monthly 'Pints and Politics' meeting on Tuesday. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner) Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann stepped up to the front of a room in the back of Kavanaugh's Esquire Club on the east side of Madison with a grin and quickly started a chant about Gov. Tony Evers. 'Tony's got to go. Who's with me?' Schoemann said about the current second-term Democratic governor. He encouraged others in the room to join him. 'Tony's gotta go… Tony's gotta go. I'd like him to hear it if you don't mind.' The crowd of about 30 clapped enthusiastically and slowly started to pick up the chant. Schoemann, who wore a red UW-Madison quarter zip up, jeans and a camo hat with his campaign logo across the front, was at the restaurant for the Dane County Republican's monthly 'Pints and Politics' meeting. It's the one of the latest stops for Schoemann, who is the first candidate of either major party to launch his campaign in the 2026 governor's race. Evers' decision on whether he will seek a third term is still up in the air. He recently told WisEye that he is 'not spending very much time at all thinking about whether I'm going to run or not.' With about 14 months before a Republican primary might be held, Schoemann is working to get a head start on other potential candidates. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is mulling a run for the office, was critical of Evers as he addressed party members at the state GOP's annual convention. Bill Berrien, a Whitefish Bay businessman and Navy SEAL veteran, recently formed a political action committee. Schoemann said that it's 'entirely possible' for Wisconsin to be more competitive for Republicans. He launches his campaign as the Republican Party of Wisconsin is reevaluating how to win after their preferred candidate lost in the state Supreme Court race and as Democrats have won 12 of the last 15 statewide elections. Schoemann sought to start his 'Tony' chant a couple times as he spoke to the group — at one point telling attendees that he is the son of a Lutheran Minister and 'can't handle a congregation unless they join with me.' The crowd joined the chant more quickly this time, but Schoemann cut it off quickly as he pulled his camo hat off and placed it over his heart and encouraged attendees to stand up to sing 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' with him. Schoemann has worked in Washington County as the elected county executive for the last five years and as the county administrator for six years prior. He owns a farm in the town of Trenton, located between West Bend and Grafton, with his wife and is the father of two. Schoemann told attendees that he joined the Army National Guard, attended UW-Whitewater and then served in Iraq in 2003. Throughout the event, Schoemann returned to his faith and military service, telling the crowd that 'love your neighbor' has been central to his work and will be central to his campaign. 'It's changed the trajectory of my life permanently,' Schoemann said, describing a memory of his time in Iraq when he gave bottles of water to a child who was drinking from a puddle. 'As he approaches the puddle, I'm thinking, 'Oh, he's just going to jump around in the puddle and play.' He kneels down, and starts cupping his hands and starts drinking out of that puddle,' Schoemann said. 'When I came back home, that moment kept coming back to me over and over and over, and I dedicated the rest of my life to the service and sacrifice of the guys and gals who didn't come home, either in whole or in part, and of my Lord, Jesus, by loving my neighbor,' he continued, ' and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we are going to win this election. We are going to turn Wisconsin red by loving our neighborhood.' Schoemann said he grew up a 'Rush Limbaugh' and 'Ronald Reagan baby' — with beliefs in smaller government, lower taxes and strong defense — and that those ideas have shaped his service in local government. Schoemann repeatedly criticized Evers and spoke about his record. 'Under the education governor, are your schools better than they were six years ago?' Schoemann asked, with answers of 'no' coming from some in the room. 'He's filling potholes right now — getting his picture taken in every community can get to… Are your roads really all that much better than they were six years ago? No, no. They're not, and if you look across the state of Wisconsin on every issue issue after issue, things aren't better.' Evers has been traveling across the state last week helping fill potholes as a part of an annual effort to call attention to the issue of improving the roads and his recent budget proposal of to dedicate funds for that purpose — though Republicans have removed that from the budget. At one stop on his trip, Evers told reporters that he didn't know much about Schoemann but thinks he's 'gonna have to be another Donald Trump.' 'That's the only way Republicans can kind of move forward in this day and age,' Evers said, according to WSAW-TV 7. Schoemann said that he decided to run because he is 'sick and tired of our kids, leaving the state for other opportunities in different states and not coming back' and 'sick and tired of our retirees leaving this state that has become a complete tax hell.' Schoemann also compared himself to former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson. 'Back when I was a kid in 1986, Tommy Thompson took out another Tony — [former Gov.] Tony Earl. A young, energetic Republican did very, very well in Dane County, and eventually by 1994, I believe he won Dane County,' said Schoemann, who is 43. Thompson is the last Wisconsin governor to win a third term in office, and Schoemann wants to ensure that stays true by taking a page out of Thompson's playbook. Schoemann said he would have three rules for his campaign: go to the Northwoods, go to Milwaukee and go to Dane County. He said that since his campaign launched he had visited Florence County to talk with a group of people, who, he said, likely 'hadn't seen a statewide elected official in decades,' had been on the radio in Milwaukee and his Tuesday evening stop in Madison was his second already. Schoemann said Republicans need to lose by less in Dane County, pointing out that President Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin with nearly 23% of the vote in the deep blue county. 'We've got to be pushing back towards 26, 27, 28[%], and we're only going to do it by having conversations with our neighbors and physically being present,' Schoemann said. 'I can tell you you're going to get sick of seeing me because I will be back again and again and again. I want to hear from you what this state needs to be. I want to hear from you what direction the state needs to go.' Schoemann then took questions from the audience. One attendee asked about what he would do about property taxes. Local communities across the state have been strapped for funds in recent years due to restrictions in the ways that they can raise revenue with many turning to raising property taxes through referendums to help afford services. 'How many of you live in the city of Madison? How are you liking that new referendum for the school district and the city — one-two punch?' Schoemann replied. He added that property tax rates in Washington Co. are low because of decisions he's made. He said that at times when they have 'considered alternatives where we needed additional resources, we go to the people and ask.' The county went to referendum in 2024 to help prevent cuts to its public safety services. While the referendum failed, a deal on shared revenue and a local sales tax for Milwaukee that lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers made helped the county avoid the cuts. That deal led to a back and forth over social media between Schoemann and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson after Schoemann took a jab at the city because of the tax. Milwaukee leaders were prominent advocates in helping secure the state funding, which has helped communities across the state, including Washington County. In response to a question about elections, Schoemann said that he believes in purging voter rolls, banning voting events including 'Democracy in the Park' — a COVID-era effort held by the city of Madison where poll workers picked up absentee ballots from voters who dropped them off — and having 'significant election integrity' measures. He also talked about promoting early voting in more rural areas. 'The clerks are part time, most of them work out of their houses. They don't have an office at the town hall… In those places. If you want to have in-person absentee voting, you have to schedule an appointment at the home of the clerk. In Madison and in Milwaukee… the convenience level is through the roof right now,' Schoemann said. 'It's not quite seven days a week, 24 hours a day for those 13 days, but it isn't far either, especially as compared to those towns.' Schoemann said his county sought to incentivize local municipal workers to add in-person absentee voting days and times by paying them 150% of the cost. He said the state needs to 'completely transform how we think about elections in Wisconsin.' Schoemann segued to criticizing Evers for his relationship with lawmakers and the number of bills he has vetoed, saying changes in law need to come as the result of the governor working as a 'coequal' branch with the Legislature. He said that the governor should work with bills before outright vetoing them. 'The fact that this governor doesn't have the leadership capability to walk down the hallway and talk to legislative leaders is an embarrassment to our state,' Schoemann said, referring to communication difficulties between lawmakers and Evers, who are currently negotiating the next state budget. Schoemann said that he wouldn't want to 'throw money' to help address education problems, though he thinks the system currently in place is outdated. He also said that he would seek to help change the veto power that governors have. This will be the first time Schoemann runs in a statewide election. He promised the room that no one would 'outwork' him. 'There might be more money. There might be worse press, there might be all kinds of things, but no one will outwork me,' Schoemann said. In the weeks before deciding to run, Schoemann told the room that he asked his wife if she was sure she wanted him to run. 'You know what she said to me?' Schoemann asked. ''Well, can't be worse than Iraq.'' 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