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4/30/2008
Senators Ellis and Cowles: Not a good idea to combine Compact and budget
Dear Speaker Huebsch and Senator Decker,
We read with concern this morning that you may be considering combining ratification of the Great Lakes Compact and passage of a budget repair bill into a single bill. Frankly, we think that is a bad idea and we urge you not to take such a course of action.
There is no rational policy reason to combine these bills. They are two completely different pieces of legislation. Each covers completely different subjects and each seeks to achieve completely separate policy objectives. Each is likely to appeal to completely separate constituencies.
Given that, it appears that the primary reason for combining these two bills is to achieve a political objective of obtaining a majority vote in each house by forcing legislators who strongly support and want to vote for one topic – the Compact, for example – to have to also vote for another proposal with which they may disagree. Frankly, that’s a cynical ploy and exactly the type of politics that Wisconsin voters are getting tired of.
Assuming that you are working diligently to achieve compromise on the budget repair, there is every reason to believe that your proposal can be passed with a strong bipartisan vote. Likewise, the details of the compromise Compact legislation give us hope for a similarly strong bipartisan vote. But that is no guarantee that the majority of supporters of one bill would also be supporters of the other. To force legislators to vote in support of a proposal they oppose because it is combined with a proposal they support is unfair to the legislators and to their constituents.
The only good reason given for this combination idea is that it would speed up the process and allow the Legislature to vote on these major unfinished business items in a single day. That reason simply does not hold water. In regular session, each house always votes on many more than two bills in a single day. There is no reason to believe that both houses cannot act on two separate bills in a single day. To suggest otherwise is an insult to the Legislature.
This is just not a good idea. If you have considered it, as has been reported, we hope you have already rejected it. If you have not yet rejected this idea, we strongly urge that you do so.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Michael G. Ellis, State Senator
Robert L. Cowles, State Senator
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• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
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• Speaker Huebsch: Governor turns down Federal Aid?
• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
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• This is trash talk - about a veteran
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