March 19, 2008  

                                                                                                                                                   

Bi-Partisanship is key to success in divided Legislature

A Column from Senator Pat Kreitlow

As we put the finishing touches on what has been a contentious and often controversial legislative session, many people will be weighing in on what the legislature did and didn’t accomplish.  The fact is that we saw a number of important issues get the attention they deserve, while others were left unfinished.  The real story of this session, however, is in the details of how bills that did get passed moved forward, and why other important issues never got moving.   

One bill that passed last just last week was SB 453/AB 789, a plan authored by myself and Representative Jeff Wood (R-Chippewa Falls) to reinvest un-used tax credits into the Technology Zone and Ag Development Zone programs.  When local economic development leaders approached us last year about finding a solution to an impending shortfall facing our area’s I-94 Corridor Technology Zone tax credit program, we realized that any plan to make additional tax credits available to the nearly depleted zone would need bi-partisan support from not only the Chippewa Valley, but statewide.  That’s why our bill not only invested un-used tax credits into the I-94 Corridor Tech Zone, but made these credits available for other technology zones facing shortfalls, including those in northeast and south central Wisconsin. 

In order to give the bill more broad support, we expanded it to include a reinvestment in the Ag Development Zones, another successful program that was running out of tax credits.  This change helped the bill pass the Senate with broad, bipartisan support, and set the stage for its eventual passage in the Assembly where Representatives Jeff Smith (D-Eau Claire) and Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) gave the bill the final push it needed by convincing their respective leaders to bring the bill up for a vote on the Assembly’s last night of session.

This victory for the Chippewa Valley was the result of legislators willing to leave their partisan beliefs at the door and work together to find common ground on a difficult issue.  I’m proud to say that I was able to partner with a number of Republican colleagues in the Assembly during the session to pass a total of eleven bi-partisan bills through both houses.  These bills address a wide range of topics, from leveling the playing field for small businesses to market their products, to supporting an increased investment in renewable fuel development to protecting the privacy of our state’s sportsmen.  We addressed law enforcement safety concerns by requiring driver’s education courses include instruction of the “move over” law and we gave home owners and builders more flexibility by removing out dated electric heat restrictions.  We also gave local governments some much needed freedom in how they use certain economic development tools and how they reimburse their local volunteers.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find this type of cooperation on every issue.  While the Senate passed the “Impartial Justice Bill” that I authored to improve public financing of Supreme Court races, the bill didn’t even receive a public hearing in the Assembly.  The Senate also ratified the Great Lakes Compact, expanded access to health care for people suffering from mental illness, passed a comprehensive health care reform plan that covered all Wisconsin citizens, passed a job creation plan that would create thousands of new jobs right away and passed HOPE, a plan which would lower the property tax burden for every Wisconsin homeowner.  None of these bills even received a vote in the Republican controlled Assembly.

What remains obvious is that both political parties are far apart on many issues, but we know compromise is possible.   In the coming weeks, the legislature will be faced with another difficult fight as we address the budget repair bill.  If we are going to be successful, we need to see more of the bi-partisanship that worked this session, and less of the political grandstanding that left too many issues by the wayside.  I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to find that middle ground.