Wisconsin's Partisan Dysfunction on Display
Friday, December 20th, 2019 -- 10:03 AM
(AP) -Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called a meeting, but Republicans didn’t show. The unusual spectacle Thursday was the latest sign of dysfunction in the Wisconsin Statehouse.Evers called a meeting of the Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee to release $3.7 million in funding to combat homelessness in Wisconsin. He invoked a power rarely, if ever, used by governors to call the legislative committee into session to deal with a specific type of funding request. But the Republicans who control the panel had said they wouldn’t show up. And they didn’t.
That left the committee’s four Democratic members alone at the table, other than a clerk, while the chairs of the 12 Republican members sat empty. At least one Republican staff member watched from the audience as the Democratic lawmakers questioned members of Evers’ administration about the funding and what programs they would go toward.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.