WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A quartet of GOP Assembly representatives released their proposal for spending Wisconsin’s $3.2 billion in American Recovery Act funding at a Wausau restaurant Tuesday.
Speaking one day after Governor Evers vetoed a bill that would have given the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee a say in how the funding was spent, Schofield Republican Pat Snyder said he hopes that he and his colleagues aren’t shut out from the process of allocating the funds.
“The bill would have helped with legislative oversite,” said Snyder. “We hear from the people. We do have small business, tourism [needs] that get to us that we can pass onto our Joint Finance Committee.”
Under the GOP proposal, roughly one-third of the money would be sent to counties for property tax relief. Snyder says that would amount to about a ten percent cut for 2021 for every property taxpayer.
“Let’s get $1 billion back to the citizens of Wisconsin to help them navigate this year going forward,” said Snyder.
From there, the proposal calls for each county to distribute the funds as they see fit. Either through a credit on tax bills in December or a direct check.
The group also proposed sending some of the funding to long-term care facilities, which are already understaffed in many areas. “CNA’s are being overworked [so] if we can get them money to help staff these facilities to make sure these folks are taken care of and keep these facilities from closing [due to economic conditions].”
Other priorities the group outlined included relief for small businesses and the state’s tourism industry, two areas that were hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Governor Evers has also indicated that he would like to see most of the funding go to help them as well. Snyder says that could be a starting point for negotiations if the Governor wants to talk, but he’s not optimistic that will happen.
“We did come up with areas of need back when the first CARES act money came through, but he basically ignored us and really didn’t want to meet with us either,” Snyder said they did have a meeting with the Governor after Memorial Day regarding last summer’s backlog of unemployment claims, but he didn’t consider that meeting to be fruitful.
According to Snyder, the group told Evers that would help him find any resources need to expand hours and get more employees processing claims, but that fell on deaf ears.
Snyder was joined at bbJack’s in Wausau by Calvin Callahan of Tomahawk and Donna Rozar and John Spiros of Marshfield. When asked if Republicans in Madison would consider legal action to keep the Governor from allocating the funds on his own, he didn’t close the door to the idea.
“Years ago there was an Attorney General who said constitutionally it is the legislature, the assembly, that determines the allocation of state funds. So we are going to look into that.
“We want to do what’s best for the people and we want to do it responsibly. I know people are getting lawsuit fatigue but in the same sense you have to be able to step forward,” he added.
Snyder also noted that unlike the CARES funding, which had to be spent by the end of 2020, ARA funding is good for several years. “If in two years a Republican Governor is elected and there’s still money leftover my colleagues across the aisle would love to see the JFC take that money over. I think that would be the correct thing to do as well.”
Snyder adds that the large stimulus the state received in 2009 under then-Governor Jim Doyle was allocated with input from the Joint Finance Committee.
