Failed surplus deal reverberates

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I now face spending the rest of my life in prison!”

– Former Trump attorney James Troupis, in a letter seeking $3.2 million from the Trump “anti-weaponization” fund because he’s been charged with felonies for planning the 2020 fake elector scheme

New

The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order late Friday afternoon agreeing to hear a challenge of the state’s congressional maps on the grounds that they’re an anti-competitive gerrymander. Henry Redman breaks down the ruling, including the Court’s infighting leaking into public view in a pair of caustic dissents from two of the Court’s conservative justices.

Saga of the failed surplus deal

A Marquette Law School poll released this week found that 80% of Wisconsinites think the Legislature should have passed the budget surplus deal to increase school funds and provide some property tax relief that failed in the state Senate earlier this month. Analysis from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that the deal would have put the state in a nearly $3 billion budget hole. Baylor Spears returns from vacation to untangle how the failed deal continues to reverberate through Wisconsin politics.

On Tuesday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany appeared at a WisPolitics event where he stood by his opposition to the deal — saying that if he’s elected he’ll find a way to return all of the state’s current budget surplus to taxpayers while also increasing funding for schools and cutting property taxes. Henry Redman covers Tiffany’s remarks on the deal, compensating Jan. 6 rioters and making local cops work with ICE.

In a commentary, Editor-in-Chief Ruth Conniff speaks with a public education advocate about the deal’s faults and the need to “stop balancing the budget on the backs of children.”

Criminal Justice

A group of 40 Republican state lawmakers sent a letter to Gov. Tony Evers this week asking that he pause his effort to process commutations. Evers argues that commutations allow the state’s prison system to accept when it has successfully rehabilitated people while the Republicans argue it undermines a law from the 1990s that enforced harsher sentences and risks alienating victims. Criminal Justice Project Fellow Frank Zufall covers the debate, which comes as the state’s prison population hits a record high.

Former Dane County Judge James Troupis played an integral role in planning the fake elector scheme that ultimately led to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. This week he sent a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche seeking $3.2 million from President Donald Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund for compensating people he believes were unfairly targeted by Department of Justice under Joe Biden. Redman covers Troupis’ plea for financial help as he faces state felony charges for forgery. The fund’s creation was blocked for now by a federal judge.

Healthcare

Nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison are set to vote in the coming weeks on whether to join a union. Deputy Editor Erik Gunn reports on the union drive, which organizers say started in order to push for more local input in hospital decision-making.

Advocates and lawmakers in recent weeks have pushed Wisconsin hospital systems to again provide gender affirming care to transgender minors. That push has come as the Wisconsin Republican Party has ramped up its anti-transgender rhetoric. Gunn reports on the attacks and one Democratic lawmaker’s belief that its a ploy to distract from the state’s real issues.

PLUS:

Health officials report uptick in mpox infections in Wisconsin

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