Still waiting for response from Wisconsin lawmakers

Do they not recognize the urgency of this crisis? It seems it is all hands on deck as we battle the coronavirus pandemic. But Wisconsin state lawmakers continue to sit on their hands. Governor Tony Evers sent a bill to legislative leaders back on March 21 in an effort to help with the fallout from the outbreak. It would spend over $700 million to help state agencies respond to the outbreak. It would, in part, allow the Governor to move jobs from one agency to another so that more public health workers could be hired by not filling other state jobs. But there has been no response from legislative leaders. No show of support, no counter ideas. Nothing. Instead, they say, they plan to get together in a couple of weeks to talk about it. A couple of weeks? We don’t have a couple of weeks. In an effort to force their hand, Evers has now drafted a second set of legislative proposals that would help cover child care costs and provide money to the financially vulnerable. And he wants to increase staffing to help process unemployment claims. In one day that office received 400,000 calls. They need help. They don’t have time for our lawmakers to wait. Somebody needs to tell our lawmakers we are facing a crisis, and we need them to do their part and show some willingness to do the job we elected them to do.