{"id":10000,"date":"2024-04-03T15:48:17","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T15:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10000"},"modified":"2024-04-03T15:58:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T15:58:57","slug":"from-the-desk-of-mike-nichols-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=10000","title":{"rendered":"From the desk of Mike Nichols"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/from-the-desk-of-mike-nichols-2023-2024-legislative-victories\/\">https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/from-the-desk-of-mike-nichols-2023-2024-legislative-victories\/<\/a><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>An update on our 2023-2024 legislative victories in Madison<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n<div style=\"height:2px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p>The Badger Institute\u2019s policy work, journalism and advocacy helped spur pivotal changes this past legislative session to give Wisconsinites more freedom and greater opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We spent most of 2023 advancing our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/mandateformadison\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mandate for Madison<\/a> \u2014 a 300-page book of free-market policy recommendations that have now, in many instances, become law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/donate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">generosity<\/a> of donors and partners, we produced reams of research, championed many policy reforms, helped kill some bad policies, and were part of numerous <strong>legislative victories<\/strong> in Madison:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>School choice funding gap closure<\/strong>: The financial gap between Parental Choice, public charter and traditional public-school funding was substantially reduced in the shared revenue deal. As the only member of two different school choice coalitions, we were a pivotal part of this historic, successful effort to let more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/a-huge-step-toward-sustainable-school-funding-equality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">money follow children to quality schools<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Full repeal of the personal property tax<\/strong>, a move the Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/personal-property-taxes-more-trouble-than-theyre-worth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">long has advocated<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dental therapy<\/strong>: We explained the advantages of this approach for years and finally have prevailed. This is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/governor-signs-dental-therapy-reform-long-backed-by-badger-institute\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a free-market solution<\/a> that could help hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites obtain dental care at no added expense to taxpayers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Police back in Milwaukee public schools<\/strong>: We led on this issue. Milwaukee is now required to allow police to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/deal-puts-police-back-on-duty-to-protect-milwaukee-public-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">protect good children in crime-afflicted schools<\/a>, a reform that was part of the shared revenue package.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increased Milwaukee police positions<\/strong>: Also won as part of the shared revenue package.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Derailing The Hop<\/strong>: Milwaukee sales tax legislation bars any of the revenue going to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/legislature-protects-milwaukeeans-from-15-per-rider-fare-free-trolley-folly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">streetcar expansion or operation<\/a>. Again, we were the leaders on this issue.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Swifter justice for crime victims<\/strong> and a reduction of enormous case backlogs, caused by the high turnover of prosecutors and public defenders. Now, adequate pay will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/celebrating-wisconsins-step-toward-swifter-criminal-justice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">enable hiring and cut turnover<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cDecoupling\u201d of property taxes from funding of parental choice and independent charter schools<\/strong>. The legislation \u2014 which destroys an anti-choice argument and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/new-school-funding-bill-would-eliminate-indirect-reliance-on-property-taxes-for-choice-and-charter-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leads to lower property taxes<\/a> \u2014 passed the Assembly, and we will continue to push for passage in the Senate.<\/li>\n<li>Constitutional amendment that would <strong>strip the governor of his partial veto authority<\/strong>. We started pushing this after the governor used his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/wisconsin-needs-a-constitutional-amendment-to-rein-in-partial-veto\/\">veto to extend school funding<\/a> out 400 \u2014 yes, 400 \u2014 years. The Senate and Assembly both gave first approval to the measure; in all likelihood, this issue will move to a ballot.<\/li>\n<li>Constitutional amendment to <strong>allow legislators to oversee federal grant dollars<\/strong>. We pushed for this while exposing how federal pandemic dollars were wasted on frills wholly unrelated to health or safety. It will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/voters-will-decide-if-legislators-get-say-over-federal-spending\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">go to voters<\/a> this coming August.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Direct Primary Care<\/strong>. The Assembly passed a bill that in essence makes sure Wisconsinites can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/new-wisconsin-bill-directly-solves-the-problem-with-growing-healthcare-costs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">use Direct Primary Care<\/a> without triggering insurance complications. We will continue to push for action in the Senate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We, meanwhile, consistently fought or highlighted multiple bad bills or spending proposals, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pointing out all the problems with MPS \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/chronic-absenteeism-remains-extremely-high-in-districts-across-wisconsin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chronic absenteeism<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/mps-enrollment-often-overstated-has-plummeted-42-since-peak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dropping enrollment<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/milwaukees-list-of-half-used-school-buildings-rises-to-21\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">underutilized buildings<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Cottage food industry bill. We pointed out the problems with a bill that would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/legislators-turn-up-heat-on-wisconsin-home-bakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increase regulation of home bakers<\/a>. It died.<\/li>\n<li>A ridiculous bill sponsored by Democrats that would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/plan-to-prop-up-wisconsin-newspapers-sets-off-alarm-bells\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pay the salaries of newspaper reporters<\/a> and give grants to papers.<\/li>\n<li>Money for newborns: We pointed out the many problems with a plan to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/questions-arise-about-legitimacy-of-plan-to-give-every-wisconsin-newborn-money-for-college\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">give all newborns $25<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our policy and journalism team produces \u2014 every single week via our Friday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/toppicks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Top Picks<\/a> email \u2014 opinion, research, news and analysis informed by conservative thought.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thank you for considering your donation<\/strong> toward our impactful policy research, quick response analysis, stories, videos, coalition involvement, in-Capitol advocacy and investigative reporting.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">donate today<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With gratitude,<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"337\" height=\"135\" src=\"https:\/\/e74sq7k37a8.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Mike-sig_blue.02.jpg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46597\" style=\"width:227px;height:90px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Mike Nichols<\/strong><br \/>President, Badger Institute<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"839\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/e74sq7k37a8.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Mike-Nichols_no-background-839x1024.png?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46596\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.825;width:132px;height:auto\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/from-the-desk-of-mike-nichols-2023-2024-legislative-victories\/\">From the desk of Mike Nichols<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\">Badger Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/from-the-desk-of-mike-nichols-2023-2024-legislative-victories\/ An update on our 2023-2024 legislative victories in Madison&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-badger-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10001,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10000\/revisions\/10001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}