Winter is Back

This past week I started packing away all of my winter items and getting ready for spring in Wisconsin.  I was looking forward to a new beginning, snow finally melting, the robins returning and buds appearing.  It seems to me a breath of freshness is needed in Wisconsin, winter is always tough here and I don’t know many Wisconsinites who don’t look forward to spring.  In my neck of the woods we were hit with yet another winter storm yesterday and it has continued today.  Who knows how long it will be before this clears up.

That’s the same way many taxpayers  feel about the Budget Repair Bill (Act 10).  Just when we thought the vote was taken and the law would eventually be published, the process was put on hold again.  Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order on March 18^th that has held up the publication of the Budget Repair Bill.  However, there is so much more to this story than just a temporary restraining order.

It seems Judge Sumi should have thought more about her role in this process.  We expect judges to take appropriate actions and recuse themselves when they might have a conflict of interest in a case that comes before them.  Judges are meant not to be activists, but rule on the law.

Prior to the temporary restraining order, the law was scheduled to be published on March 25^th.  Since the time Governor Scott Walker signed the law, all sorts of communities are rushing to extend their contracts.  Green Bay is the latest.  If the process continues to drag out, how many more communities will pass an extension of contracts and what will be the outcome to the taxpayer?

Just like winter, it seems some things just aren’t going away here in Wisconsin.  The Wisconsin Attorney General has filed an appeal and we will wait patiently, just like I will wait patiently to see the ground again here in Wisconsin.