MADISON, Wis. — When the new year ushers in a new legislative session, Assembly Republicans will have 10 fewer seats. Though the caucus will still hold a stable majority, it will be the narrowest since gaining control in 2011.
Spectrum News 1 Political Anchor Anthony DaBruzzi recently sat down with Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Walworth, to get a better sense of what to expect. You can watch the interview above.
Though Republicans lost 10 seats in the State Assembly, and four in the State Senate, August sees the November election as successful. Ultimately, the party held on to majorities in both chambers.
“It was an excellent night for Republicans in Wisconsin,” August said. “We held both houses of the legislature and delivered our electoral votes for President Trump. So, it's everything that we could have hoped for and it was an excellent night for us."
As far as what the caucus plans to do with its power, the policies range from keeping biological males out of women's sports to protecting voter ID.
“There are those out there having minors have surgery, the life-altering transgender surgeries, I think needs to really be looked at. And then some of the other issues deal with the budget,” August explained. “Of course, tax cuts. We are always a big fan of tax cuts in the Republican caucus, so I think you're going to see a lot of action there. And then, as you mentioned, photo ID, I mean, that is something that Republicans have been supportive of for decades. We were actually able to pass that my freshman term and put it into statute, but now with a court that is full of activist judges who wish that they were legislators, they should have [run] for the legislature if they wanted to create law, they didn't. So, they're going to try and create law from the from the bench, which is wildly inappropriate, but we're going to have to have to bake some of these things into the state constitution to protect the people of this state from that activist court.”
Aside from tax cuts, funding for K-12 education will also be up for debate as Democrats hope to see an increase given the state’s projected $4 billion surplus. August believes there is an opportunity for both political parties to reach some sort of agreement.
“I would say that the governor certainly didn't do this conversation any favors,” August added. “With his 400-year veto, he eroded a ton of trust with the legislature. We had made some gains and being able to work with some of his staff on the shared revenue program, and he held up his end of the deal on those when it came to line-item vetoes, which he didn't do. A deal was a deal, which we appreciate, and we were hoping that we'd be able to move forward and continue to build on that and get some of these deals done. Unfortunately, with the budget, his 400-year veto to raise property taxes on the people of this state for the next 400 years has really eroded a lot of that trust, but certainly, tax relief and funding our schools can both be done if the governor is willing to actually not just campaign like a Republican but actually govern like one.”
As for whether the budget gets passed on time, August remains optimistic.
“Oh, I think so. I think Republicans in the legislature, since we've been in control, we've only been really late on the budget, really one time,” August explained. “We had some things to work through on that. So, I'm confident, working with leader LeMahieu and President Felzkowski in the Senate, that we're going to be able to come up with a great budget under the leadership of Representative Born and Senator Marklein that everybody can support. So, I'm less worried about being able to get it done on time. I think we're going to have a quality product that everybody can stand behind.”