MADISON, Wis. — From accomplishments to animosity, the leader of Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly reflected on the last year during a sit-down interview with Spectrum News 1 Political Reporter Anthony DaBruzzi to talk about everything from the surplus to missed opportunities.
You can watch the extended conversation with Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer above.
Though Democrats are in the minority, Neubauer said her caucus is extremely proud of protecting Gov. Tony Evers’ vetoes by preventing Republicans from overriding them.
“We, of course, are also very focused on putting out that long-term vision for what we know Wisconsinites need,” Neubauer added. “We are not able to get all of our bills scheduled. We would love to see more progress in the coming months, but unfortunately, many of the over 300 bills that Assembly Democrats have put forward have not been scheduled for hearings, but it's still really important that we build support for those policies, that we continue fighting for what we know Wisconsinites really need. And then, of course, we try to find opportunities to support good bills and to find agreement across the aisle wherever we can.”
Wisconsinites who are struggling to make ends meet remain the number one focus for the caucus, according to Neubauer. She said there is a long list of bills she and her colleagues wished would have passed.
“We focus on policies that support working families and provide them some breathing room while we see our Republican colleagues continuing to try, under any means possible, to get a tax cut through that really benefits the wealthiest people in Wisconsin,” Neubauer said. “So, we're going to continue to focus, of course, on child care, the cost of health care, and making sure we have strong public schools—things we hear about consistently from people in our communities.”
The issue of abortion rights hasn’t gone away for Democrats either, especially as Republicans are poised to push for a referendum question on the spring ballot.
“We, of course, have a pretty tenuous situation with reproductive rights in Wisconsin,” Neubauer stated. “We are going to continue to push to enshrine in state law, the right to access abortion care in Wisconsin. We know that that's really important for people in our state. And then, of course, there are all sorts of things that would make people's lives in Wisconsin better, that we know Wisconsinites want to see us do in this building, but just simply do not have the ability to get through the Republican-held Legislature and those are things like gun safety, long term investments in our infrastructure and addressing climate change, addressing long-standing racial disparities in our state.”
Another missed opportunity for Assembly Democrats is what they feel was a lack of critical investments made using the state’s surplus. Neubauer used subsidies for child care providers as an example.
“Gov. Evers was able to support the Child Care Counts program, hold that over for a while longer,” Neubauer explained. “We need action in this body, or we will see providers closing next year and a lot of people losing access to the child care that they depend on to participate in the workforce. If this Legislature really cares about the ability for Wisconsinites to participate in this workforce, we need to do something about child care. So, there are so many things, of course, that we are focused on for the coming year, but again are just going to try to find every opportunity to work across the aisle and get some things done.”
When it comes to discussions with Republican leaders across the aisle, Neubauer said she has been a part of more negotiations and conversations, but she also feels there have been too many partisan political games.
“We saw [Republicans] threatening to impeach Justice Protasiewicz, who won by 11 points,” Neubauer explained. “The people of Wisconsin were very clear, they wanted her to serve as a state Supreme Court justice, and we saw Republicans attempting to threaten to remove her from that role in order to prevent a challenge to the gerrymandered legislative maps from moving forward in the court—just absolute raw political games, right? And attempts to consolidate power at all costs. Now, we see that they've moved on to Meagan Wolfe, to threaten to remove our elections administrator. These moves are all about power, and it is tough when we see that they're focused more again on consolidating their own power and on giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Wisconsinites than they are on what the people of Wisconsin really need and what they sent us here to do.”
Though 2024 will be dominated by the election cycle, Neubauer said she wants lawmakers to focus on so-called "kitchen table" issues before the Assembly wraps up its work at the end of February.
“We also want to continue to focus, again, on those on those pocketbook issues,” Neubauer said. “And we know that people in Wisconsin would really like us to be able to find a way to spend that surplus to help ease some of that burden to support their children in their public schools, to make sure that their elderly parents have great care, right? And they're able to make ends meet in retirement. Those are the big issues that are a focus for our caucus. We'll, of course, continue pushing that long-term vision as well—protecting our rights and freedoms and creating a Wisconsin where everybody has the ability to thrive.”