Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Senate Democratic leader ignored needs of students
Tara Johnson, a former United Way executive and current member of the La Crosse County Board, is running for state Senate as a Democrat, opposing town of Campbell Republican Dan Kapanke.
We’re confident that whoever is elected in this race will continue the La Crosse area legislative tradition of working together regardless of party affiliation to accomplish important goals for our region and our state.
Unfortunately, that’s not how the current Senate leader operates. Far from it. Sen. Russ Decker, a Democrat from Weston, near Wausau, seems to have the goal of getting Democrats elected, but doesn’t seem to share the La Crosse area delegation’s desire to get things done.
And that’s unfortunate.
A case in point is Senate Bill 516, which would have allowed the University of Wisconsin-
La Crosse to spend additional money on financial aid for low- and moderate-income students.
The money had earlier been approved as part of UW-L’s Growth, Access and Quality program, which allowed for more flexibility in charging tuition rates to help make up for a decline in state support.
Originally, the money for financial aid was to come from tuition increases, but some legislators objected to having students pay more so that those of more modest means could afford to go to college.
So, the funding source for financial aid was changed from tuition increases to state revenue. Because the money had already been appropriated through the state budget months earlier, this bill was
a revenue-neutral item. Approving it would not cost more money than was allocated in the budget.
It should have been noncontroversial. And it was in the Assembly, where it passed without question on a voice vote.
Unfortunately, the bill had one strike against it in the Senate, as far as Decker was concerned: It was authored by a Republican, Sen. Kapanke.
So, Decker assigned the bill to the Joint Finance Committee, which wasn’t scheduled to meet any more that session. There, it would die.
Meanwhile, La Crosse area legislators of both parties pleaded with Decker to allow the bill to have a vote. No way. He was bound and determined that it would die — and several legislators told us the reason was its sponsor was a Republican that Decker hoped to defeat this fall.
That’s where Tara Johnson comes in. She’s the candidate that Decker hopes will do the job.
But if Decker thinks he was helping Johnson by killing the financial aid bill, he was dead wrong. If anything, that could hurt her, by tying her too closely to a leader that has no regard for students who need financial aid.
In fact, she tried to tell him that, but he paid no attention.
In a March 3 memo to Decker, then-prospective candidate Johnson wrote: “As I campaign for re-election here in the 18th County Board District of La Crosse, many constituents have expressed concerns to me about the shrinking affordability of a college education. Moderate- to low-income families will benefit immeasurably from S.B. 516 because it will allow UW-La Crosse to direct $439,400 toward financial aid. ... Making higher education more affordable is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do for our entire state.”
Unfortunately, doing either the right thing or the smart thing was too much to ask of the senator from Weston.
Either of the two candidates for state Senate would have a better regard for the needs of the state than the current Senate Democratic leader.
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