Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Senate leader killed UW-L bill for political purposes
Sen. Russ Decker, the Democratic leader of the Wisconsin state Senate, had a guest column in last Thursday’s Tribune, explaining why he killed a proposal in March that would have provided more financial aid to low- and middle-income students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
But judging from today’s column by former UW-L student leader Fred Ludwig and Decker’s own words, it appears that senator didn’t even understand the proposal.
A provision in the state budget, passed in 2007, allowed UW-L to increase tuition for incoming students. This was done in part to counter budget cuts that had earlier been made by the governor and the Legislature.
In order to ease the burden on low- and moderate-income students, the plan allowed for increased financial aid for those students. After the budget passed, some legislators objected to using student tuition money for financial aid, so UW-L officials agreed to use the tuition money for salaries and other expenses — and fund the financial aid proposal with state money.
To do this, a special bill was needed. The Republican-controlled Assembly passed the bill on a voice vote with no dissent or discussion. There was no additional cost to the state. All the bill did was address concerns about tuition increases used for financial aid.
In the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, where one might expect some sympathy toward people of modest means trying to improve themselves through education, Decker sent the bill to Joint Finance, even though that committee was not scheduled to meet for the rest of the session. The result was that it died in committee, and no students were helped with the additional financial aid it would have provided.
In March, when I asked Carrie Lynch, Decker’s spokeswoman, why the bill was sent to Joint Finance, she told me that state law required it. But that turned out not to be true. There was no requirement that Joint Finance had to act on it.
The next day Lynch told me that taking the money from state funds rather than student tuition was a big enough change that it warranted Joint Finance action.
Decker’s column, which was published May 29, offered a third reason — that the UW-L proposal was ill-conceived and would have used tuition money for student aid. Unfortunately, Decker’s analysis just muddied the water — and was factually incorrect. And his actions didn’t prevent the tuition increase — they only guaranteed that there would be no additional financial aid provided to students.
I think the real reason Decker killed the proposal was because Sen. Dan Kapanke, a French Island Republican, supported it. Decker wanted to make Kapanke look bad in order to get a Democrat elected from this district.
Several legislators and legislative staff members of both parties told me that, too, but they didn’t want their names made public.
After reading Decker’s latest version of why he opposed the bill, one staff member said, “Killing the bill had nothing to do with the ambiguous ‘concerns by the Legislature,’ as Sen. Decker claims. It had everything to do with election-year partisan politics by Sen. Decker and for that, UW-L students must suffer.”
Decker’s insistence on killing a financial aid program that would have helped UW-L students could be problematic for the local Democratic candidate for state Senate, Tara Johnson of La Crosse. She is a good candidate, with experience in local government and in running a nonprofit corporation. She would make a great state senator.
Unfortunately, electing her would be rewarding Decker, and allowing for his rule over the Senate to continue, possibly to the detriment of Wisconsin residents, or even La Crosse area residents.
Johnson pleaded with Decker not to kill the proposal. But he didn’t follow her advice.
So, let’s review. In Decker, we have an official who misunderstood a proposal that he killed, has a staff that gives wrong information to the media and public, and when a candidate he supports tries to get him to stop hurting her district, he doesn’t listen.
That’s a wicked combination.
Contact Opinion page editor Richard Mial at (608) 791-8232, or rmial@lacrossetribune.com.
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