Health Care, Education Topics At Dems’ Budget Sessions

Education and health care were on many people’s minds at an unofficial budget public hearing in La Crosse Monday.

As the Joint Finance Committee was holding its budget public hearing at Lambeau Field, across the state, a few Democrats listened to their own constituents in a La Crosse public school gym.

Many people expressed their concerns about state money going towards the voucher school program and questioned the program’s accountability. La Crosse is not one of the nine school districts under the proposed voucher school expansion.

Representative Jill Billings of La Crosse says beyond vouchers, she and many of her constituents are concerned about the overall funding future for all public schools.

“Funding of education is huge. We’ve had a zero [dollars] per pupil increase in spending in this budget, after public schools taking a series of hits in previous budgets, and I think there’s a lot of concern about that.”

La Crosse County Health Director Doug Mormann says he attended the listening session because he wants Governor Walker to rethink his decision to not accept Medicaid expansion funds through the Affordable Care Act. He says it would help more people in the area get the care they need.

“The legislature and the governor are very interested in hearing what the people of the state have to say and I think they understand folks are thoughtful and concerned. Yeah, I’m confident that the discussion is in the best interest of us all.”

Other unofficial budget listening sessions hosted by Democrats and Republicans will be held across the state in coming weeks.