MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans who control the Legislature reached deals Tuesday to approve a $100 million school safety package, a $100 per-child tax rebate and August sales tax holiday and an $80 million juvenile justice overhaul to replace the troubled Lincoln Hills prison with smaller facilities.
The agreements, described by Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, are a boost for Gov. Scott Walker who had been championing all of the measures as he faces re-election in November. The Senate planned to vote on the bills later Tuesday, its last day in session for the year.
GOP leaders in the Senate and Assembly appeared to be at an impasse over the measures, putting all of them in jeopardy. The deals will require the Assembly to vote on all three proposals on Thursday.
Walker spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg said the governor spoke with both Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and “he is pleased with the direction they are headed.”
Vos did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The Assembly — in a rare, bipartisan unanimous vote — approved the juvenile justice bill last month as a way to address systemic problems in the system. Lincoln Hills has been under federal investigation for three years amid allegations of inmate abuse by guards.
Fitzgerald said the new version of the juvenile justice bill is largely the same, but it requires the Legislature’s budget committee to sign off on any spending on new facilities to house juveniles after Lincoln Hills is closed in 2021.
The Assembly also previously passed the $100 child tax rebate, which included a sales tax holiday expected to cost $50 million. The Senate was keeping the $100 rebate, but scaling back what items would be eligible for the sales tax holiday, reducing its cost from $50 million to $12 million. That is a reversal for Fitzgerald and other Republican senators who had blasted the sales tax holiday as nothing more than a gimmick.
Fitzgerald told reporters that the reversal was “part of the negotiations between the Senate and Assembly to get things done here at the end.”
He said lawmakers were anxious to do something on school safety and what the Senate would vote on will closely mirror Walker’s proposals, including a $100 million grant program to help pay for safety improvements. Specific references to the money being able to pay for armed guards, which was included in Walker’s bill, was removed by the Senate. But there’s no prohibition on using the money for that.
The Senate version also removed a provision allowing schools to share surveillance footage with law enforcement. Fitzgerald said they can already do that. The Senate version also doesn’t require the school to notify a parent or guardian within 48 hours of a bullying incident involving their child.
“We’re all overwhelmed by what’s been going on nationwide and we’re searching for answers,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re going to do what we can do.”
Democrats and other advocates have said Walker’s proposal doesn’t get to the root of the problem — increasing gun control. But Fitzgerald said it’s hard to build a consensus on gun control to get something passed this year.
The Assembly Education Committee held a hearing on the school safety bills just hours after another shooting at a Maryland high school. A sheriff there said the shooter died after a school resource officer fired at him.
“No student, teacher, parent, or school employee should feel unsafe at school,” Walker’s top aide, Ellen Nowak, said in prepared testimony released before the hearing. “That’s why we are here today.”
Walker has been touting the proposal at schools across the state this week while also working behind the scenes trying to broker a deal between the two houses of the Legislature.
