The Fix Was In on the Badger Bailout

Bipartisanship isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.

Take Assembly Bill 1034, the legislation that would hand over almost $15 million in taxpayer money every year to the UW Athletic Department. The bill passed yesterday on a “bipartisan” vote, but there’s nothing good about this cross aisle cooperation.

Here’s what happened. The bill was a priority for the Senate’s Republican Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu. But he didn’t have the votes in his own caucus. The Republicans hold an 18-15 majority in that house, but seven of them were against the bill. So, he needed at least six Democrats to join the rest of the Republicans.

The bill was the very last bill of the entire session that LeMahieu brought to the floor. Sen. Steve Nass, a Republican opponent of the bill, rose to speak. He wasn’t recognized. He sat down. No other senator spoke. Then the vote was taken and it went down 16-17. But before the vote could be announced, Sen. Dora Drake, a Democrat, switched her vote from ‘no’ to ‘yes’ and the bill passed 17-16.

Based on a decade of working in the Legislature and a career in politics I’m pretty sure I can tell you just what happened. LeMahieu went to Democratic Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein and told her he’d need some Democratic votes. (This is why I asked readers to contact Hesselbein yesterday. I thought she would be the key.) For whatever reason she promised him she’d deliver the necessary votes. That could be because, for some reason I can’t comprehend, Hesselbein actually supports this awful piece of legislation. Or it could be that she made a deal with LeMahieu to get some other bill that Democrats liked to the floor. If that’s the case I’m not sure what that bill would have been.

When it came time for the vote, it had been predetermined that the Democrats would supply whatever number of votes were needed. If he didn’t know he had the votes LeMahieu would never have brought it to the floor. It turned out that six Democrats had to join LeMahieu to make up for the seven members of his own caucus who opposed him. Hesselbein and Drake agreed that she’d be the necessary vote if hers was needed. It was and so she changed sides.

In other words, the fix was in. And I’m told that the fix is also in with Gov. Tony Evers. He could and should veto this thing, but he won’t. The entire process was wired from start to finish with insiders and heavy hitters greasing the skids. The bill was introduced only a couple of weeks before the end of the session, it was rushed to a hearing and vote in the Assembly State Affairs Committee, then rushed to a vote in the full Assembly, where without debate it passed 95-1. Then it was rushed through committee in the Senate and teed up so that LeMahieu could bring it to the floor whenever he knew he had the votes. When it did hit the floor the word was out that any debate would not be welcome. And before any of that began, Evers apparently promised to sign the damn thing. This is one hell of a way to do the public’s business.

So, let’s just think about this for a moment. What about more funding for actual education at the UW? What about money for child care? What about more general school aids for K-12 education? What about reauthorizing the Stewardship Fund to protect more land for public outdoor recreation?

Nope. All of those frivolous measures will have to wait for next year. Those ideas and other important legislation died in committee, some without a hearing. But the UW Athletic Department wants $15 million? Fast track city.

Yesterday saw the whole process at its very worst.