>> I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Tonight on "Here and Now," Assembly Minority Leader Peter
Barca steps down and the latest on the state budget.
After that, we introduce you to Andy Gronik,
a Democrat running for governor.
Then a look ahead to what may be in store for so-called
"dreamers" in Wisconsin.
It's "Here and Now" for September 8.
>> Funding for "Here and Now" is provided, in part,
by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
>> First tonight, Assembly Minority Leader Kenosha Democrat
Representative Peter Barca has resigned his leadership post.
This comes after his yes vote on the Foxconn incentive package.
One of just three Democrats in that chamber to vote yes.
The technology company could locate in Kenosha County.
Barca became minority leader in the midst of some of the most
volatile political upheaval in state history.
The Republican passage of Act 10.
Neither he nor his Democratic members could stop it.
We look back now at a clip from reporting we did at the time
with Peter Barca front and center.
>> Clerk, call roll.
>> No. Excuse me. >> Aye.
>> No. Listen.
It says here if there is any doubt as to whether good cause
exists, the governmental body should provide 24 hours notice.
>> There are 18 ayes, one no.
The conference report is adopted.
[chanting "Shame"]
>> We feel it's the right thing to do to get this state on the
right track.
We feel it.
>> You are voting with a giant storm cloud above your head.
[chanting]
>> The charade is up.
>> Those in favor will vote aye.
All opposed will vote no.
The clerk will open the roll.
[chanting]
>> Tonight, more than six years later,
Peter Barca's leadership position is up and he will step
down.
Representative Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh announced this afternoon
he will run to be the next Assembly Democratic Leader.
Moving now to other news, it's more than two months late,
but Republicans finally passed the state budget out of the
Joint Finance Committee this week.
How to fund roads and address a billion dollar gap in the
transportation fund tied the majority up in knots for months.
What emerged this week didn't get to a long-term funding
source but it did pass on a party line vote.
>> We will begin with the roll.
>> Republicans have been arguing amongst themselves over
transportation spending for more than a year.
With Assembly Republicans looking to raise revenue for big
road projects.
While Senate Republicans and Governor Scott Walker wanted to
continue borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the end, they agreed to $402 million in borrowing and an
increase on registration fees for hybrid and electric
vehicles.
That will only bring in about $400 million a year.
And Republicans admit they did not create a long-term fix to
the funding problem.
Plus, major highway projects like Interstate 94 East-West and
the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee will continue to be delayed due
to lack of funds.
>> I am disappointed about the I-94 East-West.
I think that what we're doing maybe is a bit shortsighted.
I would say it is shortsighted because we're going to have
orange buckets up all over the place for years.
>> Republicans also changed the special session bill that paves
the way for Foxconn to build a manufacturing plant
in southeast Wisconsin.
The amendment changes the legal process.
So if a circuit court judge overrules a local government
decision, like to take a person's property to give to
Foxconn, the company can appeal the ruling directly to the State
Supreme Court.
Democrats say it makes a bad bill worse.
>> We can't even finish funding our highway infrastructure for
existing businesses in the state of Wisconsin.
But when we need something to distract from a relatively poor
economic record, certainly of this governor,
we're going to give away $3 billion, up to $3 billion,
change environmental standards and change legal process.
>> The legislature's budget committee also bit into tax
policy.
It rejected Governor Walker's income tax cut and sales tax
holiday.
But also said no to the governor's increase in the
Earned Income Tax Credit for working poor people.
It eliminated the Alternative Minimum Tax affecting
high-income earners and cut the local property tax on business
machinery.
Joining us now to talk about the work,
Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Republican Representative John
Nygren.
He joins us from Marinette.
Thanks a lot for doing so.
>> Good to be here in Marinette especially.
>> I bet after a lot of work.
First I wanted to get your reaction to Peter Barca's
resignation as minority leader in the Assembly.
>> Well, you know, Peter and I may disagree on a lot of issues.
But I think he's a good man.
And I think it's unfortunate.
It's kind of a statement of the current status of the Democrats
in the Assembly.
That Peter voting for the best interests of his district with
the Foxconn deal was basically made to step down
based on that vote.
Just disappointing.
>> I want to get now to the budget.
We enumerated the major prongs of the transportation piece of
it a little bit earlier.
But am I correct in understanding that the new
revenue source for roads is in additional fees for hybrid and
electric cars?
>> Yes, that is the only new, additional revenue that is in
this budget for transportation.
It's more of a parity.
We looked at the average vehicle that travels 12,
000 miles in the state per year and what they pay in gas tax.
And we want to make sure that everybody's paying their fair
share.
So that's why we established this hybrid and electric vehicle
fee to give us that parity.
>> So even having just stated that it was this sole new
revenue source, do you have disappointment in that?
>> Oh, there's no doubt that I believe we needed to go further.
However, you know, we also put in a number of reforms.
We are going to continue to look for waste and abuse at the DOT.
So we believe that there's dollars to be saved there.
But, you know, unlike some of my colleagues in maybe the other
house who don't believe we have a funding problem for
transportation, I actually do.
Yet in politics you don't get everything you want.
And this is one of those examples.
At the end of the day, we're going to put a budget forward
that's pretty positive for the constituents of my area and the
rest of the state.
And that's something we can be proud of.
>> In the transportation budget you also voted to eliminate the
prevailing wage for public projects.
A Fiscal Bureau paper describes savings of that as, quote,
"not statistically significant." What about that?
>> Well, Fiscal Bureau is limited in what they can
actually -- the numbers they actually can provide for us.
But I think it pretty much goes without saying that if you're
not establishing an artificial wage that must be paid on any
state-funded project, that there's a potential for the free
market to actually engage and to drive costs down.
So we believe it's a reasonable step to help us save additional
resources.
>> What about construction delays that even your co-chair
says she's disappointed about?
>> Well, there shouldn't be any more additional delays other
than what the governor had already had in his budget.
You know, Senator Darling comes from southeast Wisconsin.
I understand the concerns of southeast Wisconsin.
Yet I would also say that the legislators and the leaders in
southeast Wisconsin need to engage in the conversation about
how we fix transportation long-term in Wisconsin.
Until that happens, there's not going to be a solution to
address this anytime soon.
>> Joint Finance did a vote to study polling.
Is that the nod to long-term, sustainable funding?
>> It's one of the opportunities.
We did a study last time.
This is kind of a follow-up to that.
We do know with tolling we do need congressional approval to
get that done.
Yet from my belief, you know, it is a user fee.
If you're not traveling the system, you're not paying.
So rather than raising registration,
which is across the board regardless of how many miles you
use on our system.
Tolling is an opportunity for us to charge people for their use
rather than passing across the board.
>> A long ways out, though, presumably.
As for Foxconn, why do you want the Supreme Court to decide any
appeals as opposed to the usual lower courts?
>> Well, we know in today's world, you know,
if you can't win at the ballot box,
if you can't win at the court of public opinion,
oftentimes you go to the courts to try and stop things that you
may not like or you may not agree with.
I think overwhelmingly, even though we don't have direct jobs
coming to northeast Wisconsin from Foxconn,
they're supportive.
Seeing an opportunity for people to delay it in the courts,
this does not avoid anybody's day in court.
It just actually gets us to the resolution faster.
>> Where's the language for any clawbacks from the incentive
package should Foxconn not meet its hiring goals?
>> There are already clawback language in existing contracts
for WEDC so that's where the opportunity would be for
clawbacks.
Remember, there's two different types of credits in the Foxconn
deal.
One is based on capital investment of up to $10 billion
that Foxconn has plans to invest in southeast Wisconsin.
So if there is no brick and mortar actually being built,
there's no credits.
On the other side, there's credits based on jobs.
So if there is no jobs, there's no credit.
So, you know, could Foxconn come,
invest $10 billion and a few years down the road actually
close up?
That's relatively possible.
Wouldn't necessarily make good business sense for them to do
that.
That's where those clawbacks that WEDC will write in the
contract would come in.
>> We need to leave it there.
Representative John Nygren, thanks very much for joining us.
>> Have a great weekend. Good to talk to you.
>> Thanks. You too.
Now to the Democrats and Joint Finance Committee Member Senator
Lena Taylor, who joins us from Milwaukee.
Senator, thanks very much for doing so.
>> It's truly a pleasure to be with you Frederica.
>> I know he's in the lower house,
but what is your comment on Peter Barca stepping down as
minority leader in the Assembly?
>> You know, I always appreciate anyone who's been a leader.
And I respect his desire to do that.
And I hear that Gordon Hintz may be running.
And I've had an opportunity to work with him.
And he's a great guy.
>> On to the budget.
We've just spoken to Representative Nygren about
Foxconn and transportation.
First Democrats on the committee
voted against the transportation package.
Why?
>> Well, first of all, there was nothing in it for public
transportation.
And very candidly nothing in it really to even help people to
connect to -- you talked about the Foxconn deal which lacks
accessibility, accountability and really opportunity for
Wisconsin businesses.
But transportation just really failed to come up with a
long-term solution, which is what we've been waiting on all
summer for them to do.
So they get a big F for failure for creating an independent
funding source, a long-term solution and frankly
even a short-term solution.
They decided to not do the Zoo Interchange,
which is really where Flight for Life -- you know,
a major engine in the Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin area.
>> So what do your constituents think about that?
>> They're very perturbed that they would be so partisan.
That they would be so disingenuous about dealing with
transportation costs.
This is going to cost taxpayers more gas.
It's going to cost them more repairs in their cars.
And it's going to cost us more money to do that work later that
they've delayed for what?
Three or four years.
And then they put in there that you can't even take a surplus
and use it if the Department of Transportation comes up with it
later.
>> Now, as for Foxconn, Joint Finance passed its package
obviously of incentives and changes,
including allowing lawsuits over it to bypass state appeals
courts and go directly to the Supreme Court.
What's your reaction to that?
>> I think it's completely unfair that they've given this
foreign company, this billionaire investor,
an opportunity to pass not only our legal system,
but also our environmental regulations that we have.
It's very concerning.
I also don't know if you know, but it's the largest subsidy,
you know, to a company, a foreign company in particular,
of any state.
I mean, it's really -- $3 billion?
This is over spending money for our children because they did
not fill the void that they created with the largest cut in
history to education.
>> In terms of that prong of the Foxconn deal that allows it to
kind of jump over the appeals courts,
it does avoid the whole development being sidelined for
years as these cases make their way through court, right?
>> Well, very candidly, the process is the process that
every other Wisconsin business and Wisconsinite needs to do.
So why should this foreign company,
for a deal that was done at MIU, that was done on what was
equivalent to almost a napkin, a piece of paper,
very small writings, why should they be able to do what you
can't do and I can't do and no other company in Wisconsin can
do, which is to usurp our system?
I think that that's appropriate, for them to abide by the same
rules that other Wisconsinites have to.
>> What's your expectation about whether Foxconn could be a
positive economic development engine though for Milwaukee?
>> I think that Foxconn, it would be a great opportunity if
we could make sure that there were transportation connections.
They didn't even have the ability for people in Racine to
get connected to the potential site that they're talking about
because there was no funding for public transportation.
And they don't have those sources now.
We also have issue in Milwaukee with whether or not people are
going to get the training that they need.
They're not doing training until years out.
And they said $20 million.
But one quarter of it, Gateway says we need a quarter of it
ourself, in order to be able to bring their selves up to being
able to deal with capacity for the amount of need.
So I'm concerned about transportation and training,
not to mention access for businesses in Wisconsin or
Milwaukee to even build the building.
>> When that Foxconn bill goes to the floor of the Senate,
you're voting no?
>> I'm voting no as long as we're going to allow a foreign
company to usurp our legal system.
We're not going to put in transportation.
We're not putting in training.
And we have no security and accountability that
Wisconsinites will get the jobs.
Nor the ability to contract
to do the work to build the building.
>> All right. We need it leave it there.
Senator Lena Taylor, thanks for joining us.
>> Thank you for having me.
>> The state Assembly and Senate are expected to take up the
budget and Foxconn in floor sessions scheduled for next
week.
>> The Trump Administration announced this week that the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will end in six
months.
Recipients of DACA, often referred to as "dreamers" whose
permits expire within the next six months have until October 5
to apply for renewal.
But those whose permits run out after the March deadline will
see their permits expire unless Congress acts.
President Trump said late this week that "dreamers" should not
worry about being deported before the six months is up.
In tonight's look ahead, we go to Christine Neumann-Ortiz.
She's executive director of the immigrant rights organization
Voces de la Frontera in Milwaukee.
Thanks very much for being here.
>> Thank you so much for the invitation.
>> Do the president's assurances calm the fears of people in this
country who arrived as children, the "dreamers"?
>> Absolutely not.
We've seen that despite his claims that he's going to
prioritize enforcement, the reality is that with his
initial repeal of the executive orders, everyone is a target.
We've actually seen that play out.
And with this latest repeal of protections for these young
immigrants, it really is -- it's a reality check that he is very
sincere with his plans of implementing very
discriminatory, mass deportation program.
>> How many so-called "dreamers" are affected in Wisconsin?
>> Close to 8,000.
And we're a very young state.
I mean, many of the -- it's very much, as it is nationally,
mixed immigration status families.
>> And so describe for me what these so-called "dreamers" are
thinking right now.
>> There's obviously a lot of -- there is fear.
There is fear because they recognize that these protections
have been taken away from them.
That their ability to legally work, to legally drive,
to be a source of support for their families,
that that is gone.
That that will be gone unless we fight.
And this is an opportunity, a galvanizing opportunity for
those DACA youth, as they have been doing,
to really step forward.
And those around them, their family members, their priests,
the pastors, their neighbors, their family friends to really
stand with them and send a very strong message.
One, to U.S.
Speaker of the House Ryan that we want him to sponsor a bill
that will make DACA permanent with a path to citizenship and a
clean bill.
And then secondly, to really send a message that the
community -- these are folks that are part of our community
and we're going to stand strong as a community against the
efforts to separate families.
>> Who are these "dreamers"?
Describe who they are for us.
>> Well, one person that comes to mind is one of the "dreamers"
that just did a hunger strike in front of Paul Ryan's office from
September 1 to September 5, Valeria, who -- excuse me,
Fernanda, who came here.
Valeria Luis is another one from his district.
Both Valeria and Fernanda are from his district.
They both came to the United States as very young age.
Their parents were from Mexico.
In the case of Valeria, it was a very dangerous process.
She was separated for a period of time from her father.
And she herself, you know, gives in her testimony,
has talked about how hard it was because she didn't even as a
young girl in the process of separation,
didn't initially recognize her mom.
They are united.
They are living here.
And she very much, like all of them,
believe that their parents are the original "dreamers."
And they're fighting not just for themselves, but their families.
>> Unfortunately we need to leave it there.
But clearly we will all be watching this as the days,
weeks and months go on.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz. Thanks very much.
>> Thank you.
>> A closer look now at the widening field of candidates
running for governor.
Tonight, we introduce you to Democrat Andy Gronik.
Mr. Gronik is a Milwaukee businessman.
He joins us now. Thanks for being here.
>> Great to be here. Thank you.
>> First we wanted to ask you what sets you apart from the
many other Democrats who have thrown their hat into the ring?
>> Well I come at this from a completely different
perspective.
As an outsider, as someone who's been in business my entire
career.
Someone who's helped companies solve problems and access
billions of dollars every year so they could grow and create
jobs.
It's a very different skill set.
And it's a skill set that I think will get Wisconsin growing
again.
>> As to that skill set and you talking about being a business
person, recent news articles, as you well know,
say that you were fired by your father and sued by your former
business partner for alleged fraudulent behavior.
How do you reconcile that with what you say is a skill set to
be the governor of this state because of your business
background?
>> Well, I transformed my father's business.
And I will tell you that not only did he fire me when I
offered to buy the business, really at the end of having
grown it.
He fired me pretty much every month.
We had a very different view of that business.
I came in.
It was a small auction business serving mostly southeastern
Wisconsin.
And transformed it to an information business that was
doing appraisals and business consulting on a national basis.
The company became much larger than what my father was
comfortable with.
And that caused us to hit heads, as I think a lot of father and
son businesses do, for the entire eight years that I was
there.
We finally got to a point where, you know what,
we have a different vision of where the business is going.
I offered to buy the company.
And he fired me.
This time I actually took him up on it.
>> As for the split with the business partner?
>> The business partner, that was a cascading series of events
associated with my actually purchasing a house where we
discovered after living there for seven months that it had
toxigenic mold and pathogenic bacteria.
It made my entire family sick.
What I did at that point was stood up for my family.
I took a leave from my company.
And I fought for them the same way I'm going to fight
for the state of Wisconsin.
>> Let's go to the issues now.
What's the single most important thing in your mind that
Wisconsin could do to improve and help its education system?
>> Gosh, where do we begin?
I think we start by not starving those institutions of resources.
When you think about the university system,
it's always been an economic engine of our state.
Always.
For Scott Walker to come in and actually take resources away and
attack the institutions and their professors in a way that
actually diminishes the effectiveness of the university
system, I think it's crazy.
>> If the ACA should still be in force,
would you expand Medicaid, take the expanded Medicaid
in Wisconsin?
>> Well, you're talking about things that are very personal to
me, because I am on Obamacare.
My entire family is.
I am a guy who was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in my early
20s.
And that's an existing -- a pre-existing condition I've
listed my whole life.
I understand that the fear Wisconsinites have of ending
that program, when I believe that everybody in Wisconsin
should have affordable access to health care.
>> How would you go about growing good-paying jobs in
Wisconsin?
>> First, I would make sure we start focusing on our strengths
as a state.
We're great in food.
We're great at growing food, processing food,
distributing food and all the industries around food.
Clean water, sustainable energy, clean air,
those are all industries that we can be focusing on as a state to
actually be the leader, be the global leader in advancing
technologies and applications that allow us to be the world
source.
>> Speaking of technologies and applications,
what is your position on the Foxconn deal?
>> Well, interesting, too.
I mean, I just wrote an op-ed on that.
I talked about some simple things I think people have to be
aware of.
First, we're essentially offering guarantees to Foxconn
if they build a building without Foxconn offering us guarantees
how many people they'll put in that building.
And that's how the state of Wisconsin actually gets their
investment back.
That's a crazy way to do business.
And again, as an outsider, somebody that's coming in having
done feasibility analysis for companies all over the world,
it makes me understand why people are concerned about
giving their money to government,
thinking that government's not capable of actually acting
responsibly with their tax dollars.
This is a great example of that.
>> With just about a half a minute left,
why do you think you could unseat Scott Walker?
>> Well, Scott Walker comes to this office as a guy who's known
nothing but politics.
I come to this office as someone who has brought people together
my entire professional career.
Actually executed plans, measured that success very
transparently and made things happen.
We need to make things happen in this state because we're not
creating new businesses.
We're last in the country.
The companies that we're paying enormous amounts of money to to
stay in our state, we still lost over 3700 manufacturing jobs
last year.
Despite all of his efforts, we only created less than 12,
000 private sector jobs last year.
That's pretty crazy.
Wisconsin's ready for a change.
>> All right. We need to leave it there.
Andy Gronik, thanks very much.
>> Thank you. Appreciate it.
>> The race for governor is not the only statewide race to come
in 2018.
A new candidate announced her intent to challenge Tammy
Baldwin in next year's race for U.S.
Senate.
>> The Wisconsin way is never giving up.
>> Leah Vukmir, a Republican state senator from Brookfield,
announced her candidacy Thursday.
Vukmir enters a small field of those vying for the Republican
nomination.
She will face Marine veteran and Delafield businessman Kevin
Nicholson who has not yet filed paperwork to run,
but announced his candidacy in July.
>> Our Republic is in serious trouble.
>> There will be much more on this race to come.
That's all for our program tonight.
I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a great weekend.
>> Funding for "Here and Now" is provided, in part,
by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.