From the Article:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A constitutional amendment supported by Republicans that attempts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Wisconsin won approval Thursday in the state Assembly.

The measure is the latest effort targeting DEI efforts nationwide, but it is a long way from becoming law in Wisconsin. It must also pass the Senate this year and then the full Legislature next session before it would go to a statewide vote to be added to the Wisconsin Constitution.

The Senate is only expected to be in session a couple more days before ending its work for the year in March.

Wisconsin Republicans have been proposing more constitutional amendments because they don’t require a sign off from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. He has vetoed more bills than any other governor in state history, serving as a block on the agenda of Republicans who have strong majorities in the Legislature.

From the Article:

MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation says it will start sending out new license plate stickers to drivers who own electric and hybrid vehicles due to a new law.

The law passed last year requires all hybrids and EVs to have license plate stickers as a safety precaution for first responders, letting them know when they approach the scene of a crash whether the vehicle is electric or a traditional combustion engine so they can use the appropriate equipment.

The bill proposal introduced last year referenced a report published in 2013 by the National Fire Protection Alliance noted that EV fires are less likely to include explosions than combustion engine vehicle fires, but EV fires may burn more intensely due to the chemicals used in batteries. Hybrids and EVs may also have a higher risk of electric shocks to first responders, according to a 2020 report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Anyone who already owns a hybrid or EV will automatically be sent the stickers in the mail, and they should receive them by June. Anyone who buys a hybrid or EV starting this summer will get the stickers with their new license plates. The DOT says there is no need to contact the DMV to get the stickers.

The DOT says the sticker should be placed in the upper right corner of each standard-sized license plate.

State records show there were nearly 146,000 hybrids and EVs on Wisconsin roads last year.

From the Article:

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, voiced skepticism Wednesday about the possibility of the Republican-controlled Legislature passing new legislative maps that Evers proposed.

Evers was asked about Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu floating the possibility earlier in the day of the Senate voting on the Evers maps. The Assembly would also consider passing the Evers maps, said Republican Speaker Robin Vos’ spokesperson Angela Joyce.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Evers told reporters. But when asked if he would sign his maps if the Legislature passed them unchanged, Evers said, “Why not?”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is weighing maps submitted by Evers and others after it ruled in December that the current Republican-drawn maps were unconstitutional.

From the Article:

Senate Republicans are considering adopting legislative maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers with no changes, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told the Wisconsin State Journal Wednesday.

While the maps Evers proposed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court could dramatically reduce — and even reverse — Republicans’ legislative majority, GOP lawmakers have found the governor’s maps to be more favorable for them than the other three Democrat-supported alternatives before the court.

In response, Evers told reporters, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Asked whether he’d sign the proposal into law if his maps remain unchanged, he said, “Why not?”

LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, later told reporters that Senate Republicans will consider Evers’ maps along with other alternatives in a closed discussion Wednesday. Any action to pass the governor’s maps would likely be taken in the next two weeks, LeMahieu said.

From the Article:

As a legal battle over witness addresses on absentee ballots heads towards the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Republican lawmakers say they’re hoping to settle the debate over the definition of “address” before the court does.

A bill authored by Wisconsin Reps. Donna Rozar, R-Marshfield; Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa; and Sen. Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, would specify that a witness’s address must contain the person’s name, house number, street name, municipality, state and ZIP code.

It would also bar clerks from filling in missing address information regardless if they can identify where that person lives. If a clerk — or anyone other than the voter — corrects the address, they could face fines of up to $500 and up to 30 days in jail, under the legislation.

Current law states that a witness must print their name and address on the absentee ballot envelope, known as a witness certificate, but doesn’t spell out what constitutes an address.

Krug said the bill is a response to lawsuits on absentee witness signatures working their way through state courts. The most recent ruling came from Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Nilsestuen, who ordered the Wisconsin Elections Commission to tell local clerks that absentee ballots with witness addresses missing things like a ZIP code or municipality must be counted and that clerks can correct them if they can confirm where a witness lives.

“This is where the definitions and guidance and ideas should come from, is the Legislature passing them and the governor signing them into law, so the courts don’t have to guess,” Krug said.

The Dane County lawsuit was filed by the League of Women Voters and youth organizing group Rise, Inc. They argued state law is vague on what witness address information needs to be included on ballots and clerks around Wisconsin are using different standards.

A separate federal lawsuit filed in October by a national Democratic law firm argues the state law requiring witness signatures on absentee ballot envelopes violates the federal Voting Rights Act. That case is ongoing.

From the Article:

Gov. Tony Evers signed two bills, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 92 and 2023 Wisconsin Act 93, on Friday that will release long-awaited pay raises to employees of the University of Wisconsin System.

The 4% raises for about 35,000 UW employees were included in the 2023-24 budget that was passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Evers. However, they were held up last year by Republican lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) decided to use the raises as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the UW System over diversity, equity and inclusion issues as well as funding.

The UW System and Republicans came to a deal in December 2023 under which lawmakers agreed to finally release the pay raises and fund some infrastructure projects for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin schools, while the System agreed to freeze DEI hiring and realign some positions.

“All our UW faculty, staff, and workers should be treated with dignity and respect,” Evers said in a statement about signing the raises. “While I’m glad these well-deserved pay increases will finally be in the hands of the UW building trades employees who’ve earned them, these workers never should have had their wages held up for political games in the first place.”

The actions by Republican lawmakers regarding the pay raises also became one of the subjects of a lawsuit filed by Evers in October 2023. In the ongoing lawsuit, Evers argues that the actions by lawmakers constitute “legislative vetoes” that are “unconstitutional and unlawful.”

“Republicans’ obstruction of basic functions of government have harmed tens of thousands of people across our state — folks, that’s wrong,” Evers said in his statement. “Wisconsinites expect government to work for them, not against them, and for elected officials to do their jobs and get things done. I will continue to fight every effort by Republicans in the Legislature to unconstitutionally and unlawfully obstruct our administration from doing the right thing for Wisconsin.”

From the Article:

Two consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority said redistricting plans submitted by the Republican-controlled Legislature do “not deserve further consideration” by justices as part of an ongoing lawsuit over the state’s political maps.

Their report on six map proposals said plans submitted by Gov. Tony Evers, Democrats and academics are “tilted toward the Republicans” but are competitive enough that “the party that wins the most votes will win the most seats.”

The findings, released to the court Thursday night, struck at the heart of an argument long used by Republicans that Wisconsin’s “political geography” favors their party because Democrats are generally clustered in larger cities. Wisconsin’s current legislative maps, first drawn by Republicans in 2011 and redrawn in 2021, have helped the GOP cement lopsided majorities in the Assembly and Senate, even in years when Democratic candidates performed well statewide.

But University of California, Irvine political scientist Bernard Grofman and Carnegie Mellon University political scientist Jonathan Cervas told the court that the maps submitted to the court contradicted that claim.

“To put it simply, in Wisconsin, geography is not destiny,” they wrote.

The report argues map proposals from every party except the Legislature and voters represented by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty are able to “improve on traditional good government criteria compared to the current map and manage to create plans with modest levels of partisan bias.”

Also, the consultants wrote, the Legislature’s plan and the plan submitted by WILL “are partisan gerrymanders” from a social science perspective.

The other four plans, the report said, are similar on most criteria, and more competitive than the GOP maps. The consultants did not endorse a specific map but told the court they were prepared to improve map proposals if justices choose.

Shortly after the report was released, Evers called it an important step in the process for finding new maps.

“The days of Wisconsinites living under some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country are numbered,” Evers said.

From the Article:

A Dane County judge has ordered the Wisconsin Elections Commission to create new rules that allow local clerks to accept absentee ballots with missing witness address information.

The move could lead to more votes being counted in this year’s elections compared to in 2022. An attorney for the Republican-controlled state Legislature plans to appeal the ruling.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ryan Nilsestuen issued the ruling as part of a permanent injunction Tuesday. The order requires the commission to rescind guidance it sent to clerks in September stating the agency could no longer advise clerks on whether or not to accept absentee ballots with incomplete address information written on ballot envelopes by a voter’s witness.

In it’s place, Nilsestuen’s order requires the commission to notify clerks that ballots cannot be rejected if witness addresses are missing things like a ZIP code or municipality. It also states that witness addresses marked “same as voter” or “ditto” must be accepted if that person lives at the same residence as the voter.

“The right to vote is one of our most important, if not the most important, right,” Nilsestuen said. “And this furthers that.”

The injunction wasn’t unexpected. On Jan. 3, Nislestuen, a former chief legal counsel for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, issued preliminary rulings on the witness address issue in cases brought by the League of Women Voters and the national youth organizing group Rise, Inc. At that time, he said rejecting absentee ballots due to incomplete witness addresses violates the federal Civil Rights act of 1964 and that the definition of an address should mean “a place where the witness can be communicated with.”

From the Article:

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday vetoed a redistricting proposal that the Republican-controlled Legislature passed last week in a last-ditch effort to avert the drawing of legislative boundaries by the state Supreme Court.

The veto came a day after five of Wisconsin’s Republican members of Congress, along with the GOP-controlled Legislature, asked the newest liberal member of the state Supreme Court not to hear a lawsuit that seeks to redraw congressional district maps ahead of the November election.

The political stakes in both cases are huge for both sides in the presidential battleground state, where Republicans have had a firm grip on the Legislature since 2011 even as Democrats have won statewide elections, including for governor in 2018 and 2022.

Evers had promised to veto the GOP legislative-district proposal, which largely mirrored maps he had proposed, but with changes that would reduce the number of GOP incumbents in the state Senate and Assembly who would have to face one another in November.

Evers said he vetoed the maps because they are “more of the same.”

“Republicans passed maps to help make sure Republican-gerrymandered incumbents get to keep their seats,” he said in a statement. “Folks, that’s just more gerrymandering.”

Republicans don’t have enough votes in the Legislature to override the veto.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos accused Evers of trusting the Wisconsin Supreme Court “to give him even more partisan, gerrymandered maps for Democrats.” And Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a statement that Evers is confident the court “will trample the constitutional authority of the legislature.”

The liberal-controlled state Supreme Court last month tossed the current Republican-drawn legislative maps as unconstitutional. The court said it would draw new maps unless the Legislature and Evers agreed to ones first.

They could not agree.

The Legislature raced to pass maps ahead of Thursday’s deadline for consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to submit their recommendations for new boundary lines. They were reviewing six maps submitted separately by Evers, Republicans, Democrats and others. They could recommend one of those maps, or their own. It will then be up to the liberal-controlled court to order the maps.

The legislative machinations in Wisconsin come as litigation continues in more than dozen states over U.S. House and state legislative districts that were enacted after the 2020 census. National Democrats last week asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up a challenge to the state’s congressional districts, but the court has yet to decide whether to take the case.

That lawsuit argues that decision last month ordering new state legislative maps opens the door to the latest challenge focused on congressional lines.

Republicans asked in that legislative-district case for Justice Janet Protasiewicz to recuse herself, based on comments she made during her campaign calling the maps “rigged” and “unfair.” She refused to step aside and was part of the 4-3 majority in December that ordered new maps.

Now Republicans are making similar arguments in calling for her to not hear the congressional redistricting challenge. In a motion filed Monday, they argued that her comments critical of the Republican maps require her to step aside in order to avoid a due process violation of the U.S. Constitution. They also cite the nearly $10 million her campaign received from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

“A justice cannot decide a case she has prejudged or when her participation otherwise creates a serious risk of actual bias," Republicans argued in the motion. “Justice Protasiewicz’s public campaign statements establish a constitutionally intolerable risk that she has prejudged the merits of this case.”

Protasiewicz rejected similar arguments in the state legislative map redistricting case, saying in October that the law did not require her to step down from that case.

“Recusal decisions are controlled by the law,” Protasiewicz wrote then. “They are not a matter of personal preference. If precedent requires it, I must recuse. But if precedent does not warrant recusal, my oath binds me to participate.”

Those seeking her recusal in the congressional redistricting case are the GOP-controlled Wisconsin Legislature and Republican U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Mike Gallagher, Bryan Steil and Tom Tiffany.

The only Republican not involved in the lawsuit is U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents western Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District. His is one of only two congressional districts in Wisconsin seen as competitive.

The current congressional maps in Wisconsin were drawn by Evers and approved by the state Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court in March 2022 declined to block them from taking effect.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is under an extremely tight deadline to consider the challenge. State elections officials have said that new maps must be in place by March 15 in order for candidates and elections officials to adequately prepare for the Aug. 13 primary. Candidates can start circulating nomination papers on April 15.

The lawsuit argues that there is time for the court to accept map submissions and select one to be in place for the November election.

From the Article:

Remote work has declined in Wisconsin after spiking during the COVID-19 pandemic, but office vacancies remain elevated in the state’s largest city and its suburbs.

From 2021 to 2022, the state saw an 11 percent decrease in the number of people working remotely, from 437,295 to 387,700, according to a recent study from LLC.org.

Both Madison and Milwaukee have seen about a 20 percent decline in the number of people working from home, according to the report. Madison’s remote workforce declined by 22 percent from 40,253 to 31,385 people. Milwaukee’s has declined by 19 percent from 40,265 to 32,627.

Despite the decrease, remote work nationally remains higher than it was before the pandemic. In September 2023, the average U.S. worker reported spending 3.8 days each month doing their job remotely, down from 5.8 days in 2020 but up from 2.4 days in 2019, according to Gallup.

As of 2023, Forbes reported that 12.7 percent of full-time employees worked from home, while 28.2 percent worked a hybrid model.

Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce President Zach Brandon said the decline in remote workers noted in the LLC.org report isn’t surprising, but he doesn’t expect remote work to return to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon.

“It will continue to be higher than it was pre-pandemic but never be what it was during the pandemic,” Brandon said. “You’re going to continue to see businesses and governments sort out what works and what doesn’t work.”

While remote work has decreased in Wisconsin, it hasn’t necessarily led to offices brimming with activity in the greater Milwaukee area.

From the final three months of 2021 to the same period in 2022, office vacancies in southeast Wisconsin increased slightly from 15.3 percent to 15.8 percent, according to reports from the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin. By the end of 2023, office vacancies in southeast Wisconsin increased to 17.7 percent.

Tracy Johnson, president and CEO for the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin, said generally smaller offices are faring better in the market than larger office spaces.

“A lot of it has to do with the fact that people are just rethinking the way that they use their space,” she said. “You’ve got the hybrid model that, I think, is very pervasive.”

While office vacancies haven’t recovered, Brandon said offices are important to local economies because their workers help support surrounding businesses.

“Offices have amenities around them, (and) those amenities are struggling,” he said. “It’s not uncommon to see places that used to be open for lunch seven days a week (that) are not open for lunch every day of the week anymore, if they’re open for lunch at all.”

Johnson and Brandon said offices also provide an important social space for workers to build a sense of camaraderie. In a virtual work environment, they said it’s harder for coworkers to forge friendships, creating a feeling of isolation.

“We may not have water coolers per se anymore in offices, but the concept of the water cooler is real,” Brandon said.

A 2023 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that U.S. workers who have close work friends are more likely to say they’re satisfied with their job than those without close friends at work. And 80 percent of employees with close friends at work say they feel a strong sense of belonging to their organization.

“It’s good for their mental health, I think people feel very isolated,” Johnson said. “When you feel disconnected, I think that contributes to your ability to create trust, and also create innovation.”

From the Article:

Wisconsin’s budget surplus will be less than what was projected six months ago.

The state is predicted to have a surplus of $3.25 billion by the end of the current budget cycle, according to a new estimate of the state’s general fund from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

That’s nearly $800,000 less than what was projected when the current budget was signed last June.

Jason Stein, research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said the surplus is still large enough to give lawmakers and the governor some options. Republicans have called for more tax cuts, while Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed new spending.

“The state’s extremely bright financial picture dimmed a little bit,” Stein said. “On the whole things are still very strong with regard to state finances, but there was a little bit of a weakening compared to where we thought things were at six months ago.”

The state is projected to collect less tax revenue while spending has increased. The fiscal bureau is now expecting the state will collect $422 million less than previously expected from both individuals and corporations.

This estimate from the bureau included spending that has passed since June, as well as bills currently working their way through the legislature. That includes $423 million for building projects on University of Wisconsin system campuses and other items.

Republican leaders said the new estimates show there is still enough of a surplus to deliver more tax cuts.

“These estimates are consistent with what we expected when we crafted our budget. We created a responsible budget that protects taxpayer resources, while making important investments in our state,” Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Mark Born wrote in a statement. “With over $3 billion in the bank and $1.8 billion in the state’s rainy day fund, it is critical for us to return a portion of these funds to the people of Wisconsin.”

Earlier this week, Republicans called for tax cuts that would total $2.1 billion during this budget cycle and $1.4 billion every year after that.

“There’s a lot of room to do one-time spending increases or one-time tax rebates and there is less, but still significant room, to do ongoing spending increases or ongoing tax cuts,” Stein said.

Stein said state revenues grew very rapidly during and immediately after the pandemic.

“They’re not (growing) now, and there’s no real prospect for them doing that in the near future, absent some sort of tax increase by the state,” he said.

When asked for a response to the revised estimate, a spokesperson for Evers pointed to this week’s State of the State address.

In that speech, Evers called for funding a variety of programs, including child care, expanded Medicaid coverage for new mothers and investing in education.

From the Article:

A pair of Wisconsin Republicans want to give the Universities of Wisconsin $500,000 a year to ensure conservative voices on public campuses are heard.

Rep. Scott Johnson, R-Jefferson, and Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, are proposing a bill that would fund the university system’s free speech office, the Wisconsin Institute of Citizenship and Civil Dialogue.

The bill proposal says the Wisconsin Institute of Citizenship and Civil Dialogue was not adequately funded when it was created.

The Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civil Dialogue was created in November 2022 by UW System President Jay Rothman in conjunction with a student free speech survey. The UW system spent $250,000 on the center in its first year, according to a university spokesperson.

At the time, Rothman said it was an extension of UW-Madison’s “It’s Just Coffee” program that brought students from different backgrounds together to discuss politics, religion and economics in a non-threatening environment.

The survey of more than 10,000 Universities of Wisconsin undergraduate students found stark differences in opinion on free speech when broken down by political affiliation, gender and race.