After 14 Wisconsin state senators hid in Illinois for weeks on end, the Legislature and Governor found a way to push through the law to limit collective bargaining rights for state workers by removing any spending from the bill. The Governor signed the law, only to have the Secretary or State, Doug La Follette, drag his feet, by using a Wisconsin rule that allows the Secretary of State to withhold publication of any new law for up to 10 business days. La Follette went as far as to say that the delay would allow localities to get contracts signed before the law went into effect. How corrupt can you get!
But La Follette’s 10 days was quickly coming to an end with March 25th as the date the law would have to be published. Fear not, because Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozzane, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit that stated that the meetings of the committees voting to send the law to the floor failed to meet the required 24-hour notice, according to Wisconsin law. Of course, the weeks that had passed wouldn’t serve to notify anyone that at the first opportunity the law would head for an immediate vote. No, that would be too easy!
Ozzane requested an immediate restraining order and activist Judge Maryann Sumi did her part by issuing an order blocking the law from taking effect. Here we go again!
“The open meetings law is a very clear and strong law, particularly here in Wisconsin, where we believe strongly in the public involvement in our process,” Ozzane said. “And the special sessions argument, the judge didn’t buy it. She said ‘no, the open meetings law supersedes that. The public’s right to be involved is more important.” Pardon me, but wasn’t the public packed into the State Capitol? Was there any question how they felt about it? And does it take a rocket scientist to figure out that the other folks that voted for Governor Walker were in favor of the law, since he ran on it?
Republicans Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald fumed, “Dane County always seems to play by its own rules, but this morning we saw a Dane County judge try to re-write the constitutional separation of powers.”
This is what we call “Political Noise.” Even if the State Senate and House of Delegates have to start from scratch, and give everyone 48 or 72 hours of notice, it will still pass. Every Democrat in either house can run to Illinois and it will pass. This is just a way to delay the will of the people while costing them another couple million dollars they don’t have. How sad is this?
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