LADYSMITH, Wis. (WJMC) — 68th Assembly District Rep. Rob Summerfield and 23rd District Senator Jesse James hosted a listening session in Ladysmith yesterday.
The lawmakers told constituents the state’s biennial budget process was on hold, awaiting outcomes of federal funding decisions and a state supreme court case over the governor’s powerful line-item veto powers. Senator James said it made for a very unique legislative session.
“We’re waiting to see what supreme court decisions come down the pipeline,” James said. “Whether or not we need a legislature in the future, because a lot of the appropriations we deal with–that some of the cases that we’re batting with in the supreme court right now—and I think all that will be contingent on the April 1 election result.”
Residents told the lawmakers their concerns over changes in the federal government and those impacts to the state, education funding, student achievement and wellbeing, and the region’s lack of birthing services and lack of mental health care.