“I just want the record to show that the Republican nominee for Governor last fall supported paid family lea-…”
That’s Democratic Representative Evan Goyke of Milwaukee, who’s mic was shut off during a heated debate at the Joint Finance Committee yesterday as Republicans shut down a plan to study paid parental leave in Wisconsin.
Earlier this year, Republicans in the state budget writing committee axed over 500 items from Governor Evers’ proposed budget, including a plan to provide 12 weeks of paid parental leave for both public and private sector workers. That plan would have cost the state around $243 million dollars upfront, and would have been self-sufficient by 2026.
When that plan was tossed earlier this month, the committee barred any further discussion of paid parental leave. But Democratic Senator Kelda Roys of Madison says that what they proposed was very different from Evers’ proposed plan.
“What we are talking about is gathering data about what the costs and benefits would be to the state of having paid family leave accessible to the citizens, specifically looking at issues of out migration,” Roys says. “This is very different from what the Governor proposed, which was an actual paid family leave program. We are proposing something that was never proposed by the Governor, to study the issue so that we can address the workforce crisis that we are facing.”
Because the proposed study was the only allowed item at yesterday’s meeting, Democrats were not allowed to discuss the merits of paid parental leave. This caused Representative Goyke’s mic to be cut, after Republican leaders in the committee determined that he had strayed too far from the study.
Instead, Democrats focused on boosting Wisconsin’s workforce.
According to a report published last fall from Forward Analytics, the research arm of the Wisconsin Counties Association, the state lost over 100,000 people under the age of 26 over the past decade. That report found that trends are continuing to decline, and by 2030 the state’s working-age population could shrink by around 130,000 people.
Democrats, such as Representative Tip McGuire of Kenosha, say that Wisconsin’s policies around issues such as abortion are driving young people away.
“We are competing with other states, and making Wisconsin a livable place for working families,” McGuire says. “We are competing and working to make a place where workers want to come, where they believe that they and their families have a future. Paid family leave is a component of that, and I think we should be studying this in committee.”
But Republican Representative Shannon Zimmerman says that paid parental leave will have the opposite effect, and instead drive workers away from Wisconsin.
“I’m sitting here listening to this today, and this is lunacy personified,” Zimmerman says. “We have a shrinking pool of workers, and the answer that we are hearing here is ‘let’s continue to find more ways that those, that shrinking pool of workers, are going to support those who can’t really work or won’t work. That’s going counter to what we are trying to accomplish here entirely.”
Bur Representative Goyke says that Zimmerman’s interpretation of the provision is incorrect.
“It’s not some radical policy, it’s not a public benefit welfare, it’s earned,” Goyke says. “Workers pay in, and they get that back when they need it. It’s not an entitlement program, it’s earned by working. It’s not an encouragement to not work, you don’t get it if you don’t work. You don’t get paid time off if you’re unemployed, time off from what?”
The provision failed to pass in yesterday’s meeting along party lines.
The Joint Finance Committee will meet again tomorrow to continue to discuss the budget. They are expected to send their finalized proposed budget to Governor Evers next month, when he can either sign, veto specific portions, or even veto the entire budget.
Photo courtesy: Chali Pittman / WORT Flickr
