Brown County Courthouse (Image: Courtesy of Brown County Clerk of Courts)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Rounds of applause filled the Brown County Courthouse rotunda as three state lawmakers from Brown County were sworn in during a local inauguration ceremony.
Those three lawmakers were State Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, and state Representatives Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D-Green Bay and Ryan Spaude, D-Ashwaubenon.
These three Democrats helped shrink the state legislature’s Republican majorities to 54 to 45 in the Assembly, and 18 to 15 in the Senate.
“Yes, there is partisan politics. We’re going to have things we disagree on, but my goal really is to focus on the issues that have lots of wide support,” said Rivera-Wagner.
“I think there’s opportunity to work together. We’re not going to agree on everything, but we’ll get a lot of stuff done,” said State Sen. Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg.
The two parties have already butted heads over issues like the state’s voter ID requirement — which voters will now decide whether to put in the state constitution.
But both sides have expressed their interest in lowering taxes and using the state’s multi-billion dollar surplus to do so.
“That’s taxpayer money sitting in Madison earning interest rather than in the pocketbooks of those who are paying the taxes. So, yeah, hopefully we can get by a bipartisan tax cut, a middle class tax cut,” said LeMahieu.
“I’m sure there’ll be conversations between the parties about what that should look like, but I mean, my priority is trying to deliver real tax relief to the people who need it,” said State Sen. Jamie Wall.
With the new Democrats just getting their feet underneath them in the legislature, they understand what’s at hand as lawmakers will surely have to compromise — especially relating to the state budget.
“I think the budget, if there’s going to be breakthroughs, I really would hope that there’s going to be a breakthrough when it comes to public education in the state of Wisconsin,” said Spaude.
The three newly-elected Democrats were officially sworn into the legislature back on Jan. 6.
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