Garthwaite's Ineffectiveness Noticed by Statewide Media Outlet

Over the weekend Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Mike Nichols penned a humorous story about Rep. Garthwaite's efforts to ban the term "swine flu." The columnist wasn't kind to the Rep. from the 49th:

Still, Garthwaite needs to do something with his time, I guess, so I will go out on a limb and say this is as fine an idea as Phil Garthwaite has ever had.

Indeed, as meaningless as Garthwaite's resolution banning "swine flu" is, it is one of the only things he has done with his last 10 months in office. So far, he has introduced only a small handful of bills and has not yet been able to get a single piece of legislation passed through the legislature. Perhaps more importantly he has been unarguably ineffective as the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Rural Economic Development.

The committee Garthwaite chairs is tasked with helping to bring jobs to rural Wisconsin - places like Grant County. Ask anyone in his district and they will tell you that the struggling economy and high unemployment are a huge concerns. Despite this, Garthwaite has not held a single hearing on legislation yet this year. Sure he had a brief informational hearing last winter but that is it. Garthwaite has tremendous power and influence that he could use to ease unemployment in Grant County and what is he doing with it? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. He has spent more time sitting on his bar stool at Kuepers Tavern in Dickeyville then he has in his chairman's seat in Madison. Rural Wisconsin suffers for it.

Last month, the Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald commented on Garthwaite's lack of work in Madison stating:

Wisconsin is suffering through record unemployment yet Rep. Garthwaite has refused to hold a public hearing in a committee tasked with bringing jobs to rural Wisconsin. The people of Wisconsin deserve more from their elected officials than a committee chairman who refuses to do his job. At a time when he should be focusing on bringing jobs to rural Wisconsin he has instead prioritized bills renaming the Swine Flu and creating a committee to study the industrial uses of marijuana.

Now Nichols is weighing in. If you haven't read the column yet, please click here and read it. It is both true and funny. Here's my favorite part:

I asked him (Garthwaite) if maybe, using his logic, there isn't also a problem with use of the term "chicken pox."

"Chicken pox, No. 1, has been engrained in people's heads since Christ was a corporal and, No. 2, does the price of chicken go down when junior gets the chicken pox?" asked Garthwaite.

I suppose not, but I have another question. What the heck does that phrase mean exactly anyway, "since Christ was a corporal"?

I say we all pass a resolution ordering Phil Garthwaite to just say, "a long time."

As someone who has long been perplexed by Garthwaite's colloquialisms from "I didn't just ride in here on a head of cabbage," to "I'll bet you beans to bacon," I appreciated Nichols poking fun. Perhaps if Rep. Garthwaite spent as much time working as he did thinking up these weird expressions, he could actually accomplish something.

On Illegal Immigrants - The Post that Demanded to be Written

During the last election a group called All Children Matter sent direct mail and purchased radio ads in the 49th Assembly District race. Many of these ads criticized Rep. Garthwaite for voting in favor of subsidizing tuition at the University of Wisconsin for illegal immigrants.

At first, Rep. Garthwaite denied this vote. Later he admitted it explaining that it was part of a budget bill that he had been forced to vote for and stated repeatedly that he did not support taxpayer funded benefits for illegal immigrants. On his blog, he addressed the question of whether he supported benefits for illegal immigrants by stating, “Nothing could be further from the truth.” This was a mantra Phil repeated over and over at debates, forums, and in newspaper columns over the course of the campaign.

Now, I have been struggling to write this post because I personally feel that the Republican Party would be best served by moving away from divisive issues like illegal immigration; however, I feel that I must comment on Phil’s votes on this subject because they demonstrate the depth to which he will sink to say one thing in Grant County and then do the total opposite in Madison.

Plain and simple, Phil Garthwaite supports taxpayer funded benefits for Illegal immigrants. He voted to provide them repeatedly and he was unarguably the deciding vote to include them in the budget. This is a fact. If Phil denies it, he is a liar.

The version of the budget that was voted on in the Assembly included two provisions to benefit illegal immigrants. The first would provide in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. The second would create a new program in the Department of Transportation to provide drivers cards to illegal immigrants.

During the budget debate Assembly Amendment 76 was introduced to remove the driver card provision from the bill. Phil Garthwaite was the deciding vote to kill the amendment.

Shortly thereafter, Assembly Amendment 78 was introduced to remove the in-state tuition provision from the bill. Phil Garthwaite was the deciding vote to kill that amendment as well.

He was then the deciding vote to pass the budget.

It’s fine to debate the merits of these two proposals. There are good arguments on both sides. What is undebatable, however, is that Phil Garthwaite supports taxpayer funded programs for illegal immigrants. I hope that from now on, he will openly admit this and defend his votes on these proposals based on their merits and demerits. If he tries to deny his votes or hide from the issue as he did during the last election then he is truly a Madison politician.

Scott Milfred takes the Democrat Legislature to Task for K-12 Budget

Scott Milfred's editorial in yesterday's State Journal is a must read. You can find it here.

He begins by pointing out that more than 90 school districts will see cuts larger than 15% despite promises from Democrat leaders to the contrary. He then goes on to squarely lay the blame at the feet of the Democrats who control all of state government:

No matter, I blame first and foremost our elected officials — starting with the Democrats who control the state Capitol — for being needlessly distracted.

They dedicated huge amounts of time and attention to a litany of controversial policy proposals stuffed into the state budget for expediency. This included mandates on car insurance, changes to liability law, drivers licenses for illegal immigrants and permission for local governments to form regional transit authorities, to cite just a few examples. Some of these items stayed in the budget. Some didn’t. But none of them belonged there.

Milwaukee Public Schools estimates property tax increase of less than 3%

Check out this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Looks like Milwaukee residents can only expect a 2.74% school property tax increase next year. Rep. Garthwaite sure did a great job protecting those property taxpayers. I wonder how much the tax bill is going to increase in Platteville or Boscobel? I bet it is a heck of a lot more than 2.74%.

Garthwaite Devastates Cassville Schools but Spares Milwaukee

DPI just released their School Aid Payment Estimates for the next year.

Rep. Garthwaite voted to cut Cassville’s schools by 15.6%. Conversely, he only voted to cut Milwaukee’s public schools by 0.84%. That is going to mean that the Cassville’s school board will have to raise property taxes by the maximum amount allowable under law. It also means that they will have to go to referendum to ask the voters to raise property taxes even more.

So next time you hear the Greater Wisconsin Committee on the radio thanking Garthwaite for “protecting schools,” just remember that they are talking about Milwaukee Schools. Rep. Garthwaite didn’t do a thing to protect Grant County’s schools or us property taxpayers.

...more to come on Rep. Garthwaite's assault on local K-12 education...

Cost to Attend UW Platteville up $497

According to the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald tuition and student fees at UW-Platteville are set to rise by $497.

Of course, students wouldn't be getting hit with such huge cost increases if Rep. Garthwaite hadn't voted against a reasonable tuition cap (AA 14 to AB 75) or if Rep. Garthwaite hadn't voted to cut the UW by $49.9 million over the next 2 years.

I'm sure that Rep. Garthwaite is explaining to students that times are tough and that there just wasn't money to maintain the UW's budget. Well, I have an idea for Phil - if you undo the $37 million in pork projects you voted for you'll be three quarters of the way there.

On Sex Offenders and Choosing Party over People

Of all the reprehensible votes Rep. Garthwaite took during the budget debate, his vote against the real-time GPS tracking of convicted child sex predators is probably the worst. Frankly, it’s hard for even me to believe that he would take this vote.

Here’s the back-story. In order to save a few bucks, Governor Doyle included a provision in his budget to roll back Jessica’s Law. Under Jessica’s law, which was enacted in Wisconsin just a couple years ago, sex predators who prey on children must be tracked in real time using a GPS devise once they are released from prison. This provision would gut the law, eliminating the requirement that these offenders be tracked with GPS in real time.

How did Rep. Garthwaite vote on this provision? He was the deciding vote to kill the amendment (AA 23 to AB 75) that would have maintained real-time tracking of child sex predators.

I’m not a statistician, but I’m guessing that about 95% of people in Grant County disagree with Phil’s vote. It goes to show you that when push comes to shove Rep. Garthwaite can’t be counted on to vote for the people of Southwest, Wisconsin when his Democrat Party leadership in Madison stands in the way.

In fact, the same night that Rep. Garthwaite was the deciding vote to gut Wisconsin’s toughest anti-sex offender law, he voted with his Madison leadership against a whole host of other amendments that would have benefited the people of SW WI.

- He voted against fully funding dam repairs (AA 70 to AB 75) to help prevent and minimize the type of floods that hit Bagely .

- He voted against funding urgently necessary bridge repairs in Grant County (AA 69 to AB 75) that would have been paid for by eliminating pork projects such as garbage bins for Wrightstown or $100,000 grant to repair a stone barn in Oconto.

- He voted against increasing scarcity aids for nearly all of our school districts in SW Wisconsin and instead voted to send the money to Milwaukee (AA 130 to AB 75).

In each of these cases and many more, Rep. Garthwaite had to make a choice between his constituents and his Madison leadership team. In every single case he chose his leadership over his district.

So much for that “60-40 Democrat-Republican voting record” you always brag about huh Phil?