Area Residents Invited to Air Their Opinions About Proposed Budget

Residents who can't make their way to Wisconsin State Fair Park on Mon., April 11 to voice their thoughts about Governor Scott Walker's proposed biennial budget will have the opportunity to be heard.

Representatives Cory Mason and Bob Turner (both Racine Democrats) will host a public hearing from 5 to 10 pm in the Great Lakes Room at Gateway Technical College, also on Mon., April 11. Their reasons for doing so, both say, is because the Joint Finance Committee did not schedule a hearing in Racine or Kenosha during evening hours when more working residents could attend.

"There are only four hearings scheduled, the fewest in the last 20 or 25 years," Mason said. "And to hold the hearings during work hours when most people can't make it is ridiculous."

Though neither Mason nor Turner are on the Joint Finance Committee, they do plan to collect the comments from residents and deliver them to State Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) and Representative Robin Vos (R-Rochester), both of whom are on the Committee.

"The public needs to be able to tell their elected officials their concerns and this is important," Turner agreed. "I admit I wasn't sure (about the hearing), but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this needs to happen."

And according to Turner, other hearings will take place around the state, in Janesville and LaCrosse for example, in the next few weeks with the same goal of getting citizen feedback and taking that information back to the Joint Finance Committee.