Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Tara Johnson on budget, slow start, money in politics

Wisconsin state Assembly Rep. Tara Johnson in studio recapping the budget listening sessions, money in politics, is the state tackling homelessness and the slow start to the Legislature’s session.  Johnson (D-Shelby), who represents District 96, that includes the south portion of the city of La Crosse, began talking about the Legislature’s slow start but also what she’s been doing in her district. We also hit on how she plans on hosting monthly “town halls” across the 96th, after the budget gets finished. That conversation bled into the second segment, where we noted that the Legislature can’t move too slow, because it does take the last nine months of next year off. After that, we talked a bit about money and politics and Johnson explained how the Assembly’s makeup isn’t very representative of Wisconsin’s population, which can be problematic. Next, we discussed what the state is doing in regards to homelessness, while a lot of the attention gets focused on how county and city governments are tackling the issue. We ended the show talking about the Joint Finance Committee’s budget listening sessions and the big topics she heard at the Hayward session, which included public education funding, as well as threats cuts to things like Medicaid. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.