Eighteenth State Senate Candidates Debate On KFIZ

Candidates for the 18th State Senate seat disagree about a proposal to cut or repeal the personal property taxes businesses pay municipalities. Democrat Mark Harris says the $260 million cut would offset an increase to the state gas tax. But that would likely be done at the expense of homeowners or municipalities, schools and counties. Republican Dan Feyen says people probably don’t realize businesses pay personal property taxes to municipalities. He says that tax should be phased out, but over time so the state can back fill to municipalities so municipalities don’t have to put the burden on the property tax rolls. Harris is the Winnebago County Executive and Feyen is Chairman of the Fond du Lac County Republican Party.

Hear the debate.

Senate Candidates On School Funding

During a debate on KFIZ between the two candidates for 18th State Senate seat the candidates differed on funding to K-12 public schools. Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris says the wealthy are getting tax cuts at the expense of our schools. He says as a result there isn’t adequate funding for schools and then the middle-class ends up picking up the cost because referendums have to be passed. He says it is a process that isn’t fair to the average working citizen of Wisconsin. Fond du Lac County Republican Party Chairman Dan Feyen says in fact funding has been increased to schools each year over the past half decade. He says more money has been put in every year over the past five years. He says in the last budget over $200 million was added to school funding with Fond du Lac and Oshkosh School Districts each getting over $1 million more for this school year. The two face each other for the Senate seat on Tuesday.

ACT 10 And The Minimum Wage

ACT 10 shows where the candidates for the 18th State Senate seat differ over their positions on unions. Republican Dan Feyen says it was a way of leveling the playing field between public and private sector jobs. He says he supports it, but believes it could have been rolled out differently. Democrat Mark Harris says it crippled unions and was meant to be a union-buster. He says state unions had already agreed to concessions on pensions and health care. Both differ on raising the minimum wage. Harris says $7.25 an hour isn’t enough and there should be an indexing of the minimum wage. Feyen says there are employers who are paying more for starting wages so the maket is sorting itself out. The two debate issues on a live debate on KFIZ Thursday.