Assembly District 7 Candidates: Krusick v. Riemer

Jul. 12, 2012

4:38 p.m.

The new borders of Assembly District 7 stretch from Milwaukee's south side through Greenfield, the west side of Milwaukee, West Milwaukee, West Allis and north to Miller Park. Longtime incumbent Peggy Krusick faces newcomer Daniel Riemer in the Aug. 14 Democratic primary. (Not sure if you live in Assembly District 7? Check out your voter registration status <a href=\"https://vpa.wi.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">here</a>.) There is no Republican in this race so whoever wins this primary will win in November. Both Krusick and Riemer answered the Shepherd's candidate questionnaire. Here are their responses: PEGGY KRUSICK Website: <a href=\"http://www.friendsofpeggy.com/\" target=\"_blank\">www.friendsofpeggy.com</a> Shepherd: Tell me a bit about your background to introduce yourself to Shepherd readers. Krusick: My independent track record reflects voting with the majority of the district, working in a bipartisan manner and ensuring our tax dollars are well spent. Shepherd: Where are you currently employed? Krusick: Full-time state representative serving Milwaukee and Greenfield and with remapping West Allis and West Milwaukee. Shepherd: Why are you running for office? Krusick: I want to continue to work with both parties to bring forth legislation to help people with their concerns. Shepherd: What are the top three issues that you want to address? Krusick: Property taxes: restoring the Homestead Tax Credit; Education: making voucher schools accountable (AA2 to 2011SB461); Jobs: helping Wisconsin businesses, especially the mom and pop businesses. Shepherd: What are your views on Act 10? Have the changes helped or hurt state and local governments? Would you vote to restore collective bargaining rights in the next session? Krusick: I voted against changes in collective bargaining, although supported worker health and pension contributions. I\'m in favor restoring collective bargaining of "reasonable" wages and safeguarding the health, safety and welfare of the workers and community. It\'s very important to respect the taxpayer dollars. Shepherd: How will you spur job growth in the state and, specifically, in your district? Krusick: I voted against tax credits that benefit corporations. As a member of the Assembly Jobs Committee, authored amendments on disclosure for anyone receiving tax credits, grants and loans to publish transparency reports on bonuses as well as other data. (AA9 to 2011SSB6, AA1 to ASA1 to 2011AB1) Also, I\'m encouraging businesses to work with technical schools. Shepherd: Will you require voucher schools to have the same performance and accountability standards as public schools? Do you support expanding voucher schools by allowing more students to attend or expanding it to other parts of the state? Krusick: I support accountability standards similar to public schools. Any expansion of the voucher program must include giving parents and taxpayers meaningful test score data. (AA2 to 2011SB461) Shepherd: What changes would you like to make to the state's tax policies? Krusick: I support policies that alleviate the tax burden on the middle class. Shepherd: What is the takeaway message from the past year's recalls? Krusick: Both parties must work together. My track record of bipartisanship sets me apart. DANIEL RIEMER Website: <a href=\"http://riemerforassembly.com/about\" target=\"_blank\">riemerforassembly.com</a> Shepherd: Tell us a little about yourself and introduce yourself to Shepherd readers. Riemer: I was born and raised in Milwaukee. I come from a long line of hard-working Wisconsinites. My mother is a Milwaukee Public Schools speech and language pathologist. My father is a public interest attorney.   Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. My Grandma Florence Grzeskowiak was born on Milwaukee\'s South Side and graduated from Bay View High School. She and two of my other grandparents served in World War II. They worked in nursing, sales and education. Most of my cousins, aunts and uncles were born and raised in the Milwaukee area. Many still live on the South Side. My generation is now starting careers and families, mostly in Milwaukee and the surrounding areas. Milwaukee has always been my home. I attended Highland Community School, MacDowell Elementary School, Roosevelt Middle School, and Rufus King High School. Early on, I learned that if you work hard you can achieve personal success and give back to your community. As a teenager, I worked as a Milwaukee County lifeguard and directed a soccer camp for the MPS summer recreation program. I did these jobs with a great deal of joy because of my own experiences as a kid swimming at Jackson Park pool and playing soccer in high school. I graduated with honors from the University of Chicago. I worked my way through college as a soccer coach, cafe clerk and house painter. I then enrolled in law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am hoping to serve in the Wisconsin Legislaturerepresenting the hard-working people and senior citizens of the 7th Assembly Districtto help make people's lives better in the same community that gave so much to me. I\'ve always been someone who faces problems, looks for creative answers, and works with other people to put practical solutions in place. I\'m not willing to sit back and let Wisconsin\'s problems go unsolved.   Shepherd: Where are you currently employed? Riemer: I am currently a full-time candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly, 7th District. Shepherd: Why are you running for office? Riemer: I am not interested in warming a seat in the Capitol in Madison. I'm running for the Wisconsin Assembly so thaton behalf of the hard-working residents and retirees of the 7th District, their children, the businesses they shop in, and the employers they work forwe can put Wisconsin back on a path to economic and social justice. Shepherd: What are the top three issues that you want to address? Riemer: As a state representative for the 7th Assembly District, I will work to enact laws and pass budgets that support: (1) a strong system of public education (including restoring funding for our K-12 schools, early childhood education, technical education and the UW system); (2) comprehensive and affordable health insurance (including restoration and expansion of BadgerCare, and implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act); and (3) a tax system that is fair to working families, homeowners, and seniorswhich means restoring the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Homestead Creditand requires the wealthy to pay their fair share, by eliminating loopholes and special-interest tax breaks. I will also work to: <ul> <li>    Restore collective bargaining and strong labor unions in both the public and private sectors; </li> </ul> <ul> <li>    Promote environmental policies that provide all Wisconsinites with clear air, clean water, and abundant opportunity to take advantage of our beautiful natural environment (whether hunting, fishing, boating, camping, hiking, boating, etc.); and</li> </ul> <ul> <li>    Support strong urban centers like Milwaukee, as well as healthy small towns and rural communities.</li> </ul> Shepherd: How would you deal with these issues? Riemer: To put Wisconsin back on a path to economic and social justice, I believe it's important to end the bickering and name-calling in Madison.  We need to get back to the place where Democrats and Republicans actually talk with each other about the issues, and seek out compromises that meet the needs of all the people.      Elected officials used to behave like grown-ups in this state. As a result, Democrats and Republicans were often able to come together and develop bipartisan, innovative policies, like the state's supplemental Earned Income Tax Credit and BadgerCare. We've got to dial down the nasty rhetoric, and return to a serious attempt to find bipartisan agreements that address the real problems Wisconsin is experiencing. Shepherd: What are your views on Act 10? Have the changes helped or hurt state and local governments? Would you vote to restore collective bargaining rights in the next session? Riemer: I believe that collective bargaining is essential, in both the public and private sectors, to ensure that workers have decent wages, good benefits, and safe and productive working conditions. I strongly oppose Act 10. What Gov. Walker and the Legislature did to eliminate collective bargaining for most public employee unions has harmed both local and state government. I would vote to restore collective bargaining for all public employees in the next session of the legislature. Shepherd: How will you spur job growth in the state and, specifically, in your district? Riemer: Education is the key to Wisconsin\'s economic success, and the key to job growth for the residents of the 7th Assembly District. Unfortunately our public schools and colleges have taken hit after hit. Last year, Gov. Walker and the Legislature enacted the biggest cuts to education in our state's history.  They cut aid to public school districts by $792 million, reduced support to technical colleges by $72 million, and slashed the University of Wisconsin system by $250 million. In our elementary and secondary schools, class sizes have increased. High schools have been forced to drop courses.  Thousands of dedicated teachers are demoralized. Higher education is also in crisis. Hundreds of qualified students have abandoned their plans of going to collegeor have dropped outbecause of rising tuition. The UW System has increased tuition for five consecutive years, pushing up the price of college by more than 30%. It's not just students who have been hurt. When Wisconsin doesn't invest in educating our young people, the state's economy suffers. Employers can't fill job vacancies, or they hire non-Wisconsinites. Worse, they leave Wisconsin altogether to create jobs in other statesor countriesthat supply them with the educated workforce they need to compete. As a state representative from the 7th Assembly District, I will work to improve the state's education system. <ul> <li>To begin with, we need to restore fairness to the school aid formula. Educating the children of Milwaukee, West Allis, West Milwaukee and Greenfield is just as important as educating those who live in wealthier suburbs. What we spend to educate the K-12 students of the 7th Assembly District should not be less than the amount spent to educate similar groups of students anywhere else in Wisconsin. I will fight for an equitable formula for school aid so that all of our children can receive a first-class education no matter what school a student attends.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>We also need to hold down tuition in the Wisconsin Technical College system and the UW system. One of the Badger State's traditional strengths has been the ability of families to send their children to technical colleges and University of Wisconsin schools. But more and more students can't afford the rapidly rising tuition. We need to end the tuition squeeze on the middle class by holding down the cost of going to college.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>I also support re-establishing collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin\'s teachers and other public employees. Teachers did not cause the state\'s budget crisisthe economy and out-of-control health care costs are the problem.  Teachers deserve our respect and the right to bargain, as do all workers.</li> </ul> Wisconsin's education system was once a system that everyone was proud of. Now, many of us worry that it's losing ground. The answer is to strengthen our schools, colleges, and universities by making them excellent and affordable. Another important way to spur job growth is by reforming Wisconsin's tax system. We should focus tax cuts on the broad group of working families, middle-class residents, homeowners and seniors who will spend most of the additional money locally.  This will create “multiplier effects” that leads to new job creation. We should not do what Gov. Walker and the Legislature have done, i.e., cutting the Earned Income Tax Credit and Homestead Credit while doling out dubious tax breaks to special interests that have produced little in the way of job creation. Shepherd: Will you require voucher schools to have the same performance and accountability standards as public schools? Do you support expanding voucher schools by allowing more students to attend or expanding it to other parts of the state? Riemer: I do not support the voucher school program. It unfairly penalizes Milwaukee taxpayers and MPS, it fails to provide equal access to children with disabilities, and it lacks the accountability and transparency that should be present whenever government is spending the taxpayers' dollars. Shepherd: What changes would you like to make to the state's tax policies? Riemer: I support a tax system that would be much fairer than the one we now have. The current tax system unfairly hits working families, homeowners, and seniors far too much, while letting wealthy individuals off the hook through questionable tax loopholes. I believe that many rich people pay far too little in taxes, mostly because of loopholes and special-interest tax breaks. I would like to concentrate on closing those loopholes and tax breaks. Together with hiring more Department of Revenue employees to collect taxes owed, reform of the tax code itself will help raise revenue. Shepherd: What is the takeaway message from the past year's recalls? My main takeaway is that the effort to create more just and effective economic and social policies will take continuous, grassroots political organizing.  We must be steadfast. We need to be patient. We must recognize that there will be defeats along the way. But we must never give up. And if we offer the voters a compelling vision of reform, support good candidates for public office, and take bold action when we hold majorities in the legislature, we can again get Wisconsin back on its historic progressive path. Shepherd: What sets you apart from your opponent? I would have voted for the last Democratic budget, which provided adequate (if not ideal) funding for schools and Medicaid, and which created the Transitional Jobs Program. My opponent voted against it. I would have voted for Rep. Sandy Pasch's and Sen. David Hansen's legislation, the Wisconsin Parity Act, that required individual and group insurance policies sold in Wisconsin to cover treatment for mental illness and addiction to alcohol and other drugs on an equal, non-discriminatory (“parity”) basis. My opponent voted against this needed legislation, in opposition to virtually all Democrats in the Legislature and in alignment with most Republicans. I would not have voted to amend the Wisconsin Constitution so thatif the amendment had been in placethe recent recall could never have taken place. My opponent voted to alter the Constitution to prevent the voters in most cases from recalling elected officials. I will consistently be on the side of the poor, working families, the middle class, seniors, labor unions and the environment. Shepherd: Who has endorsed you? Riemer: Wisconsin Progress; Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals; American Federation of Teachers (State and Local); SEIU; former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk; former Milwaukee state Rep. Peter Bock; and former Milwaukee state Sen. and current Milwaukee County Clerk Joe Czarnezki. I also hope to receive the endorsement of additional labor unions.

Assembly District 7 Candidates: Krusick v. Riemer

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