Local control used to be one of the mantras of the Republican Party until the tea party crowd took over the Republican Party in 2010. Now it seems that local governments just can’t catch a break in the Republican-dominated Legislature, because once again local control is being attacked by state Republicans—namely, state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis) and state Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine). Sanfelippo, as you may remember, is the former county supervisor who led the charge on Act 14, which stripped the Milwaukee County board of much of its power and consolidated it in the hands of County Executive Chris Abele, and on Act 203, which created the all-appointee Milwaukee County Mental Health Board, which is privatizing the psychiatric hospital and shutting out the public from debates on many important issues affecting the community, including housing for sex offenders.
This time Sanfelippo is setting his sights on community ID cards, an additional form of ID that the city and county are crafting for those who aren’t able to obtain a state-issued ID. These folks include transgender individuals, survivors of domestic violence, homeless individuals, recently incarcerated individuals, the elderly and undocumented immigrants. As planned by the city and county, these community ID cards could be used for banking, obtaining a library card and other purposes. But, of course, they cannot be used for voting, since the state only allows a few types of photo IDs to be used to cast a ballot.
Sanfelippo and Wanggaard are circulating a bill for co-sponsorship that would prohibit counties and towns from issuing community IDs, although cities and villages could do so, apparently because of the state’s home rule provision. But even though cities and villages could provide these IDs, they couldn’t be used for some purposes, according to the bill, including obtaining public benefits, and they’d have to be stamped in large type “not authorized for voting purposes.” That last detail closely mirrors an amendment brought by conservative Abele ally Supervisor Deanna Alexander during the County Board debate this fall on community IDs, when she preyed on right-wing fears of non-citizens voting and committing voter fraud. Despite all the Republican accusations of widespread voter fraud, the former Republican U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic found there’s no evidence that immigrants are fraudulently voting. The board rejected Alexander’s amendment.
We hope that the Legislature comes to its senses and declines to support Sanfelippo and Wanggaard’s bill. Not only does it attack marginalized members of our community—including transgender individuals, domestic abuse survivors and immigrants—but the state has no place in overruling decisions made at the local level for the benefit of the community. As we’ve said before, Wisconsin Republicans say they support local control when they hold local elective office, but once they hold power at the state level they run roughshod over local initiatives they dislike. Once again, Sanfelippo shows that he’s only interested in shifting power from democratically elected representatives to a chosen few elites, including himself.
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