Assembly and Senate to Vote on State Treasurer Resolution Next Week

Both houses of the legislature will vote on AJR2/SJR3, the resolution to eliminate the state treasurer, next week!

The Senate will vote on Tuesday, March 7 and the Assembly will vote on Thursday, March 9.

Once both houses have passed AJR2/SJR3, a statewide referendum will take place in April 2018 and voters will get to decide whether or not to eliminate the state treasurer and add the lieutenant governor to the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

It is absolutely critical that you contact your State Senator and State Representative before the votes take place next week and ask them to vote “no.”

Here are some things you can say:

1.    Replacing the State Treasurer with the Lieutenant Governor on the BCPL jeopardizes our founding fathers’ commitment to maintaining a constitutionally protected form of school library funding.

2.    As envisioned by our founding fathers, current BCPL Commissioners do not play a leading role in K-12 school funding or the state budget process—this makes them ideal custodians of the Common School Fund and helps protect the integrity of the fund.

3.    Instead of eliminating the State Treasurer’s office, the Legislature should restore the treasurer’s duties (transfer the unclaimed property fund and other duties back to the state treasurer).

4.    This proposal saves NO taxpayer dollars—the state treasurer is paid entirely with Program Revenue from the unclaimed property fund.

See WEMTA’s testimony for more details about the BCPL and Common School Fund.

HOW DO I CONTACT MY LEGISLATOR?

The first step in contacting your legislator is knowing who your legislator is. The easiest way to do this is the tool found on the Legislature’s home page, at http://legis.wisconsin.gov. In the right-hand side of that page is a link that says Find My Legislators!  Type your address in the box below that link to get the names of your state representative and senator.

·    Phone.  You may leave a message for your legislator’s Capitol office or indicate your position on legislation through the toll free Legislative Hotline, at 1-800-362-9472.

·    E-mail. The e-mail addresses of members of the Wisconsin Legislature all have the same format. For members of the Assembly, the form is Rep.Jones@legis.wisconsin.gov; for members of the Senate, the form is Sen.Adams@legis.wisconsin.gov.