Wisconsin Legislature passes tougher laws for reckless driving
Editor's note: This story incorrectly stated that two bills had passed the state Senate and Assembly. At the time, only one had made it through to the governor's desk. That bill, allowing the impoundment of a reckless driver with a prior offense, was signed by Gov. Tony Evers on April 3. The other was still under consideration in the Senate.
MADISON – Bills that would significantly increase the penalty for reckless driving in Wisconsin will be sent to Gov. Tony Evers after passage Wednesday in the state Senate and Assembly.
The first bill would increase the fine for reckless driving to as high as $400. The minimum penalty for reckless driving currently is $25.
The other bill will allow law enforcement officers to impound a vehicle if it's used by a reckless driver who has previously been convicted of an offense.
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Under current law, the penalty for reckless driving increases after the second offense if the second offense happens within four years. Under the new law, the four-year time period would be removed.
Evers said Wednesday he would sign both bills into law.
"Both bills are adequate, and they get at the issue. ... Do I think it will end it? Probably not," Evers told CBS 58 Wednesday morning. "But it is a step forward."
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Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, said the bills probably won't be enough and predicted the Legislature would have to come back with mandatory minimum penalties for reckless drivers.
"That seems to be the only way to get justice," said Knodl, who's running for Alberta Darling's vacant state Senate seat against Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin. "Local elected officials speak to the crimes, but that's all it is, speak, hot air, no action. If the judges are not going to protect citizens from repeat offenders, we have to act."
But Milwaukee Democrat Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde said the bills target the state's most disadvantaged communities instead of looking at the problem holistically.
"Today is all about the Republicans' year of crime and punishment, rather than addressing the root cause of why people do what they do," Omokunde said. "We have a reckless driving problem, but Wisconsin can be at the forefront of handling it equitably and effectively."
The Senate and Assembly took up several issues Wednesday, including:
Senate GOP call for special election for new Secretary of State
Following the resignation of Secretary of State Doug La Follette, Republicans are calling on Gov. Tony Evers to hold a special election instead of keeping his appointment of former U.S. Senate candidate Sarah Godlewski, who could use the taxpayer-funded position as a platform to run for another higher office.
A resolution calling for a special election for the office passed along party lines, with Republicans calling out Evers’ appointment as a subversion of voters' desires.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said Evers was making it so voters weren’t choosing their representative for secretary of state, violating the Democratic demands for “fair representation at every level of government.”
“Their actions don’t match their words. This governor has gone to historic lengths to limit participation in Wisconsin’s elections,” LeMahieu said.
“In his last term, he moved to cancel in-person voting days before Wisconsinites were set to head to the polls in order to attain a partisan advantage. And now, he’s made the first appointment to the Secretary of State’s office since 1955, when there is plenty of time for a special election.”
Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, called Republicans’ interest in ensuring fair representation a “new day” for the state.
“Letting voters have a say in things would mean fair maps, that would mean things like restoring Roe v Wade, legalized cannabis,” she said. “There are so many things we can work on together, if that was the goal.”
Roys said that if a Republican had won the race for governor last year, it isn’t likely that there would be calls for a special election if the secretary of state resigned.
“I think I know what might really be going on here. It’s hard to lose elections,” she said. “In November, Democrats won, Governor Evers won and governors have the power to appoint people to vacant positions. That's the law in Wisconsin.”
La Follette, 82, left the post last week after holding it for decades and being re-elected in November. To replace him, Evers appointed Godlewski, a former state treasurer, to serve out the remainder of the four-year term.
Godlewski, 41, ran for U.S. Senate two years into her first and only term as treasurer. She dropped out after it became clear former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes would ultimately secure the nomination in the Democratic primary.
The offices of State Treasurer and Secretary of State have virtually no official duties and small state budgets.
When asked about his decision to appoint Godlewski during a press conference Tuesday, Evers said no one questioned him when he appointed Carolyn Stanford Taylor to serve as Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Stanford Taylor, however, had no ambitions for higher office and had worked at DPI for 18 years before the appointment.
Conversion therapy will continue to be permitted in Wisconsin
Republicans voted to send a rule allowing the controversial practice of conversion therapy back to committee, effectively allowing the practice to continue in Wisconsin.
The rule will now likely languish in the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules for the rest of the session unless lawmakers choose to again advance it.
Republicans on the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules in January voted to suspend a rule first developed in 2020 by the state Department of Safety and Professional Services’ board that licenses marriage and family therapists, counselors and social workers that prohibited conversion therapy. The committee had blocked the rule in 2021 but it went back into effect in December.
All Democrats on the committee voted against the move, citing research showing the practice's harmful effects on the mental health of gay patients.
“Conversion ‘therapy’ is a dangerous, discriminatory and pseudoscientific practice and does nothing to keep our kids or communities safe," said Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison. "We know that our LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers, but we also know that just one accepting adult decreases that risk significantly."
Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, asked that the measure be sent to another committee that is better equipped to take votes on mental health care, a motion that inevitably failed.
"If we don’t act today, we’re saying the practice (of conversion therapy) is OK, that there’s something wrong with the LGBTQ community," said Carpenter, who is gay.
"If we’re concerned about mental health and the well-being of children, we’d send it to a committee that has people who could sort this out and reach a compromise."
Today's vote is the latest in a two-year effort by Republicans to undo the rule that bans the practice. The ban was developed by an examining board within the Department of Safety and Public Standards. The rules committee suspended the ban in 2021, which lasted until December.
Republican lawmakers also introduced a bill in 2021 to strike down the ban but the legislation died and would have been vetoed by Democratic Gov. Evers if it had advanced.
Senators approve three of Evers' cabinet members
Senators unanimously approved the first three of Gov. Evers' cabinet appointees: Nathan Houdek, the commissioner of the Officer of the Commissioner of Insurance; Missy Hughes, the secretary of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation; and Anne Sayers, the secretary of the Department of Tourism.
The appointments were approved without debate Wednesday following a lag in approvals at the end of last year.
Confirmation of a governor's appointees is a historically routine process that was largely abandoned by Senate Republicans during Evers' first term, leaving 185 appointments unconfirmed, including key cabinet positions.
But that hesitation seems to have been cleared this session, with Senate committees routinely holding hearings for appointees and sending them to the full Legislature.
Assembly passes bill to require parole commission to publicize decisions
A Republican-backed bill would change the open meetings requirement for the Parole Commission, requiring the commission to provide notice on its website when a person is eligible for parole.
Parole became an issue during the governor's race.
By law, a person is eligible for parole after serving 25% of their sentence.
For those individuals sentenced to life in prison for crimes committed before July 1, 1988, they became eligible for parole after serving 13 years and four months in prison.
For those sentenced to life for crimes committed between July 1988 and Dec. 31, 1999, the judge set the eligibility date. After a change in state law, judges had the option of imposing a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for crimes committed after Aug. 31, 1995.
Molly Beck contributed to this report.
Laura Schulte and Corrinne Hess can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and chess@gannett.com.