To change tune a bit, I have decided to report on some recent bills introduced by my state senator, Frank Lasee.

Current law requires all property tax appeals in the entire state to be heard by the Dane County Circuit Court. This bill allows certain businesses (retailers, manufacturers, air carriers, railroads, pipeline companies, phone companies, conservation and regulatory companies) to file their appeals with the circuit court in the county their business is located in instead. Although this bill picks favorites and is partly a ploy at appearing to be pro-business (not pro-liberty), it is not taking away anyone's liberty. The bill makes the tax appeals process easier and more decentralized, therefore it earns the score of MORE LIBERTY.

SB-516 was introduced on February 27 by Senators Lasee, Grothman and Schultz; cosponsored by Representatives Strachota, Kooyenga, Spanbauer, Marklein, Bies, Rivard, Stroebel, Endsley and Thiesfeldt.

Medium Priority

Assembly Bill 628 was introduced just this past Friday, February 24 by Representatives Bies and Stieneke. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Education. This very short bill creates a $200 fine for each time a school employee fails to report an incident of bullying, as long as the local school board has a policy requiring bullying to be reported.

This bill does nothing but flex the state's muscles. The state needs to back out of its habit of meddling in our schools, rather than encroaching even more. Education is the responsibility of parents and the community, not body of legislators governing millions of people. Since this bill is an expansion of government, it earns the score of LESS LIBERTY.

On a separate note: As long as hundreds of children are concentrated together on a daily basis, segregated by age, and all taught the same things at the same speed, their lives will be filled with problems including bullying.

Medium Priority

Assembly Bill 217 held a public hearing yesterday. The bill passed in the assembly last October and is now in the senate. Currently, it is illegal to impersonate a "peace officer." This bill makes it also illegal to impersonate a fire fighter or an emergency medical technician.

The good thing is, the bill is very short. The bad thing is, it is actually too short. While trying to trick people into believing you are someone you are not should be punishable as fraud, this bill simply states "whoever impersonates a fire fighter with intent to mislead others into believing that the person is actually a fire fighter is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor." Therefore, a good neighbor trying to put out a fire could technically be a criminal under this vague wording, because "fire fighter" is not defined any further to my knowledge. This results in LESS LIBERTY.

The bill was introduced by Representatives Bies, Brooks, Kaufert, Kerkman, Kleefisch, LeMahieu, Molepske Jr, Nygren, A. Ott, Petersen, Petryk, Spanbauer, Strachota and Stroebel.

Medium Priority