Health care is out of control. Insurance costs are out of control. Even Wisconsin small businesses cannot afford to offer good health insurance to their employees. If ACA is not funded by the federal government to support the residents of Wisconsin, then Wisconsin needs to develop its own non-profit health insurance exchange system to support small businesses and individuals, which includes farmers, independent contractors, and entrepreneurs, by creating a statewide pool of businesses and individuals to reduce costs and increase coverage.
For years, I have watched employee Health premiums and deductibles grow at an alarming rate. This year was the final straw. My employer had to stop self-funded Health Insurance and had to move to a Health Cooperative due to costs. Employee premiums for those over 50 years of age tripled, and their deductible climbed to $9500. We need to enhance Wisconsin’s Badger Care Program to cover individuals and companies that priced out of the market. Additionally, we need to support small businesses – they are life blood of Northern Wisconsin’s commerce – by developing a program where companies with 100 employees and under can join a state-run Health Care cooperative system. By joining a cooperative with other small businesses, they will be able to leverage cost-sharing across the state. This will reduce employer and employee premiums as there will be a greater pool of members to draw from the system.
Additionally, this will provide Rural Hospitals with correct reimbursement rates for procedures, allowing them to remain open and offer needed services to the rural population, cince the US Congress will not support rural Health Care by cutting ACA (Obama Care) and Medicaid.
The Wisconsin State Constitution mandates that we educate our children from age 4 to 20, yet Wisconsin Rural Schools rank 39th in the nation for funding. We need to follow the Wisconsin Constitution… fund our rural school districts. Our future up north is and always will be our children and their education. Remove the School Voucher System from taxpayer subsidies. Taxpayers should not pay for private schools.
Scrap the current school funding codes to properly fund our rural public school districts to end the local referendums just to keep the schools running. We must change the 1990 and state funding formulas in Madison to bring our Wisconsin school districts back to the greatness they were before the funding cuts and formula changes started hurting rural school districts.
Driving my RV over Northern Wisconsin roads in the past few years has become an extremely bumpy and annoying challenge. The latest trip resulted in the cream in the refrigerator starting to clump as butter. I thought we were going to have to replace the shocks on the RV. Our roads are deteriorating while the rural counties and town boards struggle to the best of their ability with minimally funded long-range plans. Rural counties and town boards struggle annually with the limited funding allocated by Madison. This lack of funding continues to allow our roads to deteriorate over time. We must change the State Road Funding formulas to provide the needed resources for roads in Northern Wisconsin.
We need to address the conditions of our roads in the district. We cannot encourage business growth if the roads cannot support our requirements to move farm and manufactured products to market or receive required materials to build the products. Local town roads do not receive the funding needed to maintain past surface material expectations, not only for tourists, but more importantly for the locals who drive them daily.
Local Towns and Counties know what is right for themselves based on environmental, commercial, and population requirements. This includes control over agricultural, environment, mining, and zoning control. Residents have the right to reject harmful policies that impact the county’s or town’s rural values or economic focus when adversely dictated by the State legislature. CAFOs, Lake Shore Zoning, Data Centers, and mining Authority must stay at the County and Local Town level and be based on the health and safety of the local communities.
The land is the reason why we live here in the North. We must protect the ability for future generations to enjoy what we enjoy – from fishing and hunting to the silent sports and other activities. This includes responsible stewardship over our lakes, streams, wildlife, forests, and natural wonders. We must provide the Wisconsin DNR and State Parks with adequate resources and control toprotect our state’s natural resources and parks.
We need to address the issues driving our ability to live in rural Wisconsin. Either wages need to increase to the same levels as urban areas, or the costs of insurance, utilities, health care, property taxes, food, housing, and general expenses must be reduced to reflect the actual wages up here.