Students at the University of Wisconsin may see another peer serving on the Madison City Council if candidate and UW senior Austin King wins in the spring elections.
King outlined a few major issues currently facing the Council and suggested possible solutions Wednesday. The most important issue in this spring’s election, according to King, is setting a local minimum-wage standard.
“Five dollars and 15 cents an hour just isn’t enough,” King said. “I don’t have a figure yet, but hopefully I will index it to inflation, and it will grow with the economy. Since Republicans took over the state and national Senate, no minimum-wage legislation is going to go through.”
Sensible drug policy is another priority for King, who is a legislative coordinator for Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment and a co-founder of Men Opposing Sexual Assault, two campus groups dedicated to preventing sexual assaults.
“I was an early and frequent critic of banning alcohol specials — this couldn’t be a more wrongheaded policy,” King said. “Alcohol is dangerous in mass consumption, but we shouldn’t shut down students’ rights to have a good time.
“Banning drink specials will force them into house parties, rather than bars, where there are bouncers to refuse them that last drink, to break up fights, where there are fewer assaults. It’s about student safety.”
King also said he opposes the current Madison smoking ban in restaurants and bars with less than one-half of revenue coming from alcohol sales.
“I would like to see a time-based solution,” he said.
“Banning smoking is routine in restaurants, but how do we define what is a restaurant and what is a bar? A lot of establishments are restaurants during the day and bars at night. I’d like to see places smoke-free until, say, 10 at night. A lot of places are self-regulating like that already so as not to offend their dining customers.”
King said he hopes to increase tenants’ rights if elected.
“A lot of landlords withhold security deposits — the only way of recourse is to go to court. A lot of students have no time or don’t have a lawyer,” he said.
“A lot of landlords charge for carpet cleaning or charge late-rent fees. There are a lot of loopholes that we need to close down. I would like to see landlord licensing. We license vending-cart owners in Madison — clearly where someone lives affects their life in bigger ways than what they have for lunch.”
According to King, the recent City Council actions condemning both the U.S. Patriot Act and a potential invasion of Iraq are important modes of expression for Madisonians.
“It is important that we can express our views — the fact that Madisonians will die in wars means that we have the right to have a voice in international issues. City Council is not ineffective because of its dealing with international issues,” he said.
Dane County Sup. Echnaton Vedder, District 5, and current Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, both lent their support to King’s campaign Wednesday.
“Austin is really active and progressive and a good listener as well,” said Vedder. “He has been out there already working on issues. This is a really pivotal time for students to take control of City Council matters. There are 40-some-thousand students at UW, and we have the potential to have a lot more say than we do.”
“I’m excited Austin’s running,” said Jarrell. “He’s one of the few students I see regularly coming to City Council meetings. I know he cares.”
