Though the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly will debate several pieces of legislation today, a few notable bills are likely to spur heated discussion on the Senate floor regarding gay marriage, annual gas-tax indexing and concealed carry.
The Senate Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy Committee voted Monday by paper ballot to pass the proposed gay-marriage-ban amendment on for a full Senate vote in a 3-2, party-line decision.
Aaron Nuutinen, a spokesperson for State Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, one of the two committee members who voted against the proposal, said Taylor disapproved of the bill because it was unnecessary.
"The basic reason is simple — gay marriage is already illegal in Wisconsin," Nuutinen said, noting a statute in state law constitutes marriage as a union between a husband and wife.
Nuutinen said instead, "political games" are playing a role in the proposed ban because Republicans wanted to have the issue up for a public referendum at the same time as the 2006 gubernatorial and other high-level elections that will take place this November.
However, other opponents of the ban say the real issue at hand is equal rights for all people in the state.
But supporters of the ban say it is necessary to preserve marriage as a union between "one man and one woman."
Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, voted for the amendment to ban gay marriage in the Senate committee.
"I personally think homosexuality is wrong," Grothman said. "And I think to allow same-sex marriage to a certain extent would endorse that lifestyle."
Grothman said because the ban proposal was passed in the Senate and Assembly last year, it is likely it will pass in the Senate today.
Additionally, Grothman said an "overwhelming" number of his constituents also support the gay-marriage ban.
A proposal to repeal a state law that requires the annual indexing of the gas tax is also on the list for a Senate debate and decision today.
The repeal of the gas-tax indexing would allow legislators to vote on increases of the gas tax on a regular basis, State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, an author of the bill, said.
"The reason, I believe, we should repeal the automatic increase in the tax is that the tax increase should be discussed and voted on in a public manner," Black said. "The current system we have eliminates the accountability of elected officials for the tax increase."
Since 1985, an automatic boost in the state gas tax has occurred on the first day of April each year — over the past 10 years $3.2 billion in additional taxes have been collected through the indexing. The annual increase is an adjustment for inflation; this past April, year the tax rose eight-tenths of a cent per gallon.
Carol Godiksen, executive director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin, said repealing annual gas-tax indexing would be a detriment to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Proper road repair and maintenance and other transportation services like plowing snow would be greatly affected by a reform to gas-tax indexing, she added.
"I think the main concern we have is that this is the way we fund the transportation fund," Godiksen said. "To take it away is going to be disastrous for the state."
Black said, however, that transportation funding would be unscathed in the measure because the Legislature would keep it intact.
"There are legitimate transportation needs, but I feel those needs should be discussed by the Legislature and the tax rates should be debated and voted on publicly just like every other measure in state government," Black said.
Godiksen disagreed, however, and said delays in the passing of bills and partisan politics could slow the process of restoring the gas-tax increases.
The Senate is also slated to decide on the concealed-carry bill, known as the "Personal Protection Act." The bill's legislative backers say the Second Amendment affords Wisconsinites the right to carry concealed weapons. However, opponents of the bill contend it could be a menace to public safety. Police organizations have been divided over the issue.
