Along with choosing who will be governor of Wisconsin, Dane County voters on Election Day will also be asked to give their opinions on two of the major issues in the election: minimum wage and BadgerCare funding.
While voters will not have a chance to make a decision on these issues, the advisory referendums will be a good way to get a sense of what the public wants, Leland Pan, Dane County Board supervisor, District 5, said.
“It’s a good barometer of how the state is feeling,” Pan said. “Given the results across the state, it should give the state leaders a good indication of how the voters feel on the issues.”
The ballot in Dane County has two advisory referendums on it. One asks residents if they believe the minimum wage in Wisconsin should be raised from $7.25 to $10.10, which has been a key part of gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke’s platform.
The other asks whether residents think the state should accept $200 million in federal funding to expand the BadgerCare program, which Gov. Scott Walker has refused.
Concerning minimum wage raises, Dane County Board Supervisor Nick Zweifel, District 3, said the proposed wage of $10.10 is less about the specific number than it is about raising awareness.
While some cities like Seattle and San Francisco have raised their minimum wages, Pan said municipalities and counties in Wisconsin do not have that power. Rather, the counties can negotiate a living wage, set above the minimum wage, and any business or organization that receives funding from the county has to abide by that rate.
Zweifel said the topic is something students should be concerned with, as they could be affected by wages from their jobs during college or after graduation.
“While they’re working in college, which many college students do, they could use more money in their pockets,” Zweifel said. “It might be money they can use for their tuition or rent, or just for going out and relaxing and trying to reduce their stress from the pressures of school. So during college, raising that minimum wage has a lot to do with them.”
However, Pan said it is not only high school and college students who are dependent on minimum wage jobs. Pan said hundreds of thousands of people throughout the state are working minimum wage jobs, many of whom are adults trying to take care of families.
Walker’s focus is on increasing the number of higher-paying jobs, leaving wage rates to businesses in the state instead of the government, Zweifel said.
As for the question of whether the state should be accepting federal Medicaid funding, Zweifel said the referendum is on 19 counties’ ballots across Wisconsin.
Pan said the proponents of accepting that money believe it will drive the price of health care in Wisconsin down, which he said is “skyrocketing” and becoming less accessible for low-income residents.
Zweifel said he believes the public’s response to that question will hold some weight for the next governor.
“How much attention [Walker] or Mary Burke gives to [the referendum] is going to be dependent on how many of the counties say we should accept it,” Zweifel said. “It’s going to be hard to ignore 19 counties in the state.”
