Newsmakers: Budget's Impact on Milwaukee
Three Assembly members from Milwaukee – Democratic Reps. Tamara Grigsby, Barbara Toles and JoCasta Zamarripa — said in a Capitol Newsmakers interview on May 14 that the 2011-13 budget the Legislature is debating this week punishes the City of Milwaukee and its residents. For example, Grigsby and Toles said a one-year cut of about $170 million in state aid to Milwaukee Public Schools will devastate basic instructional programs like reading and eliminate the critical jobs of school nurses. The first Latina to serve in the Legislature, Zamarippa criticized the decision of Republicans who control the Legislature to end a two-year-old law that lets children of illegal immigrants pay in-state UW System tuition. All three also said cuts to bus system subsidies will hurt Milwaukee County’s bus system, which their constituents rely on to get to school, work and medical care.
