On a voice vote Thursday, the state Senate approved a bill that mandates insurance coverage for cochlear implants for children. The state Assembly also approved the bill and Governor Doyle is expected to sign it.

I expressed my reservations on the Senate floor. Wisconsin Radio Network has more. 

On the floor of the state Senate Thursday, I voted against the governor’s appointments of Roger Axtell and Mike Weiden to the UW Hospital and Clinics Board.

As members of the UW Hospital and Clinics Board, Axtell and Weiden on February 4, 2009 voted with the majority as the Board voted 11-3 to go ahead with a second-trimester abortion facility at the Madison Surgery Center (MSC), a joint venture of UW Hospitals and Clinics, the UW Medical Foundation and Meriter Hospital. 

The prospect of aborting healthy and disabled babies as late as 22 weeks is horrific and barbaric.

I concur with the sentiments expressed in a statement issued Thursday by Pro-Life Wisconsin:

“Abortion is not health care. And barbaric late-term abortion procedures that are painful to the baby and dangerous to the mother’s life and health are certainly not health care. By voting for the MSC’s late-term abortion practice, Roger Axtell and Mike Weiden have failed in their duty to provide true health care to those most in need of it: vulnerable women and their even more vulnerable preborn children. They totally ignored life-saving alternatives such as special needs adoption or pre-natal hospice care. Their lack of compassion and concern for the lives of mothers and their preborn children makes them unfit to serve on the board of our state’s flagship hospital.”

I am saddened that Democrats who control the state Senate had enough votes Thursday to confirm these appointments.

Here are more details from the Associated Press.

Thursday, February 19, 2009, I did an interview with WisconsinEye about the budget repair bill/stimulus package and Governor Doyle's proposed 2009-11 state budget. You can see the interview here.

I will discuss Governor Doyle’s State of the State address Thursday morning at 6:40 on Newstalk 1130 WISN with Jay Weber.

Here is a news release I issued this morning:


LAZICH WANTS FULL AUDIT OF WISCONSIN SHARES PROGRAM
Request follows MJS series that found rampant fraud in child care program

FOR IMMMEDIATE RELEASE                                        Contact: Sen. Lazich
MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2009                                        Phone: (608)266-5400

(MADISON) - State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) has formally asked the co-chairpersons of the Joint Committee on Audit to request that the Legislative Audit Bureau conduct a full review of the state taxpayer-funded Wisconsin Shares child care program. Lazich’s request follows a series of reports by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after its four month investigation of Wisconsin Shares uncovered what the newspaper called, “a trail of phony companies, fake reports and shoddy oversight.”

The Journal Sentinel also reported, “The system allows child-care providers and parents to easily con the system, capitalizing on children for public cash.” With limited access to child care cases, the Journal Sentinel still pinpointed $750,000 in suspicious child-care disbursements.

“The taxpayers funding this program demand answers and accountability concerning the serious allegations made as a result of the Journal Sentinel’s investigation and subsequent reporting,” said Lazich, a member of the Joint Committee on Audit.

“The current conditions outlined by the Journal Sentinel are unacceptable,” said Lazich who made her request for an audit in a letter to Joint Committee on Audit co-chairpersons, Senator Kathleen Vinehout and Representative Peter Barca.

The Journal Sentinel’s findings include counties accepting almost anything as verification of employment for parents requesting assistance,  caseworkers approving child care while children were at school all day, and regulators reluctant to revoke licenses for fraud.

“My fear is that the problems associated with Wisconsin Shares are even more serious than the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discovered,” said Lazich. “I trust the outstanding Legislative Audit Bureau will do an excellent job determining the extent of fraud in Wisconsin Shares.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the last full audit of Wisconsin Shares was done during 2001.



UPDATE from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

You may recall during May 2007, I was interviewed extensively for an investigative report by Fox 6 Milwaukee about meter ramps.  Part of my frustration is the unnecessary amount of time spent idling in line on a ramp waiting for the light to change.

A Michigan woman took her disgust even further in what is being called a first. She complained via e-mail to the state. Nothing unusual there, but then she sent the Michigan Department of Transportation a bill for the estimated gas she thinks she wasted idling in traffic.

Here are all the details of this story.

This morning, I was a guest of Joy Cardin’s on Wisconsin Public Radio. We discussed the issue of requiring a photo ID to vote.

You can hear the interview by clicking “Listen” below. My interview is 18:40 into the program.

Joy makes reference to a column I recently wrote on photo ID. You can read it here.

I will be a guest of Joy Cardin’s on Wisconsin Public Radio this Monday morning from 7:30-8:00 a.m.

We will discuss a photo ID requirement for voting.

Wisconsin Public Radio can be heard on WHAD, 90.7 on your FM dial.

I will be a guest panelist this week on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10’s “4^th Street Forum.”  The subject for discussion:


WISCONSIN TAXES: WHAT'S ENOUGH? WHAT'S FAIR?
What's the Truth about Wisconsin Taxes?
Are they fairly distributed? Excessively high?
Are some people and businesses getting a good deal at the expense of others?

The program will air this Friday night at 10:00 p.m. and will be repeated this Sunday afternoon on Channel 36 at 3 p.m.

If you missed it, here is the video of my appearance Sunday with state Representative Fred Kessler on Up Front with Mike Gousha on WISN-TV Channel 12.  

We discuss proposed changes for state Supreme Court elections.

Channel 12’s Kent Wainscott interviewed me about Michael Gableman’s victory over Louis Butler in the state Supreme Court race and the call for change in high court elections.

You can see Kent Wainscott’s story here.

I was interviewed for an article about the competition for water that appears in the March issue of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ magazine, “State Legislatures.”

The article, entitled, “Hot Water,” discusses the Great Lakes Compact:

Supporters of the Great Lakes Water Resources Compact note that it still needs to be ratified by the legislatures of six more states and that the going may not be entirely smooth. In Wisconsin, Senator Mary Lazich says she has concerns that the effect of the compact may be additional bureaucracy. “I think it has the potential to be make-work for the government and private sector attorneys who will be involved in defining all of this down the road,” says Lazich.

But even with such reservations, Lazich acknowledges that momentum is in the compact’s favor, and for a compelling reason. “All of us are reading about the water issues across the country and it makes us even more determined to preserve our Great Lakes. We want to see the language of the compact tweaked a little, but ultimately the only thing that matters is making sure that nothing detrimental happens to the lakes.”

Here is the entire article.

Imagine getting a letter from the state Department of Revenue (DOR) declaring that you overpaid your taxes and you receive a check for $3,000.

Four months later, you get a letter from the Department of Revenue that you underpaid, and now owe the state thousands of dollars plus interest.

You pay the original refund, but not the interest because a Department employee tells you that you do not have to.

A few weeks later, another letter arrives, saying you owe interest and the state is going to charge a collection fee.

It happened to a Waukesha resident who contacted me and questioned why he had to pay for the Department erroneously mailing him a refund check.

The story has a happy ending. I looked into the matter and discovered the Department mailed incorrect tax refunds due to a computer problem. The Waukesha man and many other taxpayers with the same predicament, a total of 199, no longer have to pay interest because of the Department’s mistakes.

On Thursday, January 10, 2008, I appeared as a guest on Joy Cardin’s program on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss Wisconsin’s ban on abortion. The state law is still on the books, but is overridden by Roe vs. Wade.

I oppose repealing the ban.

You can hear the entire program by clicking “Listen,” below.

Joy Cardin’s first guest is State Representative Therese Berceau (D-Madison) who supports a repeal of the ban on abortion. Listen to how Representative Berceau responds to her first male caller.

My interview follows Berceau’s.