It’s an Important Time of the Year

On Friday, April 4th, Wisconsin’s Joint Committee on Finance hosted the second of four listening sessions scheduled for the month of April 2025. The event was held in a packed  exposition center at the Wisconsin State Fair Park, and people started lining up hours in advance to get their names on the list to provide oral testimony. Passionate advocates spoke the entire day on a wide variety of subjects. For those who didn’t wish to speak, but still wanted their opinions recorded, they were given the option to submit written testimony.

The morning began at 10 o’clock with a call to order of the Joint Committee on Finance, and a brief summary of the rules followed. Individuals and groups of two were allotted two minutes to speak. Groups of three or more were given five minutes. Most adhered to the time limit, and others found creative ways to extend their time. There were tear-jerking stories, people who shouted, rambling speakers, antagonistic and confrontational speakers, and more. Most were articulate, and some were not. There was not enough time in the day to allow for everyone who wanted to speak, but the committee eventually invited anyone still in attendance after 5PM to step up to the microphones, and they listened to testimony until nearly 6PM.

There were a few important takeaways from the day. First, of the transportation issues addressed, about half were related to public transit and the other half were requesting funds for transporting people with disabilities. Second, the committee seemed disinterested at best. One or two never looked up from their laptop all day. One or two endlessly scrolled through their phones. Two were very active as timekeepers, and the rest came and went from the dais as needed for what must have been bathroom and food breaks. My overall sense was that the committee members were there to fulfill an obligation as opposed to wanting to be there. I understand that listening to seven hours of testimony makes for a long day, but I also believe it is their duty to do so with intention.

At one point in the day, I asked a friendly staffer to explain what happens to all of the oral testimony. As people speak, there are other legislative staffers who keep a tally of the topics and whether the speaker was in favor of or against the issue. And all of those written comments -what happens to those? As it turns out, those are all scanned and converted into PDFs. Then, all of the written comments and the staffer tally sheets are combined into one large document that gets sent to each committee member. Because of this, it’s reasonable to wonder whether an articulately written comment sheet has more or less weight than an impassioned two minute speech that might get recorded as simply “in favor of continued support to Medicaid.” 

In today’s political climate, it can be easy to sit back and wait to see what happens…to be passive. It was an encouragingly positive experience to see so many people, from so many different walks of life, taking an active role in government and not choosing the easier route. It was a pleasant surprise. Civic engagement feels like it has been on the decline, and maybe it has or hasn’t, but on this day, it was alive and well. If you can, please attend one of the two remaining listening sessions scheduled for April, and use your voice to advocate for cycling in Wisconsin. 

• Mon, April 28th at 10am – Hayward High School, Hayward
• Tues, April 29th at 10am – Northcentral Technical College, Wausau

I wish that I knew what I know now…know before you go!

This was the first JCF listening session I have attended. I understood the purpose, and a bit about the process before I went, but there are a few things I would have done differently. If you decide to attend one of the next two sessions in April, and I hope you do, here’s what I would recommend:

• Get there early. They’ll tell you that the session starts at 10AM, and that’s true. But what they don’t tell you is that you can get there much earlier and put your name on the list to speak. There were people lining up to speak at 7:30AM on Friday morning. Go early, get your name on the list, go have breakfast at your favorite diner, and come back at 10.
• Or…get there late. Admittedly, this is a risk. If you get there late, the rest of the crowd might have already thinned out, and you won’t have to wait long to speak. Although, especially at smaller sites in Hayward and Wausau, if they roll through the list of speakers, they could end early, and you might miss your chance.
• Don’t get there just a little early at about 9:15 or 9:30AM. The problem with this strategy is so many people get signed up to speak that they might not get to you by the time 5PM comes around. At State Fair Park, last Friday, they finally said that anyone who wanted to speak that was still waiting could line up at the microphones. But this didn’t happen until 5:30 or so. 
• Bring snacks. I packed a full lunch box, and I’m glad I did. Even though it was at State Fair Park, there were no concessions. There was no water other than drinking fountains, and there certainly were no cream puffs. Be prepared, because it could be a long day.
• Please submit written testimony if you’re not one for public speaking. Above, I shared what happens to written testimony. If you don’t want to speak, that’s fine. But if you’re going to take time to attend the listening session at all, please take another five minutes to write an argument in support of funding for traffic calming, or Knowles Nelson, or full utilization of available TAP funds. It will be recorded and noted.
• Be nice. Make friends with your neighbors. Everybody there cares about something that’s important to them, and all they’re doing is taking time out of their day to ask that it continue to be funded. It might not be the same thing that you want, but it means just as much to them as cycling does to you. 

Have a question about something I didn’t mention? Email me, and I’ll be happy to help. 

mike@wisconsinbikefed.org