Republicans don't show up to homeless meeting called by Gov. Tony Evers

Patrick Marley | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - The governor got ghosted.

Republicans who control the Legislature refused to show up to a budget meeting Thursday that was called by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. They contended he couldn't force them to meet to take up homelessness funding despite a state law that says the budget committee "shall hold special meetings upon call of the governor."

Evers' efforts are actually hurting proposals to provide $3.7 million in homelessness funding, GOP Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke of Kaukauna told reporters before the meeting.

Assembly Republicans support the funding, but Senate Republicans have blocked it so far. Steineke said Evers was engaging in a "stunt" by calling the meeting and should be doing more behind the scenes to get the Senate to sign off on the funding.

"When the governor comes out and does this kind of stuff, it just pushes people further back in their corners," Steineke said.

The measures would finance grants for homeless shelters and services and provide more staff to coordinate those efforts.

Evers argued it's essential to act now because winter has set in. On Monday, he called for the budget committee to meet Thursday.

The 12 Republicans on the committee didn't show up, and the meeting consisted of Evers' aides briefing the committee's four Democrats on funding. Without a majority present, the committee couldn't act.

"They're not here doing their job," Democratic Rep. Chris Taylor of Madison said of Republican committee members.

While state law allows the governor to call a meeting of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Finance, that power is effectively meaningless, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau.

"The governor may call a meeting of JCF but may not require the JCF cochairpersons to convene any meeting, require JCF to consider any matter or compel any member to attend that meeting," Rick Champagne, the reference bureau's chief, wrote in a memo to lawmakers this week.

Governors were given the ability to call the committee into session in 1975, but Champagne could find no example of that power being invoked. Normally, the leaders of the committee decide when to meet, though they sometimes work informally with governors to determine when to do so.

The GOP leaders of the committee — Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills and Rep. John Nygren of Marinette — said Evers had other money available to address homelessness and should use that funding for now.

"We should be working together on this issue and not trying to score political points," they said in a statement.

You can find out who your legislators are and how to contact them here: https://maps.legis.wisconsin.gov/

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.