Eye on Madison

Written By: Jerry Hanson  |  Posted: Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

MADISON - Speakers representing a broad-based coalition of county and municipal government, private businesses, organized labor, non-profit associations, regional planning interests, housing organizations and other groups call for constitutional protection of the state's transportation fund.
The coalition, called Finding Forward, supports amending the Wisconsin constitution to require that money in the state's transportation fund be spent only for transportation purposes. As a first step in that process, Finding Forward supports placing an advisory referendum question on this November's election ballot so that voters can weigh in on whether the transportation fund should be specifically protected from being used to fill gaps in the state's general fund budget or for any other non-transportation use.

MADISON - On June 30th The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the legislature's presentation to voters of the November 2006 marriage amendment ballot question. Attorney General Van Hollen, whose office defended the constitutionality of the ballot question, said today, "I am very pleased that the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the position this office has taken since the beginning of this case: that the marriage amendment was adopted in conformity with the procedure laid down in our state constitution. The Court strongly affirmed that the amendment contains two parts that both relate to marriage and are designed to preserve the legal status of marriage in Wisconsin as between only one man and one woman."