Election Preview: 98th State Assembly District Republican Primary

Five Republican candidates are running for the vacant seat in the 98th Assembly District in a special primary election on Feb. 19.

The winner will advance to the general election on April 2, however, since there is no Democratic candidate, that person is all but certain to win the seat. The district includes Pewaukee, Sussex and portions of Waukesha.

The candidates are Ed Baumann, Todd Greenwald, Matt Morzy, Adam Neylon and Jeanne Tarantino (Click on link for biographical information on each candidate). The five are running to replace Paul Farrow, who was elected to the 33rd Senate District in December.

To provide voters with the most information on where they stand on the issues facing the state, Patch invited readers to submit questions that we posed to the candidates.

Here, in their own words, are the candidates' answers to those questions as well as some posed by Patch.

I am running for State Assembly because I have the passion to serve.  My experience in building a small business in Waukesha, along with serving in Governor Walker’s Administration, as Lt. Governor Kleefisch’s Chief of Staff qualifies me to hit the ground running in April when this seat is sworn in.  We will be in the middle of passing our state budget which will set the course for the next two years. Our families, businesses, schools and community organizations deserve a strong conservative voice to represent them in this important process.  Our economy is growing at too slow a pace and too many families in Wisconsin are still feeling the effects of the deep recession we faced three years ago. Too many people in our state are unemployed or underemployed. We need to improve our business climate to attract investment in our state, to keep the companies we have and bring into our communities companies who are looking for a qualified, skilled workforce. Wisconsin businesses deserve a state government that doesn’t stand in the way of their success. Our Governor and Lt. Governor understand this and have balanced our state budget in the last biennium. They deserve a State Legislature who will help fight for Wisconsin companies and control the growth of government spending, regulation and red tape. I will help him fight the big government agenda in Madison.

I believe our ultimate challenge is making sure Wisconsin is the place where when that day arrives my children and their classmates want to stay and raise a family here, and have the opportunities to do so. To do so, we have to understand our neighboring states serve as our competition for new relocation or expansion jobs, and for state-based companies, we need to make sure the grass is not greener across the border.  We need to make sure our tax structure is competitive—and that our state’s key infrastructures, specifically roadways and power supply are well-maintained and able to address both current and future needs. Of critical importance, many companies in Wisconsin are looking to hire, but cannot find enough skilled workers to fill vacancies. I have been working for Governor Walker’s Administration to help develop solutions to address this skills gap. I know that developing a talent pool of people with the right skills is the cornerstone of moving our state forward. As manufacturing rebounds from this deep recession, communities that develop a globally competitive workforce will be the economic winners. Part of the solutions lies in our education system. We need to educate those in our K-12 of expanded opportunities beyond a four year degree, and make sure our technical schools and both two and four year universities are matching education opportunities to workforce needs so our kids have the education and training for the jobs of the future.

Governor Walker has our state on the right path, with more work to be done.  We must reduce the cost of doing business in our state and by making our tax code more competitive so our companies will want to stay here.  In addition, we must intensify our efforts to provide new capital opportunities for companies looking to grow or relocate their business to Wisconsin and successfully compete in a globalized economy. We need to pass a middle class tax cut so people can keep more of their hard-earned money. Cutting taxes and reducing a government bureaucracy will be my major focus so we can grow our economy and put more people back to work. Government needs to let the private sector lead the way.

The great people of our state have a well-earned reputation for a strong work ethic.  We need to match that work ethic with a world class workforce development effort, aligning our educational and job training programs to match the in-demand skills of employers. 

Gov. Walker has said he is going to propose income tax cuts in his next budget. Do you support such cuts, and how do you think they should be paid for?

I don’t believe the initial presumption should be, “how do we pay for tax cuts” as I believe the better questions is, “how much government can taxpayers afford.”  I am a proponent in wage earners keeping as much of their money as possible, and keeping government as affordable as possible.
Yes, I support Governor Walker’s plan to provide a middle class tax cut and his plans to pay for it from the surplus.  His proposed $300 million tax cut should be paid for with the resources we saved through our state’s growing economy.  Bob Lang, Director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, projected our state’s surplus will be $420 million on June 30th, with $9 million in the rainy day fund.  It’s a good idea to provide middle class tax cuts for the three lowest income tax brackets so taxpayers can keep more of their hard earned money.Moving ahead, we should continue to examine how Wisconsin can build the most efficient and effective government, while keeping more money in the pockets of taxpayers.

I believe the current bill will appropriately protect our natural resources while creating new jobs. The proposed  mine would need to be approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  It would also need to meet water quality standards set by the Bad River Chippewa Tribe downstream of the mine site.  The bill streamlines the permitting process and the reality is that businesses, including mining companies, deserve a more predictable regulatory climate. The mining company’s proposed investment in our state has the potential to create over 3,000 jobs statewide, with 700 jobs paying an average salary of $82,000 for mining workers. This also has the potential to give our construction industry a needed boost to build the mine, estimates have shown 2,000 jobs will be created to build the mine. The potential impact on our tax base from the mining operation is estimated at $14 billion in the form of state and local taxes which would help fund local schools, roads and other programs. I will support this legislation.

It’s not only about cutting government programs but also about making government leaner and more effective. I worked on the Governor’s Lean Government Initiative and believe this priority will result in greater efficiencies by rooting out waste. I will also support the Administration’s efforts to save money by cutting positions that have remained vacant. This is a reasonable way to eliminate government jobs that are no longer needed while saving taxpayer money. Our state should not provide support for expensive programs that provide little or no benefit to taxpayers.  Taking a Lean approach will provide savings and eliminate waste.  We need to change the way government does business, aligning our philosophy with the private sector to incentivize performance, reward excellence and provide a return of investment to taxpayers.