While Wisconsin's overall crime rate dropped again this year, the violent crime rate increased 7%. Locally, the violent crime rate increased 34% while the rate for property crimes fell by 9%. With this in mind, Scott Walker has been working on a number of measures to protect our families, our senior citizens and our property.

The most important piece of legislation passed this session was Truth-in-Sentencing. Scott Walker authored the measure, along with Representative Tom Sykora, to end parole and early release. Once fully enacted, criminals will serve 100% of the sentence of confinement in prison.

Other important measures include:

• Two Strikes and You're Out:: Life imprisonment for repeat serious sex offenders of children
• Lifetime monitoring of sexual predators: monitoring even after serving prison sentence
• Elimination of intensive sanctions: Scott Walker and another lawmaker were able to suspend the controversial electronic bracelet monitoring program
• End judicial substitution in criminal cases: Stop the system that allows only the defendant to get a new judge without stating any reason (does not end disqualification for conflicts of interest)
• Crack down on repeat drunk drivers: Third offenses would be charged as a felony

As chair of the Corrections Facilities Committee, Scott Walker also pushed several measures to deal with the overcrowding at the Milwaukee County Jail. These include construction of a 600-bed detention facility for parole violators, pushing the state to take approximately 250 parole violators from the county jail by April 1, authoring a bill to clear out misdemeanor cases in the jail and efforts to fund more courthouse staff Scott Walker also met with the Sheriff along with Senator Rosenzweig and Representative Tony Staskunas, to stop the county from moving inmates into the youth dormitory at State Fair Park.

Finally, Scott Walker pushed for more space to house criminals. He worked with the Governor on the budget to staff 2,252 new beds, construct 1,600 medium-security beds and contract for 1,200 out-of-state beds. In September, he visited several of the county jails in Texas that currently hold Wisconsin inmates - to observe conditions and to look for more space. By mid-2000, the 509-bed Supermax prison - which is being built because of a bill Walker authored last session - will be open.

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As the chair of the Elections and Constitutional Law Committee, Scott Walker has been a leader in reforming the campaign and ethics system. Walker was the co-author of a bipartisan bill to provide electronic access to campaign finance reports. Ultimately, this data will be available on the Internet.

Concerns raised over the last three years prompted Scott Walker to introduce legislation to ban political contributions from gambling interests. At the national level, contributions connected to the proposed casino in Hudson, Wisconsin, have led to the naming of a special federal prosecutor. With more than $7 billion at stake in Wisconsin, Walker wants to prevent the problems seen in other states.

Finally, Walker has worked with members of both parties to pass comprehensive campaign reform. The legislation focuses on tracking out-of-state special interest groups, off setting so-called "independent expenditures," dealing with negative phone calls and addressing campaign spending levels.

Also see the following press releases...

After providing $1.2 billion in property tax relief in the last state budget - which brought a 7.9% drop for Wauwatosa property taxes in 1996 -we added even more relief in 1997. Building on the relief from the last state budget, Scott Walker and Senator Peggy Rosenzwe~g were able to add an amendment to the budget requiring the state to pay for 100% of the costs of educating young people at Children's Hospital. Not only was this fair, it provided the additional aid to ensure a drop in property taxes for 1997.

In addition to the property tax relief, the 1997-98 state budget includes $1.1 billion in new tax relief:

• Income tax cut: 1 % beginning in Tax Year 1998
• Indexing of tax brackets: so inflation does not bump a taxpayer into a higher tax bracket
• Elimination of marriage penalty: couples filing jointly will no longer be penalized
• Working families tax cut: reward those who have moved off of welfare into the workforce
• Family business tax cut: a family member can transfer a business to another family member without being forced to pay capital gains taxes
• 100% deduction for long-term health insurance premiums: an incentive to plan ahead for future health care costs

During the height of debate on the state budget, Scott Walker worked with Senator Rosenzweig and our mayor and city administrator to prevent a $450,000 tax break for a major utility in Wauwatosa. Their action to keep the item out of the budget saved residential property taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Scott Walker will continue to push for future property tax and income tax cuts.

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After providing $10 million in new school aids in the 1995-96 budget, the 1997-98 budget adds an additional $2.4 million for Wauwatosa schools. In particular, this funding includes a provision that Scott Walker and Senator Rosenzweig were able to add to the 1997-98 budget. For the first time, Wauwatosa will be fully reimbursed for the educational costs of students at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

A positive working relationship with the school board has been key to working on important issues like changing the drug confidentiality law to provide parents with information about students possessing alcohol or drugs at school or school events. In addition, other items were pushed: penalties doubled for speeding in school zones, authorization to search lockers for drugs or weapons and changes in the effective date of public school choice.

Scott Walker sponsored legislation that passed as part of the budget to provide criminal background checks for all health care workers who deal directly with vulnerable adults. He also sponsored legislation, introduced at the end of the session, to tighten regulations on nursing homes.

Per local interest, Walker authored the "Healthy Baby Initiative" to provide grants to Wisconsin hospitals for a new family-based program for newborns in neonatal intensive care units. In place in other states, the program has directly reduced the cost of health care to infants born with birth defects.

Walker was an original sponsor of the state ban on partial-birth abortions. During debate, it was noted that the procedure is not taught by any medical college in the state. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that the procedure is never medically necessary.

Scott Walker worked with Senator Rosenzweig to add language to the state budget for brownfields (contaminated lands) clean-up and development. The programs will help numerous projects in Wauwatosa and are a great way to combine environmental protection and economic development.

Walker and Rosenzweig have also been working with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Milwaukee County to review possible alternatives to commercial development on the county grounds. They have been working on the use of DNR funds to protect the area. companies to pay for on-site DNR inspectors during a mine's construction and operation.

Walker supported the "Mining Environmental Protection Act," which sets new requirements for metallic mining, to better ensure quality control during the construction and operation of a mining facility. The bill also requires cornpanies to pay for on-site DNR inspectors during a mine's construction and operation.

Also see the following articles/editorials...