By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
Last week, the candidates vying for the 43rd District seat in the State Assembly vacated by Andy Jorgensen participated in a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters – Whitewater Area.
Candidates Allison Hetz, a Republican, and Don Vruwink, a Democrat participated in the 90-minute forum Oct. 15 at the Whitewater Municipal Building, moderated by Tom Drucker.
A variety of topics were covered with the candidates responding in an alternating format.
Drugs/health/medical
Vruwink and Hetz agreed to the need to address the heroin and opioid addiction in Wisconsin.
Vruwink recommended considering “managing pain in different ways than using some of the drugs we now use,” including alternative therapies. Hetz said she believes there’s a need to reinvest in mental health resources. “A lot of people need help and they can’t afford to get it,” she said.
Drucker asked the candidates what steps they would take to address the issues with Direct Care worker recruitment and retention that are being driven by inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates. Both focused on the federal funding of Medicare declined by Wisconsin, taking opposite stands.
“We turned down $300 million in Medicare money from the federal government because Gov. Walker said we can’t count on this money coming in, yet we take other federal money, but we didn’t take this money that we could have to reduce health care cost to people (by funding) Direct Care plans,” Vruwink said.
“When it comes to the money that Wisconsin didn’t take, I’m glad they didn’t take it. Because we didn’t take that money, those people that can’t afford to get their own health insurance won’t be fined with Obamacare when it comes around through here. I’m glad we didn’t take that money because it would have hurt our people,” Hetz said.
Regarding abortion rights in Wisconsin, Hetz said she believes in more local control. “[In the cases of rape or incest] you should 100 percent have access to abortion and that shouldn’t be anyone’s business but your own. Currently I think what we have in Wisconsin is OK, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look at it and fix things as needed.”
Vruwink said a woman should “have the right to make decisions for her own body. Personally I don’t like to see abortion, but that’s not my decision to make.” He said he does not favor what Wisconsin has done. “They’ve closed clinics. They defunded Planned Parenthood helping women make those decisions. We need to change course and we need to give women an opportunity to make their own decisions a little bit easier than what we have now.”
On the topic of physician-assisted suicide, Hetz said she does not support physician-assisted suicide “for people who are just unhappy or depressed [especially young people].” Vruwink said there are many variables to take into account in considering physician-assisted suicide.
Roads/transportation
With respect to funding road construction and upkeep, Hetz said things such as gas tax and registration need to be put on the table and be discussed. “If we block something out entirely, we’re just going to fight back and forth.” The first thing to do, she said is to look carefully at taking the “money that we have and maintain what we have.”
Vruwink brought up the fact that in 2005, Wisconsin stopped indexing the gas tax because at the time there was a surplus in the transportation fund. “What happened is that the politicians every time to solve a budget problem rob money from that transportation fund, Democrats and Republicans alike. My major concern is what we’re doing now and that is we’re borrowing to build these roads.”
In response to the question, “What is you sense of what the state legislature can do to promote public transportation use in at least the metropolitan area across the state?” Vruwink said he would like to see “subways (or) above ground trains. They’re more expensive initially, but look at the long term. The problem we have in our country right now is everybody wants to get re-elected and we only look at short-term fixes. What can we do in two years or four years? We don’t think of 25 or 50 years down the road.” He also said he supports some form of mass transit as “better than automobiles for our older population.”
In Hetz’s view, “When it comes to the cities with real heavy urban areas, we need to push public transportation. Not only that, we need to push riding your bicycle. There are ways that we can do this (promote public transportation), but it’s going to take new, innovative ideas to push it forward.”
Hetz and Vruwink also discussed the following issues: water quality, voter ID, nonpartisan redistricting, funding the UW System, tuition freeze, Act 10, school funding, minimum wage, race and police issues, and the process they plan to follow when approaching an issue they may not be well-versed on.
For the complete story, pick up a copy of the Oct. 27 Whitewater Register.
