Meeting Our Needs — Part 3: Not Charity

“Meeting Our Needs” is a series that acknowledges the organizations and individuals who work to make our communities better, stronger, healthier and more inclusive. We know we face challenges and divisions among us, but we miss and underestimate the essential goodness of rural Wisconsinites when we fail to celebrate those who are lifting us up in so many ways. Let us hear your stories, contact bpestel@msn.com to be included in this series.

First, we’d like to acknowledge and celebrate the activities and achievements of the River Valley Area Community Gardens as documented in the recent letter to the editor. We are also looking forward to an exciting 2023 for them and encourage you to use the contact information in that letter to join them. Now on to… childcare, and healthcare, giving boosts to the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and investing in mental health programs. It addresses the opioid crisis and invests in food security programs and in housing and heating assistance programs. pass in the Senate or be signed by Pres. Biden. Let’s hope they eventually move on to other issues that would actually meet our needs.

It invests in the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service and makes a historic investment in the National Science Foundation. It raises the pay for members of the armed forces, and it invests in state and local law enforcement.

This isn’t charity either, it is an investment in our country, in our democracy, in us. This is our government’s commitment to meeting our needs and becoming the best of who we can be. The vote in the Senate was 68-29, the 29 dissenting votes were Republican. The vote in the House was 225-201, 200 of the dissenting votes were Republican.

Here in Wisconsin, Gov. Evers submits his two-year budget to the Legislature in February. The Legislature will write its own budget, and some compromise will have to be passed by July. It remains to be seen what the Legislature will define as charity and what they will see as an investment in the people of Wisconsin. The Legislature’s track record has not been impressive on that score.

According to Jason Stein, research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, “You’ve had a state that was pretty aggressive about not increasing spending, cautious about school funding and extremely cautious about increasing local government funding.” That is an understated and generous way of putting it.

At the moment these cuts have put the survival of the UW- Platteville/Richland campus in serious doubt with more twoand four-year campuses also at risk. Whose needs are met by these potential closures? How could the Republican dominated Wisconsin Legislature believe that an attack on education meets the needs of Wisconsin citizens?

So, here we are in 2023. According to the state Department of Administration, the Wisconsin state budget surplus is projected to be around $7 billion with an additional $1.7 billion in the rainy day fund.

“It’s not charity, it’s an investment.” Those were the words Ukrainian President Zelensky delivered to the joint meeting of Congress on Dec. 21. He was referring to the economic, humanitarian, and military aid the U.S. has given to Ukraine.

On Dec. 23 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $1.7 trillion spending bill funding the government through Sept. 30, 2023. In the words of Heather Cox Richardson: The measure invests in education,