 Today we have Tyler Orr-Pagel, who is the incumbent right now in the 27th Wisconsin Assembly District and his challenger, Nanette Boulevage, if I'm saying that correctly, she's running on the Democratic, excuse me, on the Democratic ticket. Just so you're aware, just kind of, I gave you a map on your tables just so you can see where the districts are. Wisconsin has 33 Senate districts, 99 Assembly districts. What's applicable to us mainly is the 27th, which is the one we're going to be hearing about today from Nanette and Tyler, and then the other ones in our district are Katzma and Clark, and I believe both these, it's kind of a rematch, isn't it, from two years ago? So, should be interesting. Well, next week we're going to have Lemahue and Welton, who they have the 9th Senate District, which encompasses 25, 6, and 7 of the Assembly districts. So with that, if anybody, either of you want to go first, or should I flip a coin? Anybody? I don't have a coin. I'm going to ask that you tell me which one I'm folding. Pepper or the salt? I'll let you go, Nanette. The salt? Huh? Pepper. I guess it's Tyler. Sorry. Wash those. So, I think we'll turn it over. What we'll do is I'm going to, 9 minutes is going to be 10 minutes each and we'll leave 5 minutes for questions. At 9 minutes I'll be going like this. You've got a minute to finish, and then we'll both have you come up and just feel some flexibility for it. You can come up here if you want to move around. It's okay if I wander. Well, good afternoon everybody, and thank you so much, Scott, for inviting us and for having us as your guest. Rotary has a bit of a special place in my heart. I'm a former Rotarian. I was in Rotary for a number of years, and then the Plymouth Rotary Club. They meet on Wednesdays at noon, and it was a little tougher to get there, so if you're looking for any new recruits, Mondays at noon work a little better for me. I just really want to thank you guys for all that you do in our community. I know your polio projects, and I know you do a lot with scholarships for students continuing on to Tech College or for your university. Then Tony's program with the Emerald Ash Board, just really your community service is much appreciated throughout the community. With that being said, I'm Tyler. I live in Plymouth with my wife, Jenny, and our little two-and-a-half-year-old Landon who keeps us extra busy when we're not running around. I just wanted to talk today to you about some of the things that we've done in the state legislature over the past two and four years since I've been in office, and I've kind of picked out the themes that really I've tried to advocate for and are important to me, and things that I would like to see us continue to improve on over the next two years and beyond. The first is having a two-and-a-half-year-old really makes you understand education in our education system, and since I've been in office, we really try to invest in our education system. We're making historic investments. We have more choice than ever for parents, whether that's private school for their families, for someone who's lower income, or whether it's open enrolling to another school district that might fit their needs. We really are offering more choice than ever. One of the really cool things that we've done this last legislative session is Representative Joel Kitchens up in the Kewanee-Dore County area who's a former school board member was asked to head a commission on school funding. Many of you might not know a lot of our area schools kind of get the short end of the shaft. We meet every month with our school administrators from the county, and most of our schools in the area get what are considered frugal or low spending districts. So they already start off with a lower amount than what some of the other school districts have. That all goes back to a complicated formula back to 1993. But one of the things that we're looking at doing is helping out those schools, also helping to aid with English language learning students and give, I know there's a lot in the Sheboygan school district, making sure that they are getting compensated for educating those students who tend to be a little bit more expensive, as well as our special education students. One of the really cool things that we did in really mental health was something that I'd like to continue to work on. Working with the county, there was a bill that we passed that kind of broke down some of the barriers that got students mental health services in the schools. Now schools can offer mental health services to students where they weren't able to do that before and in some cases bill Medicaid to recoup some of the costs that they have. Workforce. Workforce is a huge issue. We've gone from talking about job creation to job placement. I hear all the time from employers about trouble that they're having, getting quality candidates. We've really tried to invest in our young people so that they're more prepared to come out of college for whatever stuff in life is next, whether it's straight into the workforce. We've been really pushing the youth apprenticeship program. I sit on the board of the youth apprenticeship and Sheboygan County has one of the highest performing counties in the state for youth apprenticeships. Or whether it's a technical college or a university, we've been trying to increase funding for paid internships and also in our local schools grants for FAB Labs. So that kind of leads into talent attraction. You know one of the things that I've talked about and I've heard about is how there's just not enough bodies. We need more bodies. We definitely do need to keep, do things to keep our college graduates here in our state. I'm very interested. I know the governor had talked about tax credit program for college graduates that if they were to stay here for five years could get a tax credit. And that's something I've thought about as I've talked with folks from across the U.S. One of the things that they mention is they're the way if you can get people, young people to stay here and start a family, get a house, things like that, they're more likely to remain in the community and part of the community. Now things like that are starting to change. I'm glad the mayor and the city have been investing in improving our rental housing from what I know is a lot of young people my age and younger change jobs an awful lot more than they used to. So it's important here that we have the amenities to attract and retain our young folks. And then one of the other things that's really important to me is healthcare. So it's something I really don't talk about much. I never really have but because of some of the political ads and things like that that are going on out there I really want to talk about I'm a type one diabetic so I really, and I've had the fortune of being able to have good healthcare but I know there are people out there who may not be in a situation in the legislature the past session the assembly passed a bill that would not allow you to be denied for a pre-existing condition as long as you had continuous coverage and then instructed the office of the commissioner of insurance to set up high-risk pools and things like that to help people maintain continuous coverage. We also passed a bill for insurance cost sharing that there was just a journal sent in an article this afternoon that they expect premiums that are on the exchange to go down by in some cases 30% but statewide average of about 4, 4.5% and then also allowing small businesses to pool with a few employees who are part of a trade association to pool their resources together. So those are kind of the highlights of things that I've been working on I've really tried to be an advocate for Sheboygan County and Manitoba County and one of the things I know I try and keep an open door whether it's Kristen or Adam or a number of folks who come down on occasion to meet with me I try and be available and visible in the community and hopefully approachable and then one of the other kind of things that may be as good news I don't know if anybody's been on Facebook and seen it today but we just got off the phone with DOT who announced that they signed the record of decision at 10 o'clock today for the four lane expansion of Highway 23 and really all the credit for that goes to all of you locally for keeping the pressure on and the DOT who's really broke down barriers in timelines and making sure that this thing keeps moving on I know it's really important to you it's the thing that everybody asks me and talks to me about when they see me in the grocery store or whatever and I'm happy to say that the process from here is about a hundred and fifty there's a hundred and fifty day period for someone to file a lawsuit or try to challenge it and after that DOT says that they will be letting the bids and hopefully fingers crossed dirt will be turned next summer so we all have that to look forward to really I do want to thank you for your time and for engaging in the political process I know it's messy and everybody wants to rip their computers throw away their tablets or get off of Facebook or stop but really in my time in the legislature I've tried to be someone who can work across the aisle and work with colleagues from different parts of the state different political parties people with different ideas because I realize I don't have all the solutions I don't have all the right answers I only have one person's perspective so I've really tried to be somebody who has learned from other people and be respectful and be an advocate for you because it really is nothing that makes me happier no bill signing, no legislative accomplishment that makes me happier than when somebody comes up to me and says hey I contacted you or your office and you were able to fix the problem that I've been having so really that's really why I have run again because I really want to be your advocate and your liaison to Madison so thank you very much and look forward to any questions A by S thank you so much for having me and thank you Tyler for agreeing to this forum not all the candidates are doing that and I think the least we can do for the public is to allow them to get to know all of us so it's awesome thank you so much I did bring my own cheering section I've got a teacher I've got an arts administrator I've got a grant writer and a poet Lisa who's also my campaign manager how cool is that to have a poet I've got a healthcare consultant an activist and we've got Marcos who's in a class all his own if you don't know Marcos Rivera I really highly recommend you get to know him he is part of IdeaWorks he's also a member of Voces de la Fraterra he's doing great things for our community and he will do even more great things if we are smart enough to keep him so thank you Scott some of you know I ran two years ago for the same seat it was so rewarding and for me empowering I spent much of the last two years encouraging other people to run I'm running again for the same seat against the same opponent because the issues that concerned me in 2016 still concern me and I'm not a quitter it's an honor to run for office because you meet so many fantastic people I was determined this time to get myself out of my silo and listen to other points of view and I have I've talked to my next door neighbor who's a Trump supporter he voted for Trump I did not I understand people voted for him and of course this is a federal office because they wanted to change the status quo it was not working for them I'm listening to those things I'm listening to people I didn't before right now it would be election only a few weeks ago most candidates are spending every moment possible going door to door talking to voters one on one it's the most effective way to get your name out there I'm sure Tyler's doing the same in fact I know because I've come across your literature at the doors and you've come across mine of it when we ask people what they're most concerned about the same issues tend to keep coming up yes Highway 23 is one of them two decades ago that long ago what was first proposed I was the president of the local Sierra Club so I was skeptical I thought we could get by with passing lanes but I will agree that my views on that have changed I couldn't attend the public hearing that we held at the beginning of the summer but I read the testimony and when you've got EMTs and ambulance drivers and sheriffs and police officers the first people on the scene of an accident telling you we want four lane highways I think it's time to listen so I'm fully on board with that one people talk very first thing most people talk about is healthcare older people but younger people too who've grown up with a chronic condition like diabetes my daughter enjoys being on my health plan which I got from healthcare.gov I married to a dairy farmer and in the years when I wasn't teaching or working as a librarian we just went without I was the only one with a chronic condition asthma and mammograms and those kind of things I needed to do so we just made cash so I was thrilled when the Affordable Care Act finally kicked in it's helped my family for many others it's been a lifesaver it's reasonably affordable but I'm also where the people in Minnesota pay 50% less in healthcare premiums than we do no matter what healthcare plan there are that's the average they took the Medicaid money we did not that's one of the things I would change people also bring up public schools school of referendums pass farm are often then they fail because we love our public schools people agree to raise their own property taxes time and time again more than a million Wisconsinites have done so in the past seven years my own district Elkhart Lakeland-Hula has won on the ballot this year for operating expenses operating expenses we didn't used to have to do that I'm glad that our current governor is finally willing to invest more in education after 800 million dollars in cuts but it's still not enough we're still spending less in general state aid than we did in 2010 all the issues that come up when I go door to door are the state of the roads yes Foxconn, most people I talk to are skeptical and legalizing marijuana and I'm happy to talk to you about that medical marijuana you bet absolutely when the American Legion wants us to legalize medical marijuana I think we should listen because they know it can help veterans actually help with opioid addiction and PSDT but the issue that comes up all the time all the time it hits me is why don't you guys get along they're tired of the polarized state people are tired of fighting between parties they want us to get things done they want compromise they want flexibility they want us to just solve problems and quit pointing fingers I'm on board for that I'm running because I want that too when I first moved to Wisconsin from Illinois I thought I hit the jackpot the roads were much better than Illinois back then and I worked my way through college at Lakeland College at the time as a reporter for WHPL I was in this room when Governor Thompson Tommy Thompson was first running for office back then it was either the Alts of the Rotary I can't remember it was an all male group so I was one of the few women but there were some wives there too I knew that guy was going to win the first guy I interviewed was Lee Dreyfus who was running for governor in 1978 he was a moderate I was there at the beginning of Steve Costell's career he was Tyler's predecessor for this office in the 27th district he was a moderate too he left education chair when he ended he said this job he thought he saw himself as wanting to stop bad education bills and he was no longer able to do that from his own party when he ended so I missed that time when we were able to work together and I think we could get back together how much time do I have, Jim? three minutes, okay quick economic plan Cheboyin County stands apart from many Wisconsin infunities that we still make things here I learned that from Paul Bartelt when I attended the chamber's Friday forum a couple weeks ago he was so awesome our manufacturing base is strong and we all benefit from the fact that so many of our top employers are owned by local families with deep ties to this community the new innovation district planned in Cheboyin on the eastern edge of Indiana Avenue that is awesome I met with Dane Czekolinski whose name is just as bad as mine in Park Rockham's but I pronounced it right I think he spent two hours with me talking about that it will enhance innovation and collaboration it looks so promising especially if we can spread it out to the rural communities where I live that would be a wonderful thing looking forward to seeing what happens with that right now the economy does appear on the surface at least like it's going well I know some of you saw the New York Times article from I think yesterday talking about how it might be tough for Democrats here in Wisconsin might be tough for Tony Evers because yeah, the economy seems to be going well for some of us but not everybody I assure you I am a teacher I spent the last year subbing in local schools I see every day the effects of poverty yes there are more jobs but how many of them are family sustaining jobs why all this economic growth why is it not being seen in higher wages you want to attract young people, young women make sure they're paid just as much as men right now we know in Wisconsin full-time women workers make about ten thousand dollars less than men I want to work on that I still see too many families struggling to make ends meet too many workers working paycheck to paycheck many are still a healthcare crisis away from bankruptcy so that's one thing one out of five children still live in poverty yes I would refinance school loans I would work on healthcare Foxconn, billions of dollars all going to one company I think we could have made that money go further if we had spread it around the state invested in Wisconsin entrepreneurs and nonprofits already here and working to solve problems like opioid addiction, sex trafficking gun violence, suicides we could have invested that money in attracting more doctors, nurses, corrections officers defense attorneys, teachers all the things where we have a labor shortage I'm almost okay let me just finish this way with my favorite Paul Bartelt story so one of the best pieces of advice I got was to join the Chamber of Commerce and it's allowed me to meet so many people I wouldn't so I watched him as he talked to young the coastal young professionals at the Ballarat company and I wrote about it on LinkedIn and you can find it if you want to it's kind of cool because it's gotten over 400 people have seen it, 100 likes that's much more than anything else I published there it's not because I'm a great writer I think I'm pretty good I've been doing it for a long time but because people like him and here's what he said about this community it's humming, we have a labor shortage but we still make things here I stole that quote from him he also said shaboying is the kind of place where if you really want to you can make a difference that's all I wanted to do my whole life I would so love to work with all of you I would find it an honor to have this position thank you so much for your time just a yes or no question for both of you do you support sanctuary status for municipalities or at the state level in terms of immigration I would defer to Marcos for that if he supports it I support it because I really believe I think we should look at it we have a labor shortage yes I march with the DACA people with the dreamers yes no I think our immigration policy is best set on a national level definitely disagree with that but we're talking about state stuff this is a relatively brief question for both of you what position do you have with regard to Act 10 whether it should be repealed or modified I assume each of you have a position on that sure I don't think it's possible to repeal it at this point let's try to make up for all those cuts I was part of those demonstrations down in Madison some of my best friends and I have been a teacher we've lost some great people and teachers are telling themselves not to go and teachers are telling their children don't go into education it's the most rewarding career I've ever had and I see people choosing not to because they're making less money because they feel demoralized I was people I know took that personally maybe they needed it personally when you were attacking their benefits that they gave up higher wages for so I don't think we can repeal it but I would work hard to correct it so I support it I think it was when we really boil it down it comes to as many of you who work somewhere or employ people you usually have an employer contribution portion and an employee contribution for not only your healthcare but also for your retirement that wasn't happening in Wisconsin and I think it was is time that it does I mean I've most of my family members are teachers and I know one of the positive impacts that I don't think it's talked about while this was going on I was a few years out of college so I had a lot of college friends who went into education and the way the old system worked it was automatically if you had the lowest seniority you were out so as school districts were cutting back shrinking their teachers they found themselves bouncing all the way around the state and not really in a stable living situation one of the positive things with Act 10 is you could keep a good teacher regardless of their seniority give the school district the option of doing that and I saw the positive benefit that it had for a number of my college classmates who are now able to stay in one place for more than a year without fear of having to look for another job in a different district and working with the Department of Administration and the Governor's Office to cease wagon in these areas along Lake Michigan to declare a national marine sanctuary by NOAA everything was going fine the Governor has submitted the application and a few months back he decided to pull that back if you're elected would you allow the Governor to change the position whoever he is and bring this back into yeah thanks Mayor absolutely I was supportive of the project when it was first proposed and all the way through the project I think unfortunately sometimes as we all know all too well Facebook and social media can kind of gin up some mistruths haptruths things that aren't necessarily the case and unfortunately I think that's what we saw in this case the federal government who wrote all the documents around it actually worked with the state at one point they had a different definition of what the high watermark was and property owners along Lake Michigan were concerned that this was a way for then their federal government could take more of their property they actually worked the feds did and changed it so it followed the Wisconsin DNR definition of high watermark so really there was no change but by that time I think unfortunately it had seen too much the Governor had gotten too much pressure for whatever reason canceled it so I'm happy to continue working on it but was in discussions with somebody to see if maybe legislation instead of the Governor having unilateral control over these things I'm an advocate for more the greater legislative process bringing the state legislatures into it so that's a long way of saying yes. Thank you for asking I was in an audience when you Mayor Van der Thien talked about how this could be an educational opportunity for the youth and I so thank you for that that's exactly what it can do and so much else I happen to be in Washington D.C. the day they announced that Scott Walker had a change of heart about that I was part of an environment group trying for GLRI funds Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funds that we still have to keep fighting for and then we were shocked all of us environmentalists to hear that he had changed his mind I mean he was one of the first people to sign it and promote it so I don't know the politics behind it I think yes we have to lobby for almost everybody is for it except for some I guess I would say extremist people who are scaring people about losing property rights and I'm so glad you supported too It's one o'clock so that's a cut out time Are you guys willing to stick around if anybody has any questions otherwise I know we want to give out some parting gifts