Dubuque legislative priorities include marijuana legalization, sales tax increase
Dubuque City Council members’ state legislative priorities for 2021 include support for marijuana legalization and an increased local option sales tax.
Council members last week voted, 7-0, to approve legislative priorities compiled by city staff with the help of partner organizations.
While city officials typically present these priorities to state lawmakers during an annual dinner, officials will discuss them with local legislators individually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, City Manager Mike Van Milligen said.
Among the dozens of legislative priorities approved by the council is legislation that would legalize marijuana or at least decriminalize marijuana use.
“We see it as an equity issue,” Van Milligen said. “It more unequally affects low-income and minority communities across the state.”
Another city priority supports allowing municipalities to increase their local option sales tax from 1% to 1.5%. Van Milligen said this increase would generate about $4 million in additional revenue annually for the city and would assist with property tax relief, street projects and maintenance of city facilities.
“We think those are things that are important to our community,” Van Milligen said. “We think it’s a good funding source to accommodate those things.”
Dubuque school board to discuss fully in-person learning
Dubuque Community Schools leaders on Monday, Jan. 11., will discuss how and when to return students to full-time, in-person learning.
Superintendent Stan Rheingans stated that while board members “may or may not” take action at that meeting, “it is important that the conversation occurs.” Students have been alternating remote and in-person attendance days due to the COVID-19 pandemic since the start of the school year.
From Aug. 28 to Tuesday, active, confirmed COVID-19 cases among students and staff remained below 1% of the about 8,000 students attending in-person or participating in school activities and the about 2,000 staff members, student teachers and contract employees working in buildings.
Officials also pulled data on the number of middle school students failing their first trimester in language arts, math and science by grade level.
In four cases — seventh-graders in language arts and science, sixth-graders in math and eighth-graders in science — the percentage of students failing was higher this year than the same period during the 2019-2020 school year. In five other cases, the percentage of students failing went down from last year to this year.
Rheingans said while he believes it is good for students to be in school, and children tend to have more mild COVID-19 symptoms, officials also have to think about the safety of their employees and how to operate schools if they become ill.
Dubuque County out of general assistance funds amid pandemic
Dubuque County’s fiscal year allocation for rent, utilities and burial financial assistance has been exhausted with six months left.
Resources Unite Executive Director Josh Jasper wrote a letter to the county Board of Supervisors last week confirming that his organization had distributed the $128,000 allocated for the current fiscal year, which runs through June 30.
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He asked for an additional $45,000 to cover the next three months.
Last month, Jasper asked county supervisors to allocate another $130,000 for the rest of fiscal year, anticipating that county funds would be depleted. He said at the time that the COVID-19 pandemic had greatly increased demand for general assistance. But board members wanted more information before allocating such a large sum.
In his letter this week, Jasper reported that 188 applications for general assistance support had been completed from July 1 to Dec. 7.
“As a comparison, 144 applications were completed during the entire previous fiscal year,” he wrote.
DOT unveils plans for major Grant County road project
PLATTEVILLE, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has unveiled plans for an at least $9 million highway project on a major Grant County corridor.
Officials plan to repave a nearly 15-mile stretch of Wisconsin 80 from the southern edge of Platteville to the Illinois border. They also plan to widen the highway’s shoulders and add guardrails, repair a bridge and culverts and construct roundabouts at intersections where frequent crashes have occurred.
A section of Wisconsin 80 between Cuba City and Hazel Green will be repaved and could begin this fall based on funding availability.
A leg between Cuba City and Platteville also is slated for reconstruction in 2023. Officials plan to replace the surface of a bridge on the southern edge of Platteville and reinforce areas where the bridge’s abutments have eroded.
Additionally, a single-lane roundabout is planned north of Cuba City at the intersection of Wisconsin 80 and Wisconsin 81.
The final portion of the project, which is scheduled to begin in 2024, includes a smaller roundabout in Hazel Green at the intersection of Wisconsin 11 and Wisconsin 80, along with road reconstruction south to the Illinois-Wisconsin border.
Pothoff joins Dubuque County Board of Supervisors
The Dubuque County Board of Supervisors opened the new year by welcoming a new member.
Harley Pothoff took his seat on the board for the first time at Monday’s meeting, held online. Pothoff bested Democrat Dave Baker in November’s election, becoming just the second Republican in 70 years to win a seat on the board.
During the meeting, the supervisors voted on the board’s leadership.
Supervisor Jay Wickham nominated Supervisor Ann McDonough, a fellow Democrat, to serve as the board’s chairwoman. That motion was approved.
McDonough then nominated Pothoff to be vice chairman, a motion that also was approved.
