18th Senate District

Includes most of Fond du Lac and Winnebago counties, including all of the 52nd, 53rd and 54th Assembly Districts.

Randy Hopper - Republican

Jessica King - Democrat

Question 1. Economic development professionals have long identified regulatory burdens as one of the challenges to attracting and retaining businesses in Wisconsin. In just the past few years, several thousand paper and other manufacturing jobs have left northeast Wisconsin for other states and other countries. What can the legislature do to make Wisconsin a more attractive place to do business, create jobs, and generate tax revenue for local government?

Hopper: To get our economy growing again our state needs less taxation, less regulation and less litigation.  We need tax incentives for business looking to expand and create new jobs here.  We need to streamline our regulatory environment so that businesses don’t waste millions of dollars trying to comply with every bureaucrats wish list.  And we need strong tort reform to ensure that overzealous trial attorneys aren’t able to shut down Wisconsin businesses just to line their own pockets.

King: It is imperative for the legislature to enable Wisconsin’s comparative advantage in the global economy by fostering a thriving local economy made up of small businesses, as an incubator for expansion to mid and large scale corporations. It is likely that the major corporations of this century are currently located in the business plans of local entrepreneurs or students. Wisconsin must encourage research and development of innovations in which Wisconsin has a strategic resource advantage. I also believe that Wisconsin can improve its comparative business advantage by improving the responsiveness of its state agencies. Unnecessary delays caused by government agencies are costly and economic opportunities can be missed as a result.

Property tax reform, along with increased shared revenue for defined mandates to local communities, will ensure that communities in the 18th district continue to receive high ratings by entities such as Expansion Management, an information source used by corporations nation-wide when determining relocation and expansion decisions.

Wisconsin prides itself on the development of its skilled workforce. We must continue to evaluate our workforce training and education models to ensure that Wisconsin’s workforce is prepared to meet the needs of the 21st century economy. Wisconsin must also continue to maintain its transportation infrastructure.


Question 2. More than ever before, local government officials are facing the dilemma of cutting jobs and services while still remaining under revenue caps. In recent years, state legislators have proposed various local government spending and taxing measures intended to hold down property taxes, including both the so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights and the Taxpayer Protection Amendment. As this crisis continues to become problematic, how should the legislature address local government taxing initiatives?

Hopper: Wisconsin’s problem is not that we tax too little, it’s that we spend too much.  We must get a handle on government overspending at both the state and local levels.  Too often our units of government are talking past one another, with the state handing down unfunded mandates and the local governments demanding more money.  This must end.  We need real unfunded mandate reform to ensure that the state isn’t adding to the local tax burden.  And we need a real property tax freeze so that local governments are forced to balance their budgets honestly, rather than just passing on the costs to overburdened taxpayers.

King: State Senators should advocate on behalf of their districts in order to sustain and grow the economy. State Senators should work in a collaborative fashion with local elected officials to ensure that communities are enabled to prosper rather than micro managed. Current and prospective business interests, along with residents would likely agree that the criteria for a prosperous community include: a high level of public safety, sound infrastructure, affordable housing, good public schools, peace of mind, clean air and water, and a balanced standard of living. I believe that local communities and their elected officials are in the best position to assess their particular community needs and  budget accordingly. I will work to enable collaboration between local government units to promote the regionalization of services where practical.

The true challenge is the state legislature’s creation of unfunded mandates. Few of the mandates local communities are called upon to implement can trace their origins back to the original function of Wisconsin’s property tax system. Elected officials in Madison can continue to tout that they will hold the line on taxes, but they are the ones passing burdens on to homeowners. If the legislature is going to provide a mandate to local communities it should also be held accountable for articulating a funding source. Mechanisms like the Taxpayer Protection Amendment suggest that the blame for high property taxes rests with local elected officials when the true responsibility rests with the unfunded mandate creator, the state legislature.


Question 3. In recent years, statewide health care initiatives such as Healthy Wisconsin have expanded the debate about the role government should take toward insuring and taking care of the health of our residents. What role do you believe the legislature has in making health care more affordable and accessible to Wisconsin residents?

Hopper: Socialized government-run health care plans are a disaster for employers and families.  The plans being proposed by Democrats in Madison would take away our families’ employer-provided health care and replace it with a government-run program.  This is just plain wrong.  Government bureaucrats have no business making our health care decisions for us and I will never vote to give them that power.

I believe government must force greater accountability and disclosure on health care providers so that we can all be more informed consumers.  Informed consumers make informed cost decisions and will force providers to compete for lower costs and higher quality.

I also believe that individuals should be allowed to get the same tax benefits that businesses do when they pay for their own health care.  For this reason, I support eliminating state taxes on Health Savings Accounts.

King: I believe that Wisconsin residents deserve security in their access to health care and prescriptions. I know that many businesses have experienced increases up to 29% in insurance premiums last year alone. More employers have dropped coverage as they are unable to maintain health insurance as an employee benefit. This means that more individuals and families are resorting to individual policies and health savings accounts to access healthcare. As this trend continues it is important that Wisconsin’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance is prepared to investigate allegations of wrongful claim denials, along with predatory underwriting and coverage exclusion practices. There should be transparency in insurance coverage. Too often people are informed after treatment that the policy they depended on has been retroactively cancelled or that the treatment was not covered.

Wisconsin is one of eight states that do not currently have mental health coverage parity. Current state law indicates that insurance policies need not exceed $7,000 in total coverage for inpatient, outpatient, and transitional services for treatment of mental illness. The National Institute of on Mental Health and Mental Health America indicate that one in five Wisconsinites, including children, will be affected by a mental illness this year. Nearly two-thirds of those with a diagnosable mental disorder do not get treatment. Their statistics indicate that suicide is the second leading cause of death for Wisconsinites aged 15-34, with 90 percent of persons who complete suicide had a mental illness or substance abuse disorder. It’s time for mental health coverage parity.


Question 4. Wisconsin and the nation as a whole are on the front end of an energy crisis prompted by high fuel prices and a number of aged and outdated energy generation and petroleum processing facilities operating near capacity. What can the legislature do to further promote energy efficiency and to encourage additional, cleaner energy production?

Hopper: First, Wisconsin must be a leader in developing alternative fuels.  I support lifting the moratorium on nuclear power facilities in our state so we can begin to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.  In the meantime, we must also increase our refining capacity by supporting refineries in our state that want to expand.  In our energy crisis, there is no silver bullet, but through a combination of measures such as these, we can begin to lower demand for petroleum fuels and lower prices.

King: Two-thirds of the $15 billion Wisconsin businesses spend each year related to energy consumption exits the state with no further economic benefit to Wisconsin.  Money spent for energy produced from Wisconsin resources stays in the state and boosts the economy. 

A 20-member Wisconsin consortium focused on bio-based industry issued its report, The Renewable Energy Policy Projects Study, which identified opportunities for Wisconsin businesses to expand their role in the “bioeconomy”. According to the report, Wisconsin’s commitment to renewables would place our state fourth in the nation in terms of job creation and fifth in terms of total investment among all states. 

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center is based at UW Madison and Michigan State Universities.  Wisconsin is uniquely positioned because of our natural resources and proximity to ground breaking academic research on the development of alternative fuels derived from a biological source, including: anaerobic digesters (methane) –farm waste, waste water treatment (methane, hydrogen, electricity), and wood or palletized biomass.
Wisconsin is rich in biomass waste from the paper industry, cheese industry, and farm industry.

There are major Federal initiatives that include tax incentives and funding for biofuels.  Wisconsin should be taking advantage of federal tax incentives for the production of cellulosic biofuel, small ethanol producer credits, biodiesel tax credits, small agri-biodiesel producer credits, and renewable diesel tax credits.  These incentives offer an opportunity for small business to get into the market.  There are also Federal grants, biorefinery assistance, and biomass assistance funding, which may include matching funds for Wisconsin business.