MADISON, Wis. — On Friday, State Representative Deb Andraca, State Senate candidate Jodi Habush Sinykin and Assembly candidate Dana Glasstein held a town hall in Cedarburg encouraging Wisconsinites to vote ‘NO’ on the two constitutional amendment questions appearing on the August 13 primary ballot.

Speakers discussed how these amendments were written by Republicans to intentionally mislead voters. They highlighted the ways in which Governor Evers was able to uplift communities across the states by swiftly allocating federal funds to invest in PFA mitigation, small businesses, conservation efforts, and child care. In their response to audience questions, the speakers shared that Wisconsin’s legislature has been one of the least productive legislatures in the country and is too dysfunctional to be given sole power over federal funds.

Watch the town hall and see what speakers had to say, in part:

State Representative Deb Andraca: “As a member of the Joint Finance Committee, we’ve seen over and over that when there’s an opportunity the current legislature wants to obstruct … We have the hospital funding for hospitals out west. We have state funding going to hospitals also stuck in [the] Joint Finance Committee, money for PFAs to have Wisconsinites who have PFAs in their drinking water also being held up.”

State Senate candidate Jodi Habush Sinykin: “These amendments were written to be intentionally confusing and to prevent Governor Evers and future governors from being able to provide help to communities in times of crisis. For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Governor Evers was able to distribute federal funds from the American rescue plan act ARPA to help communities remove dangerous PFAs or forever chemicals from their water and to support senior living facilities. For example, in Ozaukee County, Capri senior communities in Grafton received over $900,000 of ARPA funds to increase pay and expand benefits for caregivers.  This, in turn, helped caregivers stave off burn out, while increasing the health and well being of the seniors in their care.”

Assembly candidate Dana Glasstein: “[These are] stunning statistics of how much these ARPA funds [have] helped our community: a total of $13,500,000 were divided up, and small businesses alone received $11,000,500. That was 71,727 unique businesses that were able to receive these funds, $732,000 for restaurants in our community. Farms received $273,000, so very significant amounts of money, that were helpful and able to go into our community as a result of Governor Evers being able to distribute these emergency funds [that are] so extremely important. Even this week, our local Ozaukee press editorial board spoke out and asked readership to Vote NO on these constitutional amendments, because our legislature cannot be trusted to make the right decisions and support emergency funds.”