The state Legislature is a critical element of advancing positive lake initiatives. The Legislature can fund important lake programs, listen to constituents concerns about lake matters, and consider a wide variety of bills every legislative session, some of which may have positive or negative consequences for lakes.
Theseries of steps a bill must go through before it can become law is called the legislative process. The Wisconsin Association of Lakes watches many lake-related bills each session on lake policy issues such as aquatic invasive species, polluted runoff, shorelands, groundwater, and other lake related bills. We also keep members informed about opportunities to participate in the policy making process through action alerts.
One of the most important functions done is to figure out how to spend the taxpayer’s money for public services. Ultimately, the state budget is one of the most important pieces of legislation for our natural resources every two year legislative session. After all, you can have great laws, but if there is no money to fund their implementation (or enforcement) they're on the books, but not much gets done “on the ground.”
Another key function of the legislature is to represent the interests of their constituents while ensuring that decisions are in the state/public’s best interests. There is a constant need for the entire legislative body to check and balance public welfare/public good with individual rights and wants. Just because a lot of people think something is a good idea doesn’t make it so. Conversely, there may be some ideas that are not widely popular (or even unpopular) that very well may be in everyone’s best interest. The will of the people and the needs of the people must both be met.
The state legislature is made up of two legislative bodies, the Wisconsin State Assembly (99 districts, see map lower right) and the Wisconsin State Senate (33 districts, map lower left). Every Wisconsin citizen is represented by a state Senator and a state Representative You can look up who represents you on the Wisconsin State Legislature website.
The Legislature serves as the state’s “reviser of statutes.” Very few laws exist in perpetuity without change. Sometimes new issues come up that are not addressed in the statutes. What legislator in the 1970s would have had internet regulation or identity theft on their radar? Sometimes the legislature modifies existing laws to reflect new ideas or needs; sometimes it may have to create new laws.
Sometimes the public’s values or needs change. Water law is a good example. In the 1840’s, it was very important to protect Wisconsin citizen’s right to navigate. Our expansive river system was a huge asset to transport goods and people. Including the Public Trust Doctrine within our constitution and declaring all navigable waters “common highways and forever free” ensured that Wisconsin waters belong to the public and Wisconsin citizens can use them. Over time we have come to value our waters in many ways beyond navigation; and court cases and legislation have expanded protection for rivers, lakes, shorelands, wetlands, and given citizens parameters for how they use public waters as private citizens.
The Legislature serves as a “check and balance” on the other arms of government (Executive branch and Judicial branch), and on itself (Senate and Assembly).
The legislative process requires many steps before an idea becomes law. In order for any bill to become a law, the bill must move through all the steps in both the state Senate and Assembly, and both houses must agree on the language of the bill. This need for consensus means that neither the Senate nor Assembly can act independently; they need each other's approval to get bills passed.
The Executive branch (Governor's office) can choose to sign bills that have passed both houses into law or veto the bill (in the case of an appropriations bill, the Governor may veto parts of the bill). The Legislature has the ability to override the Governor's veto if two-thirds of the Legislators in each house vote to do so. The Executive office also proposes their version of the state budget to the legislature in the biennial budget process. The legislature can consider the Governor's budget (add or delete elements of the budget, or develop their own ideas), as part of their biennial budget bill. These mechanisms keep the powers of the Executive branch in check.
The Judicial branch (Court system) rules on court cases. Court cases ask judges to offer legal opinions on how current law may be interpreted, and sometimes whether a current law is complimentary to other related laws and/or in accordance with Wisconsin's Constitution. The state legislature has the ability to modify statutes (through the legislative process), so when courts rule the legislature can respond by clarifying or revising statutory language.
