State Senate Democratic Committee: On ‘Drive It Home with Patti Vasquez,’ Trevor Jung discusses cutting costs for Wisconsin families

MADISON, WI – Yesterday, Trevor Jung, candidate for the 21st Senate District, appeared on “Drive It Home with Patti Vasquez” to discuss his vision for a Wisconsin where families can get ahead. He spoke about conversations he’s had with residents across the district, noting that he consistently hears that rising property taxes, utility rates, and healthcare costs must be addressed urgently. For Jung, that means ensuring Wisconsin families aren’t competing with hedge funds to purchase single-family homes, tackling prescription drug prices, and ensuring that Wisconsin families aren’t left to foot the bill for major utility and data center projects.

Trevor Jung on “Drive It Home With Patti Vasquez”:

“What I witnessed in a front-row seat as an elected official at the local level is that instead of the state being an ally in making sure that we’re able to keep the streets safe, provide basic city services, and make sure that we were responsive to the needs of folks in Racine, they were an adversary.”

“Year over year, Republicans in the state legislature slashed the shared revenue, which is the program that helps fund the local government and keep property taxes low, and with the slashing of that program we saw very difficult decisions made at the local level because of limited resources that were totally manufactured by the republican majorities in the Wisconsin state legislature.”

“So any time they talk about supporting local police or firefighters, I know firsthand that is not the case because of the austerity that we saw coming out of Madison”.

“As an elected official at the local level, my job was to be responsive to the needs of constituents, whether they called me about garbage pick-ups or snow removal, and those basic services were at risk because of the dramatic abandonment that the Capitol showed cities like mine in southeastern Wisconsin.”

“What you’re seeing in Milwaukee are the risks of cutting 25% of service, and communities all across Racine, even small rural transit systems, have shuttered their doors. You know what that means? That means people aren’t able to get to the pharmacist or the doctor; that means people aren’t able to get to school; that means people aren’t able to visit their family, and it really takes away social mobility and economic mobility when we’re not providing this basic function.”

“Whether it’s education which has seen cuts, or it’s transit which has seen cuts, or it’s local governments which have seen cuts, that is making Wisconsin less competitive, that is shrinking our economy, and that is hurting working families.”

“Expanding BadgerCare, or investing in public education, making sure we don’t have to raise property taxes at the local level, to maintain a certain standard and safe building that has air conditioning and doesn’t have asbestos, this is the stuff we have to be focused on and not ideological about.”

“…we can invest in special education and expand the reimbursement rate; we can expand BadgerCare and make sure that more folks have access to quality healthcare. That’s our job, you know. Hubert Humphrey once said, ‘You judge the quality of a society by how it treats people at the dawn of life, our children; at the dusk of life, our elderly; and in the shadow of life, the sick and poor’. And if we aren’t able to do our job to make sure that we can be a state people are proud to call home, we need to step up, which is why I decided to run for this office.”