We need these law enforcement officials focused on making our streets safe, not lining them with campaign signs.
And we will do more to fight drugs, keep sexual predators away from our children, and protect our victims of crime.
This budget restores to our Justice Department more than $1.7 million and 27 positions for combating drugs that were cut by the federal government. It also gives DOJ an additional attorney to fight appeals by criminals committed under our highly successful sexual predator program.
We provide more than $2.5 million to local communities for services to crime and sexual assault victims. And we provide money for eight additional domestic abuse shelters in underserved areas, ensuring battered women and their children have a safe place to turn.
From sentencing to incarceration to rehabilitation, we are building a balanced new system that is more strict, more determinate and more clear cut.
History will mark today as the beginning of the restoration of the people's faith in our justice system.
America's safest state will be even safer as we move into the next century.
Summary:
There you have it. A balanced budget that meets the challenge of preparing America's State for a new century.
This budget builds stronger schools, better businesses, more jobs, thriving farms, a sustainable environment, healthier families and safer neighborhoods.
It is a budget that shuns the status quo and aggressively seeks greater success. A blueprint for building a great new house for a new generation.
And as we build this new house, let us do so together. Don't let those Rippin Good cookies crumble.
We will have differences, but we must work them out. Let us make this budget debate about ideas, not personalities and partisan politics. And let us be guided by the goal of doing the people's work, not our own.
Cardinal Bernadin, my dear friend who showed the world how to find consensus where there appeared to be none, said this: ";We should maintain and clearly articulate our convictions but also maintain our civil courtesy. We should be vigorous in stating a case and attentive in hearing another's case; we should test everyone's logic but not question his or her motives.";
Let us work together so that, four score and seven years from now, a new generation will look back upon this time with gratitude and pride, knowing they have inherited from us a strong and bold Wisconsin, and drawing from us the inspiration to do the same for the next generation.
Thank you and God Bless Wisconsin.
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Adjourned.
5:05 P.M.
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Senate Enrolled Proposals
The Chief Clerk records:
Senate Joint Resolution 1
Report correctly enrolled on February 5, 1997.
Chief Clerk's Report
The Chief Clerk records:
Senate Joint Resolution 1
Deposited in the office of the Secretary of State on February 12, 1997.
