May 12, 2023

By Lane Kimble

State Senator Mary Felzkowski appreciates the symbiotic relationship between lawmakers and our contractors.

“Transportation… the people that have the businesses in there, they’re our partners. We want our roads in good shape and they want the jobs to build the roads because they have the employees. It makes Wisconsin go ‘round,” Felzkowski told WTBA in her office this year.

Felzkowski (R-Irma) is in the midst of her fourth stint on the Joint Finance Committee (two of those terms came when she was in the Assembly) and working through the 2023-25 state budget.

She serves the 12th Senate District – a large area that includes 12 counties and communities such as Rhinelander, Tomahawk, and Merrill. But Felzkowski knows her district’s geographic size doesn’t always mean it gets the attention it should.

“My voice needs to be a little bit larger and a little harsher and a little bit more vocal, and you have that opportunity on Joint Finance so that the rural areas, and especially northern Wisconsin, doesn’t get lost,” Felzkowski told WTBA.

Felzkowski had a lot to tell us about where transportation investments should go and how to best spend the state’s projected $7 billion surplus.

Find out in this week’s “Building the Budget,” via the video link above.