Wisconsin suicide task force reverses course on proposal (UPDATE)

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By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A bipartisan Wisconsin legislative task force reversed course Wednesday by recommending the faster release of money for a suicide-prevention hotline after it had initially called on the Legislature to pass a bill to award the money, which would take much longer.

The fight over the $110,000 annual grant has broken down over partisan lines, even as Democrats and Republicans on the suicide-prevention task force managed to agree on various other recommendations meant to reduce the number of suicides in Wisconsin.

Democrats — including four who served on the task force — said the group’s recommendations weren’t meaningful because they didn’t include the adoption of a “red flag” law that would let judges temporarily take away firearms from people deemed to be suicidal or a risk to others.

Democrats argue keeping guns away from suicidal people would make it more difficult for them to kill themselves. Between 2013 and 2017, guns were used in 49% of Wisconsin suicides, according to the state Department of Health Services.

Republicans are opposed to the adoption of a “red flag” law, saying it would infringe on people’s Second Amendment rights.

“The bottom line is that indefensible adherence to extreme ideology on gun violence is a bigger priority for Republicans than reducing the number of suicides,” Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz said.

The fight over money for the suicide-prevention line angered Republican Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke.

“It doesn’t really surprise me anymore that Wisconsin Democrats take a bipartisan task force and utilize it for partisan purposes,” he said. “Instead of rallying around the things we agree on and moving most things forward, they choose to utilize this task force for partisan political purposes.”

The money was included in the state budget passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in July. It would help pay for the privately operated Suicide Hopeline, run by the nonprofit Center for Suicide Awareness based in Kaukauna, which is in Steineke’s district. It would provide immediate help to people who are emergency situations through the use of text messages.

Even though the grant money was in the state budget, it couldn’t be awarded without the Legislature’s GOP-controlled budget committee’s agreeing to release it.

Republican leaders refused to do that, saying they were waiting for recommendations from the task force called together by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

However, the recommendation as changed in the final report, which members of the task force presented at a news conference on Wednesday morning. The group is now asking for the budget committee to release the money, as Democrats had long called for.

Rep. Steve Doyle, the Democratic vice-chair of the task force, said the decision to change course was made on Tuesday. Steineke said the changes had been discussed for about a week. Republicans wanted to tie the release of the grant to new reporting requirements, which he said lawmakers initially thought could only be done by passing a bill. But Steineke said those requirements can be imposed by the budget committee when it releases the money.

The political fight over the grant money threatened to take attention away from other recommendations to spend roughly $1 million on suicide prevention in Wisconsin.

Other recommendations from the task force call for setting up a suicide-prevention program that would be housed at the Department of Health Services; spending $250,000 a year on grants to local government and private groups; and awarding $500,000 to high schools to support suicide-prevention programs.