Fitzgerald Re-Elected As Senate Majority Leader

Republicans in the State Senate re-elected Scott Fitzgerald as their majority leader for the upcoming legislative session on Thursday.

Fitzgerald has led Senate Republicans since 2006, and first became majority leader after his party won control of the chamber in 2010. In the past, he’s overseen a caucus split between conservatives and moderate senators. But now several moderates are retiring, and more conservative politicians have been elected to replace them.

Fitzgerald told reporters on Thursday that will change the dynamic of the Senate.

“I mean, it’s a pretty conservative caucus we have right now and I think because of that, you’ll continue to see us look for reforms — to make changes in Wisconsin to get the state in a better position in many different ways,” said Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said that one of his priorities next year will be some kind of tax cut, with an emphasis on property taxes.

“Just coming off the campaign trail, it’s still something that people bring up all the time, is just ‘Property taxes are too high’,” said Fitzgerald. “And even though they’ve been stabilized, it seems like it’s still something on peoples’ minds.”

The last estimates by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau showed the state budget headed toward deficit in the current fiscal year. Fitzgerald said he’s confident an uptick in revenue will take care of that.

Fitzgerald said he also wants to change the makeup of state’s elections agency, where decisions are currently made by six retired judges.

“I wouldn’t rule out the idea of going back to what we had before, which was appointees from the governor and from the Legislature,” said Fitzgerald. “People could criticize the old format because it was partisan, but the fact of the matter was, it brought balance.”

The difference is that in the past those appointees were typically from both parties because Wisconsin government usually divided. That’s not the case now, with Republicans running all branches of government.

Also joining Fitzgerald in the Senate’s leadership team is Mary Lazich, a conservative senator from the southeastern Wisconsin city of New Berlin. Lazich’s colleagues elected her as Senate president, making her the first woman to ever hold the position.

While the majority leader sets the Senate’s agenda, the president is responsible for overseeing the chamber’s debate.