A bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill at the Capitol Wednesday that would increase cigarette taxes by $1, from 77 cents to $1.77 per pack.
Lawmakers had been considering the legislation for weeks. Most of the more than $300 million of additional revenue that would be generated per year would go to offsetting Medicaid deficits, while some would be set aside for tobacco-use prevention, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday.
Proponents of the bill, including both Democrats and Republicans, are urging their fellow lawmakers to consider the tax as a \co-pay"" for smokers, as smoking-related illnesses take up 15 percent of Medicaid's yearly $4.2 billion budget.
Wisconsin could be moving toward more restrictive laws for pseudoephedrines, such as common cold medications. Representatives of the state Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Wednesday debated legislation aimed at curbing the state's burgeoning problems controlling methamphetamines.
Specifically, the proposed law would limit the amount of non-liquid or non-gelatin pills where pseudoephedrine is the active ingredient to nine grams per day, and requires pharmacists to see photo ID before selling it.
The bill also would impose tougher ""three strikes"" punishments for people arrested for possessing or intending to deliver meth.
In a protest organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, UW-Madison students, including one who donned a pig costume, gathered on Library Mall Wednesday to protest the impending Taser testing.
Professor John Webster will run the experiment, which will test the effects of administering Taser shocks to pigs.
""No amount of animal tests will make Tasers safe for people,"" said Laura Yanne, Special Assistant to the Director of Research for PETA.
Present at the event was Professor Terry Young, who previously withdrew from a separate study she planned with Webster to protest the planned animal testing.
A nine-story $11 million high-rise apartment complex complete with 40 living units, a state-of-the-art fitness center, various businesses and a parking ramp could soon tower over the 400 block of W. Washington Ave, according to Madison.com.
Developer Eric Minton, who currently owns two Capitol Fitness centers, proposed plans for the structure at a Bassett neighborhood meeting on Wednesday.
