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Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District

Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District

State Senator Patty Schachtner represents Wisconsin’s tenth senate district. The district covers parts of Burnett, Dunn, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix counties. She serves as the chief medical examiner for St. Croix County and has investigated deaths by suicide. She is a gun owner and practices safe gun storage methods.

Clean Water a Deliberate Policy Choice

Posted by Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District
Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District
State Senator Patty Schachtner represents Wisconsin’s tenth senate district. The
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 10 August 2019
in Wisconsin

clean-drinking-waterState Senator Patty Schachtner examines clean drinking water and it's effect upon healthy communities, our economy, and our Wisconsin way of life.


MADISON - In past years, the safety of our drinking water has come to the forefront of Wisconsin’s political landscape. Extensive studies have shown not only the scale, but the drastic health consequences contaminated water has on our communities.

Contaminants like nitrates and bacteria have been linked to blue baby syndrome, thyroid disease, and some cancers, harming our rural communities. Meanwhile, lead continues to poison children statewide.

In Kewaunee County, 60 percent of sampled wells were contaminated with fecal microbes, leading one of the researchers to proclaim that the water resembled a “fecal soup.” A 2019 study found that 42 percent of sampled wells in southwest Wisconsin contained contaminants that exceeded federal health standards.

We didn’t get here overnight. Budget cuts, along with a deregulatory culture and political interference across multiple agencies, have significantly impacted the way Wisconsin protects its water. To understand the current state of our water, we must look at the deliberate policy choices made in the past.

A chronological analysis details a systematic dismantling of the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In 2011, environmental inspections of large farms fell by 46 percent while permit violation notices hit a 12-year low. Meanwhile, DNR experienced the highest vacancy rate in 14 years.

Just three years later, a judge declared a “massive regulatory failure” was behind extensive groundwater contamination in Kewaunee County. The judge also indicated that the agency failed to use existing law to address the situation.

patty-schachtnerDespite concerns from impacted communities, environmental organizations, and the EPA, the previous administration continued to reduce the enforcement capabilities of key agencies. Over the course of three budgets passed by former governor Scott Walker and legislative Republicans, DNR saw their budget slashed by $59 million and close to 200 positions eliminated.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under former attorney general Brad Schimel saw fines paid by Wisconsin polluters fall to 30-year lows in 2015. The former attorney general also wrote an opinion claiming the DNR went too far in protecting water in 2016. During the same time period, he demoted the long-standing director of DOJ’s environmental protection unit and shrunk the unit to its smallest size in 25 years.

Clean water is essential to healthy communities, our economy, and our Wisconsin way of life. Governor Tony Evers understands this, and that’s why he has declared 2019 the Year of Clean Drinking Water and August as National Water Quality Month. It’s also why he invested additional resources to address water pollution, contaminated wells, and lead pipe replacement.

Clean water is a health issue. It is an economic issue. It is a moral issue. It’s time we connect the dots and ensure that future generations can enjoy safe, clean water.

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Happy Birthday, Medicare and Medicaid!

Posted by Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District
Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District
State Senator Patty Schachtner represents Wisconsin’s tenth senate district. The
User is currently offline
on Friday, 27 July 2018
in Wisconsin

medicare-patientNorthwestern Wisconsin's new Senator Patty Schachtner talks about these crucial health care coverage programs and how we need to expand access to them.


SOMERSET, WI - Medicare and Medicaid will celebrate their 53rd birthday on July 30. Since the programs’ inception, millions of elderly, low-income, and disabled Americans have benefited from crucial health care coverage. This coverage helps individuals afford hospital stays, fill prescription drugs, and access preventative care.

The proposals, packaged together under the Social Security Amendments of 1965, were signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in Independence, Missouri. The concept was simple: people would contribute during their working years and insure themselves against health ailments during old age or poverty.

At the time, more than 18 million Americans were age 65 or older, and about a third of all seniors lived in poverty. Many seniors feared that medical expenses would wipe out saving and limited incomes, and almost half of Americans aged 65 and older had no health insurance.

During the bill signing, President Johnson detested the “injustice which denies the miracle of healing to the old and to the poor.” The 1965 proposals were to end this perceived injustice, and strengthen the health and economic status of millions of vulnerable Americans.

patty-schachtnerBy the end of 1966, 24 million Americans were insured by Medicare and Medicaid. The programs marked an era of healthier communities and increased financial independence. Just ten years after the 1965 Act, Medicare and Medicaid helped cut the poverty rate among seniors by 47.4 percent.

Despite the success of the programs, federal and state officials have sought to reduce access to health care coverage. The House Republican budget offered this June would cut funding for Medicare by $537 billion. It would also shuffle Medicare enrollees toward a “voucher system” to purchase private insurance. Medicaid and other affiliated programs would be cut by $1.5 trillion, and recipients would have to jump through new bureaucratic barriers.

At the state level, a refusal to expand Medicaid – as 32 states have already done – has cost state taxpayers $190 million a year, $1.07 billion in total, all while covering fewer individuals. This is in addition to Governor Walker’s 2013 decision to reduce income eligibility limits for Medicaid, which resulted in 63,000 Wisconsinites losing their Medicaid coverage.

Instead of making it harder for individuals to receive health care – and live independent lives – we need to expand access to it. That means protecting Medicare and Medicaid this birthday and beyond.

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Suicide: A Tale of Access

Posted by Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District
Patty Schachtner, State Senator 10th District
State Senator Patty Schachtner represents Wisconsin’s tenth senate district. The
User is currently offline
on Friday, 22 June 2018
in Wisconsin

suicidebygunEase of access to firearms contributes to suicide risk, as does lack of access to mental health resources in many communities. We can reduce the suicide rate, but we must recognize it is an epidemic driven in part by systemic, policy decisions.


SOMERSET, WI - Suicide has touched communities across the nation. The deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain – like all deaths from suicide – are tragic. While tragic, their deaths refocused the national attention on what is a growing suicide epidemic.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that suicide rates in the United States increased by 25 percent between 1996 and 2016.

Behind these numbers are lives. Stories that were cut short. Suicide is also a story - but one of access: ease of access to firearms and lack of access to mental health resources.

More than half of all people who die by suicide use a firearm – the most lethal method for suicide. Wisconsin’s rate is even higher - nearly three in four who die by suicide use a firearm. Close to 85 percent of suicide attempts by firearm are fatal. In contrast, five percent of people who attempt suicide through other widely-used methods die.

A suicide attempt by firearm is near-instant. There is not the same level of planning required compared to other methods, meaning there is less time for people to reconsider or seek help during an attempt.

The time between suicidal thoughts and a suicide attempt is important because of how it relates to impulsivity. A 2001 study regarding suicide attempts and impulsivity found that 70 percent of people spent less than one hour between considering suicide and committing an attempt; 24 percent said less than five minutes. Not having a firearm can reduce the effects of impulsivity, and in turn, reduce the number of suicide attempts among individuals who are in that mental state.

patty-schachtnerEase of access to firearms can also contribute to elevated suicide risk. Most notably, this includes unsecured storage of firearms at home. Researchers found that gun owners who practiced safe storage of firearms at home were 60 percent less likely to die from a firearm-related suicide, relative to gun owners who did not safely store their firearm.

Unsecured storage of firearms has implications for children too. In 2016, 633 children committed suicide with a firearm. Many of these children found the firearm at home: unlocked, easily accessible, and loaded.

Compounding this problem is the lack of access to mental health resources in many communities. In Wisconsin, 46 of its 72 counties contain federally-designated mental health professional shortage areas. Mental health shortages make it difficult for individuals contemplating suicide to seek professional help. It also makes it more difficult for individuals with a mental illness, who are at greater risk of suicide, to receive care.

Rising suicide rates are an epidemic, and it is an epidemic driven in part by systemic, policy decisions.

Wisconsin’s suicide rate has been higher than the national average for all but one year between 2008 and 2018. We can reduce the suicide rate, but we need to have real conversations about where we are and where we want to be.

*****

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK [8255]. Trained counselors are available 24/7.

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