Michele Magadance Skinner’s latest argument in her campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Jeff Smith hinges on the hope that Chippewa Valley voters forget one glaring fact: Republicans have controlled the Wisconsin Legislature for the past 16 years.
Skinner, a former Eau Claire news anchor carrying the Republican flag for the 31st Senate District two years after losing an Assembly challenge to Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire), has made a years-long healthcare crisis central to her message, blaming Smith for earmarked state funding that was never put to use after the abrupt 2024 closure of Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls by Illinois-based Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS).
“That money should have been brought back right here to the communities most in crisis. Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls,” Magadance Skinner said over the summer in a press conference. “It doesn’t make sense that we were gonna hand it out to Western Wisconsin. The need was here. The need should have been addressed here. The money should have came [sic] here.”
But $15 million remained stuck in Madison, not because of Smith but because Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee refused to release it, even though it passed the Assembly and Senate and was signed by Gov. Tony Evers.
Money allocated, reallocated, and blocked
The HSHS announcement on Jan. 22, 2024 was a bombshell, with no inkling that the hospitals were in jeopardy until that day. When they closed on March 21, it abruptly limited healthcare options for tens of thousands of western Wisconsin residents and left at least 1,400 people out of work, with an untold number of additional ancillary job losses after the shuttering of a major employer and customer for the regional economy.
Lawmakers already had some funds tucked away that could go to work almost immediately with no new state spending needed. In the 2023 state budget, legislators had included $15 million to help Sacred Heart make capital improvements in its behavioral health department. The funding was expected to increase psychiatric mental health bed capacity in that part of the state. But the money had not yet been used.
Republicans put together legislation that reallocated the $15 million, but Smith noted that it came with tight restrictions. It could only be spent on capital expenditures for emergency departments. While the area had just lost two ERs, there were also needs in urgent care, wound care, obstetrics, behavioral health services, and oncology treatments. Plus, other hospitals in western Wisconsin could use the funds to provide services to people who otherwise had to travel farther to be seen in Eau Claire.
Evers used his partial veto authority at the request of local healthcare providers who asked for flexibility with the funds. Republicans claimed to be furious about the change but did not have the votes to override his veto. So when it came time for the funds to be released, the GOP leadership simply refused to act.
Evers tried to cajole the Republicans by calling a special session of the Joint Finance Committee for April 16. Republicans ignored it, as they had many other times by simply calling the special meeting to order and then immediately declaring it to be over.
Evers called another special session of the committee for May 6. Republicans ignored that one too.
They kept ignoring pleas for the money until Jun. 30, 2025 when they had successfully run out the clock on the area’s healthcare needs. That’s when the 2023 budget cycle finished and the $15 million reverted back to the state’s general fund, benefiting no patients or providers.
Nearly two and a half years later, Aspirus Health recently opened a new hospital in Chippewa Falls. And the Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative is operating the old St. Joseph’s building for oncology and wound care services, with a long-term plan to build a new hospital in Lake Hallie.
But the GOP’s decision to rub salt in a wound and refuse to release the $15 million for more than a year remains a contentious matter — even for Republicans feigning an inability to release the money they controlled.
Senate election could determine control
Democrats only need to pick up two seats currently held by Republicans in order to win a majority for the first time since the 2009-2010 session, but only if they hold all of their current districts, including Smith’s. The Town of Brunswick Democrat doesn’t mince words when setting the record straight on how the hospital funds were held up by Republicans, including outgoing Sen. Jesse James from the adjoining 23rd District — releasing a statement that also references Republicans’ refusal to fund a homeless veterans program at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls and Magadance Skinner’s controversial part-time residency in both Wisconsin and Georgia.
“Senator James has a well-documented record of failure on the HSHS and Klein Hall closures while in the majority of the state Senate. Magadance Skinner supported Medicaid cuts from her home in Georgia while folks here in the Chippewa Valley were continuing to pick up the pieces of the hospital closures,” Smith said. “We should expect our leaders to show up for our community and remain focused on lowering costs for families. We would be better off if Senator James and Michele Magadance offered solutions instead of the same tired excuses for Republican failures.”
Emerson also pointed to James’ inability to convince his fellow Republicans to release the funds.
“The Chippewa Valley delegation banded together to work for our constituents to do everything possible,” Emerson told UpNorthNews. “We came to an agreement. Sadly, Sen. James wasn’t able to get his caucus to agree on our deal. Jesse and Michele are using everything they can to make Jeff look like he didn’t do everything he could for healthcare in the Chippewa Valley when the exact opposite is true.”
For odd-numbered Senate districts, November’s election will be the first under new maps that ended a lengthy Republican gerrymander. The new 31st District encompasses Eau Claire County along with portions of Dunn, Chippewa, and Trempeauleau counties. The new map put Smith and James in the same district and the two were set to square off before James pulled out of the race in April.
