Taylor appointed co-chair of budget committee

State Capitol, Madison

MADISON (AP) — Milwaukee Sen. Lena Taylor will serve as co-chair of the Legislature’s powerful budget committee now that Democrats have majority control in the Senate.

Her appointment was announced Tuesday, July 17th minutes before the Senate was to meet for the first time with Democrats in the majority following the recall victory of Sen. John Lehman of Racine.

That win, confirmed through a recount, gives Democrats a 17-16 edge.

It also means that Democrats control Senate committees for at least the remainder of the year.

New Senate Majority Leader Mark Miller announced that Taylor gets the coveted Joint Finance Committee co-chair slot.

Lehman, and Sen. Chris Larson of Milwaukee were also named to the committee, which isn’t scheduled to meet this year but likely will to handle emergency funding requests and other issues.

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