USS Beloit combat ship docked in Milwaukee harbor
The USS Beloit combat ship arrived Sunday night and is docked at Veterans Park. The ship will be commissioned for active service on Saturday.
- Other states and the federal government close buildings and provide paid holidays to government workers on Nov. 11.
- The bill would move Nov. 11 to paid holiday status and subtract a floating holiday.
- It would be up to each school district’s policy whether to have classes on the state holiday.
- For more than a decade, veterans like Bill Ridgely have pushed for the law.
Wisconsin state statutes classify Veterans Day as a legal holiday. The governor routinely issues proclamations recognizing Nov. 11 as Veterans Day. And public schools in the state are legally required to observe it.
So why doesn’t Wisconsin treat Veterans Day as a day off for state employees, schools and government buildings — a practice followed by every other state and the federal government?
In recent years, and even as far back as 1963, lawmakers in the state Capitol have tried to change that. But it’s never become law, much to the confusion and disappointment of veterans’ organizations.
First-year state Rep. Maureen McCarville, who served as a medic and records specialist in the Wisconsin Army National Guard, is bringing the effort back to the forefront.
“There’s so many (service members) who don’t make it back,” said McCarville, a Democrat from DeForest. “To come home and not have your own state where you live recognize that, it’s just disgraceful.”
Bill Ridgely, a Vietnam War veteran and Judge Advocate of DeForest American Legion Post 348, first discovered Wisconsin’s outlier status while writing a column for the DeForest Times-Tribune 10 years ago.
He’s been pushing for the law ever since.
“I’m somewhat embarrassed that my state is the only state in the nation that has not seen (it) fit to make it an official state holiday,” Ridgely said. “I’m 80 years old, and if it doesn’t happen pretty soon, who knows if I’ll ever see it?”
Wisconsin provides floating holiday for Veterans Day, but not paid day off
The legislation would close state offices and move Nov. 11 to paid holiday status for state government employees. It wouldn’t require private employers to provide a day off.
State employees get nine paid holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.
State law provides 3½ days of floating holidays, “plus one additional paid personal holiday each calendar year in recognition of Veterans Day.” That floating holiday would go away under the bill.
The same bill was introduced in 2023 with bipartisan support but never advanced. A 2017 version passed the state Senate but never got a vote in the Assembly.
Lawmakers have thought about making the change as far back as 1963, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.
Why it hasn’t passed isn’t clear, though Ridgely said a state representative once told him veterans service organizations didn’t come out strongly enough in support of it.
“Some of it’s by training, but the type of people that the military can attract, they’re not going to get up on a podium and go, ‘Give me my day,'” McCarville said. “They’re always quietly hopeful.”
In a fiscal estimate last year, the state Department of Administration projected no overall impact on workload — since one floating holiday would be eliminated — and time-and-a-half costs for essential employees would total less than $1 million.
If the bill advances this time around, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would likely make it law.
Evers recommended making Veterans Day and Juneteenth paid holidays in the state budget, but those were among the hundreds of items Republican lawmakers removed when they began rewriting the two-year spending plan.
McCarville said Democrats and Republicans have signed up to cosponsor the bill, and she hopes to get a public hearing by Veterans Day. But the big challenge will be getting it to the Senate and Assembly floor for votes.
Veterans Day off could mean schools close, events easier to attend
Tim Wendt recently posed a question to fellow veterans he knows: Is Wisconsin actually doing it right by not making Nov. 11 a state holiday?
Wendt, who has leadership roles in AMVETS and the southeastern Wisconsin chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, recalled speaking at his former high school on Veterans Day and worries that won’t happen if schools close for the day.
“I think we’re going to lose a great opportunity to share at least one day with the kids that may or may not ever know anything about veterans,” he said.
The bill wouldn’t mandate school districts close for the day. Similar to other states, school districts make their own schedules but usually follow state-recognized holidays as days off, McCarville’s office said.
While some state employees may attend events on Veterans Day to pause and reflect, Wendt thinks others take paid holidays for granted without thinking about what they’re for.
If people have a day off, it might encourage visits to parks and venues like the War Memorial Center, said Co Nguyen, the center’s president and CEO.
The War Memorial Center, which hosts Veterans Day events like a 5K and annual dinner, is about halfway to its $18 million fundraising goal to secure its future along Lake Michigan as county funding fades out.
“From my perspective — I’m a veteran — I would feel honored that the state is recognizing, finally, the sacrifices that are made,” Nguyen said. “Why not, is my question for the state.”
With a day off, families could acknowledge loved ones who served, McCarville said. Two uncles in her large military family were killed — one in World War II and the other in the Korean War.
“In this country, we wake up every day, and there’s a lot of things we take for granted,” she said. “So, it’s a small thing to return that respect back.”
Hope Karnopp can be reached at HKarnopp@gannett.com.
