Bill disenfranchises voters
of Appleton
Lawmakers blow smoke at local officials"The lipstick is off the pig," said Paul Uebelher
of Smokefree Wisconsin after legislators unveiled a package that would replace the teeth
in a proposed statewide workplace smoking ban with a set of ill-fitting dentures.
Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna told senators
Wednesday he voted to break an 8-8 tie in the Appleton City Council to defeat a 100%
workplace smoking ban ordinance. Then democracy reared its head in Appleton.
Supporters of a ban collected the necessary signatures to
put a 100% workplace ban on the ballot, there was a tremendous amount of public discussion
and voters approved the ordinance 57% to 42%, Mayor Hanna said.
| "This was a spring election," the
mayor added. "If you were standing for election, and the results were you won by 57%
with just under a 50% turnout, would you feel pretty good about that?" In the Assembly, lawmakers substituted their judgment for the will
of the voters in Appleton on a 48-45 vote. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said
the bill would effectively repeal 21 local and county ordinances across Wisconsin. Story here.
"I'm here representing 72,000 people in the city of
Appleton who took it upon themselves to use the democratic process to put this in
place," Mayor Hanna said.
"The state’s a little late to the game. The
legislation before you today is reactionary," he told the Senate Job Creation,
Economic Development and Consumer Affairs committee at a public hearing in Madison.
He said he was proud of Appleton’s businesses for
accommodating the wishes of their customers and working with city government to make the
ordinance work. |
Mayor Hanna
|
Assembly Bill 414, the so-called "smoke-free dining
bill," originally provided for smoke free restaurants statewide based on alcohol
sales and seating capacity. Under the amended version of the bill, any restaurant can
allow smoking so long as it has a separate ventilation system for the smoking area, with
no requirements for walls or doors. Alcohol sales will no longer be a factor in whether
smoking should be allowed.
The bill would overturn existing ordinances in Appleton
and other Wisconsin cities, and prevents cities from passing stronger ordinances or
ordinances that cover non-restaurant locations like municipal buildings.
"Essentially, AB 414 is now little more than a local
clean indoor air preemption bill," said Jill Ness, deputy director
of Smokefree Wisconsin. |
Money-Back Guarantee
for Campaign Donors?
Panel fails to consider recycling aid increasesFaced with the choice of giving money to the garbage industry or
increasing recycling grants to local government, what did the Legislature's Joint Finance
Committee do? Silly question. The committee voted to reduce the "tipping
fee" that garbage haulers pay to dump at Wisconsin landfills. It's a fee that ever so
slightly discourages out-of-state waste from coming into Wisconsin. Story here.
The action prompted the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's new
Big Money Blog to ask, "What's That Smell?"
"Business, manufacturing, paper and waste hauling
interests are in line to save $6.1 million a year thanks to the GOP-sponsored proposal
passed by the committee a few weeks back. Those powerful special interests have
contributed $2.9 million to current legislators since 1993, including $2.4 million, or 83
percent, of their contributions to Republican legislators who control the
Legislature."
The blog is located here.
|
| Alliance endorses treatment,
not prison The Wisconsin Alliance of
Cities has endorsed Treatment Instead of Prisons (TIP), a statewide, bipartisan effort to
highlight the cost-savings and public-safety benefits of rehabilitating non-violent drug-
and alcohol-addicted offenders rather than imprisoning them.
It's not only a dollar-and-cents issue, it's a moral
issue. It's not about crime, it's about who we are as a society. Those points
have been made by WISDOM, a group of congregations centered in southeastern Wisconsin, and
most recently in stories in the Oshkosh Northwestern.
Advocates say treatment alternatives for non-violent
offenders will benefit Wisconsin residents because:
- Taxpayers will save millions of dollars each year
- Real, violent criminals will remain behind bars
- Currently, 70 percent of the men and women who enter
Wisconsin’s prison system each year have a drug or alcohol problem; and
- Money saved could be put to better use in areas such as job
training, assistance for seniors, education and tax relief
|
Too many prisoners,
not enough treatment?
|
Rev. Joel
Schlactenhaufen of Neenah told the Northwestern that drug courts and
other programming aimed at curing addictions is the morally and fiscally responsible way
to handle the prison population.
“We can’t afford in any way not to help people in their times of need,”
Schlactenhaufen said. “It doesn’t make any sense to not help.”Prison
spending has leveled off, but it continues to account for about 7% of state GPR (general
purpose revenue) spending, behind only local school aids, medical assistance, shared
revenue to municipalities and counties and the UW System, the Northwestern said.
"And during the past 10 years, it has been the fastest growing of the five,
increasing 150 percent since 1995," the newspaper added. Story here.
"And while the state’s crime rate is on the decline, neighboring Minnesota
managed to spend about $362 million on state corrections in 2005 — a little more than
a third of the $1.03 billion Wisconsin spent on corrections, the Northwestern
said in another story, here.
SB 142, sponsored by Sen.
Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh), would begin to move Wisconsin from prison to
treatment for nonviolent criminals. It was inserted into the state budget bill by the
Legislature's Joint Finance Committee. WISDOM's web site is here. TIP's web site is here. |
|
|
Charter Towns Bill
Bill would hobble cooperation, growth
Potential Fox Valley "charter"
towns
|
By Rich Eggleston A so-called charter towns bill before the Wisconsin Legislature
could poison the well of regional cooperation, thwart economic development and perpetuate
the "mess" with which some local officials live today, Appleton Mayor
Tim Hanna, president of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, told the Senate Job
Creation, Economic Development and Consumer Affairs committee at a public hearing in
Madison.
SB 165, sponsored by Sen.
Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn), would immediately allow 19 towns across the state to
freeze their borders, create tax incremental finance districts like cities and villages
and ward off extraterritorial zoning, but more than a hundred towns eventually could
qualify if the bill is enacted into law, Ed Huck, Alliance executive director, said. |
Mayor Hanna said the bill would reverse
healthy regional cooperation that is blossoming in the Fox Valley. He said Appleton has
boundary agreements with most of its neighbors. "This bill would throw those boundary
agreements out," he said.
"Is growth good? And if it is, why would
we inhibit the growth of some of our municipalities to enable it in others, when tools
already exist to have growth for all?" he asked. Despite the fact that state
government has done a poor job of providing local governments with the tools to
accommodate growth, Appleton has prepared for growth, Mayor Hanna said.
"The city of Appleton has spent millions
preparing for growth," he said. "This bill has the potential to throw those
millions of dollars away."
"We've done the hard work. We've done
the right thing. We get along with our neighbors. We share the regional economy,"
Mayor Hanna said. "I speak for economic growth of the entire region because I know
it's good for my citizens. And I ask you not to throw that good work away."
Wisconsin doesn't need more types of
government, the Appleton Post-Crescent agreed in an editorial here.
|
|
|
| News Briefs |
Budget bill lacks long-term solutions. A $54 billion state budget passed
by the Assembly includes levy limits for local governments but not the tools the Alliance
of Cities sought to hold down local government costs. "We're disappointed that the
tools necessary to deal with levy limits will not be considered until the fall," Ed
Huck, executive director of the Alliance, said. "Therefore, not knowing what those
tools are, we will be seeking line item vetoes of the levy limits." City leaders in
the Alliance had said they could accept two-year levy limits if those tools accompanied
property-tax restrictions. Our plan here. Gov. Jim Doyle's
reaction to the Assembly budget here. Update: Borrowing
limits get media attention. Rich Eggleston of the Alliance addressed one
of the budget bill's significant shortcomings at 7 a.m. Monday on Wisconsin Public Radio.
The question is whether the day-do-day borrowing that municipalities undertake might
itself be on borrowed time, and what local governments are doing about it. Across the
state, local governments have voted to authorize more than $335 million in potential
future borrowing for capital improvements and economic development, the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel reported Saturday. Story here. That doesn't mean
local governments are going on a spending spree, it means they are practicing sound
financial management, Rich told listeners and host John Munson. Munson, who lives in
Superior, was familiar with the situation because Superior's City Council voted to
authorize $25 million in borrowing against the potential the provision will become law.
Duluth News Tribune story here.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz appeared at a local
restaurant and bar to kick off a campaign promoting Madison's smokefree ordinance. The
ordinance will take effect July 1.Cieslewicz unveiled the campaign at downtown Madison's
Nitty Gritty Restaurant & Bar. He was joined at the event by Marsh Shapiro, owner of
the Nitty Gritty and Tavern League representative on Madison's Alcohol License and Review
Committee, and Shelly Greller, chair of the Tobacco Free Dane County Coalition. News
release here.
Higher oil prices will leave a big hole in
road construction budgets in Wisconsin and throughout the nation, the Oshkosh
Northwestern reported In Oshkosh, patching-asphalt rates have increased between
6 and 13 percent between 2004 and 2005, city purchasing director Don LaFontaine told the
newspaper. Story here.
Budget Pork: Legislators can't resist it,
even in a lean budget. The biggest pork-barrel item in the state budget that passed
the Assembly this week and headed to the Senate was a new $33 million
bridge for Sturgeon Bay, but there were many other items, including quite a few aimed at
Alliance cities. Gov. Jim Doyle counted $40 million worth of pork overall, and said he
would trim much of it. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here.
|
|
