WI GOP using Walker budget for more war on Dane County
We're watching Wisconsin GOP legislators prove Lord Acton's maxim about absolute power creating corruption absolutely by amending Scott Walker's "crap budget" - - one dissident GOP member's phrase - - into an even more thuggish weapon against Democratic stronghold Dane County and its biggest city, Madison, by:
* Taking away local authority to require a Canadian tar sand pipeline company to obtain an insurance policy against oil spills. The company, Enbridge, has already had several spills and violations in Wisconsin and its major pipeline break and billion-dollar+ spill in Michigan several years ago into the Kalamazoo River is still the most costly inland oil spill in US history.
* Taking away Dane County participation in water policy planning, thus giving developers more power.
* Taking away local zoning controls to enable by a cash poor state government the construction of a $200 million palace for the state transportation department. Traffic, land use and similar local concerns be damned.
* Slamming the UW-Madison campus with a $114 million budget cut over the next two years, ending programs, killing grants, creating layoffs, and further discouraging student and faculty recruitment and retention. In a related budget move - - and none of these budget insertions are drafting errors, by the way - - Walker and Republicans intend do end traditional tenure, thus speeding up the revenue and brain drain from the area.
Because if you are Walker and his legislative allies, you absolutely do not want to see any more stories like this:
* Taking away local authority to require a Canadian tar sand pipeline company to obtain an insurance policy against oil spills. The company, Enbridge, has already had several spills and violations in Wisconsin and its major pipeline break and billion-dollar+ spill in Michigan several years ago into the Kalamazoo River is still the most costly inland oil spill in US history.
* Taking away Dane County participation in water policy planning, thus giving developers more power.
* Taking away local zoning controls to enable by a cash poor state government the construction of a $200 million palace for the state transportation department. Traffic, land use and similar local concerns be damned.
* Slamming the UW-Madison campus with a $114 million budget cut over the next two years, ending programs, killing grants, creating layoffs, and further discouraging student and faculty recruitment and retention. In a related budget move - - and none of these budget insertions are drafting errors, by the way - - Walker and Republicans intend do end traditional tenure, thus speeding up the revenue and brain drain from the area.
Because if you are Walker and his legislative allies, you absolutely do not want to see any more stories like this:
South-central Wisconsin leads the state in regional job growth, study showss
The report released Monday by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance shows south-central Wisconsin tops the state in job gains from 2000 to 2012, while southeastern Wisconsin leads in total job losses. Overall, the state lost 1.4 percent of its jobs during that period.
Dane County fueled the rise, with the addition of more than 65,000 residents and 31,000 jobs during the 13-year period.
3 comments:
If they were truly 'for' the people they supposedly represent, Wisconsin GOP legislators would ensure that Dane County citizens were protected from Kalamazoo River type spills by having Enbridge (not the citizens) assume the risk of increased pumping capacity.
Thanks James, I wasn't aware of the tar sands pipeline/Dane county insert into the "budget."
AS conservative as Texas is, the state leaders know that Austin is a hotbed of growth and they leave the U of Texas alone.
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