Heroes and Zeros -
Wisconsin's Legislators Get their Dues

Rep. Spencer Black is Wisconsin's most ardent advocate of conservation issues. He again topped the charts during this legislative session, scoring leadership points for his pro-environmental bills and amendments introduced. Although most of his efforts failed to gain the Republican support necessary to pass this legislation, he continued pushing the envelope on important conservation battles at the state capital. Most noteworthy were his efforts to overturn our biggest loss - restoring the Public Intervenor's Office and the independence of the DNR - and his authorship of the mining moratorium bill.

In the floor battle over the mining moratorium bill, Rep. Black infuriated the Republican leadership by winning a complex parliamentary procedure forcing a vote on the pulling of the mining moratorium bill from committee.

In the energy arena, he authored a bill which would have extended solar and wind property tax breaks for homeowners and led the fight to prohibit construction of nuclear waste storage in Wisconsin. He further advocated for tougher mining laws by introducing bills prohibiting mining in state parks, denying mining permits to companies with criminal records, and eliminating the special exemption from state solid waste laws that mining companies currently enjoy.

Black also worked to close a loophole in existing wetland law that permits continued development of wetlands, increased efforts to improve wetland mapping and zoning, created a tax exemption for agricultural wetlands and eliminated current exemptions for lands cultivated for cranberries.

Second only to Black with the number of leadership votes, Sen Burke is known as one of the brightest and hardest working of Wisconsin's State Senators. It isn't going unnoticed by us. This session he introduced an amendment to preserve joint and several liability, authored a bill to close the loophole for wetlands, created a tax exemption for agricultural wetlands, eliminated an exemption for cranberries, increased the efforts to improve wetland mapping and zoning and co-authored a bill for solar and wind energy property tax exemptions.

He assisted efforts to strengthen Wisconsin's mining laws by authoring a Senate bill to eliminate groundwater pollution exemption that mining companies currently have, and backed the mining bad actor bill and prohibition on mining in state parks. He introduced the clean energy rebate program in the Department of Administration and worked to toughen laws dealing with air toxics released from power plants.

Sen. Burke, a strong supporter of family farms, re-introduced a bill banning the use of Atrazine (a known carcinogen contaminating thousands of Wisconsin's wells). This brought him the wrath of the agribusiness/chemical lobby, a powerful force in the Dairy state. Burke is working to solve one of Milwaukee's greatest challenges - cleaning up abandoned urban sites left contaminated by industry. He authored a tax credit for clean up of sites, to create an incentive for pro-active clean up work.

Rep. Bill Lorge is known at the Capitol for his Elvis look. He's also one of the Republican's most independent thinkers. A long time conservationist, Lorge was named the "1992 Legislator of the Year" award by the Conservation Congress and is active in the preservation of the Wolf River.

This session we recognize Rep. Lorge for being the only Republican to break rank with the Republicans and vote to restore the Public Intervenor and the independence of the DNR Secretary. Although the effort failed on a 50-49 vote, we hail Lorge for having the courage to do the right thing despite intense party pressure to stay in line. Lorge should also be recognized for his co-sponsorhip of the mining moratorium bill. Again, he was the only Republican to take this strong stance.

Sen. Drzewiecki and Rep. Albers are no friends of the environment. Together they have led the radical right's charge to dismantle Wisconsin's environmental laws. In 1995-96, we recognize their efforts as authors of "takings" legislation, the most extreme anti-environmental and anti-community legislation Wisconsin has ever seen. Although called a "property rights bill," this is actually a back door attack on clean air and water quality laws, which most people in Wisconsin would never support.

Takings comes from the 5th Amendment of the Constitution which requires government to compensate property owners when property is taken for public purposes, such as when a city needs land for a hospital or airport. But Drzewiecki and Albers takings bill goes far beyond this constitutional protection. They want taxpayers to pay everytime any law or regulation limits what can be done with property. If a developer proposes a landfill or an adult bookstore in a neighborhood and is denied by virtue of zoning laws, the taxpayers would either have to pay off the developer or allow the projects to go ahead.