Ashley Wetland Fill Exemption In Senate Budget Repair Bill

 
4/16/02
As anticipated, the Ashley Furniture "wetland fill exemption" simply won't die.  Although key individuals within the Senate were successful at stopping the exemption from being passed as a separate bill in the Senate, the Senate's version of the budget repair bill contains the exemption.

On Friday, April 5, the Senate voted on an amendment introduced by Sen. Rod Moen to the budget repair bill that included language that is the exemption for Ashley Furniture.  Initially, the exemption amendment was defeated 18-15, and we felt momentary relief and jubilation.

However, on a re-vote within an hour, seven senators "crossed over," resulting in a final vote of 22-11 for adopting the amendment.  All but one Republican (Sen. Cowles) voted to support the amendment, and seven Democrats voted to "help out" Rod Moen (who is up for re-election this fall). How each senator voted is indicated below.

"We encourage concerned citizens," says Charlie Luthin of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, "to contact your senator to applaud him or her if he/she voted AGAINST the Ashley exemption, and share your disappointment with those who supported ADOPTION of the amendment."

Citizens should take prompt action in an attempt to halt passage of the amendment, Luthin adds.  Since the budget conference committee will likely NOT address the amendment (it will undoubtedly be accepted by the Assembly conferees), communication should be directed at Governor Scott McCallum who should be encouraged to "line item" veto the amendment.

Remind the Governor that he vowed to protect our state's wetlands in 2001; how can he now turn tables and allow a large floodplain wetland to be filled?  Remind him that we are spending millions of dollars in Wisconsin to remove residential and commercial structures from floodplains; further development in a floodplain should be discouraged, not condoned!

Governor Scott McCallum
P.O. Box 7863, Madison  WI  53707
wisgov@gov.state.wi.us
(608) 266-1212
More Information from Wisconsin Wetlands Association

The amendment has been cleverly worded to avoid the obvious--the intention of giving Ashley Furniture Industries an exemption from state law to fill 14 acres of wetland.  Instead, it is general enough to include "any city or village" that passes a resolution stating that they need the exemption in order to protect jobs.

The city or village must submit the resolution to the Governor by December 31, 2002, and the Governor can select ONE resolution that he would like to support!  Perhaps it will be...Ashley Furniture Industries (he received $4,350 in contributions from Ashley officials over the past 6 months; he received nothing from them in the previous ten years).

This exemption, if successful, will represent the largest wetland fill by a private entity in the state of Wisconsin for many years, perhaps since the creation of NR 103 in 1991. In 1997 Ashley Furniture Industries destroyed all of the wetland vegetation on the site in hopes that they could convince decision-makers to support their request.  They've been successful!

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Senate Votes FOR Adoption of "Ashley exemption":

 Senate Votes AGAINST Adoption of Ashley Exemption
To contact your senator via email:
Sen.Lastname@legis.state.wi.us
or via the Legislative Hotline: 1-800-362-9472
For more information or to get on the Wetlands Alert email list, contact the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, 222 S. Hamilton, Suite #1, Madison, WI 53703  (608)-250-9971 or fax (608)-256-4562.
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