Dear Rep. Madison Area Builders Association,
Congratulations on your recent election to represent me and the other half million people who live in Dane County in the state legislature!
If you don’t remember, Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green, not Dane County) last week inserted a provision into the state budget that prevents Dane County from providing input on water quality decisions for new developments… in Dane County!
This is something you lobbied for, even if Marklein couldn’t remember you by name.
“I don't even remember who (the developers) were. We had a couple meetings with a couple people,” said Marklein to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Wow, that must have been a moving presentation if he doesn’t even need to remember your name. Did your lobbyist give him an amnesia kiss like Clark Kent used at the end of Superman II?
Now, under a set of rules that don’t apply to Wisconsin’s 71 other counties, the people who work for my local county government won’t be able to work with the Department of Natural Resources. The Capital Area Regional Planning Commission, which includes representatives from the county, will likely still be able to work on the water quality plan -- but even the committee’s chair, Larry Palm, is not exactly sure about that yet.
So, as the developers, you now represent Dane County. I’m sure you’ll have your best interests in mind. This seems like a far more effective strategy than other Madison-area developers and their families have used to get legislative influence. Terrence Wall and Eric Hovde couldn’t win their elections with their money. So you cut out the middle man -- the voters!
While I liked my old representatives, as Democrats, they weren’t getting much done with Republicans in control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s office. Heck, Democrats couldn’t even get ahold of a fiscal estimate on the new “poor people can’t have shrimp” bill for over a week after it had been released.
By the way, now that you’ve decided to make legislative decisions for me, can you do something about that food stamp bill? While you are at it, there’s a couple of other bills I’d like you to work on.
Register in opposition to that bill to make abortions illegal after 20 weeks. All those extra babies will make it difficult for people to buy the nearly identical looking condos that continue to spring up all over the metro area.
Try to do something about the massive University of Wisconsin cut now that the Republican plan of waiting for a wizard to come along and fill our state’s budget hole has failed. After all, the UW is sort of an economic driver around here. You do want new spin-off tech businesses to fill your commercial offices, right?
Anyway, thanks for listening, Madison Area Builders Association. It’s nice to see someone from Madison having power at the capitol again!
Sincerely,
A guy who is not going to look to one of the members of your organization when he decides to remodel his home