Issue Position: Economic Development

Issue Position

For far too long we have had career politicians ignoring efforts to grow our local economies.

These past two years I have been focused on fighting for local wins in several areas, especially in Economic Development. I am extremely pleased with the progress we are seeing in this district from continuing on our path of allowing the free market to operate, restoring certainty, lowering excessive burdens on businesses such as high taxes and unnecessary regulations.

My biggest priority taking office was making sure that we keep our paper mills up and running with full employment. Several efforts this session will help Wisconsin remain competitive in the papermaking industry. First, a utility regulation bill that I authored will save over $400,000 per year for NewPage which they can in turn reinvest into their workforce and other capital projects to strengthen their market position. This helps protect 1,700 jobs at paper mills in Wisconsin Rapids, Biron, and Stevens Point.

Second, I have taken a hard stand on phosphorous issues the last three years. I see the effects of too much phosphorous in our rivers, lakes and streams every day near my own home just off of Lake Petenwell. It's fair to say that municipalities like the Village of Port Edwards and point sources like papermakers such as Domtar, have done well in reaching the goals set by a previous legislature. To reach the end goal through capital investment is prohibitive for many companies and villages/cities
A bill I co-authored states these sources can make those investments over a longer period of time but to do so they will need to invest in helping counties remove more non-point source pollution such as fertilizer and storm water run-off from ag and residential areas. The best path to removing the most phosphorus is focusing on non-point sources. This saves utility rate payers in Port Edwards from looking at a potential $2

Million cost due to upgrades needed without this bill. This bill also saves papermaking jobs that would be lost to excessive costs and in the end will remove more pollution than the current system would.

Also, DMI's purchase of the old Domtar mill site was bolstered by the effort to lock in a grant from the WEDC's Idle Sites program. Fighting for this grant means that hundreds of more jobs will come back to Port Edwards in the near future and that site will be fully utilized once again. Papermaking research will be a key component of this development.

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