jONline

An e-newsletter from State Senator Jon Erpenbach 4-11-08

Great Lakes Compact Agreement Reached – Progress on the future of water from the Great Lakes was made this week when Governor Doyle announced an agreement in the Legislature on the Great Lakes Compact. An issue left unresolved in the Legislature when it stalled amid opposition in the Assembly, the announcement is good news for Wisconsin’s environment. After three weeks of negotiations with opponents there were compromises made in the state implementation of the compact – however the original language was left intact including the most controversial section requiring all Governors to sign off on any future diversion. See the Governors release here. A special session has been called for April 17^th, however both houses have announced that day is unavailable for session.

Fraud Hotline Launched – Wisconsin has launched a new toll-free hotline for the public to report alleged incidents of fraud, waste, and mismanagement in state government. The hotline is managed by the non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau. Callers can reach the hotline at 1-877-FRAUD-17 or 1-877-372-8317. A caller’s personal information will be kept private and callers are asked to be as specific as possible. For description of the type of information to include in a call visit this site. The LAB will follow up on calls as well as referring information to other appropriate authorities for investigation.

Check Presented for Crushing Facility in Evansville – Landmark Cooperative of Evansville was presented with a state matching grant this week as a result of a state budget initiative passed in the last biennial budget. On hand to present the grant were Governor Jim Doyle, Senator Jon Erpenbach, Representative Brett Davis, and Mayor Sandy Decker as well as other local community leaders and members of the Landmark Cooperative family. Once built, the soybean crushing facility will be the first in the state and will help lower ethanol production costs. Wisconsin ranked 14th in the nation in soybean production in 2007 with 51.9 million bushels.  Wisconsin is the only top-producing soybean state without a large-scale soybean crushing facility.

Waunakee Four Lane Main Street Proposal Meets Opposition – A Department of Transportation proposed expansion of Main Street in Waunakee to four lanes of traffic has met significant opposition and alternatives are now being considered. To comment on the proposed change or to offer possible solutions contact Kevin Even, Waunakee public works director at keven@vil.waunakee.wi.us or Jim Oettinger, scoping engineer from the Department of Transportation at james.oettinger@dot.state.wi.us The Waunakee Economic Summit will hold a meeting to discuss results of a recent Wisconsin Business Retention and Expansion study on April 17^th at 7pm in the Waunakee Village Center on Madison Street.

Brodhead Manufacturing Plant Broke Ground for Expansion – This week Senator Erpenbach attended a groundbreaking at Kuhn North America. Kuhn is headquartered in Brodhead and broke ground on a 66,000 expansion of their manufacturing facility.