Senator Erpenbach and Senator Ellis participated in a public forum on the UW Madison campus this week discussing campaign fincnace reform in the wake of the recent Butler/Gabelman Supreme Court race

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An e-newsletter from Senator Jon Erpenbach – 5-2-08

Cover the Uninsured Week - This week we “celebrated” Cover the Uninsured Week and were reminded of over 500,000 people in Wisconsin without health insurance. Included in the weeks activities was a push for sign up for BadgerCare Plus; the programs enrollment toped 71,000 this week. Visit the BadgerCare Plus website to see if your family could benefit www.badgercareplus.org . A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story this week on an Aon survey of health insurers reported that insurance companies plan to raise premiums on businesses and the people they insure by double digits again this coming year.

Campaign Finance Reform In the News - Senator Erpenbach and Senator Ellis participated in a public forum on the UW Madison campus this week discussing campaign finance reform in the wake of the recent Butler/Gabelman Supreme Court race. Also the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign this week released a report card of Legislators on democracy reform based on roll call votes. The ranking system puts Legislators into four categories including Democracy Defenders, Public Allies, Bystanders, and Public Enemies. You can view the full report by visiting http://www.wisdc.org/pr042908.php. In addition, an Erpenbach guest column calling for immediate Government Accountability Board action banning issue ads in judicial elections ran in the Monroe Times .

State Bidding Process May Change – The Department of Administration has proposed a change to state administrative code that governs the bidding process for all state contracts. Administrative Chapter 21 has not been modified since 1979 and the agency is proposing to modify the section that requires all state bids to be delivered in person to either Madison or Eau Claire. The change would allow all bids to be received electronically. This change is expected to broaden the scope of bidders the state receives on projects and level the playing filed for all companies no matter what size or from what part of the state. There will be an informational hearing on the rule change: May 14^th, 3-5pm at the Wisconsin Department of Administration Building, 101 East Wilson Street, First Floor, St. Croix Conference Room, Madison.

Clean Sweep Opens in Dane County – May marks the opening of the Dane County Clean Sweep site. The Madison South side site will accept hazardous household waste on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 7:30am to 2pm. Located at 2302 Fish Hatchery Road near the beltline, the drop off site will be open now through October. For more information on Dane County Clean Sweep visit www.danecounty-cleansweep.com. Green County will begin its Clean Sweep program in spring of 2009. Rock County will have Clean Sweep days in September. Beloit and Milton will be September 5^th at the public works buildings. Janesville will by September 6^th at public works visit http://www.co.rock.wi.us/Dept/LandConservation/clean_sweep.htm for more information.