| (MADISON) – Today, the Joint Committee on Finance will vote on an eleventh-hour amendment that pushes aside environmental protections and due process. Under the bill, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) would be able to create an electronics and information technology manufacturing (EITM) zone that exempts entities within the zone from environmental oversight and permitting requirements. The amendment put forward today goes even further, it would exempt entities within the zone from traditional judicial oversight by allowing the Wisconsin Supreme Court to have direct jurisdiction of appeals related to the EITM zone.
“This amendment creates a two-tiered legal and environmental regime that is unprecedented in its unfairness and disregard for Wisconsin’s businesses,” said Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee). “It is unacceptable to exclude environmental regulations and change our legal system for a foreign company that all other Wisconsin businesses abide by.”
Senator Taylor also commented on Governor Walker’s disparate and hypocritical treatment in deciding who receives state funding.
“When we look at this bill, we put more stipulations for single mothers to get FoodShare than we do for a multi-billion foreign company to get taxpayer dollars. It reflects hypocrisy at its worst and comes with $3 billion in corporate welfare to top it all off.”
“Two decades from now, our children are going to ask why we paying for millions to a foreign company when we are struggling to pay for our schools, our roads. That debt is a burden we are placing on today’s children for a significant part of their working lives.” |
