The revised Job Creation Act gives big business everything it wants and proves how bad “not the worst” can be.
Compromised
By
Amy Heart
Last month, Governor Jim Doyle, along with a few Republican legislative leaders and a number of the state’s strongest and loudest lobbyists, announced a compromise on the controversial and badly named Job Creation Act. Since then the bill became part of the Legislature’s special session and sailed through the Assembly.
When Governor Doyle announced a revised Job Creation Act, the lobbyists involved in the original draft—Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Wisconsin Builders Association, Wisconsin Realtors, and Wisconsin Road Builders—quickly and enthusiastically endorsed the compromise. While the “compromise” was apparently also satisfactory to a majority of the legislators who depend on the big business lobby for their campaign funds, it turns out that environmentalists and environmental organizations that have reviewed the revised bill found that it is far closer to the initial draft than we have been led to believe.
Environmental standards for 23 different activities affecting Wisconsin’s lakes and streams will be lowered if the revised Job Creation Act becomes law. Air quality standards are also at risk. The Sierra Club, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and former DNR chair George Meyer (now executive director of Wisconsin Wildlife Federation) have spoken out against various provisions of this compromise bill.
In addition to specific rollbacks of environmental standards, the bill raises a red flag as an example of how public laws are negotiated in private. Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager has launched an investigation into possible open meetings rules violations because this compromise bill is the result of secret negotiations between power lobbyists and elected officials with citizens cut out.
The compromised Job Creation Act demonstrates what Democrats, progressives and others on the left have been too willing to do, far too often. How many times will we accept a “compromise” that is a compromise in name only rather than fighting and risking defeat?
With this compromise, the big-business interests stay happy. And now Doyle is relying on Democrats to say, “Well, our governor is a Democrat, so he must be pro-environment; he must be pro-public involvement.” Then, they will hesitate, ever so slightly, and say, “At least it is better than before.”
My grandmother has a saying whenever we compliment her on the quality of one of her well-prepared dinners. Instead of basking in the gratitude, she consistently replies, “Well, it’s not the worst.”
In politics, those on the left are being asked too often to accept a compromise because “it could be worse.” And too often, we do. Whether it is issues or candidates, at the local, state or national levels, all too often we accept what we do not like and say, “It’s not the worst.”
The other side does not do this. They decide what they want and they figure out how to get it. They send powerful lobbyists and single-minded legislators to “negotiate” with the governor.
I for one am tired of the days where the phrases “What if the worst” or “At least it’s not” carry more political weight than innovative, progressive ideas. If we continue to waste all of our time battling back the worst that could happen we will continue to head backwards. The seventh generation cannot survive if we are acting on fear instead of hope.
It is essential to have leaders who are willing to advance strong, sound legislation for future generations. This is especially true for our governor, who declared at his inauguration that, “It’s a new day for Wisconsin.”
With this revised bill we have a weakening of current environmental laws and standards at a time when we should be working to make them stronger and working to address the root causes of job loss instead of pushing mislabeled legislation.
Next time we are told about a compromise, we have to ask who compromised and who or what has been compromised.
January 20, 2004
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Amy Heart serves on the Stevens Point City Council and is the Membership and Outreach Coordinator at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association.
