(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin bill would give a blanket exemption for all future data centers in the state that would allow the projects to be part of tax capture districts even if that means that more than the state-allowed 12% of property in a community is part of a tax increment financing district.
The 12% rule is in place related to local property taxes because the exemptions mean that businesses in a TIF aren’t paying into the local property tax base yet are using local resources. Therefore, companies are able to retain the funds to spend on future improvements of their facilities.
Last year, the Wisconsin Legislature approved a bill exempting materials that are used to build, operate or renovate large-scale data center facilities from taxes.
There are currently multiple bills in the Wisconsin Legislature that would exempt specific projects from the 12% limit – including for data centers in Pleasant Prairie, Beaver Dam and Port Washington – but Senate Bill 241 would allow all future data centers to be exempt from the 12% limit.
“We thought it would be a good idea, since we have already defined what this data center is with the tax exemptions in the last session, we thought it would be a good idea to just make a blanket exemption for these so we don’t have to come back and save resources, save energy, save time so we don’t have to come back and approve every one of these individually as it goes along,” Sen. John Jagler, R-Watertown, told the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development.
Jagler said that data centers are being singled out for the tax incentives because they create a situation where TIF limits are so far exceeded.
“While that 12% cap is there for a reason and well-meaning, these data centers are so big and so valuable and such a prize for a community that it really creates a problem,” Jagler said.
Data centers are becoming increasingly necessary as cloud-based memory and computing capabilities increase but tax incentives for those centers are questioned due to the lack of long-term jobs at the sites, the energy needs and the potential increase in consumer energy bills that accompany those data centers.
A least 10 states are currently losing $100 million or more in taxes from data centers, according to an April report from Good Jobs First.
Meanwhile, the average American’s energy bill could increase from 25% to 70% in the next 10 years without intervention from policymakers, according to Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Jack Kemp Foundation.
The Wisconsin Senate recently approved a $2.25 million nuclear study to increase the state’s energy capacity while EnergySolutions announced it was beginning planning and looking for a permit to reopen Kewaunee Power Station in Kewaunee County while working with WEC Energy Group.
During discussions of the nuclear siting, Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, said that a new Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant would use the same amount of energy as the city of Madison and the Cloverleaf project in Port Washington would use the same amount of power as the entire city of Los Angeles.
Jagler said that a Meta data center planned for Beaver Dam is coming but the TiF will allow it to expand in the future.
“In Beaver Dam, they are going to build this data center but, they basically have no ability to grow or use their TIF to grow,” Jagler told the committee.
The cost, however, is the impact on property tax and energy bills for consumers.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last month that the increase in data centers across the country will strain utilities, leading to higher utility costs, a need for more power lines, and annexing more “green space” and water.
He warned that energy bills could increase “by up to $276 a year,” saying they could double within seven to 10 years to power the data centers.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s hospitals say they are trying, the best
they can, to solve their own workforce needs across the state.
The Wisconsin Hospital Association testified before lawmakers at the Capitol in Madison on Wednesday about the 2025 Wisconsin Health Care Workforce Report.
“The WHA Workforce report is not a static document that just sits on a shelf for us,” WHA Senior Vice President Kyle O’Brien told lawmakers. “This is a living breathing document for us, in the sense that we use the data in the document to affect public policy.”
The overall report said Wisconsin needs more frontline health care workers.
Hospitals say a demographic boom means a lot of veteran nurses and other health care workers will retire in the coming years, just as Wisconsin’s population hits the “silver tsunami.”
The report, in particular, points to problems with rural health care, and a lack of potential workers.
That’s where O’Brien said the WHA has turned its focus.
“You will hear a lot today about hospitals and health systems throughout the state using what we call ‘grow our own’ or ‘grow from within’ workforce strategies to try to get the workforce that we need to actually provide access to care to patients,” O’Brien added.
He explained that many of the successful strategies for hospitals in 2025 started years ago, as a result he said, of programs from the legislature.
“I want to specifically highlight some matching grant programs that we established over a decade ago, that over time, the legislature and the governor have built upon over the last decade,” O’Brien said. “They have provided up to $100 million dollars in private and public investment across the state in getting more physicians, more advanced practice clinicians,
and more allied health professionals training in rural and urban Wisconsin communities.”
The full 2025 WHA Health Care report explains in further detail the needs for the future, including more health care workers, and new state laws or regulations to help with better rural care.

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin bill that would allow retired police officers and firefighters to return to work while still collecting their retirement pensions is headed through Assembly committees.
There is a block currently on allowing those professionals from working more than two-thirds of full time or becoming a contract employee without suspending their retirement benefits. Bill sponsor Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, said the purpose Assembly Bill 36 is to fill a need for those public service positions.
Multiple committee members asked jailers to also be added to the list of employees who could return without a suspended pension.
“This bill is about common sense,” Jacque said in a statement. “We are facing unprecedented shortages in law enforcement, firefighting, and public sector instruction. AB 36 ensures that dedicated public servants who still want to serve their communities can do so—right here in Wisconsin—without being penalized for collecting the retirement benefits they’ve already earned.”
The bill repeats policies that were created due to employee shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the policy is supported by law enforcement groups including the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association, Badger State Sheriffs’ Association, Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Fire Chiefs Association, Milwaukee Police Association and Wisconsin Towns Association.
A fiscal note on the bill said that it cannot estimate the taxpayer cost of the potential policy change, which passed the Assembly Committee on Workforce Development, Labor, and Integrated Employment and would need to pass the Assembly, Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers before becoming law.
“Law enforcement officers, along with other retired state and local government workers, can already get another job after retirement anywhere without suspending their annuity, except with an employer that uses the state retirement system,” Jacque said. “For Wisconsin government employers, that effectively blocks our law enforcement and firefighters from even considering returning to work to again protect and serve in Wisconsin.”
The employees would not be eligible to earn a new pension if they come back to the workforce.
“Currently, nothing prevents an officer from retiring and getting a job at a place like Menard’s, in private security or elsewhere,” Jacque said. “But unfortunately, having to suspend their pension payments to take vital public safety positions in Wisconsin often sends these professionals across our state line.”

(The Center Square) – A bill that would criminalize participating in riots in Wisconsin is on the table, but lawmakers disagree on whether it’s actually moving forward.
Assembly Bill 88, which would make it a Class I felony to promote or instigate a riot, has been criticized as containing broad, vague and even unconstitutional language.
While the bill was referred to the Assembly Committee on Judiciary, it was missing from the agenda for Wednesday’s executive session.
Democratic lawmakers argue the bill’s absence indicates the committee has dropped it.
“I’m ecstatic that Republicans have abandoned this badly written, unconstitutional bill for now,” Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, said in a statement. “In reality, this isn’t an ‘anti-riot’ bill: it’s a threat to free speech, expression and assembly disguised as a public safety measure.”
Critics argue the bill’s language could lead to people not even involved with a riot being arrested.
“This legislation contains contradictory and unclear language and chills the constitutional rights of speech,” ACLU Wisconsin told The Center Square. “The Constitution does not allow people engaged in lawful protest to be punished for the actions of others, but this bill is attempting to do just that.”
Similar concerns were voiced by lawmakers and citizens at the bill’s contentious first public hearing May 7.
In light of the bill’s absence from the executive session, Clancy and Rep. Andrew Hysell, D-Sun Prairie, released statements crediting the bill’s alleged dropping to testimonies from themselves and others at the hearing.
Republican lawmakers even seem to disagree on whether the bill has been dropped and how it will move forward, if at all.
Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, the bill’s author, contends it has not been dropped and is still set to be voted on in the Assembly Judiciary Committee and receive hearings in the Senate.
“To be clear, the chair never pulled the bill because he has not officially scheduled a vote on it yet after receiving a hearing two weeks ago,” Sortwell said in a statement. “I am in discussions with colleagues on the committee, which is standard practice for bill authors after a public hearing.”
Rep. Ron Tusler, R-Harrison, chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, however, argued differently.
“Assembly Bill 88 is not on the agenda because, in its current form, it fails to be good legislation,” Tusler said in a statement to The Center Square. “I wanted to give the bill author a chance to explain the bill out of respect for Rep. Sortwell and the victims of the riots. But in its current form, this bill has constitutional, common-sense, and enforcement issues.”
Tusler concluded the bill in its current form is never going to be scheduled for an executive session until those problems are addressed.
At the time of publication, the bill still appeared as an item in committee on the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s and Senate Judiciary Committee’s websites.

(The Center Square) – Inflation and the cost of living are the largest concerns in the U.S. while President Donald Trump’s 46% approval rating remained the same in a new Marquette Law School poll.
Trump saw 54% disapproval in the poll of 1,004 adults nationwide between May 5-15. Trump’s approval rating is the same as it was in a March poll.
While 36% named inflation and the cost of living as the top issue, others chose threats to democracy (19%), the economy (13%), Medicare and Social Security (10%), immigration and border security (9%), the federal deficit (4%), health care (3%) or said they did not know (3%).
Trump’s approval was high (56%) on his border security policy and low on tariffs (37%) and the combined inflation and cost of living (34%).
Respondents gave Trump 50% approval on immigration policy, 43% on foreign policy, 42% on economic policy and 40% approval on his approach to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“A majority of respondents, 58%, say tariffs hurt the U.S. economy, while 32% say they help the economy and 10% think they have no effect,” the poll showed. “The percentage saying tariffs hurt the economy is unchanged from March, while the share saying they help the economy is up 4 percentage points from March and the number of those saying ‘no effect’ has declined 4 percentage points.”
Overall, the poll showed that 52% oppose ending diversity, equity and inclusion in federal government programs while 48% favor ending DEI.

(The Center Square) – Grants for high schools helping students recover from substance abuse or mental health challenges are now open for application in Wisconsin.
The grants, announced by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, would go towards creating and planning recovery high schools in the state.
According to the act establishing the grant, recovery high schools are primarily designed for students in recovery from substance abuse or a mental health disorder that coexists with substance abuse.
Eligible organizations include nonprofits and public, private and tribal schools, which may submit a proposal and itemized budget in a grant amount up to $100,000.
The legislatures bill fiscal estimate showed the program could cost $500,000 of taxpayer funds annually.
“As the Assembly author of Act 72 and legislator who is deeply concerned about substance abuse in our state, I am thankful that DPI is working with us to get the word out about recovery school grants,” Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, told The Center Square. “The sooner we get these students this sort of comprehensive help, the more likely they will have the opportunity to enjoy their future to the fullest.”
Eleven percent of youth have misused prescription pain medication, and over 50 percent of Wisconsin children have consumed alcohol by their freshman year of high school, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
In some places, substance abuse and alcohol usage correlate with worse performance in school.
Only 15 percent of students at the Manitowoc Public School District who currently struggle with substance abuse meet proficiency in reading, while only 10 percent meet proficiency in math, as first reported by Wisconsin Public Radio. Additionally, these students miss 20 percent of school days.
While there are more than 40 recovery high schools nationally, according to the Association of Recovery Schools, only one exists in Wisconsin, although there are plans to expand soon.
The recovery high school grant program is designed to aid in that expansion.
“Educators and families work together to prepare students for the real world, no matter their race, faith, or life experiences,” Christina Brey, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, told The Center Square. “That especially holds true for teens battling addictions. A recovery high school can provide the one-on-one attention and emotional support they need to overcome obstacles and save lives.”
To be eligible to enroll in recovery high schools, students must also express a desire to achieve sobriety, commit to attending the school daily, consent to weekly drug tests and not test positive for any controlled substances during their probationary period drug test.
Applications for the grant program are being accepted through June 20, 2025, according to the Department of Public Instruction.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said that a budget meeting has been set with Republican legislative leaders but he wants to make sure the discussion focuses on more than just a Republican-backed set of tax cuts.
Evers told Wisconsin Eye’s Newsmakers on Tuesday that recent revenue estimates from the state fiscal bureau are “somewhat of a downer but we can handle it.”
Republican leaders said last week that Evers had not accepted plans for a budget meeting while Evers says that Republican leaders have not made a formal counter proposal to his budget, instead cutting items from the budget and then asking for a tax cut.
“Overall, do I want to cut some taxes? Yes,” Evers said. “In fact, we did in our budget.
“People have been working on our side and their side to come up with some things that we know are important to the people of Wisconsin and reach some compromise.”
Wisconsin Policy Forum estimated that Evers’ budget proposal would spend $4 billion of the state’s expected $4.3 billion surplus if enacted while Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, estimated that Evers’ proposal would lead to $3 billion in tax increases over the two-year span.
“They don’t like the fact we increased taxes on very, very wealthy people,” Evers said. “However, our tax bill I think is more fair than theirs.”
Overall, Evers said that his priorities are child care, spending more on K-12 education, special education, the UW-System and early childhood programs.
“It can’t be just about taxes,” Evers said. “The thing that concerns me is a budget is a budget. It includes expenditure and what taxes are going to be … those things work together.”
Evers also encouraged expanding Medicaid in the state while Born was cited by Wisconsin Eye as estimating Medicaid will now cost $1.6 billion more in state funding in the next budget.
“It’s a federal program that should be paid for with federal money,” Evers said.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s next race for state Supreme Court is shaping up.
Former Madison Democratic state representative Chris Taylor on Tuesday officially launched a bid for the high court.
“As an attorney, public servant, and now as a judge, I’ve always been committed to making sure everyone is able to access our justice system.
The law is a powerful tool for protecting Wisconsinites, holding people accountable, and making our state stronger,” she said in her campaign announcement.
Taylor is looking to join an already liberal-majority court. She is running against Justice Rebecca Bradley.
Bradley, who announced plans to run for reelection in early April, is one of the three conservative justices on the court and often writes the conservative opinions as part of the minority.
Taylor accused Bradley of being right-wing and bringing a right-wing agenda to the court.
“Justice Rebecca Bradley has proven that she’s more interested in pushing her own right-wing political agenda than protecting Wisconsinites’ rights and freedoms. Extremism and partisanship have no place on our state’s highest court,” Taylor added.
Taylor called herself “a champion for public safety and victims’ rights.” She also said she is proud of her near decade in the state legislature, where she was an outspoken advocate for access to abortion, gun control and Wisconsin’s unions.
Before she was elected as a lawmaker, Taylor served as both a lawyer and policy director for Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s last two supreme court races have both set spending records. The 2023 race saw more than $50 million in spending, and this year’s race topped the $100 million mark.
Elon Musk, who poured money into April’s supreme court election, on Tuesday said he plans to spend his money elsewhere going forward.

(The Center Square) – Economists who have studied the impact of national party conventions says a report from the marketing firm Tourism Economics does not accurately reflect the actual impact of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Economist Victor Matheson of College of the Holy Cross has studied and written on national conventions and large events, He called the release, which claims the event had a $321.5 million impact, is a “promotional booklet/press release, not a serious economic impact study.”
That’s because economic studies include items such as crowding out due to an event, diverted spending and more.
“There was not a single mention in the report about crowding out,” Matheson told The Center Square. “Like how many events had to bypass the arena during the extended setup period. How many businesses lost traffic during the event due to security concerns and congestion.
A 2017 paper from Berry College’s Frank Stephenson, Matheson and Lauren Heller showed conventions typically bring in $20 million in increased hotel spending, making the average claims of a $36.6 million from lodging and accommodations in Milwaukee highly unlikely.
An updated paper from Heller, Stephenson and Abhi Aurobindo showed that, in 2016, the Republican National Convention brought in $19.5 million more hotel spending while the Democratic National Convention had a $39 million hotel impact in Philadelphia.
“Hotel revenues don’t count business lost due to capacity constraints,” Matheson said of the Tourism Economics report. “Our past studies of other conventions find net hotel spending up by about $20 million, roughly half what these guys claim.”
Tourism Economics is a marketing firm and subsidiary of Oxford Economics that is also paid to create economic impact numbers on tourism for each state. Those numbers are regularly disputed by economists who study events and impacts.
“Viewing what ‘economic impact’ consultants do to be economics is like considering horoscopes to be astronomy,” economist J.C. Bradbury of Georgia’s Kennesaw State University wrote. “Newspapers are smart enough to put horoscopes next to the comics and Dear Abby, while economic impact ‘studies’ get banner headlines on the front page.”
Matheson pointed out that the Milwaukee report is “all vibe without actual figures” while pointing out that no government audited figures were used in the report.
“It is also unclear if the direct spending on setup was spent on Milwaukee businesses or on national media consultants, designers, directors, etc.” Matheson said calling it a “glitzy report that presents no real evidence on economic impact.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin consumers and businesses that rely on machine imports could face hurdles this year due to U.S. tariffs on China, despite a recent reduction in tariff rates between the countries.
According to a new report by Wisconsin Policy Forum, Wisconsin residents bought $38.9 billion of imported goods in 2024, a third of which were industrial and electrical machinery imports totaling more than $13.1 billion.
China was a steady source of these investments, with Wisconsin businesses buying $1.4 billion in heavy machinery from the country last year, as well as $1 billion in electric appliances and a little less than a billion in electronic devices.
However, Wisconsin industries’ reliance on China could be hurt in the future by U.S. tariffs.
“On May 12, an agreement between the United States and China was announced that will temporarily reduce the tariff rate on Chinese imports [from 145%] to 30% for 90 days,” the report said. “The new rate is still higher than in past years, however, and applies to a broader range of products.”
According to the report, Chinese imports have already been falling for years.
The inflation-adjusted value of state imports from China has fallen by 37.3%, from $10.2 billion in 2018 to $6.4 billion in 2024.
The introduction of steeper tariffs on China by the President Donald Trump administration – even at 30% – could put not only Wisconsin’s machine industries in jeopardy, but Wisconsin residents themselves.
“When tariffs are imposed on goods brought into the country, the additional costs are either passed on to consumers or accounted for by businesses through cost-cutting measures,” the report said. “Evidence suggests that nearly the entire cost of the tariffs imposed in 2018 was passed on to consumers.”
Wisconsin Business Group founder John Schram said small businesses that don’t rely on China will not be affected as much and may respond to tariffs positively.
“With the implementation of tariffs, small Wisconsin businesses whose equipment competes with brands that come over from China will find that their equipment becomes much more valuable to the average consumer,” Schram told The Center Square. “It allows these smaller businesses to actually compete on an open market.”
According to Schram, Wisconsin businesses that don’t rely on Chinese parts could boom in the next year while businesses relying on China could have a harder time dealing with the effects of the tariffs.
Nonetheless, Wisconsin could see a rise in domestic and local manufacturing, which is one of the goals of the Trump administration’s tariff increases.
“Wisconsin isn’t a huge metal industry, and a lot of the purchases from China are just raw material, so what we might see from a manufacturing standpoint is these parts being produced locally or farmed out to a state around us,” Schram said.
NFIB Wisconsin State Director Luke Bacher said policies bolstering small businesses should be pursued to combat the economic uncertainty brought by tariffs.
“Wisconsin’s small businesses are the lifeblood of our state and local economies,” Bacher said. “We will continue to listen to our members and support policies that will help reduce uncertainty, like making the 20% Small Business Deduction permanent before it expires and results in a massive tax increase on Main Street.”

(The Center Square) – At least one Wisconsin Republican says the University of Wisconsin isn’t telling the whole story when it comes to what the state pays.
UW President Jay Rothman last week announced the UW System slipped once again in the national ranking on state funding.
“Wisconsin is now 44th out of 50 states in public funding of four-year universities – a drop of one spot – according to the latest national study of higher education funding,” the university said.
“Wisconsin is renowned for its affordable and accessible public universities. Yet we can’t languish at the bottom anymore without seriously jeopardizing Wisconsin’s economic vibrancy,” Rothman added.
He is asing state lawmakers for $856 million in the next state budget.
Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesan, however said taxpayers need to know the truth about the UW’s funding.
“President Rothman and many others have boasted about how the 13 universities across Wisconsin are the best in the country and world, yet are quick to say that the taxpayers aren’t funding higher education enough.,” Dallman said. “The UW System is more worried about their national ranking than taking accountability for their lack of transparency here in Wisconsin.”
The University of Wisconsin’s total budget in the current state spending plan is just under $14 billion for the two years of the state budget. And spending between the 2023-2024 school year, and the 2024-2025 school year grew by almost 6%.
State funding is the smallest of the major pieces of university funding,at 18%, or about $2.5 billion. Federal funds make-up about 24% of the UW’s budget, with a lot of that going toward research.
Tuition is the largest single source of funding for the UW. The school says 58% of its money comes from students.
Dallman those are just rough numbers. He said the UW doesn’t provide specifics.
“When I asked the UW System exactly how taxpayer dollars are distributed to each campus, their answer was not surprising. They don’t have any specifics, just that ‘the process is complex’ and is based on a ‘base plus’ model,” Dallman added. “This means that millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars are determined by what UW System feels each campus deserves, not using any standard metric or formula.”
Dallman also said there are unanswered questions about what the UW is spending money on.
“The UW System continues to invest millions of dollars in DEI and administrative bloat across our campuses. This is a complete waste of critical funding that should be going directly into our classrooms and labs,” he said. “I know my constituents and many other taxpayers across the state are deeply concerned about the UW System’s lack of transparency and accountability. It’s time for the UW System to get serious.”

(The Center Square) – Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann was the leader in a WisPolitics straw poll to be Wisconsin’s Republican Party candidate for governor in 2026.
The poll was taken at the Republican Party of Wisconsin convention with 38% of those responding with 110 votes. Schoemann announced his candidacy in early May.
Second in the voting was U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, WI-7th Congressional, with 103 votes.
“I am grateful for the support of Wisconsin’s grassroots activists, which are so critical to winning Wisconsin,” Schoemann said in a statement to The Center Square. “We are so proud of the support from activists across the state who have joined our team in the first two weeks and we are excited about how many people joined our team this weekend.
Schoemann has said he wants to keep young people in the state and stop retirees from moving out. He wants to flatten the state’s income tax on a path to remove it.
“As I have traveled all over Wisconsin, so many of the people I have met believe that fresh ideas and energy are what we need to make Wisconsin a great place to be, not just be from,” Schoemann said.
Gov. Tony Evers has not said yet if he will run for a third term, saying he will wait until budget negotiations are complete before making an announcement.
Republicans are currently waiting on an in-person meeting with Evers to discuss the budget and a tax-cut plan in the state.

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Jobs and Energy Coalition, along with several other employer groups in Wisconsin, have been working to fight against an attempted block of a Line 5 reroute of the Bad River Reservation.
The director of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, for example, recently wrote with concerns that the arguments against approving the reroute could be used to block the timber industry on private land.
“These claims could delay or deny logging, road building, forest thinning, and replanting efforts—basic practices essential to both forest health and economic vitality,” Henry Schienebeck recently wrote in an op-ed published in the Ashland Daily Press. “The logic being advanced could be used to shut down operations across privately owned forests, tribal lands, and public working lands alike.”
Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is concerned about water contamination on the reservation, in Lake Superior and in the wetlands that serve as the Band’s wild rice beds and as a critical migratory bird habitat.
Enbridge applied for permits and proposed to reroute the line in 2020 by replacing 20 miles of existing pipeline – including the 12 miles currently within the reservation – with a 41-mile-long stretch of pipe around the reservation in northern Wisconsin.
Line 5 transports 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily from Superior, Wisconsin, through Michigan to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario for 645 miles through a 30-inch diameter pipe.
Two days of testimony recently occurred on the Bad River Band’s arguments to block the reroute. Hearings will continue on Aug. 12 at Northwood Technical College in Ashland, where the public can testify related to permits from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
During the recent hearing, Tera Fong, Water Division Director for Region 5 with the Environmental Protection Agency, was quoted as testifying that the “materials EPA reviewed did not provide data, studies or modeling analysis that showed and quantified impacts of distance from any given discharge point to water quality on the reservation, the likelihood of discharges, including discharges of pollutants traveling from groundwater to surface waters and then to the reservation boundary.”
Several union leaders also testified at the hearings, arguing that the objections are inconsistent and are regarding standard timber and construction practices approved across the country.
“These claims not only do not match up with the Bad River Band’s own previous construction approvals, but they are practices the Band has been fine with for dozens of projects in the same area,” said Teamsters Local 346 and pipeline representative for the Teamsters Chad Ward. “This leaves the impression that these concerns are more based on their political views of the project than the construction methods themself. And while they are entitled to their political views, it is the job of the permitting process to determine if laws and regulations are being followed, not weigh the political arguments.”