1410 WIZM

It's been awhile since there's been this many primary elections in La Crosse city council races. At least ten years since there were as many as the five primaries on Tuesday's ballot. That's half of the total number of council seats on the ballot in April and two of those are uncontested. City council members Doug Farmer in district 10, Bruce Ranis in district 12, And Lorraine Decker in district 15 all face two challengers on Tuesday. In district 7, three are running to fill a seat left vacant when Mike Larsen quit in the fall. District 13 has three looking to replace Bernie Maney who just recently announced he was done with a fifty year run on the council.

Much of the work of one local group is on hold after a move in Madison this week. The DNR has temporarily curtailed conservation grants during a review of the state's land stewardship program as mandated by the Walker administration. Those are grants that are heavily used by the Mississippi Valley Conservancy and there's a number of projects in the works right now, says MVC director, Tim Jacobson that may require those grants.  His group has used over six million dollars in state grants to protect from development over three thousand acres in the region.

As we told you this morning, the applications submitted to the Wisconsin PSC by the group CapX 2020 were rejected due to inaccurate and missing information about the high voltage power line project. A group that opposes the entire project, The Citizens Energy Task Force, claims that CapX 2020 is not concerned about the effects the power line will have on Wisconsin tourism and landowners.

 

Not true says Tom Hillstrom. He says they have worked with the Wisconsin DOT for a year and a half now to choose those two routes and the rejection of their application was expected.

CapX2020 is a massive ultra high voltage power line project that would come from the coal burning plants in the Dakotas traveling across the Mississippi River – crossing at Alma then traveling south to Holmen and Onalaska, over homes, through the La Crosse area and on to Madison. Once in North La Crosse, CapX is proposed to link into a line that would be built by American Transmission Company called the Badger Coulee Line.  This line could travel through scenic southwest Wisconsin farmland and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve as it barrels into Madison – and then to the East, aiming for Chicago and beyond. 

 

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said he will add 250 thousand new jobs and 10 thousand new businesses in four years. Democrats in the state don't think he is even close to adding a single job yet. But republicans in the state say bills including tax credits and a sweeping proposal to give businesses new protections from lawsuits is adding them as we speak.

Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch says a new approach is being taken. He says the governor is moving in the direction of providing an enviroment where people want to create jobs and grow and build here.

 

State republicans say they want they want to help businesses grow and expand.....and they will. Democrats are keeping a watchful eye in Madison.