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| 10/30/2008 10:46:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | |
| | Holperin stresses influence, Northwoods’ roots | For many candidates around the state and nation, many political candidates try to avoid saying they are insiders of the political system.
Jim Holperin isn't one of them.
The Democratic nominee for the 12th Senate District says he's made a career of advocating and making progress for northern Wisconsin, and, because he knows both the system and the region, he's best suited to replace the retired Roger Breske.
Republican Tom Tiffany is Holperin's opponent.
"Because I was born and raised in the area, I am familiar with it, and I have many years experience speaking out on behalf of issues that are very important to this area and making progress on those issues, both in the Legislature and with state agencies and with the governor," Holperin said during a Lakeland Times interview. "I believe I have proved to be an effective advocate for this area and I would like to continue to do that."
His platform, he says, revolves around business and economic development and job creation - economic issues critical to the area.
"I understand how important the economy is to this area and how important it is to have good-paying jobs that offer a future to our youth and continue to offer support in this economy," he said.
When decisions for vital economic programs are made in Madison, Holperin says - from roads and bridges to high-speed Internet and information technology - he wants to be sitting at the table making sure northern Wisconsin gets its fair share.
"I believe I understand the needs and challenges we face, but I also understand the opportunities we have," Holperin said. "I know the system. I know the players. I know the process. I believe I am suited to be able to be that advocate and get the resources and influence and programs and get the attention by the state this area deserves."
State government
The Democratic candidate said the Doyle administration has made progress in reducing the size of state government.
He says the Doyle administration has already reduced the number of state workers, for example, and took issue with state Blue Book numbers showing the number of state workers growing by 3.2 percent since 2002, saying those numbers probably included part-time employees.
The more proper comparison was full-time equivalent state employees to full-time equivalent state employees, he said.
"If you're counting full-time state employees, the number has fallen and it's fallen by several thousand," Holperin said. "The governor's original goal of a 10,000 employee cut was not achieved and we all acknowledge that. I certainly do. But the reduction of several thousand employees in four years is a movement in a direction and I think it's a direction toward fewer state government employees."
Holperin observed that he was part of the Doyle administration as tourism secretary and he reduced the number of employees in that agency from 61 to 41 - by one-third - during his tenure.
The Democratic nominee pointed out that the state is constitutionally required to balance its budget every two years.
"Now there may be some issues over how the state does that and there's been criticism over the state raiding one fund to pay another, and questions of moving payments for various aids like school revenue or shared revenue from one biennia to another, but the fact of the matter is, regardless of those technical issues - I would call them technical or financial issues, or some would say accounting tricks - the state is constitutionally required to have a balanced budget, so if there is less revenue there is less spending," he said.
But is raiding segregated funds, such as the transportation fund, a good idea?
"In the case of the transportation fund, a policy decision was made by the governor that our general purpose state programs, our five big state programs, were of a higher priority at that time than the transportation fund," Holperin said.
Those programs, he said - school aids, Medicaid, the UW system, corrections, and shared revenue - take 80 cents of every tax dollar.
"I would have tended at the time to support a new revenue source," he said. "And that was tried and that failed. In this case the new revenue source was the hospital assessment. So what do you do? It was simply a decision that was made and I probably would have agreed with it at the time, that public education, at that time, was a slightly higher priority than the transportation fund. But that was a gubernatorial decision, not a legislative one, and, at that time, the hospital assessment having failed, the Legislature had no recourse but to accept it."
As for the next budget, Holperin said, given the requirement of a balanced budget and the likelihood of less revenue during a time of economic downturn, said the governor is trying to avoid huge reductions in those big five programs.
Instead of hacking money out of those priority budgets, Holperin said the governor is looking to cut $500 to $600 million out of the remaining 20 percent of the state budget - all the other state agencies and programs outside the realm of the big five.
Holperin said the governor has directed those cuts to be made in upcoming budgets in two separate executive orders.
"For some of these agencies, you're going to see this show up as fewer hours, maybe closing some offices, spacing out state inspections, laying off some state employees, little nickel and dime cuts throughout the state agencies, and that's how the governor has said we will balance our budget," he said.
Holperin said his preference was not to balance the budget by raiding segregated funds.
Northern economic development
Holperin said he was committed to helping establish a diverse economy in northern Wisconsin.
"A primary focus of my campaign is getting more jobs, better paying jobs, new creative 21st century jobs for the Northwoods," he said.
He also took issue with a premise that the governor just wants tourism for the Northwoods.
"I don't think anybody will agree that that's a satisfactory goal or aspiration," Holperin said. "Everybody connected with economic development from the governor on down agrees that in our rural area, especially in our rural areas, we ought to be positioning ourselves for high tech, bio tech, fiber to fuel, telecommunications, information technology - just like the big cities," he said.
Holperin said, because the North has less population, the question is how we go about economic development. In part, he said, it takes a legislator who knows where the money is and knows how to go about getting loans and grants for the region.
"I have experience in that regard, and I am qualified to be able to go and advocate for northern Wisconsin and be able to go and get those kind of programs up here," he said.
Holperin said that, for purposes of economic development, towns such as Woodruff and Minocqua have almost outgrown their legal status - towns cannot offer such incentives for economic development as TIF districts, for instance, like cities and villages can.
"It almost behooves towns such as Woodruff and Minocqua to think about reorganizing," he said. "Why should they be a town? There's a substantial population base here now where perhaps it behooves these communities to think about reorganizing as a village, or as a city, so that they qualify for some programs that are only available to cities and villages. That's a local decision that has to be made."
Holperin said something else that has to be considered is that towns that conform to certain demographic trends or circumstances should be able come to the Legislature and request that they be included for program eligibility just like cities and villages.
He said towns, for public policy reasons such as controlling sprawl, are only eligible for TIF and other incentive programs under very limited circumstances - recreation, for instance - but some towns like Minocqua and Woodruff could argue that they have grown beyond that categorization.
Energy
Holperin said he was undecided about the state's minimum mark-up law.
"I think it has mostly outlived its usefulness, but a reasonable argument can still be made that for local retailers, especially gasoline outlets, it does have a reason to exist," he said. "You've got a Wal-Mart in Minocqua and one reason you don't have a Wal-Mart gas station is the state's minimum markup law."
The argument is, he said, that without the minimum mark-up law, there would be a Wal-Mart gas station, and people would enjoy lower gas prices for a while, but that over time, because of Wal-Mart's competitive advantage, that would be short-lived.
On the question of potential collusion among local retailers in setting gas prices, Holperin said the Legislature's reach might be limited.
"I would support a legislative inquiry into how the price is set, but I'm not so sure that, given the competitive dynamics in small towns, any kind of legislative investigation would bring down gas prices at the end of it," he said. "That's simply because once whoever is setting that initial price does it, naturally all the other stations follow. I don't think we're going to get into gas wars and, if we do, you're likely to settle at some price that's very similar to other communities, other states, and I don't think Minocqua is ever going to end up lower than communities like Merrill, Antigo and Wausau."
In the short-term, Holperin wasn't optimistic about government action to lower gas prices.
"I don't think there's any immediate solution," he said. "I think we're at the mercy of the petroleum market, but there are certain things we can do to make sure we're not held captive to a foreign petroleum market 10 or 15 years from now. We need to apply some discipline at the state level to get to that point."
He said the governor's plan to have the state 25-percent energy self-sufficient by the year 2025 is good, though ambitious.
The North, he says, needs an active advocate to make sure that, as that policy gets implemented with tax credits and loans and grants, the North gets its fair share.
"We're particularly well suited to convert fiber to fuel," Holperin said. "Our strength up here is the fiber market. So we need somebody who understands that and will advocate at the state level for research dollars so we can develop . . .wood-based ethanol, so we can have the technology transfer to turn our fiber into pellets for commercial fuel and to make sure that we get the loans and the grants into this part of the state so we can share in that kind of economic development. That's something I will do."
Holperin also said the region should look into energy alternatives such as wind and solar and, particularly, at getting dollars for geothermal research.
The bottom line is, he said, the region needs somebody who knows the system, who knows where the money is coming from, to be an advocate who can get those dollars, and Holperin says he's the candidate who can do just that.
He also says the state should look at nuclear energy so long as it is price-competitive.
As for such things as home-heating assistance, Holperin was not optimistic and said he would be hesitant to assure low-income residents they would get all the help they need this winter, given the economy and budget situations. While he said there were a lot of opportunities in the long-run to help people, there were very few opportunities in the short-term, save for facilitating communication for those who need help about what help is available.
Other issues
Holperin said he has always been a strong supporter of gun rights and supports concealed carry legislation: "And I will vote to override the governor's veto of it if it passes the Legislature," he said. "It's just consistent with my gun support, the positions I've taken over the years."
On the issue of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands and their newly won authority to buy lands in Oneida, Vilas and seven other counties, Holperin said he was an unabashed friend.
"I support the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands," he said. "I support the laws which govern them. I support the land transactions which they have proposed. I support the forestry that they do because I believe they do good, sustainable forestry. And they do harvest those lands where they are harvestable. I support the purposes for which the trust funds are used. That's schools in Wisconsin, and if you want to start fooling around with the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, you run the risk of having a lot of mischief made by legislators outside this area, who are a majority in the state, taking that money and using it for purposes other than schools, taking a good state program, for the most part, and getting rid of it, simply abolishing the trust fund, selling the land, and very little of that activity will benefit northern Wisconsin, in my opinion."
Holperin said the agency isn't actually buying more land, but shedding certain unproductive lands to buy more productive lands, thus the aggregate number of acres remains the same.
"I support the state's acquisition of land for public purposes and the reason I support it is that the future of our area and our quality of life, the future of our logging industry, the future of our recreation industry, the future of our economy, which is tied to retirees, depends in large part on having large acreages of public land available where people can hunt and fish and hike and pick berries without having to ask permission," he said. "That is something this part of the state has always had and we've turned it into a tremendous asset."
The future of logging is increasingly dependent of public land, Holperin said, given the timber companies' divestiture of its lands.
"Now, should we give a directive to log more," he asked. "You bet we should."
The bottom line, he said, his concern is public access, not who owns the land: "That's the benchmark we should be looking at, and if timber companies sell land, and we lose land, we lose public access, and we shouldn't have that."
He was adamant about the BCPL.
"Get this quote in there," he said forcefully. "I do not want to order the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands to sell off their lands to private developers."
DNR
Holperin said he would not support a split of the Department of Natural Resources into separate agencies.
"I don't think that's necessary right now," he said. "As currently structured, having responsibility for both environmental policy and outdoor conservation policy, the agency is doing an adequate job. I support a lot of the work they are doing."
However, he said, he may seriously consider removing some forestry responsibilities from the DNR and shifting that to the Department of Agriculture because he thinks the DNR may not be now or in the future promoting forestry the way it should and to the degree the North needs it to.
Holperin also said he was content with the status quo regarding the configuration of the Natural Resources Board - having the governor appoint that board with senate consent. But he did favor a DNR secretary appointed by the board rather than by the governor, as is done now.
Holperin also said he would not support reform of the state's administrative rules process.
"My view of that is that our administrative rule process in this state is generally adequate, generally fair, and meeting the objectives set forth for it, that is, providing details of general laws as passed by the Legislature," he said. "And I say that because the administrative rule process is really under constant revision. Little changes are made to it all the time by legislative committees where they see shortcomings and where they see that the Legislature might be losing control of the process."
Holperin says the Legislature always has de facto control over an administrative rule.
As far as the DNR's focus in the northern region, Holperin said the agency, for one thing, should zero in on the invasive species issue, both terrestrial and aquatic.
"I'm glad that the department and the Legislature has reacted to our need here for what is essentially a crisis by appropriating more money to fight aquatic invasives," he said. "That money is coming out of the waterways account, which I was instrumental in creating back in the 80s. It [that account] essentially takes motor boat gas money and recognizes that that money is segregated so it is being spent on the water and not the land."
And again, he stressed, the DNR needs to focus on the logging and forest products industry in this area. Finally, he said, we need to have adequate DNR personnel in the area to manage fish and game habitat.
As far as shoreland zoning, Holperin would not like to cede total shoreland zoning authority to county governments.
"My hope is that the DNR and the counties not be at loggerheads too much of the time over the enforcement of shoreland zoning and laws," he said. "I understand it will probably happen in one or two isolated instances. I don't know that that can be described as a trend or a universal concern for every shoreland owner and I can just say I hope for cooperation between those agencies. Perhaps we need to offer a gentle legislative nudge for cooperation rather than giving complete autonomy to one entity of government, state level or local level, over another."
Holperin said most land-use conflicts between the two entities were isolated now, and perhaps an independent arbitrator was needed to settle such disputes.
Part-time?
Holperin rejected the notion that the state is one of 10 full-time Legislatures in the nation. He said lawmakers were statutorily defined as part-time, that pay and benefits were part-time and, in fact, said he was told the Assembly only met 28 days over the past two-year session.
"I don't know how you make them more part-time," he said. "What do you do, take away their office hours? Limit the amount of time they can be in Madison?"
He did acknowledge that lawmakers spent full-time at those jobs.
"But I guess I don't know how you get to that (part-time), and they meet very little, so if that isn't part-time, I don't know what is. Can you take away a legislator's ability to spend full-time at a part-time job?"
The Democratic candidate did say that cutting pay and benefits would change the dynamic of who ran for office and how they approached legislative duties.
Holperin said he would not support postponing a 6.3 percent pay raise for lawmakers scheduled for next year.
"Apparently that's already been voted on," he said. "Would I start a one-person crusade to reverse something a previous Legislature has voted to do. No, I would not. I've got more important things to do."
Health care
On the issue of affordable health care, Holperin said he hoped the federal government would take action, as both presidential candidates have promised to do.
"My suspicion is, the federal government will elevate this issue - health care that's affordable and health care for everyone - to a much higher level in the first of the year, no matter who the president is, and will begin to act on it," Holperin said. "If that doesn't happen, then the states will be left to figure this issue out, as they have been historically."
On the state level, Holperin said his first preference is to expand BadgerCare and to find some way to get everybody covered and everybody contributing to it.
"The Healthy Wisconsin plan offered by Senate Democrats last year was in many parts very political," he said. "That plan is too expensive and too political and doesn't enjoy enough support to be realistic. So how the Legislature shares costs so that everybody is covered and everybody contributes and how it shares risks should be a high priority for the state, where you believe that people who know this is a tough but important issue would be able to sit at a committee table and come to a solution that might not please everybody but is better than what we have now."
Holperin said he would support a task force to come up with a plan for the Legislature to consider.
On education, most lawmakers would argue that the funding formula is not broken, Holperin said, and even in his senate district some school districts receive up to 75 percent of their funding from the state.
"Looking statewide, you have to say that the school funding formula works as it was intended, which is to ensure that every property owner pays about the same in school taxes," he said.
Holperin said he worked very hard in the Assembly to increase aid based on an income factor, but he said it would be difficult to alter the overall funding formula. He said he would rather advocate for declining enrollment and transportation supplements.
He also supports increasing the Homestead Property Tax Credit program that factors in income in granting property tax relief.
"My clear preference when we deliver property tax relief by giving credits or using state general fund dollars, they've got to put it into that program," he said. He acknowledged potential constitutional problems by expanding the program - the constitution requires equal treatment of all taxpayers - but he said it was worth a try.
"I think we ought to take the plunge and risk the constitutional challenge," Holperin said. "Let it happen and then consider changing the constitution to allow tax relief, as other states have, to go to those who need it the most."
Holperin says he supports the 90-percent mercury reduction level because he believes there will be demonstrable environmental benefits and that historically, environmental rules in the state have been good and sound and have benefited the state.
Holperin said he voted for Smart Growth in the Assembly, but he said the jury was out on whether it has or will achieve the objectives for which it was intended. But he said it was old news, with few heated debates anymore, and the state should simply move ahead with implementation and, then, if it does not achieve those objectives, reconsider it.
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Tiffany, Holperin on the issues
Tiffany: Less government is the way to grow Wisconsin's economy
The Republican candidate for the 12th District state Senate seat, Tom Tiffany, believes in keeping his political message straightforward and focused: When it comes to government, he tells voters, less is more.
After running a strong race against then incumbent Sen. Roger Breske four years ago, Tiffany is seeking the seat for the second time. This year, the seat is open after Breske retired to become Wisconsin's railroad czar.
Tiffany is running against former Democratic Assemblyman Jim Holperin.
"We have to have a more friendly economy here in the state of Wisconsin," Tiffany said in a Lakeland Times interview. "Less is more. No tax increases, less regulation, and less litigation give us more. Then people will want to invest in the state because they will have a chance to have a return on those investments."
Tiffany says his opponent doesn't share the same philosophy.
"There are clear differences between Jim Holperin and myself," he said. "I'm not going to increase taxes and Jim Holperin has a long history of doing that. When he was in the Assembly, he continuously voted for more spending and consequently for more taxes."
Tiffany said Holperin criticized him for being too focused on the state budget, which Tiffany took to mean Holperin doesn't view the budget process as a priority.
"I do think it's a priority," he said. "And the reason for that is that the state budget affects our budget - your budget and my budget - so clearly, when you look at his record both in the Assembly and on the tech college board (Holperin served as a board member for Nicolet College), he's not hesitant to raise taxes."
Tiffany says key endorsements also expose philosophical differences between the two candidates, as do their respective positions on social issues.
"He's endorsed by the Sierra Club, one of the most anti-logging and anti-hunting groups you'll find across the country," Tiffany said. "I'm endorsed by the NRA. It's a clear contrast. You don't see him touting his Sierra Club endorsement here in northern Wisconsin. And, yes, we're different on social issues. I'm pro-life and he's not, so there are real clear differences."
Specific issues
During the interview, Tiffany applied his "less is more" theme to a wide variety of specific issues.
For example, he said such agencies as the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands need to be examined to see if they are fulfilling their constitutional mission.
"It's the least known agency in the state of Wisconsin and the least scrutinized," Tiffany said. "It's out there as an agency that people know very, very little about, and I do think we need more sunshine on it."
He said he opposed the BCPL's continuing purchase of lands in northern Wisconsin, and he criticized its failure to harvest the allowable cut of timber on lands they already own.
"First, I oppose additional land purchases by the BCPL," he said. "Second, if they are going to continue to have that land they need to harvest the allowable cut. And third, we should eliminate that duplication and turn over the forestry aspect to the DNR's forestry department and have them manage those forest lands."
Tiffany said it was time to review the practices of all agencies, not just the BCPL, to see if operations could be handled in a more efficient manner.
"It goes back to accountability," he said. "Just because we've done something one way in the past doesn't mean that we should continue doing it that way in the future. Some of them we're going to find there's a darn good reason they were set up the way they were and they should continue to operate that way. There are some we're going to find that we need to move to different ways of utilizing their assets."
That review of assets would include the state's Stewardship Fund, which Tiffany acknowledged has broad popular support.
"But I do think it needs to be re-evaluated, especially in light of the fiscal times we are in," he said. "People have to make some choices here. Do you fund education, or do you fund buying more land? Do you fund keeping our infrastructure up, like roads, or do you buy more land? Because those are the choices we are going to end up with in the Legislature. People say, 'Yeah, we like the Stewardship Fund,' especially in light of all these industrial forests being broken up. You talk to people who are out there hunting and they really like the Stewardship Fund because they feel it will continue to allow them access to broad swaths of land for hunting."
But Tiffany questions whether the state can continue to afford its land purchases when other budget priorities are pressing.
"I think we are close to a point, with the fiscal state of Wisconsin, to ask, Are we going to continue to buy land rather than fund education, roads, or senior care? What are the most important things we are going to fund? To me, education, roads, senior care, public safety - those things come first."
State workforce
Tiffany said he would support a state hiring freeze and he said the Legislature should undertake a review of the number of state workers to see where cuts might be made.
"Certainly, Gov. Doyle has not lived up to his pledge on this and of equal concern is where they are putting state jobs, where jobs are going in state government," he said. "You see the continued growth of the bureaucracy in Madison - the DNR for example - yet you don't have people in the field. You hear that we don't have enough wardens and we don't have enough foresters, but they are growing jobs in Madison. I think their priorities are wrong in that they need to make sure these people are out in the field."
State employees in the field tend to work with the people, Tiffany said, while Madison bureaucrats all too often hampered the people.
" In broader terms, people expect state government to be a partner, not an impediment," he said. "And as you grow the bureaucracy in Madison, a lot of times those people serve as an impediment to growth because they are creating new rules and regulations."
Tiffany said he would support consolidating state attorneys within the Department of Administration as a way to reduce both their numbers and litigation.
"That's an area I fully support what Gov. Doyle was proposing, and that is get the attorneys out of the agencies," Tiffany said. "Talk about mischief waiting to happen. We should move that to the DOA and I support that fully."
Economic development
Tiffany said a reasonable tax climate and less regulation - he called excessive regulation "a real job killer" - were especially important for northern Wisconsin, which badly needs economic development.
"I'm in the tourism-hospitality business and my business will not survive without an industrial base in northern Wisconsin," said Tiffany, who owns Wisconsin River Cruises in Rhinelander. "Job growth needs to come from more than the tourism-hospitality industry. We have to have manufacturing in order for northern Wisconsin to survive and that's going to require a reasonable tax climate. Moderate taxes, reasonable regulation - those two things go hand in hand, and we have to change those things."
Tiffany said high-speed telecommunications and technological infrastructure were vital for the North, but he said he opposed what he called Holperin's big government approach to developing that infrastructure.
"My opponent in his first economic development press conference said we need subsidies and such, and he would appoint a task force in his first few months as a state senator to make sure we get high-speed telecommunications to all of northern Wisconsin," Tiffany said. "So in other words we're going to have government intervention in trying to get us high-speed telecommunications. Well we don't need to go that route because we've got the private sector already making the investments. We need to make sure we stay out of their way in terms of them having enough capital, making sure they have the incentives to invest that capital, making sure the regulatory barriers are out of the way, and if we do that they will bring high-speed telecommunications to northern Wisconsin."
Gas prices
While Tiffany said he had not given the state's minimum mark-up law much thought, he did say he would like to see a discount for paying cash for gas come back, which he said the Legislature banned several years ago.
"We've been at $4 a gallon for gasoline, and a credit card company charges about 3 percent per transaction, or at $4 a gallon about 10 cents for the merchant to transmit that card. So if we had a discount for cash, I think you would see some stations offering a 5 cents or 10 cents a gallon discount."
On the whole, Tiffany said, the problem of high gas prices is a federal one.
"The bigger problem is at the federal level where we haven't built a new refinery in 30 years," he said. "We have extreme environmental groups who say there are no tradeoffs they will accept - you can't drill for oil in these certain places."
That's not to say state lawmakers shouldn't lobby the federal delegation, he said.
"For the state as a whole, we need to go to our federal delegation and tell them to stop passing laws that create all these boutique fuels," Tiffany said. "You've got all these different blends of gasoline, about 50 produced around the country, and it's been very counterproductive in being able to move the product anywhere in the country and being able to produce it in a less expensive fashion. These regulations are causing gas prices to be higher, particularly in southeastern Wisconsin."
Tiffany also said the boutique fuels yield fewer miles to the gallon, again increasing prices for the consumer.
"This has spread around the state," he said. "So what you're seeing is people getting about 10 percent less mileage on a gallon of gas. The state Legislature should be encouraging the federal delegation to remove regulatory barriers to producing gasoline in a more efficient manner."
In particular, Tiffany said he does not support the ethanol mandate.
The Legislature should also be careful, he said, not to do any harm, such as passing a tax on oil companies.
"I will not support that because who of us believes that if a oil tax is put on in Wisconsin that it's not going to be passed on to us," Tiffany said. "All companies pass along their cost of doing business to the consumer. So we should not pass any new taxes or incentives that make it more expensive."
He also said he would not support a reduction in the gas tax.
"I don't think we can cut the gas tax because we are going to have a huge bill coming due for transportation infrastructure," he said. "And with the cost of petroleum going so high, they are having a hard time getting roads built. I do want to see gas taxes used totally for transportation."
As such, he said, he would support a constitutional amendment to prevent raids on such segregated accounts as the transportation fund.
"The transportation fund is the poster child for this, but this includes the patients compensation fund, too," Tiffany said. "The governor took $200 million, which in the long run will make health care more expensive. The governor even took money out of the recycling fund."
Tiffany said he is a big supporter of incentives to develop alternative energy sources.
"We should give tax incentives to the whole basket of possibilities for bringing new energy sources to Wisconsin," he said. "I will vote to lift the nuclear prohibition. Wind, solar, geothermal, you name it, we need to become more energy self-sufficient, not only in Wisconsin but in the country as a whole. It's a national security issue. It's an economic security issue. Some people for the first time are experiencing a declining standard of living, which is directly tied to the cost of energy."
Tiffany said the state should experiment and test, abandoning those alternatives that don't work and embracing those that do.
"Corn-based ethanol didn't quite work out the way we thought it would, so let's set it aside and move on," he said. "But you need to have a multi-pronged approach to this because some are going to do better than others. Domestic energy production is the biggest challenge in the next decade for both state and federal legislators because affordable energy is at the very heart of our prosperity. If you take away affordable energy, people experience a declining standard of living and we are seeing that right now."
In the meantime, he said, people and government face tough budget choices when it comes to dealing with such short-term crises as the record numbers of those in need of emergency home-heating assistance.
"Do we fund stewardship or do we fund heating people's homes?" he asked. "Do we continue to pour money into BCPL or do we heat people's homes? The state Legislature may have to take action to help people out, there's no doubt about that, and that's where the tough decisions come in. Some of the things people really, really like to have funded, are they as important as heating someone's home? Is it as important as educating children? I'm prepared to make those choices, because I do it every day with my family and my business."
Administrative rule process
Tiffany said he was absolutely committed to reforming the state's administrative rule process.
"We're elected as legislators to represent the people, and that has been circumvented through the rule-making process," he said. "We have to bring that control back to the Legislature."
There are two critical things lawmakers do, he said. One is to make laws; the other is to review the rules that implement those laws to see if they follow legislative intent.
"It's very sexy for legislators to be out there writing laws - you get your picture in The Lakeland Times," he said. "It's not as sexy but it's equally as important to review those rules that have been put in place as a result of the law and make sure it comports with the law. I will spend as much time doing that or more than writing new laws. I don't think we need more laws in the state of Wisconsin."
Tiffany took aim at one particular administrative rule: the recent rule mandating 90 percent mercury emission reductions by 2015.
"My opponent supports that 90 percent rule," Tiffany said. "That rule makes Wisconsin an island. I support the 70 percent reduction rule that came down from the federal EPA. By going to 90 percent reduction, manufacturers are going to leave this state because it's going to be very costly, particularly for our utilities, to meet this. People are going to see their electric rates go up 25 percent just because of that. We are going to make electricity in Wisconsin more expensive at the worst possible time."
Beyond the administrative rule process, Tiffany said he would support splitting the DNR.
"The devil is in the details in terms of how you go about splitting it," he said. "You want to make sure you do it right and that you've got the forestry and fish and wildlife - the part people fund through their fees - as its own agency and not be distorted by some of the environmental regulatory stuff."
The agency itself should get out of shoreland zoning enforcement altogether, he says.
"I believe our county zoning departments do a fine job of managing their counties and not every county is alike," Tiffany said. "They should be able to put their own rules in place, and ultimately it's duplicative. That's one of the biggest reasons I oppose Smart Growth. It's a duplication of zoning. It's a state mandate and we have to reduce mandates on all local government - school boards, towns, counties. Mandates in their simplest form are telling people we don't trust you and we are going to tell you how to run your operations.
Well, these [local government officials] go before their electors every two to four years. The electors are going to tell them whether they are doing their jobs or not."
As for the Legislature itself, Tiffany said he would support a part-time Legislature, favors postponing a scheduled pay raise for lawmakers next year, and backs either constitutional or statutory limits to session lengths.
Health care and education
On the issue of health care, Tiffany says the state is pretty good - though not perfect - in access to quality health care.
"We have safety nets in place with Badgercare," he said. "The problem is cost, affordability. We need to remove mandates because 30 percent of health care costs are mandates. There should be tax deductibility, too. Some things like health savings accounts are not tax deductible. The governor has vetoed that several times and I will introduce legislation to make it tax deductible."
Tiffany also said there should be full disclosure on pricing.
"Our health care providers need to inform the public how much these procedures and tests cost," he said. "If you're going to have good consumers, you have to have good information."
And, he said, health insurance should be portable, meaning people should not lose their insurance just because they lose their job.
"That's one of the good things about consumer driven accounts, you can take them with you," he said.
Tiffany said he supported levy limits on local governments, but he also said the state should live within its own budget.
As for fair funding for northern schools, Tiffany said he had no illusion that it would be an easy task.
"You go down there and work as hard as possible to gain additional funding," he said. "It is a finite pot of money. It will not be an easy task. It's a zero sum game with school funding. No school is willingly going to give up money. You have to show fellow legislators that MHLT gets 3 percent of its funding from the state and you have to show them this is inequitable."
Tiffany said he would be searching for new funding sources, too.
"Take segregation funds that were created for bussing children - that program is largely irrelevant now," he said. "Those monies are no longer needed there. I would like to see them come to northern Wisconsin to fund transportation for the schools here that are so dispersed. And I see that as part of a bridge to perhaps a new funding formula that's put into place, which is going to take time."
Indeed, Tiffany said, lawmakers need to review every single state agency budget "with a fine-tooth comb".
"We have to have a thorough review, and if there are people sitting on money that we should be using for different purposes, for priority purposes, then we should do it," he said.
But Tiffany also said creating jobs should be considered a key factor in increasing school funding.
"Economic development is a must," he said. "That's part of the way we bring education back in the state. You have to have new businesses coming into these communities if you're going to be able to fund schools, and then the families follow, the kids are in schools, the parents pay property taxes. So one reason for declining enrollment is a lack of economic development."
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