Sheboygan Press Excerpt:
“Looking at the number of people who are here tonight, the question the board should be asking is, ‘How do we stop it?’” said Jim Bertram, of Adell. “We want to know how we can stop it.”
The town is in the process of drafting a wind ordinance and related wind siting roles in light of a proposed commercial wind farm there. The town, however, is hamstrung by state law in how strict they can make those rules. “The town can’t be any stricter than the rules the state came up with,” attorney Matt Parmentier told the audience. Parmentier was retained by the town to draft the ordinance.
If the town’s ordinance is more stringent than state rules, then the ordinance would be declared invalid and the project would be automatically approved. That was a sore point with many in the audience, saying the law was an affront to local control and property owners’ rights and will lower property values.
“He (the developer) is basically stealing my property,” said John Hayes, who lives near the proposed development. “I feel like they’re stealing from me.”
But ...but, according to Ayn Rand's morality of capitalism, the developer isn't stealing your property if the developer is following the law. It's Scott Walker who is stealing your land. Big oppressive authoritarian government.
When Walker developed his wind siting rules, like every other rule he pushed, he promoted it as anti-wind industry policy. His wind industry rules were meant to appear in opposition to sustainable and renewable energy, and most of all appear to look anti-european anti-socialist Obama - conservatives loved him for it! But in exchange for increasing the previous setback distance the realtors association wanted, Walker eliminated local control under the guise of creating uniform state laws so developers won't have to deal ...with ...with ...you.
The reality is Walker's entire electoral success (as well as the GOP's, Ryan, Ron Johnson, etc.) is all about your interpretation of their deceptive policy and position messaging, and it's working.
So, the irony here is that there's no point in drafting your own local wind ordinance unless you allow the wind turbines even closer to your property than Walker's law allows. Otherwise you're overruled! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Remember what that was like?
But the Town of Sherman voted by a 4 to 1 margin in favor of Scott Walker in the recall election. Now they are up in arms, almost literally I should add, about having their property stolen?
Conservative property owners took a chance, a big chance, and lost big when they voted for Scott Walker. Tsk ...tsk.
RELATED READING:
Democurmudgeon - Hey, Republican Voters in the Town of Jackson, still think Environmental concerns over the Keystone Pipeline were Ridiculous?
The Town of Jackson voted for Walker by a 5 to 1 margin! I'm starting to get a sense of buyers remorse from Walker's supporters.
4 comments:
Umm who was the alternative again? Oh that's right, it's the same guy how wants to shove a trolley down milwaukee's throat without concern to it's property owners or tax payers. Ya I'm sure a guy like that would be a much better choice on a state level. You argue under the veil of freedom but are blind to how socialistic tendancies impeads it. Who's pushing for all these wind farms anyway? (As if you didn't know it's coming from left field.) Isn't that the real problem? After all, then we wouldn't have to fight for our freedom in the first place.
As a Lefty, I would want to see a state law with an even greater distance between turbines and homes than what Walker proposes. I don't care who's pushing the windfarms, that is irrelevant. The late Ken Hendricks wanted windfarms everywhere in Wisconsin, and he was no lefty. What is not irrelevant is when government takes away local control under the guise of uniform state laws. Put the power back in the people's hands. The local people who be be effected by any and all development.
Yes I do agree with you Lou, I too think the local people should have the power over their communities. But allow me to pose two questions. Do you think that scenerio is more likely to occur under an expansion of government envolvement or a decrease in government envolvement? And to which of those two directions is your party headed?
Respectfully,
Righty.. ;)
It depends what you mean by "expansion" and government involvement. Size of government is relative and depending on how it's structured, a large government could be powerless just as much as a small government could be ever more powerful and authoritarian by putting a greater concentration of power in fewer hands. I believe the democratic party generally wants to put more power in more people's hands, what you might call big government, I might call empowering a nation of individuals. I say "generally" because I also believe there is too much money buying power. So, get the money out first before attempting to tinker with expanding or contracting government through forceful methads. I simply don't view the size of government as being crucial to its quality. That's me.
As far as local control is concerned, trends in Wisconsin show that the current Republican administration has disempowered local communities and we are heading into a more centralized power structure. Wind turbine siting, telecommunications, wetlands regulations, on and on and all of the other new state laws meant for "uniformity" take away local power. Also look no further when this GOP legislature overruled a local MKE binding referendum that passed by 70%. At the very same time, state government is keeping a much greater portion of tax receipts without rebates or credits back to the payers. This forces local government to double-up requests for revenue from the local taxpayers OR shrink local government and local services ever smaller to pay the bills, making local public officials look like the bad guys. In the meantime, state government by virtue of doing nothing becomes ever more centralized and powerful in relative strength to the newly weakened and defunded local governments. Add to that the tilted capital and credit markets and other reasons that are too much to list here is why I think the Republican Party is pushing us off the cliff.
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