MONROE - Getting more money for schools is at the top of the to-do lists of 51st Assembly District candidates Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, and Maureen May-Grimm, D-Mineral Point.
Marklein, campaigning for his second term in the Wisconsin Assembly, wants to find the money through increased job opportunities and lower regulatory costs for businesses. May-Grimm, currently serving her second term on the Mineral Point School Board, sees a great advantage in an added sales tax specifically to fund schools.
"Jobs are still my number one concern, and of the people I talk to in the area," Marklein said. "A lot of things, other problems, could be solved when you get people back to work - more income, more tax revenue, more money for school districts."
Marklein said he approaches the jobs problem in two ways: helping to create and pass policy legislative action and serving personally as an advocate for constituents who, as employers, get bogged down in the regulatory mire.
"I've worked closely with our employers to get through regulatory hoops," he said.
In one case, Marklein said, Ron Buholzer of Klondike Cheese explained the cheesemaking industry was in jeopardy from wastewater permits impeding their ability to expand. Marklein arranged a meeting at the state capital for area cheesemakers to explain their concern to three top Department of Natural Resources representatives responsible for permits. Klondike now has a $15-million expansion going on to make Greek yogurt, he added.
"I've done the same for Shullsburg's White Hill Cheese," Marklein said. "I'm willing to go to bat for our businesses. Business owners know: If you want to grow, you'd better keep what you have."
Sometimes, helping businesses that want to expand over the regulatory hurdles is not quite enough, and in passing legislation, representatives try to be "as sensitive to concerns of businesses and employees as we can." Marklein said,
Marklein co-sponsored the bi-partisan Senate Bill 537, the Aquaculture Bill. Now Act 207, it helped ease state permit restrictions, among the most stringent in the country, which threatened to kill the state's fish farming industry. Among the changes made by the bill, wastewater discharge requirements cannot be more stringent than the federal rules, and no fees can be charged as previously done under the wastewater discharge environmental section.
"It took legislation to solve that one," Marklein said.
May-Grimm is looking at school funding directly, and personally. She said school and students can't bear more cuts, and property tax payers can't afford more taxes.
"As a second-term school board member, we have made repeated cuts. We are forced to cut services or staff, or increase local property taxes," she said, "and those on a fixed income can't afford more taxes. That situation came home to me when I got laid off."
May-Grimm said she didn't want to sell her house after being laid off and didn't believe she could be a good price for the property in the market. "But I could impact my spending," she said.
She supports State Superintendent Tony Ever's 1-cent sales tax proposal. After talking to a prior Mineral Point superintendent who had moved to Iowa, May-Grimm said she discovered a 1-percent additional sales tax for schools is working in Iowa.
May-Grimm, who now works in Dubuque, finds herself paying for some of that Iowa school funding, and concludes that the tax impact on Wisconsin businesses' sales would be negligible. "Whether I'm paying 5 and a half percent or 7 and a half percent doesn't influence where I buy my coffee," she said.
"Education is closely related to jobs," May-Grimm added, and she laments "a 30-percent cut in state revenues to vocational schools."
Employees recently laid-off at Land's End need retraining, and manufacturing companies need new welders to take over the jobs left by retirees, she said, "and vocationals are the best schools to do that."
The 51st Assembly District includes the Green County Towns of Cadiz, Clarno, Jordan and Monroe; the City of Monroe; and all of Lafayette County, except the Town of Benton.
Marklein, campaigning for his second term in the Wisconsin Assembly, wants to find the money through increased job opportunities and lower regulatory costs for businesses. May-Grimm, currently serving her second term on the Mineral Point School Board, sees a great advantage in an added sales tax specifically to fund schools.
"Jobs are still my number one concern, and of the people I talk to in the area," Marklein said. "A lot of things, other problems, could be solved when you get people back to work - more income, more tax revenue, more money for school districts."
Marklein said he approaches the jobs problem in two ways: helping to create and pass policy legislative action and serving personally as an advocate for constituents who, as employers, get bogged down in the regulatory mire.
"I've worked closely with our employers to get through regulatory hoops," he said.
In one case, Marklein said, Ron Buholzer of Klondike Cheese explained the cheesemaking industry was in jeopardy from wastewater permits impeding their ability to expand. Marklein arranged a meeting at the state capital for area cheesemakers to explain their concern to three top Department of Natural Resources representatives responsible for permits. Klondike now has a $15-million expansion going on to make Greek yogurt, he added.
"I've done the same for Shullsburg's White Hill Cheese," Marklein said. "I'm willing to go to bat for our businesses. Business owners know: If you want to grow, you'd better keep what you have."
Sometimes, helping businesses that want to expand over the regulatory hurdles is not quite enough, and in passing legislation, representatives try to be "as sensitive to concerns of businesses and employees as we can." Marklein said,
Marklein co-sponsored the bi-partisan Senate Bill 537, the Aquaculture Bill. Now Act 207, it helped ease state permit restrictions, among the most stringent in the country, which threatened to kill the state's fish farming industry. Among the changes made by the bill, wastewater discharge requirements cannot be more stringent than the federal rules, and no fees can be charged as previously done under the wastewater discharge environmental section.
"It took legislation to solve that one," Marklein said.
May-Grimm is looking at school funding directly, and personally. She said school and students can't bear more cuts, and property tax payers can't afford more taxes.
"As a second-term school board member, we have made repeated cuts. We are forced to cut services or staff, or increase local property taxes," she said, "and those on a fixed income can't afford more taxes. That situation came home to me when I got laid off."
May-Grimm said she didn't want to sell her house after being laid off and didn't believe she could be a good price for the property in the market. "But I could impact my spending," she said.
She supports State Superintendent Tony Ever's 1-cent sales tax proposal. After talking to a prior Mineral Point superintendent who had moved to Iowa, May-Grimm said she discovered a 1-percent additional sales tax for schools is working in Iowa.
May-Grimm, who now works in Dubuque, finds herself paying for some of that Iowa school funding, and concludes that the tax impact on Wisconsin businesses' sales would be negligible. "Whether I'm paying 5 and a half percent or 7 and a half percent doesn't influence where I buy my coffee," she said.
"Education is closely related to jobs," May-Grimm added, and she laments "a 30-percent cut in state revenues to vocational schools."
Employees recently laid-off at Land's End need retraining, and manufacturing companies need new welders to take over the jobs left by retirees, she said, "and vocationals are the best schools to do that."
The 51st Assembly District includes the Green County Towns of Cadiz, Clarno, Jordan and Monroe; the City of Monroe; and all of Lafayette County, except the Town of Benton.