52nd Assembly District

Includes Fond du Lac and North Fond du Lac

John Townsend - Republlican

Candidate Jerry Keifenheim - Democrat did not respond

Question 1:  Economic development professional have long identified regulatory burdens as one of the challenges to attracting and retaining businesses in Wisconsin. In just the past few years, several thousand paper and other manufacturing jobs have left northeast Wisconsin for other states and other countries. What can the legislature do to make Wisconsin a more attractive place to do business, create jobs, and generate tax revenue for local government?

Townsend: To reduce the regulatory burdens that businesses face, the legislature needs to take a more active role in over seeing the activities of the various agencies.  Especially those that are directly involved in regulating business.  In many cases agencies are given too much leeway in establishing administrative rules.  The State statues consist of five volumes while there are eighteen volumes of administrative rules.

 The Administrative Rules Committee should play a very active role in monitoring regulatory agencies.  In addition, the Audit Committee needs to undertake audits of regulatory agency performance.  The ultimate power of the legislature is that it can deny funds for agencies that over step the bounds.

 Steps have been taken by the legislature to speed up the permitting process.  By law state agencies have to respond to a permit application within a specified number of days.  Compliance with this needs to be monitored.

 To bolster the State’s economy the legislature must establish a business friendly tax environment and support programs for training a highly skilled labor force.

Question 2: More than ever before, local government officials are facing the dilemma of cutting jobs and services while still remaining under revenue caps. In recent years, state legislators have proposed various local government spending and taxing measures intended to hold down property taxes, including both the so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights and the Taxpayer Protection Amendment. As this crisis continues to become problematic, how should the legislature address local government taxing initiatives?

Townsend: In my ten years in the State Assembly I have not seen a reduction in jobs and services in my District.  Revenue limitations have forced local governments to focus on efficiency improvements and they have responded accordingly.  The legislature has initiated laws to permit and encourage greater local government cooperation. The legislature must continue this effort to promote more cooperation and consolidation of community services.

Property tax is probably the most despised form of taxation, mainly because it is not related to income of a household.  The household income may go down while the property tax goes up.  Households on a fixed income are greatly impacted by this phenomenon.

Action needs to be taken by the legislature to reduce local government dependency on property tax.  This can be done by giving local government other sources of revenue. One way the legislature can address this is by revising the concept of shared revenue.  Under the current state budget there is a budget item called shared revenue, this is revenue that the State shares with local government. 

In the original concept of shared revenue the State shared with local government a designated portion of collected State revenue.  As State revenue increased, shared revenue increased.  Over the years this concept was abandoned.  Today, shared revenue is a line item in the budget, remaining constant at about a billion dollars per year over the past 15 – 20 years.  The State needs to go back to the original concept of shared revenue.

Question 3: In recent years, statewide health care initiatives such as Healthy Wisconsin have expanded the debate about the role government should take toward insuring and taking care of the health of our residents. What role do you believe the legislature has in making health care more affordable and accessible to Wisconsin residents?

Townsend: Rising health care costs are a major concern and efforts must be taken to lower costs.  However, a universal health care system would not lower costs but would increase costs and taxes.  Studies have found that when a service is perceived to have no cost to the individual, the demand for the service goes up.  As the demand increases, costs continue to grow.  How do we resolve this dilemma??  We resolve it by getting individuals involved as part of the process.

Wisconsin is fortunate, as the State compared to other States has one of the highest percentage of its citizens covered by health insurance.  This is a blessing but also a curse. When we have health insurance, we very seldom question the cost of health care services.  Why should an individual be concerned about cost when they have insurance.  This attitude needs to be changed.  Requirements to disclose the costs must be enacted.  At the same time we need to provide incentives for individuals to be aware of costs.  Transparency programs can help accomplish this objective.

The legislature can provide tax incentives to stimulate individual effort to reduce health care cost.  Health care savings accounts, and wellness programs are a couple examples.

Question 4: Wisconsin and the nation as a whole are on the front end of an energy crisis prompted by high fuel prices and a number of aged and outdated energy generation and petroleum processing facilities operating near capacity. What can the legislature do to further promote energy efficiency and to encourage additional, cleaner energy production?

Townsend: Our current energy crisis, at the National and State level is a result of the lack of a comprehensive energy policy program. This needs to be changed immediately.

Wisconsin is an energy deficit State. The State does not produce oil, gas or coal, the State’s major sources of energy. A comprehensive State energy policy will reduce the State’s dependency on oil, gas and coal. One way to do this is to permit the construction of nuclear power plants.  Currently the State has two nuclear power plants that have operated with an outstanding safety record. We need to eliminate State law that restricts construction of nuclear power plants.

The State must establish programs that encourage development of renewable energy sources that are not dependent upon the use of food resources.  This can be done by tax incentives and development grants that encourage development of organic energy sources not related to food. In addition, incentives need to be established to encourage energy conservation by individuals and industry.