DOYLE GIVES IOWA AND OHIO A GIFT

What was Jim Doyle thinking?

Do you think it's a smart move for a governor to send close to 1000 jobs out of his state less than thirty days before an election?

Apparently, Doyle does.

With all due respect, WHAT A DOOFUS!!!

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (AP) -- Home improvement retailer Menards has decided to build manufacturing and distribution centers in Iowa and Ohio, resolving a longtime wetlands dispute with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, a newspaper reported.

The dispute has been resolved.

The result?

Jobs that could have been in Wisconsin will go to states that have a far more welcoming business climate.

Did Doyle fight to keep the jobs and development here?

No.

He let Menards take its expansion and opportunities to other states. The citizens of Iowa and Ohio owe their thanks to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle for helping their economies grow.

Hey, Doyle! As a Wisconsinite, I'd like to say, "THANKS FOR NOTHING."

Jim Doyle claims to have a plan to "Grow Wisconsin."

Obviously, Doyle is very selective about the sort of jobs he wants to grow in Wisconsin.

He wants to grow stem cells. He wants a human embryo industry in Wisconsin.

The Governor has set a goal for Wisconsin to capture 10 percent of the stem cell market – which could create 100,000 jobs and generate $10 billion – by 2015.

The "stem cell market" --

Doyle wants Wisconsin to be the leader in the EMBRYONIC stem cell market. He's more than willing to destroy human embryos (genetically complete human beings) to create jobs, but God forbid that we disturb a wetland.

Eau Claire-based Menard Inc. wanted to build in the Eau Claire area, but the DNR wanted to preserve two small wetlands on the town of Union site near Menards’ headquarters.

“We spent more than three years of frustration and over $1 million of our money trying to build this project here in Eau Claire and never received permission to do so,” Menards spokesman Jeff Abbott told the Leader-Telegram in Eau Claire. “We are obviously frustrated and disappointed.”

Menards portrayed the DNR’s steps as regulatory roadblocks. DNR officials said they were protecting the environment and didn’t treat Menards differently than any other entity seeking to fill a wetland.

In February 2005, Menards announced that two expansions involving 185 jobs would go elsewhere because it couldn’t get DNR approval for the proposed Eau Claire building.

Menards reported it added 100 workers to its truss plant in Plano, Ill., and 85 others to the store fixture manufacturing plant it opened in a former Menards store in Belgrade, Minn.

The company now says Eau Claire lost out on another 600 to 800 jobs that will by divided among distribution centers under construction in Shelby, Iowa, and Holiday City, Ohio.

Menards spent over $1 million to keep its jobs and development in Wisconsin.

$1 MILLION!

How many businesses would make that sort of effort and spend that amount of its resources just to locate in Wisconsin?

Few to none.

Jim Doyle's Wisconsin turned Menards away.

Menards really should be commended for trying so hard to stay in Wisconsin. It was a valiant effort.

Think of all the businesses that choose to go elsewhere and never bother to even try to make Wisconsin their homes.

Check out these numbers from Charlie Sykes:

Last year, there were 55 announcements of new manufacturing plants in Illinois; there were 72 in Michigan, 35 in Minnesota, and 34 in Iowa.

In Wisconsin, there was a grand total of five.

According to a report for Competitive Wisconsin released last month, Wisconsin lagged behind the rest of the Midwest across the board.

In 2005, there were 75 announcements by companies that they were expanding their mannufacturing operations in Illinois; 180 expansions announced in Michigan, 36 in Minnesota, and 64 in Iowa.

In Wisconsin? Six.

It actually gets worse. When announcements of other business investments and expansions are also included, Illinois saw 510 announcements of business expansion; Michigan 505; Minnesota 176, Iowa 135, and Wisconsin…a mere 15.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT?

Allow me to be blunt...

DOYLE'S RECORD ABSOLUTELY SUCKS!

Dan Baumann, water leader at the DNR’s west-central regional office in Eau Claire, said the agency approves about 97 percent of applications for wetland fills, although the process often includes some give and take.

“If a proposal meets (state) standards, we issue a permit,” Baumann said. “If it doesn’t, we work with the applicant to try and find a way to revise the project to meet their needs and meet the state standards.”

Menards officials argued that their proposal for building a 750,000-square-foot seasonal storage warehouse would have helped the environment because they offered to offset the loss of the “so-called wetland” by creating a much bigger wetland.

“We felt that we could replace it with a very high-quality wetland in the immediate vicinity for a win-win situation for wildlife, jobs and all concerned,” Abbott said.

The problem with that is Wisconsin standards allow mitigation only as a last resort, Baumann said.

Applicants seeking a permit to fill a wetland are required to look for ways to avoid the negative impact. If that proves impossible, then entities must try to minimize the impact before mitigation is considered, Baumann said. Menards never made it past the first stage, he said.

What a disgrace!

Bureaucracy kept Menards from creating a much bigger wetland?

The proposed development would have been GOOD for the environment, GOOD for the economy, and GOOD for Wisconsin.

Gov. Jim Doyle let that all get away.

If you need a reason to vote for MARK GREEN, to vote for change, to vote for a better future for Wisconsin, here's one.

Let me rephrase that. This debacle, forcing Menards out of Wisconsin, provides nearly a thousand reasons to vote for Mark Green -- the 1000 lost jobs because of the DNR and Jim Doyle's utter stupidity and incompetence.

I bet there are people in Iowa and Ohio that would be thrilled to vote for Doyle if they could.

Maybe they can! Doyle has made sure that voting in Wisconsin doesn't require a photo ID.

VOTE FOR MARK GREEN