The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel addresses the Menards fiasco in an editorial today.
It's a rambling, ultimately pointless column.
The editorial asks, "Did anyone lose these jobs?"
Duh!
Rather than offer insight into what went so terribly wrong that Menards was forced to take nearly 1000 jobs out of Wisconsin and put them in Iowa and Ohio, the JS editorial board seizes the opportunity to rebuke Mark Green for holding Jim Doyle accountable for his incompetence.
Rather than accusations of bureaucratic bungling from gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mark Green and platitudes from Gov. Jim Doyle's office about how well the governor's office works with business, Wisconsin deserves some serious answers to serious questions about why Menard Inc. decided to build two distribution and manufacturing centers outside Wisconsin.
Did the state Department of Natural Resources put up unreasonable roadblocks to building a facility at Menard's headquarters in Eau Claire? Was a one-acre wetland really responsible for the loss of hundreds of jobs? Was Menard unwilling to adequately protect a natural resource? Would the company have built out of state anyway for logistical reasons?
These questions are lame.
We know the answers.
This AP article provides the information that the editorial board can't seem to find.
The editorial goes on:
Clearly, Menard found the DNR difficult to work with, a common complaint in a state that Forbes magazine recently ranked among the worst in the country for over-regulation. A Menard spokesman expressed frustration with a process that cost the company more than $1 million and three years. Menard didn't apply for a permit because it was clear that regional DNR officials were opposed, he said.
The DNR says it worked closely with Menard, including sending a series of letters to the company and holding a meeting with Menard officials that included Doyle and DNR Secretary Scott Hassett.
Well, that's revealing.
Doyle was directly involved. That means he can be held accountable for being part of the failure to work things out with Menards.
It's true that Menard might well have needed distribution facilities in Ohio and Iowa anyway, given its recent growth.
Huh?
No company spends three years and a million dollars trying to locate in Wisconsin if it plans to have facilities in Ohio and Iowa anyway.
And, no doubt, there is some unhappy history between Menard and the DNR. Menard was twice fined record amounts after environmental complaints. In the latest case, an Eau Claire County judge last year ordered the company to pay more than $2 million in fines after Menard pleaded guilty to discharging pollutants that spilled into an adjacent watershed.
Again, whatever "unhappy history" Menards may have had with the DNR, that doesn't explain why the company put so much effort into staying in Wisconsin.
...Green says Doyle should have done more to save the jobs. Maybe. But Doyle has a history of working well with business on these issues; he was the primary mover behind the Jobs Creation Act, a regulatory reform measure that made it easier for businesses to comply with regulations. Doyle's administration has worked well with Menard on other projects, something President John Menard acknowledged in a statement.
The JS should be decrying the loss of jobs and the economic ripple effect that goes along with expanding the work force, not running damage control for Jim Doyle.
Growing Wisconsin's economy is critical to the state's prosperity, but protecting the environment is critical, too, if people want a state worth living in.
Did the editorial board do any research on this one at all?
From AP:
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.
THE PROJECT WOULD HAVE BENEFITED THE STATE'S ENVIRONMENT!
A thorough public discussion of what happened in this case - something more than simplistic campaign rhetoric - is needed.
No.
What's needed is for the Journal Sentinel to stop writing simplistic editorials that omit key facts and distort the truth.
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