WMC Brags About Legislative Victories

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. Photo by Riley Vetterkind / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) brags that it won victories “too numerous to mention” from the Republican-dominated legislature last session.

The boast appears in the latest issue of WMC’s magazine, Wisconsin Business Voice (go here and scroll to pages 8 and 9). WMC lobbyist Scott Manley highlighted bills approved by majority GOP legislators and signed into law by Republican Gov. Scott Walker including:

Preventing state agencies from implementing rules that will cost business and other special interests more than $10 million unless the rules are approved by the legislature;

Repealing the state’s metallic mining moratorium;

Repealing the state’s alternative minimum tax, which is generally paid by upper middle class and wealthy taxpayers;

Repealing the personal property tax exemption on machinery, which is expected to save businesses $74 million a year;

Approving more than $3 billion in state aid and tax credits to help Foxconn build a liquid crystal screen manufacturing plant in southeastern Wisconsin.

Manley capped off his article by pledging that WMC will throw its weight around in the upcoming election. “WMC will dedicate considerable effort to supporting the legislators who stood with our members on pro-growth reforms this session,” he wrote. “We will also work hard to ensure that the right lawmakers are in place to tackle the unfinished business next session.”

WMC has been one of the highest-spending special interests groups on outside electioneering activities in Wisconsin, secretly raising and spending nearly $20 million since January 2010 to elect GOP and conservative legislative and statewide candidates.