Citizens Forum

Former Mayor Bloechl Backs Palmeri

2004-10-31T10:35:00.000-06:00

See this posting in the Oshblog.

Leadership for a Change

2004-10-28T07:03:00.000-05:00

The time has come for us to make a decision and cast a vote for the 54th State Assembly District. One candidate has proven that he has the knowledge, experience, and leadership necessary to effectively represent the district. One candidate has earned a master's degree in public administration from UW-Madison, was a research assistant for Governor Tommy Thompson's Kettl Commission, and was an analyst for the Budget Bureau of Long Beach, California's 5th largest city with a $1.7 billion annual budget. This candidate is Gordon Hintz.

Progressive Democratic candidate Gordon Hintz has earned my vote. He understands that first and foremost he must work to correct the budget mess created by Rep. Gregg Underheim and his fellow Republicans. Gordon will not support gimmicks designed to remove the burden of making tough decisions from the legislature that could ultimately devastate local governments, school districts, and the UW System. Gordon will also not support raising our taxes. He knows that in order to fund current programs the state needs to create $700 million of new revenue or make tough decisions on the budget. Therefore, Gordon will work to examine every item in the budget for efficiency and effectiveness and explore means of generating additional revenue.

There has been a lot of rhetoric in this election and people have said that if you want change to vote for someone other than a Democrat or Republican. I disagree. We should not vote for a candidate based on his or her party label. We should vote for a candidate that represents our values, beliefs, and that we know will provide the leadership to represent us.

True, Gordon is a Democrat and has stated that he will caucus with the Democrats because that is the party that shares his values and beliefs. Even Independent candidate Dan Carpenter stated he would most likely caucus with the Democrats. However, Gordon has expressed a desire to work across party lines to provide effective leadership for our district. This is the kind of leadership Oshkosh needs to represent us in Madison.

It's time for leadership for a change! It's time for Gordon Hintz! Gordon is endorsed by United States Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, and most recently by the Oshkosh Northwestern. If you would like more information about Gordon Hintz and how he will create a vital Oshkosh and Wisconsin in the 21st Century, please visit his website at www.hintzforassembly.com.

Finally, I urge the citizens of the 54th State Assembly District to vote on November 2 for a progressive candidate that will effectively represent us. I urge you to vote for Gordon Hintz!

Underheim Wrong on TABOR, Wrong for Oshkosh

2004-10-10T18:15:00.000-05:00

It's ironic that Rep. Underheim spoke out against how the so-called TABOR constitutional amendment was handled prior to the primary elections. He even said, “it’s not the right time to take this up. Not only would this look extremely political, it would be extremely political.”

Furthermore, in March 2004, Rep. Underheim said it "disappoints" him when legislators “screw around with the Constitution.”However, in the end, Rep. Underheim cowered to Rep. Gard and the right-wing conservative agenda by signing his name in support of the constitutional amendment and said he would have voted for it. Way to be "extremely political" Mr. Underheim!

The irony of the so-called TABOR is that it proves legislators like Rep. Underheim can't control themselves. Remember two years ago when he supported using the tobacco settlement money?!? I do!!

Rep. Underheim has been in Madison for some 17 years...17 years of full health care benefits and pay raises for himself, while shared revenue and support for the UW System has been dramatically reduced. He says he's not our father's Republican, which I believe is true since Republican used to mean fiscally conservative.

It's time for leadership for a change!

TABOR Text

2004-10-08T07:38:00.000-05:00

Here are links (to PDFs) to the original proposal and
an amended version.

See also the comment in the post below.

Request for TABOR link

2004-10-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

Please provide a link to the actual proposed TABOR bill so that I can objectively educate myself. While I'm not new to the world of blogs, I am just now joining the current political environment. I'm a little behind on knowing where to go for the facts...

Eliminating tax exemptions

2004-10-05T09:46:00.000-05:00

Early indications are that we will face another serious shortfall of revenues in the next state budget round. A recent state revenue task force recommended we consider eliminating some sales tax exemptions as a means of increasing revenues. Would the candidates favor elimination of the sales tax exemption on television air time purchased by advertisers to run saturation ads? Saturation advertising, at least by my definition, would be seeing the same commercial more than once in a half hour.

This was originally posted as a comment in the Oshblog.

Regarding Gregg Underheim's Health Care Response

2004-10-02T05:42:00.000-05:00

I wish to comment on a portion of Gregg Underheim's response to question no. 4.

He said:

"Wellness programs for state employees offer the potential for savings. Diabetes, high blood pressure, hip and knee replacements, heart attacks and strokes are all related to the epidemic of obesity. Wellness programs have the potential to provide significant savings of state dollars. "

So, what is Mr. Underheim saying here? And what about the rest of the people of the who live and work in the state of Wisconsin? He's only talking about state employees. Wellness programs are good, there's no argument there. However, they are only effective if people actually participate in them. While they may have some potential to save the state money, the realities of such a program remain to be seen. Weren't HMOs billed as trying to do some of the same things, to serve as preventative care so that health care costs could be held down? Why doesn't he work on some real health care reform in his position as the head of the Health Care committee, and try to solve the problems of high health care costs in the state of Wisconsin.

Sara L. Stichert

The role of students

2004-09-20T15:04:00.000-05:00

This was originally posted as a comment to an earlier post. It has been moved here for better visibility.

Several weeks ago The Northwestern recommended UW-Oshkosh students not vote in Oshkosh. The newspaper wanted the students to vote in their hometowns as absentee voters. Can you imagine what other recommendations they could have added to this? How about:

Students do not pay sales tax on purchases made in Oshkosh.

None of their rent is allowed to go into the property taxes that landlords pay.

Of course the newspaper did not make these recommendations. They, like many others in this community, want the cheap labor and money from spending that students supply, but the students are not welcomed as citizens.

One reason The Northwestern went on attack was that the newspaper feared students would vote the party line. I guess no citizen in Oshkosh would ever do that.

Younger adults tend to be more liberal (or less conservative) than older adults. Maybe The Northwestern is afraid of the voting impact of a minority of Oshkosh residents. These young radicals might want clean air in Oshkosh. What is that horrible smell that comes through sometimes? Or, maybe they would call for an honest accounting of the economic impact of UW-Oshkosh compared to EAA. Or, they might vote against the Republican encumbants.

Maybe its parent company, Gannett, wants to put the clamp on people who disagree with CEO and President Douglas McCorkindale. The leader of a company that produces “objective” journalism donated $1,000 to the Republican’s Federal Victory Fund and $1,000 to George Bush in 2003 (found via www.opensecrets.org). That is a small amount compared to the $60,000+ donated by Oshkosh Truck to Republican interests in 2000-2001.

Responses to Question No. 1

2004-09-18T19:33:00.000-05:00

What do the candidates in the 54th legislative district say are their top priorities?

Go to the Candidates Forum to find out.

Let us know what you think about their ideas.

You can make comments by clicking on the word "Comments" below.

Or you can sign up to be a member of the Web log and make your own posts.

If you'd like to be a member of the Citizens Forum Web log, just send an e-mail to oshkoshnews@sbcglobal.net with the term "Citizens Forum" in the subject field.

A response to Gregg Underheim's opening statement

2004-09-16T16:12:00.000-05:00

With all due respect to Mr. Underheim, I do not want the participators of this forum to be misled or confused by such wording as "our regulatory climate has been a problem."

This statement made by Mr. Underheim is to promote his support for Assembly Bill 655, otherwise coined as the "Job Creation Act." While many construction company owners and politicians in Madison feel as though this Bill was great progress, nearly every environmental group in the state deems it as a horrific attack on our environment.

Opposers of this Bill include: WDNR, George Meyer & the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, Clean Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, Sierra Club, River Alliance of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Gaylord Nelson & The Wilderness Society, Wisconsin Greens, Milwaukee County Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and the Clean Water Action Council.

In fact, the Attorney General's office stated that the "Job Creation Act" “appears more to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, intended more to eat out citizens’ natural resources, clean air and clean water, than to significantly deliver or save any jobs!”

Even if you don't believe the expert knowledge from our state's environmental groups, a study done by UW Professor Jon Udell that involved the participation of 270 Wisconsin manufacturing executives (providing 24 percent of the state's manufacturing jobs) showed that Wisconsin ranks above average among the states as a location for manufacturers. In particular, these executives gave an above-average ranking to the attitude of government toward business (which includes regulations and legislation).

No where in this report is it stated that a "regulatory climate" is limiting Wisconsin job growth and the economy. Instead, job retention and growth was shown to be achieved best through “a quality labor force, worker attitudes, stability and quality of life in the region.”

If this is in fact about standing up for the public interest, Mr. Underheim, please recognize that the people want to sustain Wisconsin's rich environmental heritage. They want to have clean lakes and waterways that aren't polluted freely with Mercury and other toxic emissions. They want corporations to be held accountable for environmental destruction. And they want their political leaders to be held accountable for allowing such destruction.

Justin R. Mitchell

Candidates Make Opening Statements

2004-09-15T13:27:00.000-05:00

See what they have to say:

Dan Carpenter

Gordon Hintz

Tony Palmeri

Gregg Underheim

Health care

2004-09-10T13:44:00.000-05:00

This is also posted as a comment below:

Anonymous said...

When every other wealthy country in the world regards health care as a universal right and provides it for everyone, is it beyond the wit of Americans to develop a system that does the same thing? Why not take a good look at the various models that have proven successful over the last fifty years (longer life expectancy, lower infant and child mortality than the USA) and adapt as needed?

Prison costs

2004-09-09T08:03:00.001-05:00

This was orignally posted as a comment in the Oshblog:

Anonymous said...
I would like to see the four candidates debate prison sentencing reform. Prisons are taking an increasing amount of our state budget that is then not able to be used for education, health care, etc. What must be done to lower prison costs?

Question for independent candidates

2004-09-09T07:59:00.000-05:00

This was sent in by e-mail:

I think a good topic would be to ask the independent candidates which party caucus they would join once elected. If they choose not to join a caucus, how do they think they can best represent the interests of the 54th District without the ability to choose a committee assignment, influence the debate, introduce legislation or amendments, or have the ability to build the 50 votes they need to pass support for anything.

Possible debate topics?

2004-09-07T15:43:00.000-05:00

What do you think of these as possible topics for the online candidate forum that will start next week?

Campaign Finance
Economic Climate
Environment
Jobs
Health Care Costs
Higher Education
K-12 Education
Local Government Aid
Taxes & TABOR
Wisconsin Budget

Do you have specific questions that you would like to have asked on these topics?

Do you have other suggestions?

Post a comment below or write to oshkoshnews@sbcglobal.net.

What should candidates debate?

2004-09-06T08:23:00.000-05:00

Starting next week, the four candidates in the 54th District will engage in an online debate.

What do you think they need to discuss?

What are the issues that are most important to you and your neighbors?

This Web log was created to allow you as a citizen in the 54th District to take part in the political process.

Tell us what issues you think the debate should cover. Just follow the instructions here.

How to add your comments

2004-09-05T13:59:00.000-05:00

You have three choices.

The simplest and fastest is simply to add a comment. All you have to do is click either on the phrase "comments" or "Post a comment" that you see at the bottom of a post. You do not have to have a Blogger account, and you can make your comments anonymously.
You are also invited to become a member of this Web log, which will allow you to make posts as well as comments. If would like to become a member, send an e-mail to oshkoshnews@sbcglobal.net with the phrase "Citizens Forum" in the subject line or the body of the message. We'll send you an e-mail back with directions on how to sign up.
If you would like to have post made on your behalf and you do not want to become a Web log member, simply send the post to oshkoshnews@sbcglobal.net. So that we know how to handle it correctly, please tell us that it's to be posted in the Citizens Forum. If you do not want your name to be used, please be sure to tell us that.

Welcome to the Citizens Forum

2004-09-05T13:44:00.000-05:00

This Web log has been created as a way for citizens to take part in the local political scene in Oshkosh. Its first use will be in conjunction with the online candidate forum that will take place involving the four candidates for the Wisconsin Assembly in the 54th District.

Please check back often--and send us your thoughts and observations.