Friday, May 3, 2013

Good bye Wisconsin! Death by a thousand cuts.

Man, this is not going to be the state I grew up in for very long. So what's the point of staying? The following changes aren't just unnecessary, they're completely irresponsible.

What’s all this free market mumbo-jumbo about when Republicans continually attack private sector lawyers with job killing regulations? In a free market, lawsuits play their part as a checks and balances of abusive, irresponsible businesses and services.

Yet Republicans feel absolutely justified in picking winners and losers no matter how hypocritical it looks.

Lemon Law: Conservative voters should ask themselves why relaxing laws against selling bad cars is a good idea. The vengeful bashing of lawyer’s kind of leaves you and me at the mercy of auto manufacturers. When you have $10,000 to $60,000 to lose, why are we making lawyers the bad guy. This bill is payback for Vince Megna's run for the Supreme Court. How petty and small:
AP: Two Republican legislators, Rep. Bill Kramer of Waukesha and Sen. Jerry Petrowski are circulating a bill that would rework Wisconsin's vehicle lemon law. The measure would erase mandatory double damages for consumers, allowing judges and juries to decide awards. It also would shrink the statute of limitations for civil suits and give manufacturers more time to give a consumer a comparable vehicle or refund.

The bill comes after attorney Vince Megna won a ruling from the state Supreme Court last year against Mercedes-Benz that enabled him to collect a $618,000 judgment. Kramer and Petrowski cite the case in a memo seeking co-sponsors, saying current law allows lawyers to win unfair awards.
Going easy on heavy, road destroying illegal trucks. It’s as if we don’t have a road repair problem the way it is, we’re now encouraging truckers to violate weight limits because…we may surprise them with a fine.
WPR: GOP lawmakers have rejected Governor Scott Walker's plan to add more highway inspectors to check for overweight trucks on state roads.

The DOT found that overweight trucks do $41 million worth of damage to Wisconsin roadways every year. The DOT wanted to add 28 new positions — most of them highway inspectors — to remedy that, helping the state enforce the weight laws that are already on the books. Republicans rejected it. Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) is the committee's co-chair: "We're trying to make Wisconsin a more user-friendly state for business."

Darling says some lawmakers were concerned about the way inspectors treat truck drivers. "Someone could think that they are within the boundaries of the weight and then find out they're not and then get slapped with a terrible fine. We think sometimes there has to be more consideration and flexibility."

1 comment:

  1. Our new state-of-the-art gravel road system is arriving just in time.

    ReplyDelete