Telephone Access Fees
Last session the WRA
sided with local and regional telephone companies to oppose
efforts by long distance carriers to eliminate the fees they pay
for the use of local telephone lines for the origination and
termination of long distance calls.
Our opposition was based on concerns that the cost of
local calls would increase dramatically to offset the lost
“access fee” revenues from the long distance carriers.
As heavy users of local phone service, the real estate
business would be among the hardest hit by such local cost
increases.
The legislation was not acted upon last session but will
certainly be reintroduced in the new session.
It is anticipated however that the new bill will be
substantially rewritten, in part to meet the concerns raised by
the WRA last session. These
potential changes include narrowing the scope of the bill and
insuring that any loss in local revenues are not passed through
to consumers in the form of higher local call charges.
For more information
contact Joe Murray or Michael
Theo.
Utility Regulations and Energy
Reliability
Last session the WRA
successfully negotiated limitations on electric utilities’
ability to divest real estate assets to non-utility subsidiaries
within their holding company structure.
The goal was to protect real estate companies and developers
from unfair competition from utility holding companies.
It is anticipated
that again this session, utility companies will be asking the
legislature for additional regulatory reforms to allow for
additional power generation capacity to meet the needs of
Wisconsin’s growing population and economy.
Part of these new reforms will require changes to the
real estate protections negotiated last session.
These changes would allow utilities to sell real property
to non-utility subsidiaries within their holding
company for the purposes of energy generation only.
Such transactions would be exempt from the restrictions
and protections adopted last session.
In theory, these changes do not violate the intent of the
legislation from last session, since it only applies to real
estate sales for energy generation, not for development per se.
The WRA will reserve judgment on this legislation until
exact draft language has been reviewed and approved.
For more information
contact Michael Theo.
Campaign Finance Reform
With the cost of
campaigns for both federal and state candidates escalating
rapidly, and the approval by voters of a statewide advisory
referendum in Wisconsin on November 7th, campaign
finance reform will be hotly debated in both Washington and
Madison beginning in January.
In past sessions the
WRA has been an active participant in the discussions regarding
such legislation, supporting many thoughtful reforms while
protecting our constitutional rights to actively participate in
the electoral process.
The first several
bills likely to be considered by one or both Houses of the
legislature propose to eliminate or restrict issue advertising,
polling, conduit contributions, independent expenditures, PAC
funds and other legitimate campaign expenditures.
The WRA will oppose such one-sided “reforms” which – if
passed - will likely be ruled unconstitutional based on past
federal and state Supreme Court rulings.
Instead, the WRA will support meaningful reforms that:
promote improved and expedited disclosures of
contributions and expenditures; protect the fundamental right of
our organization and members to fully participate in the
political and electoral process; are consistent with the
Constitution and current U.S. Supreme Court interpretations; set
an appropriate level of public financing to reduce the need for
candidates to raise private or special interest money; restrict
or eliminate legislative leadership committees and their ability
to solicit contributions during legislative sessions.
For
more information, contact Joe
Murray.
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