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Health & Fitness

WMC: Wisconsin's Largest and Powerful Lobbying Group

By Bill Sitter, Staff Contributor for Wisconsin Election Watch,

MADISON – The production of goods and services has always been the forefront of Wisconsin’s economy. Companies like Oshkosh Corporation, Kohler, and S. C Johnson all are national leaders in Manufacturing. Furthermore, one of the largest staffing companies, Manpower, is also based in Wisconsin. With issues like unions, environmental concerns and regulations, it only natural that manufacturing would have its own lobbying base in the state. The group leading the effort is Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce based in Madison.

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WMC is led by Kurt Bauer and their main contact person is Karen Mahlkuch according to Wisconsin Government Accountability Board records . Their lobbying staff includes 10 lobbyists. A notable lobbyist includes a former legislative staffer to State Representative Roger Roth (R-Appleton), Jason Culotta. With their large staff, they spent $294,823.37 and over 933 hours communicating with legislators in 2013. This translates to about $2,200 and 7 hours per a legislator. WMC has one of the most active lobbying groups in the state due to its large staff and budget.

Two key bills that WMC lobbied on were Assembly Bill 19 in which they supported and opposed Senate Bill 167.

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Assembly bill 19 states “… any party to use these materials in the immediate action to prove alternate causation of, or to allocate liability for, the plaintiff’s injury. The bill allows a defendant in the immediate action to seek discovery from a personal injury trust against which the plaintiff has filed or anticipates filing an action. WMC supported the bill because it gives more protections to companies dealing with personal injury lawsuits.

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On the other hand, they oppose Senate Bill 167, which deals with liability for Wind turbine injuries. “This bill states that, in an action for damages caused by a wind energy system, the prevailing plaintiff may recover damages for his or her physical and emotional  harm, compensation for loss of property value and for expenses incurred by the  injured person if he or she moves as a result of harms caused by a wind energy system, and other damages.”

WMC has lobbied on 43 Assembly bills and 46 Senate bills during the 2013-2014 Legislative session.

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