Madison
The U.S. Census Bureau released annual estimates of the population change Thursday for counties of Wisconsin between July 1, 2003 and July 1, 2004.
As of July 1, 2003, 453,582 people lived in Dane County, 5,888 more than the population as of July 1, 2004.
Lesley Sillaman, spokesperson for Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, said the population growth in Dane County is one of Falk's top three priorities for her term.
\More people equals more roads and sewer lines,"" Sillaman said. ""These are all county responsibilities.""
Although Dane County has demanded leadership from Falk with population growth, Sillaman said citizens have to drive the development process to benefit the county as a whole.
Sillaman added constituents are concerned with losing the farmland and natural resources, such as lakes and streams, because they are an integral part of the joy of living in Dane County.
Sillaman added cities, towns and villages have formulated their own growth plans, but stressed that growth should be examined from a county-wide perspective.
""Growth plans are great and [the cities, towns and villages] have worked very hard on them,"" Sillaman said. ""But they don't always take into account the growth plans of their neighbors.""
The last census showed Dane County growing by more than 60,000 each decade, Sillaman said.
""We have to focus on how Dane County is going to grow because we know cities, towns and villages are going to continue to grow.""
Madison
The state Assembly Wednesday voted 59 to 36 to prevent companies that engage in stem-cell research from receiving tax incentives if they wish to expand their research to new stem-cell lines.
The bill was intended to provide tax incentives for all Wisconsin corporations that conduct research in order to improve the state's business climate, but assembly Republicans successfully attached an amendment excluding businesses that want to develop research off new stem cell lines. Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elkhart Lake, told WisPolitics.com he viewed the amendment as a compromise to allow the businesses to continue their existing work but not conduct human cloning or create new embryonic stem cell lines.
Assembly Assistant Minority Leader Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, accused Assembly Republicans of being ""extremists"" for restricting the tax incentives.
""We should be doing all we can to expand Wisconsin's economy on the cutting edge of technology,"" Richards said.
The proposed legislation now moves on to the state Senate for debate in May.
