Republican legislators announced late last week the only hearing scheduled to discuss the state’s new controversial mining bill will be held Wednesday in Madison, prompting a harsh response from northern Democrats who claim the hearing is unfair to their constituents.
Two of the Republican legislators who introduced the mining bill last week, Reps. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and Mary Williams, R-Medford, said the hearing would start at 9 a.m. in the Capitol building.
While the hearing is designed to allow everyone with potential concerns to speak, Democratic legislators said they are concerned northern citizens would not get the opportunity to voice their opinions if the only hearing was held far away in Madison.
State Sens. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, and Janet Bewley, D-Ashland, released a statement Monday expressing their concerns and asking Tiffany and Williams to reconsider only having one meeting. If Republican legislators do not, Bewley and Jauch said the bill would not have the input from northern citizens who would be affected most by the introduction of an iron mine close to their homes in the northern part of the state.
Charlie Bellin, a spokesperson for Williams, told the Wisconsin State Journal the Republicans chose not to hold a northern hearing because the northern residents had already given input when last years mining bill, which failed because of environmental concerns, was being debated.
However, Jauch said Republicans made the hearing “next to impossible for most north woods citizens to attend” by scheduling it to be held in Madison instead of somewhere farther north.
“Their decision to hold the only hearing on the bill in Madison is an insult to the people who will be most affected if it passes and an insult to our democratic principles,” Jauch and Bewley said in their statement.
