By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — Wisconsin's mining debate has quickly turned into a political minefield.

Earlier this week, state Sen. Neal Kedzie, R-Elkhorn, introduced a draft of a Senate mining bill, which attempted to pacify members of the Legislature, environmentalists and others opposed to the Assembly version of the bill, AB 426.

Kedzie’s draft, from the Senate Select Committee on Mining Jobs, seemed to upset both supporters and opponents of the Assembly bill.

Late Wednesday, saying “Wisconsin needs jobs, not politics,” Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, dissolved the select committee and referred a companion to the original Assembly bill to the Joint Finance Committee.

Eleven of the 17 Republican senators have co-introduced Senate Bill 488, the companion bill.

Kedzie, chairman of the now-disbanded select committee, was among the 11.

“Today, a decision has been made which reflects the majority of members in the Senate Republican caucus…. As a caucus, we need to move forward on this issue before the legislative session comes to a close,” Kedzie said in a statement. 

He did not return several phone calls seeking comment from Wisconsin Reporter. Several lawmakers did not return requests for comment, issuing statements instead.

Senate Republicans said they fear time is running out to pass mining legislation before the current legislative session ends in March.

“I am introducing a Senate companion because the time to move this legislation is now. … Not moving forward could cost this state thousands of jobs and a $1.5 billion private investment, which we may never see again,” Senator Pam Galloway, R-Wausau, said in a statement.

Gogebic Taconite LLC, a mining company based in Florida, has expressed interest in developing a $1.5 billion iron ore mining operation in northern Wisconsin. But the company has said it is hesitant to invest in the project with Wisconsin's current permit process.

Non-majority

Senate Republicans, with a one-seat majority, may have a difficult time passing the bill as is.

Previously, Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland, who sat on the Mining Jobs Committee, told the Associated Press he would not vote in favor of the Assembly bill, and said Wednesday, "I think there's a lot I'd like to say and a lot I want to say.”

Schultz, too, did not return several calls seeking comment.

Two weeks ago, the senator posted on his Facebook page, “We're talking with Assembly members from both parties and asking them why they did what they did. … It's early in the process, and it's clear this will not be easy, but I honestly believe we're making progress.”

Partisan Politics

Like the Mining Committee, a public hearing scheduled Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville was canceled. Instead, the Joint Finance Committee will host a public hearing at 10 a.m. Friday at the Capitol.

In a statement, Fitzgerald said the Legislature is "stuck in a hyper-political world where the Democrats are likely to say and do anything to oppose this jobs bill, just for the sake of opposing it.”

Dissolving a committee and instead sending the Assembly bill, which passed on a party-line vote, to a joint committee is not likely to quell the “hyper-politics."

“I’m shocked and disgusted with the callous elimination of a mining committee that was taking the time to create a transparent process and openly deliberate changes to Wisconsin’s mining law," said Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar. 

He added that Fitzgerald’s actions were no less than a “declaration of war on responsible government.”

Tit for Tat

Jauch cried foul on the timing of an ad by Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee , and Fitzgerald's decision to dissolve the mining committee.

“The timing of the ads and the announcement from the Majority Leader’s office is not an accident. Radio advertisement has been running in legislative districts but it was only AFTER Senator Fitzgerald’s announcement that the robocalls were made,” Jauch said in a statement.

Fitzgerald spokesman Andrew Welhouse said the Democrat's assertion that Club For Growth's ads are some kind of coordinated effort with Republican leadership is a "ridiculous exaggeration."

"They have been doing those ads for (a) month now," he said. (The Democrats) saying these robo calls started almost immediately is absolutely ridiculous."