Freedumb! WI Leg Panel Would Cut Public Access Near Mine Site, But Retain Park Tax Cuts For Company
Madison — Aggressive protesters and the rest of the public could be kept off a proposed iron mine site in northern Wisconsin while the landowners there maintain most of their current property tax break, under a bill advanced by a Senate committee Thursday.
Republicans passed the proposal on a party-line 3-2 vote after voting down a Democratic amendment that would have placed limits on how much of the land could be closed to the public and still qualify for a tax decrease.
A spokesman for Gogebic Taconite LLC, the company proposing a massive open-pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin, said the bill is needed to protect workers at the site but the company is committed to keeping some public access. "It is a measured response," Bob Seitz said. "We'll open as much land as we can."
The fast-moving bill calls for an exemption in the state's managed forest land law, which provides property tax relief for landowners in exchange for managing the land for forestry and allowing the public to hunt, fish and hike on it. Gogebic has mining rights to the privately owned land within the proposed site, which is enrolled in the managed forest program.
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/wisconsin-senate-panel-backs-closing-part-of-mining-land-b9991366z1-222533831.html