Mocking Gaylord Nelson

Just in time to celebrate Earth Day, Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) and the rest of the Republicans on the Assembly Natural Resources Committee tanked a bill to help stem the flow of out of state garbage into Wisconsin. I don't think that's what Senator Gaylord Nelson had in mind when he challenged people to do things to celebrate Earth Day.

Perhaps Gunderson and his colleagues thought the best way to celebrate Earth Day was to help other states keep their chunk of the earth clean by dumping their garbage here so they don't have to deal with the smell, the runoff and possible groundwater contamination. Yes, why do what we can to keep our state beautiful to attract the tourists from Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Illinois when we can just take their garbage.

Those surrounding states are taking advantage of our ridiculously low tipping fees at landfills big time. They sent 2.2 million tons of garbage here in 2004 and that figure is 46 percent higher than what they sent here in 2003.

Gunderson hails from an area that is probably very aware of the increased amount of garbage coming into our state. Waterford is not far from the Illinois border so his constituents have probably seen the increased garbage truck traffic. Senator Shelia Harsdorf (R-River Falls), another legislator from a border area, has been listening to her constituents complain about the amount of garbage coming to their area from the Twin Cities and is on the right side of this issue. Why is Gunderson turning a deaf ear to the public support for this bill?