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"Publicly State Your Positions on ROFR"
One Wisconsin Republican is asking GOP leaders at the statehouse in Madison to drop the Right of First Refusal.
Sen, Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, on Friday wrote an open letter to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin Le Mahieu, asking that they shelve the ROFR legislation that he says would give utilities in the state a monopoly on over a billion-dollars worth of upcoming power grid work.
“Despite the army of utility lobbyists storming the Capitol every day (and at every fundraiser), the ROFR bill does not, at this time, have 50 Republican votes in the Assembly or 17 Republican votes in the Senate,” Nass wrote.
Nass has been a longtime critic of the Right of First Refusal. On Friday he called the plan “ anti-competitive, anti-consumer and dripping in the gravy of crony capitalism.”
ROFR supporters say the legislation would allow utilities to streamline work, and would even save utility customers in Wisconsin money.
Nass said ROFR is “the most blatant example of everything wrong with politics in Wisconsin.”
“A very powerful and well-financed special interest is heaping massive amounts of influence on legislators of both parties to buy what they want,” he added.
Vos has said any movement on ROFR will have to come from the Senate. The Assembly approved a similar plan last session. LeMahieu has not yet said what he plans to do.
Nass on Friday warned LeMahieu not to turn to Democrats to get the plan across the finish line.
“Republican leadership in both houses will either inappropriately prevent a roll call vote on the floor and/or make deals with the Democrats to get enough votes to pass [the plan],” Nass wrote. “I remind Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu that they are trying to cut deals with the party that believes in ‘INSEMINATED PERSONS’!”
Nass ended his letter by asking Republican lawmakers to "publicly state your positions on ROFR" and demand a vote on the plan.
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