Governor: We need new lines for power

By REID MAGNEY of the Tribune staff What's the difference between California and the Titanic?

According to Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum, "When the Titanic went down, the lights were still on."

Nearly 700 delegates and guests at Dairyland Power Cooperative's annual meeting Wednesday in La Crosse roared at McCallum's electrical jokes about California.

McCallum said he's going to California soon for a biotechnology conference. Nothing that California has been knocking Wisconsin's dairies, McCallum said he plans to tell them: "Not only do we have a great dairy industry, but we have electric milking machines that run 24 hours a day."

Despite the jokes about problems in that "foreign land," McCallum said he's serious about making sure Wisconsin doesn't end up like California.

"Wisconsin has long enjoyed inexpensive and reliable energy, but our supply is being stretched to the limit," McCallum said. "And, unless we are proactive, the stretch could reach a breaking point."

"While California has been turning out the lights, Wisconsin is slowly building its infrastructure. Dairyland has been an important part of building our infrastructure," McCallum said.

Wisconsin will need 30 percent to 40 percent more electric power in the next decade, McCallum said. The state needs more generation with a mixture of fuels and "conservation as part of the mix," he said.

"A new transmission line must be built in this state," McCallum said. "It must be done." He did not endorse a particular route, saying the Public Service Commission will determine that.

"It's not a question of where the lines go, but how we compete," McCallum said.

McCallum also defended his proposal for a 50 percent reduction in state utility taxes on gross revenues of electric companies, a tax they pay in lieu of property taxes. Dairyland Chief Executive Officer Bill Berg said the proposal could save Dairyland members $2 million a year.

"They say it's corporate welfare, but we're taxed at a higher rate than other states," McCallum said. "It's not corporate welfare."

Delegates celebrated Dairyland's 60th birthday at the meeting, and McCallum gave Berg a commendation for Dairyland "for 60 great years of service."

Also Wednesday, delegates learned that the cooperatives "2000 financial results were the best it had in its history," said Roger Solomonson, Dairyland's treasurer.

Dairyland's margins - what a corporation would call profits - increased to $3.5 million in 2000, compared to $2.6 million in 1999, he said. Those margins are returned to member cooperatives.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/news/3gov.php

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 08, 2001