Wisconsin Restaurant Association Endorses Ballweg
Fall 2010
The Wisconsin Restaurant Association enthusiastically endorses State Representative Joan Ballweg for the Republical primary election in the 41st Assembly District.
Representative Ballweg was elected to the Assembly in 2004. She currently serves numerous key committees such as the Committee on Renewable Energy and Rural Affairs and the Committee on Colleges and Universities.
She is a retail business owner and understands the current conditions that small business owners face. While serving in the legislature, Representative Ballweg has authored numerous bills that supported small business. We need her leadership in Madison!
Minimum Wage
Representative Ballweg knows that a minimum wage hike in the midst of a recession is bad economic policy, and has pledged to help us fight minimum wage “indexing” proposals that would tie the minimum wage to inflaction and create automatic annual increases.
Excise Taxes
Recently, the idea of a “sweetened beverage tax” has been discussed by some policymakers in Wisconsin as a way to pay for various government programs. At only two cents per serving, such a proposal would cost some restaurants as much as $10,000 per year.
Representative Ballweg does not support the establishment of a tax on sweetened beverages, and does not generally support increases in the beer tax or wine and spirits tax either.
Credit Cards
Representative Ballweg is opposed to legislation that would make retailers liable for costs associated with credit card data security breaches if they are not a fault.
Employer Lawsuits
In recent legislative sessions, numerous bills have been introduced that would have encouraged more lawsuits by employees who felt mistreated in the workplace. Representative Ballweg opposes legislation that would allow frivolous lawsuits to bypass the vetting process at DWD and go directly to circuit court.
“Clean Energy”
The “Clean Energy Jobs Act” that almost passed on the final day of the 2009-2010 would hav emandated up to 25% of all electricity used by Wisconsin consumers be produced from renewable sources (e.g., wind, solar). Such a mandate could make electricity in Wisconsin more expensive than in other states, putting us at a competitve disadvantage for attracting jobs, tourists, and other drivers of economic activity. Representative Ballweg recognizes the dangers of this unilateral mandate and pledges to work towards a more common-sense solution.