Thursday, July 17, 2008

WIL Calls on Doyle to Push for Repeal of Minimum Markup

WIL is calling on Doyle to put his pen where his mouth is. 

Wisconsin Institute for Leadership Urges Doyle to Call Special Session to Repeal Minimum Mark Up Law

[Madison, Wisc.] Gasoline prices in Wisconsin could be dramatically reduced if the state’s arcane Minimum Mark Up Law was repealed. The Wisconsin Institute for Leadership (WIL) is urging Governor Doyle to call a Special Session of the state legislature next week to reduce gas prices here.

“This is a dumb law that hurts families in Wisconsin,” said WIL Executive Director Brian Fraley. “With gas at more than four bucks a gallon, now more than ever, our elected officials should move to repeal this law or explain why they support this constraint on the free market.”

Under Wisconsin’s Minimum Mark Up Law, which has been in place since the 1930s, fuel wholesalers are required by the state to mark up their prices by at least 3 percent and retailers are required by the state to raise prices by at least another 6 percent. This adds a whopping 36 cents a gallon to the cost of $4.00 a gallon gasoline.

“If the Governor were to bring this issue to the forefront now, I’m confident this ridiculous law would be wiped off the books forever,” said Fraley. “With families and businesses feeling tremendous pain at the pump, now is the time to repeal the minimum mark up law.”

The Institute is encouraging Wisconsin residents to call Governor Doyle to encourage him to announce a Special Legislative Session to rescind the Minimum Mark Up law. His office number is 608-266-1212.

(9) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1228 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. Especially considering the Minimum Markup Law has been ruled unconstitutional and should not be on the books in the first place.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1313 hrs


  2. Uh oh, is the WIL calling the Governor’s bet?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1347 hrs


  3. How much would this affect prices at the pump?  It seems to me that the states around us have pretty similar pricing structures.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1456 hrs


  4. MN also has a minimum markup law, and with them raising their gas tax, the price of gas between the states is about 6 cents different now.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1549 hrs


  5. So who is going to call Glenn Grothman?

    Wendy? Owen?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1617 hrs


  6. If it really doesn’t make any difference, the minimum markup law, as the oil industry says, then why are they opposed to repealing It?
      Last session in the final days, Tom Reynolds and others were pushing repeal but Dale Schultz and others had received big dollars from the oil people to keep it.
    Sen. Dave Zien said that he needed that repeal to get him re-elected, so Dale Schultz proposed some really bad bill that the oil people were pushing and said that they would pass it if there were not any amendments.  Reynolds said that he would introduce an amendment to repeal it entirely whereby Schultz had a fit, vowed to get even with Reynolds and dumped the bill. That is the way of the leadership in the senate on the GOP side.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1652 hrs


  7. The “oil people” that Bob talks about aren’t, in fact, the Big Oil bogeymen in $1200 suits, throwing around $100 bills, that the left so often sets up as straw men in these kinds of debates.

    In reality, what happens whenever this issue is discussed in the Legislature is that the Petroleum Marketers Association brings in their members to talk to lawmakers.  Their members, by the way, are pretty much your regular, salt-of-the-earth small business owners.  These are the folks who go to church with the lawmakers.  The ones who coach the softball teams on which the leggies’ kids play.  They dress in jeans and windbreakers and worn tennis shoes, and have hands calloused from honestagod work, and mow their own lawns.  These are folks who raise their families on the revenues from these gas stations, and they come in to explain to the leggies how the repeal of the Minimum Markup Law would devastate their businesses.

    Now, I think they’re wrong, and besides, I don’t think it is government’s role to shelter them from competition in the open marketplace.  But you can see why lawmakers, faced with these kinds of appeals from their constituents, find it hard to vote for the repeal of Minimum Markup—even Senator Grothman. 

    With regard to Senator Zien, I think there are lots of reasons that he lost that seat, and almost none of them have to do with Minimum Markup OR Tom Reynolds.  I really liked Dave Zien, but he was a little, um, different.  The demographics of his district had changed, and it is becoming more suburban and urbane by the year—and less apt to support a guy whose entire legislative agenda consisted of just one issue.

    And not only that, but the one thing that voters hate is a hypocrite.  Dave got caught up in that whole business where he was charging the automotive mileage rate back to the state for his motorcycle rides to and from the district—on a bike that had been paid for 15 years ago, and had a million miles on it (literally!)  Whether or not the criticism was fair, it was effective.  A guy can’t run around his district, yapping about small government and such, while appearing to be getting amply fat at his own special taxpayer teat.  I think that issue, more than any other, did Dave Zien in.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1921 hrs


  8. so now we know that fraley’s firm is getting paid by which side?

    oh yeah…the side WIL is Taking!!

    Great that all the bloggers just eat this up to help him make a buck!!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 17, 2008 at 1957 hrs


  9. Yeah, because none of us called for the repeal of the minimum markup law before WIL existed.  rolleyes

    Posted by Owen on July 17, 2008 at 2026 hrs


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