Remember the Ohio politician (Lynn Wachtmann) who badmouthed public servants' retirement benefits?
Jan. 3, 2010 - Toledo Blade
Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, a Napoleon Republican who also sits on the Ohio Retirement Study Council, dismissed as outdated the argument that government employees deserve better retirement packages than their private-sector peers because they receive less pay. "The taxpayers of Ohio, who are footing the bill for all of this in the end, need to realize how generous the public-pension systems - all of them - are compared to private-sector retirement plans," he said. "Most of our private-sector employers would go bankrupt if they had to pay the kind of money into employee retirements that our public-sector employers do."
Now do you remember? You know....... the same guy who sponsored a bill to ensure that bottled water (and not some other competing beverages like soda) would be sold in all of Ohio's public schools? You might want to see his latest conflict of interest. Here it is...in the form of an editorial from today's Toledo Blade. Looks like Lynn is looking out for his personal interests once again, doesn't it?
John
P.S. - The bottled water article re. another of Lynn's conflicts of interest follows today's Blade article.
P.S. 2 Those folks in the Toledo area really are protective of "their" lake...can you blame them? After all......it's our lake also!
'The sponsor of the House bill, state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R., Napoleon), insists it appropriately balances environmental protection with “the cost of doing business.” Mr. Wachtmann, who owns a company that draws water from the Lake Erie watershed, calls opponents of his legislation “fear-mongering” alarmists who would rather watch manufacturing plants close than allow them “insignificant” withdrawals.'
http://www.toledoblade.com/Editorials/2011/06/26/Don-t-drain-the-lake.html
Don't drain the lake
Risk dangerously low water levels and quality in Lake Erie — the shallowest of the Great Lakes — and its tributaries. Jeopardize the $10 billion a year in revenue, the 250,000 jobs, and the tourism, boating, fishing, and recreational industries that the lake contributes to the Ohio economy.
Aggravate pollution — including toxic algae blooms — in Lake Erie and the rivers and streams that feed it. Threaten the supply of drinking water for 3 million Ohioans.
Shift costs for water and wastewater treatment from big businesses to smaller businesses and consumers. Defy the spirit, and probably the letter, of the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement by eight states, Congress, and Canada to protect the lakes from excessive withdrawals and manage them wisely for future generations.
Sound good? Want to sign up? Contact your nearest Republican state lawmaker.
A bill rammed through the state House last week on a party-line vote, and similarly fast-tracked for Senate passage this week, would allow businesses to withdraw as much as 5 million gallons of water a day from Lake Erie without even getting a state permit. No other Great Lakes state has such a high threshold for regulation of water use; under Ohio’s current limit of 2 million gallons, more water already is withdrawn from Lake Erie than any of the other Great Lakes.
The measure also authorizes unregulated withdrawals of 2 million gallons a day from inland streams and rivers in the watershed, and 300,000 gallons from small, high-quality streams. It seems likely that corporate-friendly state regulators would not balk at business requests for even greater withdrawals.
The sponsor of the House bill, state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R., Napoleon), insists it appropriately balances environmental protection with “the cost of doing business.” Mr. Wachtmann, who owns a company that draws water from the Lake Erie watershed, calls opponents of his legislation “fear-mongering” alarmists who would rather watch manufacturing plants close than allow them “insignificant” withdrawals.
Actual environmentalists and scientists say the bill lacks overall water-conservation guidelines and seeks to isolate Lake Erie from broader management of the Great Lakes basin — a violation of the compact’s regional emphasis. That approach, the Ohio Environmental Council argues, “leaves Ohio vulnerable to litigation by not upholding our binding contract with the other seven Great Lakes states ... a waste of precious and scarce taxpayer dollars.”
There’s a better alternative. A measure sponsored by state Rep. Dennis Murray (D., Sandusky) would regulate water withdrawals on the basis of science, not lobbyists’ preferences or lawmakers’ efforts to make up numbers as they go along. Other states, including Michigan, have done that.
But the legislative majority here isn’t interested. House members also brushed aside proposed amendments to the GOP bill that would have created the nuisance of public review of the legislation’s effects.
Former Republican Gov. Bob Taft, a leader in developing the Great Lakes Compact, says the water bill goes too far. Former GOP Sen. George Voinovich has asked the Senate to postpone its vote. But don’t worry: If lake levels get low enough, it might become easier for oil and natural-gas operators to drill in Lake Erie — something else GOP lawmakers have shown they don’t feel compelled to prevent.
The water-withdrawal bill seems likely to become law because, for now, Republicans have the votes to do pretty much whatever they want. That may not always be the case, if the Ohioans who hired the politicians responsible for this and other extremist legislation are paying attention.
Rep. Lynn Wachtmann’s Conflict of Interest in HB 373
Yesterday I wrote a short post about Rep. Wachtmann. While researching him I came across some other information at the Ohio House website. Besides the new, pro-Jesus bill I discussed yesterday, Lynn has been the primary sponsor of only one other bill: HB 373.
The purpose of HB 373 is “to establish nutritional standards for certain foods and beverages sold in public and chartered nonpublic schools”. It also covers other stuff like body mass index testing and physical fitness requirements but for the purposes of this post the part about food and beverages is what’s important.
Also important (from his bio) is that Wachtmann is the “president of Maumee Valley Bottling, Inc. and a partner in Culligan Water Conditioning”. He’s also on the Board of Directors for the International Bottled Water Association.
Can you see what’s coming next?
Here’s part of the bill:
Sec. 3313.816. (A) No public or chartered nonpublic school shall permit the sale of a la carte beverage items other than the following during the regular and extended school day:
(1) For a school in which the majority of grades offered are in the range from kindergarten to grade four:
(a) Water;
(b)(i) Prior to January 1, 2014, eight ounces or less of low-fat or fat-free milk, including flavored milk, that contains not more than one hundred seventy calories per eight ounces;
(ii) Beginning January 1, 2014, eight ounces or less of low-fat or fat-free milk, including flavored milk, that contains not more than one hundred fifty calories per eight ounces.
(c) Eight ounces or less of one hundred per cent fruit juice, or a one hundred per cent fruit juice and water blend with no added sweeteners, that contains not more than one hundred sixty calories per eight ounces.
Yep, that’s right. Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, president of a company that sells bottled water, wrote legislation that requires every school in Ohio to sell water and forbids schools from selling competing beverages like soda.
Man if THAT isn’t the definition of conflict of interest I don’t know what is.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 8:52 PM
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