Below is an excerpt from the most recent edition of WisBusiness Tuesday Trends.
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RISING
Landlords: The tenant-landlord relationship is on the verge of taking another tilt toward the owners. The Senate approves legislation requiring courts to hand over apartments to landlords immediately after they win a court case, allowing landlords to tow vehicles on private property without a parking citation as long as law enforcement is notified and permitting landlords to evict tenants if a crime is committed on the property, with exceptions for crimes that involve sexual or domestic abuse or stalking. Critics denounce the changes as unfair to tenants, predicting they will increase the number of evictions while overriding local ordinances. But backers say the bill levels a playing field they believe has been stacked for too long against landlords. The Senate bill now heads back to the Assembly, which has already passed its own version of the legislation.
MIXED
Insurance exchanges: State businesses seeking to enroll in the new health insurance exchanges under federal health care reform will likely be able to choose between two or three insurers, while some individuals enrolling in rural counties will only have one choice, according to information released last week by the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. Although individuals in the larger counties of Wisconsin — such as Dane, Brown and Milwaukee counties — will have at least four insurers to choose from in the exchanges, employers have only two choices in Dane and Brown and one choice in Milwaukee. Several rural counties will also have minimal flexibility, with only one or two options in employer and individual markets. Marquette County in central Wisconsin will fare the worst, with only one insurer offering plans through the exchange for individuals and no options for employers. Meanwhile, groups that have been granted federal funding to help citizens through the exchange enrollment process won’t cover all of Wisconsin, with some areas — particularly in the southwestern corner of the state — left out.
FALLING
Coal: As the Obama administration proposes new limits on greenhouse gas emissions for newly constructed power plants, a report from a state environmental group says Wisconsin’s share of energy derived from coal — which could be hit particularly hard by the new rules — ranks 19th nationally at about 65 percent. The Wisconsin Environment report also pegs Alliant Energy’s Portage-area Columbia Energy Center as the state’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and No. 88 among the top 100 power plant sources of the greenhouse gas in the nation. Meanwhile, another state utility — Wisconsin Public Service Corp. — says its agreement to shutter coal generators under a previous agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency means it will need more power from other sources. WPS officials say they’re considering sites near Green Bay or Kaukauna for possible construction of a new plant that would likely burn natural gas — though the Green Bay-based utility may elect to contract with another company for needed electricity.
