FedupinEC

Eau Claire, WI

Minimum markup law still around?

There use to be something in Wisconsin called a Minimum Markup Law that makes everything in the state more expensive by mandating that retailers have to markup their prices by a certain minimum amount. Well gas station owners didn't like it because it hurt their business, so they filed a lawsuit, and won. The law was voted down as unconstitutional. On Wednesday, I went to Walmart and noticed in the grocery section where they have frozen turkeys, there was a sign stating why their prices are up. It states something about an Wisconsin Unfair Sales Act that mandates that they keep their prices up versus neighboring states. So it looks like all they did was change the name of the law to keep it around and continue making us spend more money! It reminds us how they tried introducing the "Wheel Tax" here in Eau Claire. When it was voted down, they reintroduced it again under a different name.  (Friday Nov 13 | post #1)

Eau Claire, WI

Doors still open at public library

Well, they finally closed them after fixing the automatic opener. Sure was alot of heat and air conditioning lost in the meantime! But good news: Our city council has voted to raise our property taxes! That should make up for some of the waste. Plus (even though this is a bit off topic) the state voted to cause our auto insurance to skyrocket starting November 1st. What's not to like??? ;)  (Wednesday Oct 28 | post #4)

Eau Claire, WI

Doors still open at public library

These days, the talk is all about energy efficiency. Apparently, our local government and those who receive our tax money haven't gotten that message. Ever since the middle of Summer of 2009 when the air conditioning is running, the doors leading to outside have been left wide open. Now it is the middle of October and we've seen our first snowfalls and record cold temperatures and the heaters are on at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library--and the doors are still open, allowing all the heat to go outside. The lame excuse they give for this when asked is that the button to allow the disabled to open the door automatically is broken. Here's a thought--Get it fixed! The amount of our money that's been totally wasted on heating and cooling the place far exceeds what it would take to get a button fixed. So far, they seem more concerned with renovating the library and putting in new carpet and buying new flashy toys, such as the flat screen TV they put behind the checkout desk, as if the one behind the circulation wasn't wasteful enough, bought at a time when those things cost $10,000. All they do is display library service information. Heck, even a bulletin board could do that! Please pressure these people to stop wasting our money. The city now wants to impose a "wheel tax". I guess they just don't know how to stop wasting money.  (Oct 16, 2009 | post #1)