City adds its support to Great Lakes Compact

The Wisconsin Legislature may be unable to make up its mind about the Great Lakes Compact, but the Racine City Council has no such problem. At Wednesday's City Council meeting, the following resolution was approved:

Racine City Council's support of Great Lakes Basin Compact

WHEREAS, the governors of the eight states that border the Great Lakes, to-wit: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York, signed the Great Lakes Basin Compact in 2005, the purposes of which are set out in Article I of the Compact, as follows:

1. To promote the orderly, integrated, and comprehensive development, use, and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes Basis (hereinafter called the Basin).

2. To plan for the welfare and development of the water resources of the Basin as a whole as well as for those portions of the Basin which may have problems of special concern.

3. To make it possible for the states of the Basin and their people to derive the maximum benefit from utilization of public works, in the form of navigational aids or otherwise, which may exist or which may be constructed from time to time.

4. To advise in securing and maintaining a proper balance among industrial, commercial, agricultural, water supply, residential, recreational, and other legitimate uses of the water resources of the Basin.

5. To establish and maintain an intergovernmental agency the end that the purposes of this compact may be accomplished more effectively; and

WHEREAS, congressional approval of, and consent to, said Compact is dependent upon the passage of the Compact by the legislatures of each of the party states; and

WHEREAS, the Compact is currently pending before the Wisconsin legislature; and

WHEREAS, the Common Council of the City of Racine feels passage of the Compact is in the best interest of the people of the City of Racine, the State of Wisconsin and the entire Great Lakes region.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED, by the Racine Common Council to support the immediate passage of the Compact and to notify all members of the Wisconsin legislature of the Council’s support for the Compact and its request for legislative action.

So far, four of the eight Great Lakes states have approved the compact: Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and New York. In Wisconsin, the State Senate approved it by a vote of 26-6, but the Assembly -- so far -- has been contentious.