Kelda Challenges Walker on Open Mining Records Request

Press Release

MADISON, WI -- Rep. Kelda Helen Roys today sent Gov. Scott Walker's office a letter demanding access to nearly 9,000 records identified pursuant to her request for records outlining contacts between the Governor, his staff, or members of his administration, and out-of-state mining company Gogebic Taconite. In April, the Senate defeated efforts to deregulate open-pit mining in Wisconsin to benefit Gogebic Taconite's efforts to strip mine in the Penokee range -- endangering fresh water resources, tribal lands, and pristine northern woods with dangerous chemicals.

Rep. Roys issued the following statement on the Governor's continued refusal to release records:

"The public has a right to know about Governor Walker's dealings with corporate special interests -- especially when those interests may seek to poison our groundwater with arsenic, mercury, and lead. Governor Walker has stonewalled my open records request for six months -- denying the public the ability to see what contact his administration had with an out-of-state strip-mining corporation. Now, Walker wants to bring back this dangerous mining deregulation bill in a special session, yet he is still hiding how it was drafted from the public.

"I am proud to have been one of the strongest voices against deregulating mining in Wisconsin -- and I am not going to sit by as Walker continues to prioritize his corporate donors over the public interest. It is long past time for Walker to produce these documents -- and all the documents that people have lawfully requested pursuant to Wisconsin's open records laws. What is he trying to hide?"

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