Court Opinion

ID: 9704224
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:27:12.267539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:58.746153
License: Public Domain

BABLITCH, J.
(concurring). This concurring opinion addresses only the dissent of Justice Abraham-son. Although it is unusual for the author of a majority opinion to also write a concurrence, it is not without precedent. Both the substance and the tone of that dissenting opinion deserve response.
The dissent very seriously misstates the holding of the majority opinion as well as its effect. The dissent states, "[w]ith this opinion the court usurps the legislative prerogative . . . regarding the location of prisons and the urgency of prison construction." Pages 122-123. The majority opinion does no such thing. That statement in the dissent ignores, first, that the legislative prerogative to locate prisons remains intact. The legislative provision directing DHSS to construct a prison in the Menomonee Valley remains fully in effect. Second, that statement ignores the fact that the majority opinion does not deny the legislature the power to provide expedited procedures to meet the state's urgent need for prison space. The majority opinion explicitly says *163that the legislature, if it chooses to provide expedited procedures, must do so consistently with equal protection. Had the legislature chosen to apply these truncated procedures to all prison construction in the state, or even just to prison construction in southeast Wisconsin, the majority opinion makes it very clear that the constitutional guarantees of equal protection would not have been offended.
The dissenting opinion incorrectly states: "The majority opinion fails to state clearly and consistently what it views as the legislative objective and means. ..." At page 123. I refer the dissenting justice to pages 99-100 of the majority opinion which states: "In other words, the objective was a prison in downtown Milwaukee in order to meet the critical statewide need for more prison space; the means chosen to reach that objective was a truncated WEPA and judicial review process.. . . We conclude there is no rational basis . . . to support the means which the legislature chose to accomplish its objective." (Emphasis added.) This language could not be clearer.
The dissent makes the assertion that, "[t]he legislature has prescribed noncontested hearings in many instances, and both the contested and informational hearings provide interested persons with a fair, meaningful hearing. This prison siting legislation just adds another exception to the long list of exceptions to the contested hearing _" Page 124. The only relevant comparison would be between hearing provisions for the Menomonee Valley prison and hearing provisions for other prison construction in the state. The only medium/maximum prison constructed in this state of recent vintage was the prison at Portage. A contested case hearing was provided.
*164Finally, the dissent says, in respect to the test that is to be applied to geographic, entity and individually specific legislative provisions, that: "In the guise of interpreting art. IV, sec. 18, the court attempts to promulgate a legislative form manual. The court puts the legislature on notice that the court is readying its pens, pencils, and word processors to use art. IV, sec. 18, aggressively to monitor the legislative process." Page 132. Not only is that statement unwarranted, it ignores the history of difficulty that this court and the courts of other states have experienced in attempting to put meaning into those words of the constitution. The majority has accepted the challenge and fashioned a reasonable test in this case that, if followed, will eliminate much of the confusion growing from earlier cases.
In 1981, the author of the dissent wrote the majority opinion for this court in Soo Line R. Co. v. Transportation Dept., 101 Wis. 2d 64, 303 N.W.2d 626 (1981). That opinion recognized that deciding what is a private or local law has been difficult and that an accurate, comprehensive definition of the phrase "private or local" has eluded this court and other states. Soo Line at 73. Nevertheless, the Soo Line court went on to apply the same standard balancing test which had proved so ineffective in this state as well as others. Since 1981, either the legislature did not hear the message of Soo Line or heard it too well. Since 1981, the legislature has inserted into the budget many legislative provisions which are arguably private or local laws.1
*165The dissenting opinion would render article IV, sec. 18 nothing more than a meaningless constitutional gesture. The article must be more than that. But for the article to be meaningful, this court must use a different means to test the constitutionality of these types of provisions other than the same old ineffective balancing test. We do not, as the dissent mistakenly represents, wait with "... pens, pencils, and word processors to use art. IV, sec. 18, aggressively to monitor the legislative process." Page 132. We trust and assume that the members of the legislature desire to be as true to their oaths of office as do the members of this court. To do so, history proves they need a more workable, understandable, analytical framework than the balancing test outlined by this court in the Soo Line opinion. The balancing test, in many instances, became an "eye of the beholder" test. As stated succinctly and accurately by countless legislators, " 'Pork' is what some other legislator inserts into the budget, 'good public policy' is what I insert into the budget." Because that balancing test depended so very greatly on the perspectives of those determining the weight to be applied to each side of the scale, it has proved unworkable. The obvious failure of the Soo Line opinion to halt legislative excursions into this constitutionally difficult area dictates the necessity for the objective framework set forth in the majority opinion.

 For instance, a property tax exemption for youth hockey associations; a continuing education program for funeral directors; special treatment for a small city's sewerage plant; a property tax exemption for railroad historical societies; a claim in excess of *165$100,000 GPR for a named individual; nearly one million dollars in state aid to the World Dairy Exposition and Wisconsin Livestock Breeder’s Association; an animal lab in the City of Barron; an inheritance tax exemption for MIA's; exclusion of certain students for Minnesota reciprocity. The list goes on and on. Many of these provisions survived; some did not.