the Cutting Edge PRESIDENT S MESSAGE By Kevin Schmitz, K & J Construction and Design, LLC Volume 9, Issue 12 December 2018 Inside this issue:

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1 M i d - S h o r e s H o m e B u i l d e r s A s s o c i a t i o n, I n c. Celebrating 20 Years! the Cutting Edge Volume 9, Issue 12 December 2018 Inside this issue: Membership 2 Home & Garden Expo 3 MSHBA Christmas Party 4 IBS 6 Amazon Business 7 WBA Advocacy Digest 8 CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Dec. 7 Christmas Party & Installation Banquet Millhome Supper Club, Kiel 5:30 p.m. Cocktails 6:30 p.m. Dinner Awards, Installations & Auction following Dinner - Reservations Required ASAP, form enclosed Jan. 8 Home & Garden Expo Meeting 5:00 pm at the Altona Supper Club, NH Jan. 8 MSHBA BOD/GM Meeting Altona Supper Club, NH 5:30 pm BOD Meeting 6:30 pm GM Meeting Feb. 8 WBA Board Day & President s Installation The Orpheum Theater, Madison PRESIDENT S MESSAGE By Kevin Schmitz, K & J Construction and Design, LLC Happy Holidays fellow members, The season is upon us. Hopefully it is wonderful for everyone. This month we have our annual Xmas party and officer installation banquet. It is being held at Millhome Supper Club on Friday December 7th. Anyone who can attend, should do so. We also have our PAC Auction that evening. We are always in need of items to be donated, and bidders for these Wishing you and your family a Christmas warm with happiness and a New Year filled with joy. From the Board of Directors & staff of Mid-Shores Home Builders Association, Inc. items. Hope to see you there. This should have been my last letter to you, but you are stuck with me for another year. We are setting up the Home and Garden Expo already. Please take the time to sign up ahead of time so the committee can lay out the booths according to vendors. Again, we will have the local High School Tech Ed programs do a project for the show. This helps our relationships with some of the students into our trades, and also brings more people to the show. Any ideas on how we can support the local trades at our area schools are always welcome. Happy Holidays! Kevin K&J Construction and Design LLC Residential Construction and an Authorized Central Boiler Dealer

2 Page MSHBA OFFICERS President : Kevin Schmitz K & J Construction and Design LLC kjconstruction@bugnet.net President-Elect : OPEN POSITION Treasurer: Sara Cardinal Premier Financial Credit Union Sara.cardinal@yourpfcu.com Secretary: Pam Van Dera Collins State Bank pamvandera@collinsstatebank.com Past-President : Dave Amel Premier Properties Realty, LLC Dave@TheAmelTeam.com 2018 DIRECTORS Ted Birschbach Birschbach Builders LLC Darlene Schwobe Zander Press Inc Jerry Mallmann Chilton Furniture Tim Mathes Mathes Construction and Gutter Co WBA Directors Sean Kelly Dan Schneider Pam Van Dera Glenn Christel NAHB Director Kevin Schmitz Dan Schneider (Alternate) PO Box 125 New Holstein, WI Executive Officer Tena Hartwig 2104 Mary Ave. New Holstein, WI Phone (920) Fax 9920) thartwig@midshoreshomebuilders.com MSHBA Membership MEMBERSHIP the Ultimate Building Resource NEW MEMBERSHIP PENDING: BUILDER: Mad City Windows of Green Bay, Inc. Josh Jager 2340 Holly Road Neenah WI Sponsored by Kevin Schmitz THANK YOU FOR RENEWING YOUR MEMBERSHIP! Hedrich Construction Inc. Scott Umland Insurance Services LLC Todd s Plumbing LLC Tundraland Home Improvements Mid-Shores HBA offers a 3-Pay Dues Payment Program MSHBA offers an option to pay your dues in three consecutive monthly payments of $ Your membership will take into effect on your final payment. A 3-Pay Dues payment contract will be included with your renewal statement. WBA Member Meetings & Events Friday, February President s Installation & Member Meeting Day at The Orpheum Theater, Madison Early Bird rates expire December 7! THANK YOU Poinsettia Sponsor! Drexel Building Supply is the Sponsor for the poinsettia s at MSHBA s December Christmas party THANK YOU! The flowers serve as door prizes. Auction Items are Needed for Mid-Shores HBA s BBW Auction To raise much need funds for the Building a Better Wisconsin Fund, a live auction will held in conjunction with our Christmas Party on December 7. Please consider a donation. What is Building a Better Wisconsin (BBW)? BBW is WBA s political action committee, most commonly referred to as a PAC. It is WBA members from across the state combining their resources to support pro-housing, pro-business candidates running for office in Wisconsin. Introducing MSHBA s 2019 Officers & Directors MSHBA s 2019 Officers and Directors were elected at it October Annual and Member Meeting. MSHBA s leadership will be installed at the December 7 Christmas Party at Millhome Supper Club. Officers: 1-year term, no limit on terms President: Kevin Schmitz, K & J Construction and Design LLC President Elect: Ted Birschbach, Birschbach Builders LLC Secretary: Darlene Schwobe, Zander Press Inc Treasurer: Sara Cardinal, Premier Financial Credit Union Immediate Past President: Dave Amel, Premier Properties Realty LLC Directors: 3-year term, limited to two consecutive terms Jerry Mallmann, Chilton Furniture: term ending 2019 Pam Van Dera, Collins State Bank: term ending 2021 Tim Mathes, Mathes Construction & Gutter Co.: term ending 2019 Tommy Heiberger, Christel & Heiberger Builders Inc.: term ending 2021

3 Page 3 REGISTER NOW...MSHBA s 2019 Home & Garden Expo THANK YOU EXPO SPONSORS! Seminar Sponsor Dennis Thiel Builders LLC Other Sponsors: Premier Financial Credit Union - Kid s Project Zone Suess Electronics Sound K & J Construction and Design LLC sign Lift March 2 & 3 Saturday, March 2 10AM-5PM Sunday, March 3 10AM-3PM 2245 Calumet Drive, New Holstein Former Tractor Supply Co. Complimentary Exhibitor Hospitality Room Calumet County s ONLY Home & Garden Show! EXHIBIT YOUR BUSINESS: The two-day show is an excellent, cost-effective opportunity to showcase your business and services to MSHBA members as well as area consumers that attend the event. Contact MSHBA for an Exhibitor s Packet and space availability EXHIBITOR BONUS: We have the space, therefore you can purchase a 10 x 15 Booth for only $25 more than a 10 x 10! MARKETING: We will be using a variety of media to promote the event in the Calumet County area and beyond including a brochure distributed to 20,000 households. SEMINARS: Contact me if you would be willing to present an informational seminar or demonstration. Seminars should be approximately minutes in length. The Home & Garden Expo Committee schedules and approves non advertorial seminars and demonstrations based upon public interest and popular topics. GENERAL HELP: The committee will need help with ticket sales at the door, set up, general clean up, general snow removal and monitoring the expo areas. Let us know if you can help a signup sheet will be at the January and February GM. SPONSORSHIPS: In addition to the advertising, seminar and hospitality sponsorships, we are also hosting large item door prizes to encourage attendance. A variety of sponsorship opportunities are available. Sponsorship Special become an Event Sponsor & receive two 10x10 booths or become an Advertising Sponsor & receive one 10X10 booth. Mid-Shores Home Builders Association Inc. invites you to participate as a vendor and/or sponsor of the 2019 Home & Garden Expo in New Holstein. Your support of this event will be greatly appreciated! Contact MSHBA to register. The Deadline to be included in the Home & Garden Expo Brochure is February 11

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8 Page 8 Assembly GOP comes back with 63 members Going into Election Day, the conventional wisdom was that the assembly GOP would continue to hold the majority in the state s lower house, but they would likely lose in the ballpark of 5 seats. In a testament to candidate recruitment, fundraising, and campaign staffing, it looks like Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will come back either losing no seats or just one seat that looks to be headed to a recount. Press reports on election night stated that the GOP was able to hold all their seats in the state assembly with the open 14 th Assembly District seat going to the republican, Matt Adamczyk, by 21 votes. After further review it appears the numbers that were first reported for wards 16 and 17 in the City of Wauwatosa were incorrect, and, when factoring in the new numbers, democrat Robin Vining now appears to be in the lead by 132 votes. Recnetly the 132 margin was confirmed for Vining putting the final Assembly GOP number at 63 for State Senate GOP gains one seat to go to 19 State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was able to expand his majority by holding all his current seats and defeating State Senator Caleb Frostman in the 1 st Senate District. Frostman won a special election this summer to replace State Senator Frank Lasee by defeating Representative Andre Jacque. After the close race this summer, Jacque announced that he would again seek the 1 st Senate District seat this fall, and this time around was able to defeat Frostman by a wider than expected margin of 47,286 to 39,414. Two sitting state senators were the target of big money to defeat them in 2018 and both were able to hold on. State Senator Howard Markein was reelected to serve in the 17 th State Senate District 54% to 46% by defeating Democrat Kris Marion. WBA member and State Senator Roger Roth bested Lee Snodgrass in the 19 th State Senate District 53% to 47%. In a hard fought and nasty race for an open state senate seat in the Wauwatosa area, State Representative Dale Kooyenga defeated democrat Julie Henszey 51.3% to 48.7% in this traditionally strong GOP seat. This seat became open when State Senator Leah Vukmir decided to vacate the seat to run against U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin this fall. Advocacy Digest October 2018 Brad Boycks, Executive Director Most Madison area political pundits predicted that the democrats would pick up one seat in the upper house and the GOP would come back with a plus one majority in Instead, the GOP comes in with 19 seats and will be looking now to pick up State Senate District 10 which they lost in a special election in early 2018 in the general election in Gov, AG, Treasurer all go blue For the first time since the mid-1980s, all five of the constitutional officers in Wisconsin will be held by democrats. Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, State Treasurer, and Secretary of State are now in the hands of democrats for at least the next four years. Tony Evers defeated Governor Scott Walker by a 1.2% margin, 1,293,799 to 1,124,648 total votes. Early in the a.m. on Wednesday, a statement was released by Lt. Governor Kleefisch that hinted that the campaign would be seeking a statewide recount of ballots before conceding the race. That quickly changed early Wednesday afternoon when Governor Walker released a statement conceding the race to now Governor-Elect Evers. In a prepared statement, Governor Walker said, Thanks to Tony Evers for his gracious comments on our call today. I offered the full support of my staff and our cabinet as he begins the transition process. Finally, thank you to the voters of the great State of Wisconsin. It has been my honor to serve as your Governor for nearly eight years. We ve come a long way together and it is my sincere hope that the progress we ve made during our time in office will continue and that we can keep Wisconsin working for generations to come. Thank you and may God bless the people of Wisconsin. Former State Assembly Representative Mandela Barnes is now Lt. Governor- Elect, and will take over in January for Lt. Governor Kleefisch. The other statewide race that WBA was actively engaged in was the race for Attorney General. Prosecutor Josh Kahl

9 Page 9 defeated Attorney General Brad Schimel by.8% or 22,673 votes statewide. With the even closer margin of victory, the Schimel campaign released a statement they were awaiting the final vote canvas on the race before starting the transition of power to Josh Kahl in January. Schimel s statement concluded by saying However, if the margin does not substantially change, I have vowed that my team will assist him in making the transition as smooth as possible. I want to thank nearly 1.3 million Wisconsinites for their votes, their prayers and support. We will all know more in about a week." First glance on why top of the ticket went D in 2018 Two factors appear to have made the difference for Tony Evers and Josh Kahl on Election Day Higher voter turnout and margins in Dane and Milwaukee Counties and a lesser margin of victory for Walker and Schimel in the WOW Counties (Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington) tilted our politically-even state in the direction of the democrats. Neither of the above factors are really that surprising. It has been known for some time that traditionally more liberal voters in Dane and Milwaukee Counties were looking for another opportunity to push back against President Trump, coupled with close polling that showed they may finally be able to beat Scott Walker after being 0-3 against him since Polling had been showing a depression of republican votes in more suburban areas of the country, and the suburbs around Milwaukee County were no different in the end. Governor Walker and Attorney General Schimel were still able to win those counties handily, but their margin was down from the percentages they received four years ago. Even though they improved in some upstate counties, it was not enough to make up for the one-two punch of a depressed GOP vote and an energized democrat turnout in Dane and Milwaukee Counties. Check with DSPS on smaller multifamily units for sprinkler requirements Recently, it has come to our attention that some members have had issues getting plans approved by the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) for multifamily housing units of 20 or fewer units. The main issue in question deals with a commercial building code issue on means of egress when you are not required to have a sprinkler system. We continue to talk with DSPS about this issue, and await their formal guidance that addresses the state statute on this matter and how that interacts with the commercial building code provisions on means of egress from a multifamily unit. Until formal guidance is issued by DSPS on this topic, it is strongly advised that you or the consultants you work with to design smaller multifamily units contact DSPS directly to discuss design issues before you submit plans to the department. The most direct way to get in contact with DSPS on this issue is via at: DSPSSBBuildingTech@wisconsin.gov. Main goal of : No backsliding from reforms One thing that we will be focusing on once the legislature begins their work in January 2019 is to make sure we protect all of the advocacy wins we have achieved since With the same majorities in power in both the state senate and the state assembly, we will have strong allies in both houses who helped pass these reforms and will be partners to help us keep those public policy items in place. There were two significant policy changes that took place over the past two sessions that will help guard against changes to the building code and the passage of a single-family sprinkler mandate. First, during the session of the legislature, a provision was added to the state budget and signed by Governor Walker into law that prohibits any department mandating single-family sprinklers in an administrative rule package. This was signed into law as 2015 Wisconsin Act 55, and means that any effort to pass a single family sprinkler mandate must be passed as bill and signed into law by the governor. Just last session, the REINS Act was also signed into law as 2017 Wisconsin Act 57. REINS stands for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny. Passage of the REINS Act last session means that any administrative rule package that is introduced by any state agency can be stopped by the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) and could only be passed if a bill authorizing the promulgation of the rule package is passed by both houses of the legislature and signed into law. While things will certainly be different next session with split power between the governor and the state assembly and state senate, the above-mentioned state statutes are an additional check on the power of the executive branch on additional regulatory burdens that will increase the cost of housing in $50 Off for Early Bird & Regular Registration Rates for WBA Members! Early bird registration for the 2019 Better Buildings: Better Business (B4) Conference is now open, and WBA members can save an additional $50 by entering the discount code B419WBF50 in the discount code field at sign-up. (Hint: select your desired conference package first, then enter the discount code and click "apply.") The B4 Conference is powered by Seventhwave and the Wisconsin Builders (WB) Foundation, and will take place February 13th-15th at the Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells. REGISTER TODAY!