G-Tac Mining:Good "who got how much" list. (Guess who got most?)
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Wisconsin-Inc--for-sale-t-by-Eric-Nelson-130610-954.html
In a nutshell:
The problem for GTAC has always been Wisconsin's community-first environmental standards, the traditional mining tax structures (ie. tonnage tax) that all other Midwestern mining states use, the unusual pitch of the ore deposit and its proximity to environmentally sensitive wetlands making this extraction financially unfeasible.
However, when you have complete Republican control of state government and years of corporate donations (Figure 2 shows just a few of these) to buy said state officials, a company like GTAC and its larger out of state parent company, the Cline Group, can just re-write state legislation that is far more beneficial to them.
Fig. 2, referred to above. (Is it just the public tip of the whole quid-pro-quo iceberg?)
P.S. The Charlie Pierce Esquire article referred to in the 1st paragraph of this story is worth a read, too.