Posted on 05/30/2015 3:52:41 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Budget panel adopts Scott Walker's cuts to DNR scientists, bucks natural area buy moratorium
The Legislature’s budget committee voted Friday to slow down conservation land purchases and eliminate half of the state Department of Natural Resources senior science staff as part of an overall reduction of 80 DNR positions.
With their plan to reduce annual borrowing for purchases of natural areas, Republican lawmakers bucked Gov. Scott Walker, who wanted a 13-year moratorium to reduce debt payments that ballooned in 2012 because the state postponed payments during the recession.
Joint Finance Committee leaders announced they would propose cutting stewardship land borrowing to $33 million a year from the $50 million authorized under existing law.
They also said they would follow Walker’s proposal for the 2015-17 state budget to continue a historic reduction in DNR staff.
The committee backed both plans on a party-line vote, with Republicans voting for and Democrats against. If the full Legislature approves the proposal to cut staff, the DNR will have been reduced by 15 percent under both Democratic and Republican administrations since the 2000-2001 budget.
Walker has said he wants to focus the DNR on its core mission, but he hasn’t specified what should be discarded from its current workload. Opponents of the cuts say costly environmental damage will be done with less scientific research to guide decisions.
Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, one of four Democrats on the committee, decried the cuts that are to be recommended to the full Legislature.
“Our environment — it’s the reason people come to Wisconsin. It’s God’s country, as we like to say. We should make sure we’re protecting our environment,” Taylor said.
She called proposed cuts to the DNR’s science and education bureaus “completely, completely unacceptable.”
Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, accused the GOP of retaliating against the bureau because it has presented inconvenient facts.
“You’re shooting the messenger here,” Erpenbach said. “They are just doing their jobs.”
Over the last four years the science services bureau conducted 109 research projects requested by DNR wildlife, fishery and forest managers, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. It has been a lightning rod because managers cite the research when explaining policies such as limits on hunting and fishing.
The science bureau ran afoul of some conservatives last year when it compiled scientific literature on mining while a controversial iron mine was being developed.
“Some have argued that the Department should not focus on controversial science projects, such as the study of climate change or mining impacts,” fiscal bureau analysts said.
Sen. Thomas Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, a critic of the science bureau, said Democrats were exaggerating.
“We have heard so much hyperbole around this issue, that science is going to end and that’s just not true,” Tiffany said.
Finance committee co-chairman Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, acknowledged people feel passionate about natural resources, but he said it’s not true that lawmakers like himself who live in northern Wisconsin don’t care about the environment.
“It’s our way of life,” Nygren said.
DNR spokesman Bill Cosh said if the staffing cuts were enacted, agency leaders would need to make choices about how to use remaining staff in the science and research area.
“What these cuts require us to do is to better prioritize the research that our scientists are engaged in to help inform management decisions,” Cosh said, adding that final decisions haven’t been made on all 80 positions to be eliminated. Land purchases
When Walker announced his planned moratorium on land purchases earlier this year, conservationists, hunters and others were alarmed, saying that certain valuable lands only become available once in a generation.
The stewardship program has preserved parcels of wild land for parks, hunting and hiking, as well as timber operations since 1990.
Nygren and finance committee member Rep. Amy Loudenbeck, R-Clinton, issued a statement saying the panel’s proposal would reduce debt by about $140 million over the next 20 years.
“Hunting, fishing, and other outdoor sports are an important piece of our state’s economy,” Nygren said. “It’s essential that we continue this program for the benefit of Wisconsin’s sporting tradition.”
Loudenbeck said the state would buy the “best of the best” land and easements, but Democrats weren’t persuaded.
“How is this budget for the environment? I’ll have to award you zero stars,” said Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh.
Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, defended the stewardship spending, saying roughly one out of every five acres in Wisconsin is already publicly owned and DNR spends $1.7 million a week just paying the debt.
“This has been a credit card that’s been used over and over,” Schraa said. “Let’s just be fiscally responsible.”
Gathering Waters, a group of land trusts, praised the plan to retain the “bulk” of stewardship land funding.
“The Stewardship Program costs each resident in Wisconsin less per year than a fishing license or a state park sticker,” said Mike Strigel, executive director of Gathering Waters.
The committee also passed a provision invalidating local ordinances that prohibit urban bow-hunting.
Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, accused Republicans of being “sneaky” with a proposed budget provision aimed at stripping counties of their ability to enact standards for local waterways that exceed state standards.
“This would take away our ability … to make sure our waters are clean,” Taylor said, noting the efforts that Dane County and its communities have made to clean up Madison-area lakes. “People don’t want to have dirtier water.”
The committee proposed a change to state law so the DNR wouldn’t be required to lay off dozens of temporary workers before permanent positions were cut.
Rolling back the government bow wows, their search for something to do and their pensions.
Open weeping in Milwaukee...
This guy has got the gut instincts of a Corp.-Titan and that is to ask how much more do we cut back or do we even need to do this anymore.
Disney on the Potomac needs the Downsizing / Rightsizing / Kazien Events that we all went trough in the real world, and Walker seems to be the guy that can do it.
Cruz can be his Consigliere as VP to tell him what can be done legally and Constitutionally.
DNR......... welfare for female biology majors that want to make a difference
No such thing. They're partisan. Everybody has an opinion. This story is a propaganda piece. Where are all the hunting groups?
all govt budgets could be solved by eliminated anything related to global warming or homersexuals..........
Socializing what should be a land entertainment industry has been horribly destructive to the productivity of wildands, worldwide. When these idiots “preserve” land, what they are doing is mandating neglect. Everything goes out of whack from uninterrupted succession to multi-prey population crashes. Native Americans knew better because they lived on the land and depended upon it. These people don’t.
What Progressives are learning under Walker is that you can’t use taxpayer dollars to overtly take sides in an argument without expecting some consequences.
It might be okay with a Democrat governor if the DNR wastes money studying global warming with the goal of advancing a carbon tax, or getting additional funding to do more such studies, but the bureaucracy needs to understand that it’s viewed as wasted money, or even money spent in opposition, by Walker and the GOP governing the state today.
One of Walker’s key strengths is that he doesn’t tolerate this nonsense. If a bureaucrat is going to jab needles in conservative sides from his supposedly secure position he’s going to find it’s not all that secure after all. Walker’s approach is the only way to clear out the rat’s nest that is Washington DC. People have to lose their funding, and as a consequence their jobs, or else they just lie in wait for the opportunity to skewer conservatives later, while doing everything they can to frustrate conservative initiatives.
Under a President Walker, Lois Lerner will be indicted, and that will be just the start of a very different ball game in DC, one we will all enjoy watching.
Walker approaches leadership without all the drama, just starts, asap, moving toward his goal, bit by bit wherein the totality begins to pull down the false narrative of the Left, exposing them to the people they’re trying to dupe, and that really gets the snowball rolling.
Cruz as VP is fine with me, but I think my tagline below is a better idea......
Land purchases are usually used to enrich politicians and their friends.
Budget [anerl accepts Walker cuts!
FReep Mail me if ou want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Scottie sticks the knife in and TWISTS it!
WTF is our Wisconsin DNR doing getting involved in all this false-science global warming CRAP? Oh, that’s right. We’ve not had any REAL LEADERSHIP in this state since (maybe) Tommy Thompson!
Our DNR should be managing our deer/bear/wolf herds/packs, keeping our waterways clean for fishing (Madistan does a HORRIBLE job of that - we are surrounded by 4 GORGEOUS lakes, and most you wouldn’t want to dip your big toe into; algae warnings ALL SUMMER LONG!)
Stick ‘em where it hurts, Governor. Take away this global warming-boondoggle gravy-train they’re riding!
Make. Them. Squeal.
“This would take away our ability … to make sure our waters are clean,” (Chris) Taylor (D) said, noting the efforts that Dane County and its communities have made to clean up Madison-area lakes. “People don’t want to have dirtier water.”
Oh. My. Gawd. Read my previous comment about how DIRTY our Madistan lakes have been - for DECADES! They’re GROSS!
“Land purchases are usually used to enrich politicians and their friends.”
Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk! We suffered under her for thirteen years! She had the state buy up swampland that was WORTHLESS - at top dollar! We will be paying for her boondoggles for decades to come. Hell, we’ll NEVER pay off that debt!
BUT - this is a step in the right direction by Governor Walker. Love My Gov! :)
Hold your nose:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Falk
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