Proposed Assembly Budget Assaults

Madison, WI -Conservation, public interest and environmental groups labeled the Republican Assembly Budget an assault on Clean Air and Water and Safe Transportation and called for dramatic changes to improve the document before Friday’s anticipated floor session.

“Assembly Republicans didn’t miss any opportunities to assault our clean air and water and safe streets,” said Caryl Terrell, Legislative Coordinator, John Muir Chapter-Sierra Club. “Cuts to recycling, the Stewardship Fund and energy conservation, roll back of basic water quality protection and splitting up the DNR show the GOP is intent on being the enemy of environmental protection.”

Republicans tacked a host of anti-environment amendments onto their budget package last week. They included:

· A decrease in funding for local and county recycling programs, cutting grants in half instead of doubling them as the Senate proposed,

· A $2.5 million cut in the Stewardship Fund for this year alone, with higher cuts likely in future years,

· Dismantling the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) by dividing its authority between two, new agencies,

· A $40 million transfer from the General Fund (sales tax on vehicle purchases) into a restructured Transportation Fund exclusively for highway roadbuilding.

“Conservationists got a stick in the eye from the Republican Assembly last Friday,” said Jim Wise, president of ECCOLA, Environmentally Concerned Citizens of the Lakeland Area, Tomahawk. “Conservation group leaders took the time to attend two legislative hearings. We spoke clearly against splitting the Department of Natural Resources into two agencies. The Wisconsin Conservation Congress voted 72-0 against the DNR split.”

"The proposal to split the DNR weakens protection of Wisconsin's environment," said Jeff Bord, Executive Director of Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. "When you're trying to make something stronger you merge. When you're trying to weaken something, you split it apart.”

“Splitting the DNR creates problems, but solves nothing,” added Bill Kordus, Menasha, Twin City Rod & Gun Club. ”Our members oppose this move because it will cost more money for the overhead of running two agencies, which can only mean less to spend on resource protection.”

“Wisconsin has one of the strongest and proudest recycling programs in the country and it has been a great success,” said Kerry Schumann, State Director of WISPIRG, Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group. “Recycling has diverted millions of dollars worth of reusable material out of the waste stream into job creating production. Cutting state grants will decimate recycling in many communities and increase the reliance on landfills.”

“Protecting lands for future generations is always a wise investment, and it isn’t getting any cheaper,” said Charlie Luthin, Executive Director of Wisconsin Wetlands Association. “Waiting to preserve our vanishing wilderness is penny wise and pound foolish. It is hard to understand why funding for this valuable and popular program would be slashed.”

Current levels of funding for the Stewardship program, the Fund used for acquisition of important, unique, and ecologically sensitive lands, is $40 million/year. The recently-passed Senate version of the budget bill calls for $60 million per year, while the Assembly Republican version will reduce the current level of the Fund by $2.5 million/year, or $16.5 million less than what is proposed by the Senate.

"The Assembly majority hit a home run with their high capacity well amendment but unfortunately struck out repeatedly on a range of other water quality issues. The end result is a very poor batting average for the health of the waters of our state," stated Todd Ambs, Executive Director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin.

“The same day as Gov. McCallum declared June 30-July 8 as Lakes Appreciation Week, the Republican Caucus diluted the water quality and shoreland zoning provisions that protect lakes,” said Donna Sefton, Executive Director, WI Association of Lakes.

Waving a Secchi disk, Sefton continued, "As citizens throughout Wisconsin go out to measure lake quality using this instrument called the Secchi disk during Lakes Appreciation Week, we find Wisconsin potentially backsliding on protection of the 15,000 lakes that are at the heart of our economy and quality of life. I fear that lakefront property owners and tourist boaters and anglers will increasingly find murky waters in Wisconsin.”

Door County resident Zalman Saperstein has invited Rep. Garey Bies to meet with residents at Hope Church in Sturgeon Bay on July 1st to discuss his dramatic reversal of position on shoreline development. “The Bies motion will cause major water quality harm along the fragile shores of Door County,” stated Zalman. “Solid piers cause stagnate water near shore, disrupting fish habitat and the natural accretion of sand.

Piers form low energy sites for growth of zebra mussels and exotic weeds. Kayaking, fishing and recreational water activities would be diminished and much of the remaining open shores would be aesthetically spoiled. This motion trashes the Public Trust Doctrine in Door County and opens the door to eventual statewide abolition.”

The Republican roll-back of energy conservation and renewable energy programs was singled out as especially short-sighted.“A comprehensive energy strategy has to have conservation as a vital component. The Republican budget leaves our energy future as hazy as a California brown-out,” said Mark Redsten, spokesman for Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade.

“Energy efficiency is the most cost effective way to ensure electric reliability; It’s the only method of keeping the lights on that actually saves ratepayers money,” continued Redsten. "To eliminate all funding for conservation now is the worst possible policy change one can imagine.”

“The Republican Assembly proposal completely restructures all transportation funding, the biggest change in a 100 years,” said Terrell of the Sierra Club. “They raid the General Fund to the tune of $40 million in sales tax revenue on vehicle sales, putting future mass transit funding in a precarious position. DOT has never been able to live within the adopted budget. We renew our call that DOT prepare a Multi-Modal, Multi-Program Transportation Investment Plan before making anymore commitments.”

“This is a ‘little shop of horrors’ that includes a gratuitous prohibition of light rail, such as the private initiative in Milwaukee County, and a new hurdle for high speed rail, even though rail is supported by the Governor,” said Rob Kennedy, spokesman for Citizens for a Better Environment. “The Assembly Republicans also require the Dane County Regional Planning Commission to go out of existence in 60 days, leaving the second most urban county in the state with no planning agency.”

“As a parent of a toddler and a 6-year old, I am concerned about the exposure children have to pesticides when they go to school,” said Redsten of the Decade. “We should not expose children to chemicals that are suspected of causing developmental disorders, cancer and infertility. I support the Healthy Schools Initiative which the Joint Finance Committee included in the budget.” The Healthy Schools Initiative is supported by thirty organizations, largely health professionals and environmental groups along with the Wisconsin PTA and WEACC, the state’s largest teachers union.

Budget Process Excludes the Public and Includes Special Interest Policy Changes

“The State Budget process has become very unfriendly to involvement by the public. Democracy works when citizens have the opportunity to be involved. It is a like muscle; it strengthens with use. Joint Finance Committee review included public hearings, publicly accessible analysis of major budget proposals and open meetings with actual discussion of issues and recorded votes,” said Terrell of the Sierra Club.

“We are now witnessing the opposite with special interest groups including their policy amendments through the backdoor," Terrell added. "The majority party caucuses, both Senate Democrats and Assembly Republicans, are quietly rewriting the budget and inserting little amendments, solely related to policy, into the budget. Public accountability has dropped to zero in these last few weeks.”

“We ask that the conference committee to take out all new policy that was not considered by the Joint Finance Committee and direct that those legislators introduce their proposals through the normal bill writing and review process, “ said Terrell of the Sierra Club.

For example, the Budget permits billboard companies to cut down any tree, no matter how old and stately, so that they can erect billboards. The provision is drafted so broadly, that even trees in Rest Areas and Waysides will be subject to indiscriminate removal by sign companies and state agencies will not be able to prevent it.

This amendment appears to be in response to current litigation by the Department of Justice against several sign owners for violating existing law and chemically killing or clear cutting large areas of woods on public and private lands along state and interstate highways.

Another example relates to drainage districts. "The Assembly GOP budget would ease restrictions on permits for drainage districts and impose new requirements on counties to submit GIS maps to drainage districts for review and concurrence. This environmentally sensitive policy item should be treated as a separate bill, and not as part of a budget proposal," said Charlie Luthin, Executive Director of Wisconsin Wetlands Association.

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