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- The $111 billion state finances adopted final month doesn’t lengthen the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund, however it does embrace two conservation earmarks totaling $15 million in Meeting Speaker Robin Vos’ district.
- The tasks embrace repairs to Echo Lake Dam, which Vos mentioned will save Burlington taxpayers $3,000.
- Environmental advocates are hopeful the Legislature will nonetheless lengthen the Knowles-Nelson fund earlier than the tip of the present session. A Republican invoice would reauthorize it for 4 years at $28.25 million per yr with further legislative controls.
Wisconsin’s just lately handed finances doesn’t embrace the extension of a well-liked land conservation program, however it does embrace two earmarks for environmental tasks within the residence district of the state’s strongest Meeting Republican.
After Republican legislators declined to reauthorize the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund within the state finances, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed 5 pure assets tasks, criticizing the Legislature for selecting “to profit the politically linked few” as an alternative of supporting stewardship by way of the statewide fund.
“I’m vetoing this part as a result of I object to offering an earmark for a pure assets challenge when the Legislature has deserted its duty to reauthorize and make sure the continuation of the immensely common Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship program,” Evers wrote in his veto message.
Nevertheless, Evers didn’t veto different pure assets tasks, together with two totaling $15 million in Meeting Speaker Robin Vos’ district in southeastern Wisconsin west of Racine. Requested why Evers spared these tasks, his spokesperson Britt Cudaback referred Wisconsin Watch, with out specifics, to the settlement between Evers and legislative management that cemented the $111 billion two-year finances.
Native environmental earmarks within the state finances are nothing new, however the newest examples spotlight how such tasks can tackle larger political dimension when not overseen by civil servants on the DNR and the Legislature’s finances committee, as has been the method for greater than 30 years because the creation of the Knowles-Nelson fund. Legislators have allowed this system to inch nearer to expiration whereas making an attempt to safe stewardship applications in their very own districts.
The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund helps land conservation and outside recreation by way of grants to native governments and nonprofits and likewise permits the Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets to buy and preserve state land. This system is at present funded at $33 million a yr till the tip of June 2026.
Native governments and nonprofit organizations can apply for Knowles-Nelson grants throughout three deadlines yearly, and DNR workers consider and rank tasks primarily based on goal standards together with native public assist, potential conservation advantages and proximity to inhabitants facilities.
Regardless of not authorizing the fund by way of the state finances, Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc, and Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Level, dedicated to reauthorizing the fund and launched stand-alone laws in June to reauthorize the stewardship fund at $28.25 million per yr for the following 4 years.
Burlington receives $15 million for 2 pure assets tasks
The 2 tasks in Vos’ district acquired a complete of $15 million in state taxpayer {dollars} from the final fund and had been the one pure assets earmarks talked about within the state finances settlement between Republicans and Evers.
The one bigger pure assets earmark — a $42 million grant for a dam in Rothschild — was added by the Joint Finance Committee and included within the last state finances, although it wasn’t talked about within the settlement. That grant isn’t funded with normal fund income, however reasonably a separate forestry account, which incorporates revenues from the sale of timber on public lands.
In an announcement on the inclusion of funding for the tasks, Vos, R-Rochester, touted how $10 million for the Echo Lake Dam will save Burlington residents a mean of $3,000 in taxes that might in any other case fund the challenge. Upgrades to Echo Lake will price as a lot as $12 million together with $3.5 million for dam modifications and as much as $5 million for lake dredging.
For years, metropolis officers in Burlington have grappled with methods to deal with the Echo Lake Dam. In 2022, the Burlington Metropolis Council thought of eradicating the 200-year-old dam however finally voted to maintain it after residents expressed assist although an advisory referendum. The dam wants upgrades as a result of it doesn’t meet DNR necessities to comprise a 500-year flood.
The Browns Lake Sanitary District additionally acquired $5 million for the elimination of sediment in Browns Lake. Native residents have raised issues over sedimentation within the lake, affecting the lake’s usability for recreation and ecological stability.
In a web site dedicated to the Browns Lake dredging, Claude Lois, president of the Browns Lake Sanitary District, thanked Vos for together with $5 million for the challenge and suggested residents: “In the event you see Robin Vos, please thank him.”
DNR spokesperson Andrea Sedlacek directed Wisconsin Watch to Evers’ spokesperson, declining to reply questions on whether or not the 2 tasks in Vos’ district may have been lined by Knowles-Nelson funds. The Echo Lake Dam challenge tentatively acquired a grant for over $700,000 from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund final fall for growth of gathering areas adjoining to the lake.
Vos didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Different conservation tasks had been vetoed by Evers, together with a $70,000 dredging challenge on a piece of the Manitowoc River within the city of Brillion. Finally, the DNR and the Evers administration offered funding for the challenge after Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, and native farmers criticized the veto, claiming that they had been susceptible to flooding with out funds for the dredging challenge.
Rep. Rob Swearingen, R-Rhinelander, mentioned he was stunned and disillusioned with Evers’ veto of the Deerskin River dredging challenge in his district. He referred to as Evers’ reasoning a “lame excuse, utilizing the Knowles-Nelson program as political cowl” in an e-mail assertion to Wisconsin Watch. Swearingen mentioned he and Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, had been contemplating different funding sources, together with introducing stand-alone laws to finance the dredging challenge.
Swearingen declined to say what he thought concerning the tasks in Vos’ district getting funded. Different Republican lawmakers with vetoed tasks of their districts didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay, a member of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, advised Wisconsin Watch she helps Evers’ vetoes as a result of the earmarked tasks didn’t undergo the method the DNR makes use of to judge the advantages of explicit tasks.
Andraca mentioned whereas a number of earmarked tasks had been seemingly sturdy contenders for Knowles-Nelson, with out the DNR’s technique of evaluating challenge benefit, probably the most useful tasks could not obtain funding.
“We have to ensure that we’re considering that the perfect, most essential tasks are being funded, not simply the tasks which can be in somebody’s (district) who might need just a little bit extra sway within the Legislature,” Andraca mentioned.
Paul Heinen, coverage director for environmental advocacy group Inexperienced Hearth, lobbied for the primary stewardship fund in 1989. Heinen mentioned legislators have pushed for stewardship tasks of their districts by way of the state finances course of for so long as the stewardship fund has existed.
“The DNR has a course of by which they undergo to research tasks, and that’s all arrange within the code and all the pieces,” Heinen mentioned. “However after all, similar to Robin Vos and some other legislator, if they’ll get one thing within the finances, it’s sooner and also you don’t should undergo the steps in an effort to get one thing carried out.”
Within the 2023-25 finances cycle, the biggest pure assets earmark was $2 million for dredging Lake Mallalieu close to River Falls.
Heinen mentioned legislators are confronted with a conundrum — they declare to oppose statewide authorities spending on stewardship, however need tasks in their very own districts.
“Publicly, they are saying they’re against authorities spending on this boondoggle stewardship fund,” Heinen mentioned. “However then when it will get right down to one thing of their district, they’re on the ribbon reducing.”
State Supreme Courtroom resolution complicates reauthorization
For years the JFC halted Knowles-Nelson conservation tasks by not taking a vote on them, one thing critics known as a “pocket veto.” The Evers administration sued over the observe, and in July 2024 the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom dominated 6-1 the Legislature’s pocket veto was unconstitutional.
“What the court docket mentioned was that the finance committee by going again after the actual fact and blocking an appropriation that had already been permitted by the complete Legislature, and that was an unconstitutional infringement on government authority,” mentioned Charles Carlin, director of strategic initiatives for Gathering Waters, an alliance of land trusts within the state.
Republicans have mentioned belief points with each the DNR and the Evers administration prevented them from releasing Knowles-Nelson funds with out extra management.
Kurtz and Testin’s proposed invoice additionally contains new necessities for legislative approval for bigger tasks over $1 million in an effort to permit legislative oversight with out the pocket vetoes.
The invoice’s funding stage is beneath the $100 million per yr for 10 years that Evers proposed in his finances, however near present funding ranges of $33 million per yr.
In 2021, the fund was reauthorized with $33.2 million per yr for 4 years. In 2019, the fund was reauthorized for under two years, breaking a cycle of reauthorization in 10-year increments.
A ballot of 516 Wisconsin voters commissioned by environmental advocacy group The Nature Conservancy discovered 83% supported Evers’ proposal, with 93% of voters supporting continued public funding for conservation. Nevertheless, most respondents had been unaware of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.
Funding for Knowles-Nelson peaked in 2011 and was reauthorized underneath each Republican and Democratic administrations. Former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was the primary governor to approve funding for the stewardship fund in 1989.
“There was a number of speak initially from principally Republican legislators who had been skeptical of the governor’s proposal,” Carlin mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s actually solely an enormous sum of money compared to how this system had sort of been whittled down by way of the years.”
In a January interview with the Cap Occasions, Vos mentioned the probabilities of Republicans reauthorizing the fund had been lower than half.
Andraca mentioned she hears extra from constituents concerning the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund than nearly some other program.
“I critically hope that my Republican colleagues are critical about passing one thing as a result of it might be an actual tragedy to lose one thing like this that has bipartisan assist and has been so instrumental in preserving Wisconsin’s pure areas,” Andraca mentioned.
‘Completely uncharted territory’ for stewardship funding
Carlin mentioned the failure to reauthorize Knowles-Nelson places land stewardship organizations and native municipalities — the standard recipients of Knowles-Nelson grants — in “completely uncharted territory.”
Though Knowles-Nelson funding is ready to run out on the finish of subsequent June, Carlin mentioned native governments and land trusts face uncertainty in planning as a result of they aren’t certain the Legislature will get the brand new reauthorization invoice carried out.
“Just like what you’re most likely listening to from of us about federal finances cuts … this simply completely scrambles the planning horizon,” Carlin mentioned.
Heinen, nonetheless, is extra optimistic the Legislature will vote to reauthorize Knowles-Nelson.
“90-plus p.c of the individuals within the state of Wisconsin need the stewardship fund,” Heinen mentioned. “Legislators know that. They’re not going to go operating for reelection in November of subsequent yr and have their opponents say, ‘Why are you towards the stewardship fund?’ So I’m actually not nervous about it in any respect.”
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