State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk condemned the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands’ use of interest earnings toward UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in a Monday press release.
The BCPL manages roughly $1 billion worth of investments in acres of Wisconsin land and a trust fund which distributes educational grants throughout the state, including the Nelson Institute since 2009. According to Adamczyk, who oversees the agency, the trust is prohibited from distributing funds to any institution except the state’s teaching schools.
“In my opinion not only is this unconstitutional, but also improper,” Adamczyk said in the release. “This money should be given as general aid to the UW System or designated for teacher training as prescribed in the state Constitution.”
Paul Robbins, director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, said in an email, however, that state law requires $100,000 of the BCPL trust fund be awarded each year by the institute in the form of need-based scholarships for environmental studies students.
“We are enormously proud of the governor and legislature’s commitment to science training and workforce development in Wisconsin through these scholarships,” Robbins said in the email.
Adamczyk said in the release he will demand new leadership at the BCPL to stop “the environmental advocacy being pushed by partisan staffers.”
This is not the first time Adamczyk has struck out against the agency and its employees. After obtaining a 49 percent victory last November on the promise of eliminating his office, which he believes “doesn’t really have any duties left,” the Wauwatosa native critiqued the BCPL for everything from its subscription to the New York Times to its executive director’s role on then-Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2007 task force on climate change and the agency’s brief mention of climate change on its website.
“Why is the BCPL concerned with discussing the hot button issue of ‘global climate change’?” Adamczyk asked in an email to the agency’s executive director Tia Nelson, daughter of former Wisconsin Gov., Sen. and Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson.
In April, Adamczyk successfully pushed for a ban on staff discussion on climate change, saying, “It’s not a part of our sole mission, which is to make money for our beneficiaries.”
Nelson resigned following the controversy and a new BCPL executive director will be selected soon.
State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk condemned the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands’ use of interest earnings toward UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in a Monday press release.
The BCPL manages roughly $1 billion worth of investments in acres of Wisconsin land and a trust fund which distributes educational grants throughout the state, including the Nelson Institute since 2009. According to Adamczyk, who oversees the agency, the trust is prohibited from distributing funds to any institution except the state’s teaching schools.
“In my opinion not only is this unconstitutional, but also improper,” Adamczyk said in the release. “This money should be given as general aid to the UW System or designated for teacher training as prescribed in the state Constitution.”
Adamczyk said in the release he will demand new leadership at the BCPL to stop “the environmental advocacy being pushed by partisan staffers.”
This is not the first time Adamczyk has struck out against the agency and its employees. After obtaining a 49 percent victory last November on the promise of eliminating his office, which he believes “doesn’t really have any duties left,” the Wauwatosa native critiqued the BCPL for everything from its subscription to the New York Times to its executive director’s role on then-Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2007 task force on climate change and the agency’s brief mention of climate change on its website.
“Why is the BCPL concerned with discussing the hot button issue of ‘global climate change’?” Adamczyk asked in an email to the agency’s Executive Director Tia Nelson, daughter of former Wisconsin Gov., Sen. and Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson.
In April, Adamczyk successfully pushed for a ban on staff discussion on climate change, saying, “It’s not a part of our sole mission, which is to make money for our beneficiaries.”
Nelson resigned following the controversy and a new BCPL executive director will be selected soon.
