The state Department of Natural Resources board approved their 2017-’19 biennial budget request Wednesday, but members also raised issues about the proposal Wednesday, which calls for a roughly 2 percent funding decrease.
Board members met in Black River Falls and discussed potential reservations about moving the state forestry headquarters from Madison to Wausau. Moving the facility to northern Wisconsin provides a closer proximity to timber cutting facilities and could make it easier to regulate and supervise.
With the decrease in budget spending, the DNR board is hesitant to put the project on the top of their list. The new headquarters would cost the department an estimated $17 million dollars over the next 20 years to cover the cost of construction, as well as building expenses.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, DNR Chairman Terry Hilgenberg was “perplexed about why we would even be thinking about this, we are very much under-budgeted in many areas.”
A state audit this past year showed the DNR ignoring water pollution regulations and various staffing problems. In 2011, an EPA report showed that the DNR violated nearly 75 violations of the state’s Clean Water Act, and very few improvements have been made since then.
According to the biennial budget proposal, the Clean Water Fund is only getting 0.4 percent of the total budget. Some environmentalists are emphasizing that with the limited budget, as well as the minimal improvement of clean water programs, using the majority of the budget for a new headquarters would only cause future problems for Wisconsin.
Options to increase the DNR’s budget and improve programs are being explored. George Meyer, an executive with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, reported that the DNR has not increased the cost of fishing or hunting licenses in 10 years, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
The governor will announce his budget proposal in February, meaning the fate of the DNR’s funding will be decided at some point next year.
