MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Two GOP lawmakers want to take more steps to discourage state purchases of nature land under the Stewardship Program.
Assembly Republican Joe Sanfelippo of New Berlin and David Craig of Big Bend are asking colleagues to co-sponsor a bill to stop local governments from being compensated for property taxes on land that’s lost to the state program.
Also, communities and counties could veto stewardship purchases. It would also bar the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands from buying more property — even though it’s now just 1,000 acres short of its limit.
Sanfelippo said the state owns enough land, and his bill adds more local control to the process.
The bill’s prospects, however, are uncertain. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has not commented — but he has said that a less drastic plan by Governor Scott Walker to limit the quarter-century-old Stewardship program goes too far.
The Republican Walker’s proposed state budget would block all stewardship purchases through 2028.
Todd Holschbach of the Nature Conservancy says the latest bill would put the “final nail in what is clearly an attempt to hamper, if outright stop, stewardship.”
Republicans have long said the program takes too much land from tax rolls, and its bonding costs have gotten out of control. Stewardship money has bought 627,000 acres of pristine lands from 1990 through the middle of last year.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
