GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – As the budget now heads to the full state Assembly, some are upset about what was left out.
“It’s disappointing,” Allouez Village President Jim Rafter tells WLUK.
“As part of the budget process that may have been one of the challenges. That we’re competing against all kinds of other budgets or all other needs for the budget.”
Rafter said he’s disappointed the proposal to close the Green Bay Correctional Institution and open a new prison elsewhere wasn’t approved.
“I hope it’s a speed bump, there are great things we could do with that property.”
Even though the Joint Finance Committee rejected the proposal, it did approve $22 million worth of upgrades for the prison.
The committee also approved $600,000 to study all the correctional facilities in the state.
Rafter added he thinks the state should hold off on investing any money in GBCI.
“If you’re going to have a study done, I would ask that you wait until that study is done before you invest dollars into a prison that arguably may not be around for long.” Some projects in Northeast Wisconsin would see more money under the proposed budget.
In Sturgeon Bay, the Harbor Project would get $3.2 million under the budget approved by the committee. The money would be used by the Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding Company to do dredging and harbor construction.
The Joint Finance Committee also approved $123,000 for a new Marinette County Special Prosecutor.
Something State Rep. John Nygren says is badly needed.
“The funding would effectively make the current part-time position, full-time for two years.”
As for the Green Bay Correctional, the proposal will now be taken up as its own bill. A date for when that could happen, is not yet known.
