Assembly Budget Cuts Key Public Land Program To 1990 Levels

The GOP-dominated State Assembly, showing its hostility to the common interest, adopted a 2007-'09 state budget proposal that rolls back a popular, bi-partisan land acquisition budget to 1990 levels, according to Gathering Waters, a Wisconsin conservation organization.

The Assembly budget would cut financing proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund by nearly 60%, vastly limiting acreage left undisturbed, or available statewide for hunting, fishing, and hiking, in the years to come, according to Gathering Waters.

Doyle's proposal was endorsed by the Democratically-controlled State Senate, so a conference committee will attempt to reach a compromise. Details about that process, and how to influence it, are at a Gathering Waters website.