EDITORIAL: United court slams enemies of conservation grants

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s July 3 decision on the powers of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee did more than protect worthy conservation projects. It put an end to a perversion of the legislative process that gave a clique of lawmakers executive powers that were frequently used to block expenditures in budgets approved by the full Legislature.

The court didn’t mince around the issue. It slammed it with an emphatic ruling amplified by the fact that it was nearly unanimous.

Much has been made of the liberal tilt given the court by recently elected justices, but that was irrelevant in this 6-1 decision, which was made by liberal and conservative members with only one conservative in opposition. The opinion was written by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley.

In ruling that the statues empowering the committee are unconstitutional, Bradley wrote, “In granting the JFC the ability to stymie the executive branch from carrying out the laws passed by the Legislature, the statutes encroach upon the governor’s constitutional mandate to execute the law.”

The effort by the Republican majority of the JFC to kill a grant for the Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in Ozaukee County was one of the more egregious abuses cited in filings for the Supreme Court case, but there have been many others. The committee has blocked 27 conservation grants since 2019.

The JFC was established in 1911 with a role limited to reviewing appropriations and tax and revenue bills before they were considered by the full Legislature. A succession of statutes increased its power to the point where in 2023, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, it was able to wield 120 different veto or approval powers.

Powers that extravagant invite abuse, and in its Clay Bluff machinations the committee obliged. Its veto of a pre-approved grant of $2.3 million in matching funds to buy land for the 131-acre lakeshore preserve in the City of Port Washington was based on an objection to the grant by a single Republican member of the 16-person committee. The objection was made at committee meeting that was closed to the public and press. The identity of the objecting legislator was not revealed.

That was hardly a shining moment for open government, but it was followed by worse. Determined to save the preserve, the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, which applied for the grant and had been raising the required matching funds, agreed to a reduced amount of $1.6 million. The JFC had proposed the smaller grant, and then reneged on it, leaving no hope the approved grant money would be released in any amount.

Then word leaked out that the final veto was in response to lobbying on behalf of a private buyer who wanted to develop the land, including its mile of Lake Michigan shore. The buyer’s identity was kept secret.

Committee members had to be ethically comatose not to anticipate the questions these optics suggested: Did committee members have a conflict of interest? Did anyone connected with the committee stand to gain from the private sale of the land?

JFC members have said their animus to conservation grants is based on concerns about the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program’s spending and debt. That’s an issue legislators can deal with when the program comes up for reauthorization. But blocking grants approved under the current authorization was nothing less than sabotage.

The Legislature created the stewardship fund in 1989 to preserve natural areas and wildlife habitat and expand opportunities for outdoor recreation. The grants are vetted by the Department of Natural Resources and are only approved on a matching basis. For Clay Bluffs, the local matching funds came in large part from the donations of hundreds of citizens.

That support was not surprising. The people of Wisconsin know their state is uncommonly blessed with valuable natural areas and they want them preserved. Every poll has found a huge majority favors funding for preservation.  

In its campaign to block approved conservation projects, the JFC defied Wisconsinites’ belief in the value of their state’s priceless natural assets.

The committee was finally thwarted in its attempt to kill Clay Bluffs when Gov. Tony Evers approved paying the state’s share from surplus federal funds.

And now future Stewardship Program grants are safe, thanks to the Supreme Court’s veto of the JFC’s veto power.