LETTER: State can’t afford runaway Stewardship Program debt

To Ozaukee Press:

In Wisconsin, our natural resources are an essential part of who we value our outdoor traditions, and the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program has helped preserve natural areas and expand access to recreational activities.  

Despite being well intentioned upon enactment in 1989, the Stewardship Program primarily allows the state to purchase land it cannot otherwise afford through borrowing, pushing costs onto future generations.  Initially authorized for a 10-year term, the program provided $250 million in total borrowing authority to the Department of Natural Resources, but in recent years has grown exponentially in size and scope.          

The Stewardship Program has accumulated far too much land, incurred staggering debt and resulted in decreased funds for vital state needs. Currently, the DNR has either purchased or protected 1.8 million acres of land and the debt currently owed is $795 million.  

To put the land acquisition in perspective, that is more acreage than the entire state of Rhode Island or Delaware. Moreover, when land is owned by the state, it cannot be developed and is not on the tax rolls, impacting the ability of local communities to generate revenue.           

 It is incumbent upon the Legislature and the budget writing committee to reform this program, to lower the risk to taxpayers and to fund our top priorities. In 2015, lawmakers recognized the growing concern and required the DNR to sell 10,000 acres of land as a partial solution to rising costs. Further efforts are needed to combat the excessive debt being incurred. The spending is so extreme that Wisconsin taxpayers are paying over a half a million dollars in interest every week on debt accumulated from the stewardship fund.

According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the stewardship fund, since its creation, has cost Wisconsinites approximately $871 million. Should our colleagues propose to reauthorize the program for an additional 10 years in this budget, the program would need to borrow an additional $332 million, an estimate that does not include interest. In total, with borrowed interest, taxpayers would be on the hook for $533 million. That figure does not include the current $795 million in existing stewardship debt.  

If reauthorized, stewardship costs will soar to $1.329 billion. In a budget in which Wisconsin needs significant investment in our roads, we need to seriously evaluate how we prioritize our spending.
                                

Sen. Duey Stroebel
Sen. Tom Tiffany
Stroebel, of Cedarburg, represents the 60th District; Tiffany, of Hazelhurst, represents the 35th District. Both are Republicans.