Veto needed to protect state stewardship fund

Tuesday, July 12, 2005 9:50 AM CDT

It might just be a matter of bad timing or it could be bad judgment. Or maybe just a little of both.

Even as state legislators get ready to honor former Wisconsin governor and U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson at a memorial service in the Capitol on Wednesday, they were pressing together a budget that would undercut one of Nelson's best ideas - the state's innovative stewardship program that has provided for the purchase of thousands of acres of state parks, wetlands and recreational areas to preserve them and secure them for public use.

Two days after Nelson's death, the Legislature forwarded to Gov. Jim Doyle their version of the state budget, which includes a proposal directing the state Department of Natural Resources to use some of the stewardship fund money to purchase land that - get this - is already owned by the state. The land, some 77,000 acres that is mostly in northeastern Wisconsin, is held by the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

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