Dems: Take the Money and Run

I guess the Democrats just want an issue for the fall.

That’s the only way I can explain their opposition to a Republican bill that would keep the Stewardship Fund land acquisition and management program alive for another couple of years.

To be sure the Republican bill is inadequate. It would reauthorize the program at $28.25 million a year until 2028, about $5 million less than the current annual authorization. And it would essentially require that all of that money go into land management and habitat restoration as opposed to land acquisition. Only $1 million would be allocated to buy land and even that would be limited to acquisitions for the Ice Age Trail.

If this was all the program was going to get for a decade I’d be with the Democrats in their adamant opposition. But it’s more accurate to see this as a stop gap measure. It’s the best that Republican supporters of the program can do in their caucus where some members would like to see the program killed altogether.

So here’s a practical question for my party: why not just take almost $30 million a year and go ahead and invest that in habitat restorations that need to be done in any event? Then, with a good chance that Democrats will keep the governor’s office and take back the Assembly for the next session, why not work for a stronger program next year? And if everything goes belly up and Tom Tiffany is governor next year, you’ve at least had another couple of years of the program’s good works before Tiffany probably kills it entirely.

I suppose it’s just politics. Stewardship is a mostly popular program and the Dems want to hit the GOP for killing it. But if that’s the reason, it’s a bad one. Nobody will win or lose an election on this issue. This cycle will be another referendum on Donald Trump and the related issues of the cost of living and ICE and its overreach on deportations.

With the Assembly set to adjourn for the session today or tomorrow, the Senate’s only real option is to pass the bill that the Assembly has already approved, which is the one described above. But even then Gov. Tony Evers has suggested he would veto it.

At this point, legislative Democrats’ opposition to this bill and Evers’ potential veto aren’t in the best interests of conservation. They should take what they can get now and hope to make improvements next year.