Saving The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program (Hour 1)

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From the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead,

Here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Todd Alba along Mr. Aaron Zommers, our producer and engineer on the board.

It's six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Tuesday, August 25th.

20.

Pardon me.

August 26th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Welcome, everybody, to the World Headquarters of Civic Media in downtown Madison, partly cloudy skies, Mr. Zomers.

Good afternoon.

Busy, busy.

I'm not sure what's going on.

The parking ramp attached to the World Headquarters was packed full.

I

had to park on the roof.

Did you really?

I

did.

Never had to do that before here.

They're all inside now, but looking across the street, looking across State Street at the Overture Center, earlier there were all kinds of people out there with lanyards.

So apparently there's some big

some big convention going on.

There must be cameras.

I set it up today.

It's a little blurry.

I'm not sure.

I was on the nightlight program last night.

John and Gordy were guest hosting and I came in here and maybe I got my fingerprint on the camera although it's cleared up a little bit now.

So, yeah, you can't really see it now, but there were all kinds of people right outside there on the street.

And so maybe it's the Madison area public school district having their teacher in service.

I don't know.

Who knows?

I

don't

know.

But there sure are a lot of people downtown today, though.

There there are.

I went

to get coffee and I everywhere headlines out the door.

Really?

Everywhere, everywhere.

It's everywhere.

It's everywhere.

Not

everywhere.

The food establishments.

All

right, very good.

Anyway, so it's a busy day downtown here.

Busy day on the show coming up at the bottom of the hour.

Two wonderful guests from the state legislature.

State Senator Jody Habish-Tinikin, Democrat of Whitefish Bay, the eighth Senate district, and also a state representative, Tip McGuire, Democratic representative from the 64th district in Kenosha.

Both of them will be here to talk a little bit about the Democratic proposal

trying to salvage the Knowles Nelson stewardship fund which we have talked to or talked about many times on this program most notably with Tia Nelson the daughter of former governor and US Senator Gaylord Nelson who created Earth Day and also is part of the name on the Knowles Nelson stewardship fund Nelson and Democrat former governor Warren Knowles Republican and

They created this years ago under Tommy Thompson, a Republican governor of Wisconsin with a Democratic legislature to set aside public lands to acquire, set aside and maintain public lands for conservation in the state of Wisconsin.

And this could be anything from public hunting to public fishing to UTV, ATV trails, hiking, bird watching.

All these all these things that we enjoy as Wisconsinites in large part are a part of The Knowles Nelson stewardship program and it has been a bipartisan meeting for years or my bipartisan piece of legislation for years and Now this last budget it did not make the cut when Republicans and Democratic governor Tony Evers came to their budget compromise It wasn't in there

And so now the Republicans have a plan, a standalone bill to save it.

Democrats have introduced a standalone plan today to save it.

And also I took time to review the actual Knowles Nelson, what stewardship program, what they would like out of this.

So we're going to talk to Senator Havasilicon and Representative McGuire at the bottom of the hour, trying to see how do you come together in true Knowles Nelson stewardship fashion?

so that we can better and save conservation projects in the state of Wisconsin.

Looking forward to that.

Also, coming up at hour number two, our lighter what's worse segment, today having to do with mattresses, the princess and the pea.

We'll talk about that in hour two.

What are our great listeners, Jill and Madison on WMDX?

Well, here we go, Zomers.

Here's our answer to our question.

All the people down here, it's a American family's management team meeting.

Just talked to a few people in front of overture.

They have 1500 people here from all over the country.

That's what it is.

The AMFAM, American Family Insurance people.

Interesting that they're convening here.

I don't know.

I guess I

don't know where else.

Well, the World Headquarters, AMFAM is on the East, out by, it's just down the street from Luke Mathers house in some prairie.

I forgot

it actually is

based here.

It's what they call it am fan field.

Well, insurance companies can buy whatever

the hell they

want, wherever the hell they want.

They

can and will do.

Don't get salty at

me.

I'm not

salty at you.

I'm salty that it's basically money laundering, but

legal.

Well, I'm happy that it's am fan field and not like, I don't know, some other foreign field.

Yeah.

It's not tick-tock field.

So the yes, so the the American family folks are here.

That's great American family insurance Maybe they can get us tickets to and fan field.

They can

already get our own through here,

but there you know, maybe Anyway, we'll we'll keep monitoring the streets.

Maybe we'll have some of those folks I'll see this would be the perfect time when we had a live mic down in State Street And we can have those people come over we can have conversations with them, but

Such is life.

Want to start here with some national news that has state implications.

We talked about this a little bit yesterday.

The militarization of American cities by President Donald Trump not only has he taken over the law enforcement duties in the district, as they say, Washington, D.C.

But now Donald Trump is saying that he is going to expand his authority and federalize troops in other major cities all under the auspices of cleaning up crime The problem is that many of these cities much of the crime is already coming down namely in Washington, DC And we talked yesterday that where Trump is deploying us marshals national guard homeland security ice

Secret Service, the list goes on.

In Washington, D.C.

are not actually the areas of the highest actual crime in Washington, D.C.

Many of the people that are being apprehended are not necessarily people committing actual crimes.

They're essentially roundups of brown people who are allegedly undocumented folks.

And it turns out no, some are actually citizens.

So now Trump is saying he wants to expand this to Chicago and New York next with other major cities on the list.

And I said yesterday, based on Donald Trump, formally calling Milwaukee a horrible city, quote unquote.

Which any of us who have visited spent time there, certainly those listening on WAUK and Milwaukee know what a great city Milwaukee is.

And like any major city, like any city, Milwaukee has its challenges.

But the need to have federal troops come into Milwaukee, I'd say not so much.

Now, Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who some have been saying a rumor to possibly, possibly.

Getting to the Wisconsin governor's race, Mayor Cavalier Johnson yesterday afternoon had this to say about Donald Trump putting his eyes on Milwaukee.

I think Governor Pritzker has made it abundantly clear and a number of folks have made it abundantly clear the president has no authority to federalize the National Guard and send them into cities outside of perhaps Washington DC.

I don't know all the details of that even.

But yeah, it is concerning.

It's concerning not just for Chicago because if they do it in Chicago or attempt to do it in Chicago, then they might attempt to do it in other cities around the country.

That's very, very alarming.

And I think that every member of not just of our community, but of cities across the country should be looking at the actions of this federal government.

We have local law enforcement to enforce the laws on the streets in our community.

We don't need the United States military on boots on the ground in American cities.

That's not what their mission

is.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson of the great city of Milwaukee.

I thought he was spot on.

I thought he said it really, really well.

And I'm not looking at this strictly politically, but in times like these, they can either propel someone in their political career or destroy them.

And I thought the way that Mayor Kevlar Johnson is handling himself thus far on this issue, I think he's spot on.

I think he comes across as very matter of fact, but firm, knowledgeable.

but also advocate for his community.

I think he's spot on on this.

Zahmaras, I sent you some audio of Governor Pritzker on this.

Look at the star that he is.

He's already going to take a little bit of not the whole thing.

It's kind of long, but I want to, uh, the mayor, uh, Johnson on Milwaukee referred to Governor Pritzker of Illinois because Chicago is in Trump's sights next.

Here's what Pritzker said in a rousing press conference yesterday in Illinois.

Crime is a reality we all face in this country.

Public safety has been among our highest priorities since taking office.

We have hired more police and given them more funding.

We banned assault weapons, ghost guns, bump stocks and high capacity magazines.

We invested historic amounts into community violence intervention programs.

We listened to our local communities, to the people who live and work in the

places that are most affected by crime and ask them what they needed to help make their neighborhoods safer.

Those strategies have been working.

Crime is dropping in Chicago.

Murders are down 32% compared to last year and nearly cut in half since 2021.

Shootings are down 37% since last year and 57% from four years ago.

Robberies are down 34% year over year.

Burglaries down 21%.

Motor vehicle thefts down 26%.

So in case there was any doubt as to the motivation behind Trump's military occupations, take note.

13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rate have Republican governors.

None of these cities is Chicago.

Eight of the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans.

None of those

Republicans.

God, none

of those states are Illinois Governor Pritzker of Illinois Democrat.

Put it down there where the chickens can get at it, as Judge Weissman once said.

Hard to dispute facts.

Let me say it again in case you didn't pick it up.

The motivation behind Trump's military occupations take note Pritzker said quote 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rates have Republican governors None of these cities is Chicago unquote Think about it in this term Wherever you live doesn't matter if you got a town of 900 people or a town of a million

Would you want to step out and go down and go shopping downtown and have Humvees and our military personnel Walking up and down your streets Would that make make you feel safer or kind of give you the heebie jeebies 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2

You can also text us on the Civic Media app.

Do what you want military armed personnel, federal troops in your downtown.

And speaking of federal troops, the U.S.

Martial Service went to the Oval Office and politically genuflected to Donald Trump.

They gave him a gift.

We'll tell you what it is on the other side.

It's the Todd Albaul Show on the Civic Media.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

started.

and then they turn off the sound or they have like the commercial playing because, you know, whatever.

Everybody could do themselves.

I told Zombers when we started this show, let's let them see how the sausage is made.

And so, and so we just keep the camera on and we keep the microphone on, well occasionally that might be so, I might kind of blow my nose or something, I'm not gonna do that.

But and so we, and so I hum or sing, I have just, you know how you go through your day and a song pops in your head?

Yeah, absolutely.

And so I do that sometimes.

And then I was humming that song over the break.

Oh, happy day.

We have about 15 seconds left.

Should I

pull this up or not?

I couldn't believe you nailed it that fast.

It's just, it's a happy song.

It's a happy day.

The sun is out here in downtown Madison at the World Headquarters of Civic Media coming up at the bottom of the hour just thereafter.

Gonna be joined by State Senator Jody Habish-Cinican, Democrat of Whitefish Bay and State Representative Tip McGuire, Democrat of Kenosha talking about the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund and how we might be able to save that.

Is there bipartisan hope?

We'll be talking about that right now though.

Headlines of the DC talked about this a little bit yesterday.

It continues to develop President Donald Trump now arming National Guard troops to Washington DC with live ammunition live bullets and now setting the sights on Chicago Heard from Governor Pritzker of Illinois there right before the break Saying that 13 of the top 20 cities and homicide rates have Republican

Governors.

Turns out not Chicago.

And I said this yesterday.

I think it's just a matter of time before Milwaukee comes in the site at a very, uh, I thought Cavalier Johnson, mayor of Milwaukee, has done a great job advocating early on, laying down the law saying, no, we don't need this here.

Just not something we need.

And the question I have for you all is how would you feel if federal troops came into your downtown?

How would you feel?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2 Gene from Eau Claire, listening on WCFW, the tap.

Gene, thanks for calling.

We'll see you.

I love that song, too.

Happy day.

Great one.

I sing that around the house, too.

I'm not

alone.

Thanks,

Gene.

Well, anyway, I...

keep thinking, how low can he go?

You know, seriously, if you think about it, you know, all the disasters, he hasn't shown his face anywhere or sent help immediately.

And so he's got to go in with the troops to take care of crime or intimidate the people or to try to make those governors that are working for their states and really paying attention and helping people and doing their jobs.

He's going to go in and make a show.

I mean, you know, people should take him right over and say, Hey, this is a damn mature you guys didn't come and help with.

I mean, you know what I mean?

Wasting the taxpayer dollars just so he can have a show in it.

It's so disgusting.

I just can't believe this with our country.

Thank you.

I didn't mean to go on.

That's a great point that we know that Trump comes from entertainment.

So a lot of this for him in some ways is entertainment.

I don't think it always.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

How would you feel if federal troops rolled into your town?

Let's go to Waukesha, home of WAUK.

Rick at Waukesha, thanks for calling.

Let's see.

Hey, Todd.

I got two things to mention.

Sure.

In the city of Waukesha here, because it's the headquarters for the county,

There's more police officers than people.

You got the county, you got all of the municipal cities in the area, all coming because of the prison, the jail, and the courthouse.

Everywhere, every street's got a squad car on it.

Okay.

So we got plenty.

All

right, number two.

Also, I wanted to mention, I was in the bookstore the other day in a magazine cover.

on the magazine rack was quite interesting.

It was a picture of Donald Trump sitting in front of a three wheel slot machine.

And the three wheels were up and the first two wheels were bombs.

And the last wheel was a big cash sign.

All right.

All right.

Very good.

Appreciate it.

Rick,

thanks for the picture.

Thanks for calling and appreciate your call.

One of our listeners on the text line.

This is Matt Middleton on WMDX says, Don't worry, Todd.

The troops will only be in black and brown communities and it won't affect us.

These magas really are deplorable and seem to enjoy inflicting pain and fear of anyone that isn't white and Christian.

Thanks, Matt Middleton for sending that in.

I don't think it's all.

I don't think it's all the people that voted for manga.

That's just not my opinion I think it's the leadership.

I think it's Trump.

I think it's the the Republican manga elected officials in Washington, DC Because my guess is if you go around and do polls I bet a lot of these committee whether it's where I grew up Richland Center We've done shows from everywhere from Amory to Butternut to Green Bay Wausau La Crosse Eau Claire Heyward

New glare us I Bet you that most people would say we don't need federal troops here And you're right I Am we don't have time for the story now.

Well, we'll get to the US Marshall thing later I won't make you wait.

Well, we'll play the cut later Thomas remind me But the head of the Marshall service went in they had a big presentation in the Oval Office yesterday and they presented Trump with an honorary Marshall star

and keys to handcuffs because they said, you're un, you're uncuffing our, our federal marshals.

That's kind of spooky to me.

Like we're just letting them, the, the military and the marshals control things.

That's not how we're supposed to do things in America.

Uh, we'll come back, talk more about, uh, stewardship, conservation, Wisconsin farm news.

Welcome back to the town of I'll show up the civic media ready to work 35 minutes now past the hour of two o'clock on this Tuesday, August 26th.

Today is a sunshiny day here in downtown Madison.

John Denver for you going out to our friend Junee back at WRCE and Richland Center.

What are her favorite artists?

But it's the kind of day you think about walking outside on a trail in Wisconsin, maybe do a little birdwatching, just taking in those late summer vibes.

It starts feeling a little fallish.

And for many of

who might not own land ourselves, the only way you get out and really do that is through public lands.

Well, what is it that gives us in Wisconsin all across this great state our public lands?

Largely something called the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Fund.

That has been in existence for a couple of decades plus in this state thanks to a bipartisan group led by former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson and a Democratic elected legislature came to an agreement and created something called Knowles Nelson Stewardship Fund named after former Republican Governor Warren Knowles and former Democratic Governor and U.S.

Senator Gaylord Nelson who also created Earth Day and it has largely been a bipartisan thing until this year.

When it got taken out of the state budget and the in the agreement between Republicans the legislature and Democratic Governor Tony Evers and now it is unfunded The money is run out sometime in the middle of next year and unless something is done It will disappear and with it much of our public land support system here to discuss how to maintain that and to grow it is a couple of people who have been near and dear to this program working on it first of all in the state

Assembly, part of the Joint Finance Committee, State Representative Tip McGuire of the 64th Assembly District in Kenosha, and from Whitefish Bay, State Senator Jody Habish-Sendekin of the 8th Senate District.

We appreciate you both being here.

Thank you very much, First Senator.

You're joining us from your home there.

We appreciate that.

You haven't been on the program before.

Welcome, as we always say.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up with the legislature.

Thanks so much, Todd.

Yes, I was just in Madison and zipped home so I could make it in time for this call.

I have been in the legislature sworn in in January.

I was one of those folks who ran the first time under the old maps with facing a 12 point disadvantage under the newer fair maps.

I was just six points down and I was able to prevail.

What very much brought me to

run not once but twice was very much in this area of conservation.

I'm a long time environmental attorney having worked for Midwest environmental advocates and having served on the Great Lakes compact committees and study committees and the like.

And I very much wanted to be around and to affect the change that I had been hoping and lobbying for for so many years.

And that's why I stuck

through it and with it and find myself here today, being able to introduce a nose Nelson bill that I am hopeful will have legs.

We really appreciate it.

And for those who have listened to the program before, State Representative Tip McGuire, who joins us from his car, by the way, so dedicated, he pulled over on the way home to join us.

We appreciate that.

Now, Tip and I, we're both legislative staffers at one time in the state Capitol.

One of us lost two primaries for a state assembly.

That'd be me.

The other one has become very, very successful and gotten himself elected to the state assembly and the most powerful committee in the legislature, the joint finance committee that is representing McGuire.

Thank you very much for being with us.

Remind folks, where you grew up, Chip, and how you got into the legislature.

Well, thank you, Todd, and thank you for having me.

So I grew up in Konush County.

I grew up in the village of Summers, and I represent my home district now.

And I've been there about four terms.

Before that, I was a criminal prosecutor, I was an assistant district attorney.

And I ran because, as you know, we really need to do a lot more to make sure that working families can succeed in this state and can succeed in this country.

I will say, when it comes to Knowles Nelson, you know, it really is very helpful to have powerful voices for conservation, like Senator Heather Sineken joining the legislature.

We always appreciate having experts and people who have a deeper knowledge of these issues to be able to advocate for them.

So let's start with you, Representative McGuire, because I think that some quick but important background is why Noel Nelson Stewardship Fund was not included in this budget.

You're again part of the Joint Finance Committee, which writes the budget in the legislature.

It has to do with the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision, six to one decision.

Explain that to folks and why this was not included in this year's state budget, please.

Well, I think the simplest

reason why this was not included in this year's state budget, comes down to throughout the budget process, our colleagues in the legislature on the Republican side chose continually to kowtow and be held hostage by the most extreme members of their party.

And they had been trying to, for a long time, anonymously stop conservation decisions from going through Joint Finance Committee.

And so now that that's no longer the same

rules don't apply as they used to, now they simply want to get rid of the program.

And it's really unfortunate.

So much of Wisconsin's economy, if you think about tourism, if you think simply about our sporting heritage, comes from the fact that we have invested in conservation.

We've made sure that we have public lands, people can hunt and fish on, that we have opportunities for people to be able to go out and enjoy our beautiful state.

And so much of what draws people to Wisconsin comes from that.

And so these conservation funds are absolutely necessary.

And not only that, it's something that has been agreed upon time and again for over 30 years.

There's been a bipartisan consensus that we should be investing in conservation in Wisconsin.

And this year is sort of the first time that that consensus has fallen apart.

So just to make sure we clarify for the audience, it might not be as geeky on this stuff as I am.

It used to be to your point that any member anonymously

could the Joint Finance Committee could basically veto my term, uh, any land acquisition through the Noel Nelson Stewardship Program, because this is set up and they acquire lands to make them public lands.

And it used to be that anybody on JFC could say, I know, I don't want that.

And nobody knew who that was.

Is that correct?

Yes.

And so now the US, the Wisconsin Supreme Court last year in a six to one decision said, uh, no, no, no, no, that we can't do that in Wisconsin.

And so, and so Republicans got kind of cold feet because they wanted more control.

They wanted to be anonymous on this.

Kind of like, I won't get too deep into it, but say, you know, like the co-chair Howard Marklein and Tony Kurtz closing down the Richland campus that didn't want people to really know what was going on in Madison.

And so they wanted to stay behind closed doors.

And so.

the Supreme Court of Wisconsin said, no, you have to be out in the open.

They weren't too hot about passing Knowles Nelson without that.

And so the agreement to move the budget along was let's move forward without it.

Is that in layman's terms, basically it?

Yes.

Yes.

And I appreciate you clarifying that.

I mean, imagine if you're an elected official and the hunters and Fisher people, fishermen, you know, whoever's out there fishing know that you're the reason that

public lands are not available to you.

That their elected official is the person blocking that, the person blocking conservation purchasing being made and lands from being held open to the public.

I mean, I think people would be pretty upset.

And so I think that there's a lot of legislators who wanted to be able to stop these things, but now realize that they don't have the same capacity to do so.

And so we're choosing instead to try and keep the program from getting funding.

We're talking to State Representative Tim McGuire and also State Senator Jody Habers-Sendican.

Senator Habers-Sendican, so now let's take us to the bill that you folks introduced today, the piece of legislation.

There's always, we'll get to the Republican one in a second, but you folks on the Democratic side have released a bill today.

Keep me honest on these numbers.

My understanding was Noles Nelson had been moving along at around $33 million annually.

The governor in his budget

proposed going to 100 million annually.

And the GLP version is 28 million annually for four years.

Now, today, Democrats are at 72 for six years.

Is that correct?

You are correct, Ted.

And so, tell us a little bit about what's in your version, the Democratic version, to save Knowles Nelson that differs from the Republican version.

Yeah, it's really important and I appreciate this conversation because people tend to get very hung up Understandably on the actual funding and the numbers but it's important for your listeners and citizens across Wisconsin who are so invested in this program I would just add recent polling demonstrates 90% support for conservation funding in Wisconsin I can't think of any other issue that could garner

90% support.

And that's impressive right there.

My office has gotten more calls, more letters in the many hundreds of people around the state and in my Senate District 8.

So with that, there is this idea that has been floated that they can support the program through funding, but have a mechanism embedded that would not be workable.

And unfortunately,

in the Republican version of the bill, which we certainly addressed, they would require for accountability purposes rather than having an external council or a board review things like the Natural Resources Board, the Council on Tourism or the Council on Forestry, all of those to go through the entire legislative process.

So any large land acquisition proposal would have to successfully move through the Assembly, the Senate,

all those committees make it through the governor before they could get final word on whether or not there would be approval.

And what's unworkable about it for anyone who's been involved with any type of real estate or land acquisition is that process could take anywhere from nine months to three years or never.

And that unworkable process

is what we really focused serious thoughtful attention to by creating a Knowles Nelson stewardship council that we have all the representatives for I'm happy to walk folks through that that would provide the necessary accountability for these large projects without the cumbersome process and the likelihood of partisan gridlock.

So that's the most important part of our bill that I want folks to

to realize

and just make sure people get let's imagine a lot of people going whether you're Lutheran church or Catholic whatever we'll say in most places have like a trustee in their church and let's say that you decide to repaint the dining hall in the church basement normally the trustees that say it's five or six people they say well let's paint up beige and let's say instead of doing that you say no no no

After service, we're going to take a vote on the entire congregation to decide what we're going to paint the church basement dining room and the entire church congregation.

Well, that would be a disaster.

And so what used to be what currently happens, my understanding is that when these land acquisitions in old Nelson happened, they go to the DNR board.

And now Republicans want this to come to the.

They have the entire legislature to vote on this, which would open it up to a lot of, in my opinion, payoffs for votes on this.

And also, to your point, Senator, anybody who's ever bought a property, once this stuff is in public, it can absolutely mess up the entire deal.

And it's just untenable and unworkable, in my opinion.

Quickly, Senator...

What about, in my opinion, in the Republican version, a poison pill for me is they require local governments to match 20% of state funding.

So if there's an acquisition of Nelson's land, that the locals now, the town board has to come up with 20% of that?

Is that right?

You know, that's all, these are all matters that are still being negotiated, Todd.

I think what's most important

is that we came out with a serious, thoughtful proposal, and we have already reached out to the Senate and the Assembly authors on the Republican side to go through provision by provision to be able to reach a compromise.

That is workable and transparent.

What you were talking about is a lack of transparency with regard to the process.

I think we really owe it to people in Wisconsin for a program this beloved to have an accountable process

that

works.

Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the Tonal Ball show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Glad to have you along.

Eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock at the top of the hour.

News, weather and sports followed by another edition of What's Worse, the Lighter Side, a mattress edition today.

So stay tuned for that right now.

Much more important issues were joined by two special guests this half hour via StreamYard, State Senator Jody Habish-Tinican of the 8th District, a beautiful whitefish bay, and State Representative Tip McGuire of the 64th Assembly District, a beautiful Kenosha.

Both joining us are talking about the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Fund, the lack that was not put in this year's budget, and now...

There is some hope that this is trying to be saved with a standalone bill.

Republicans have introduced theirs, Democrats introduced theirs today.

Senator, or pardon me, Representative McGuire, I want to go to you first.

In my opinion, in looking through the Republican bill, and there's a great story in the Wisconsin Examiner from June 11th that kind of cuts through and puts this down there,

The poison pill for me on their side is they're requiring local governments to match 20% of the state funding.

So if, you know, there was an acquisition in Richland County and it was a million dollars, you know, Richland County has come up with 20% of that.

You know, from writing this, helping write the state budget, that local governments are already at their wit's end.

I just don't see, even if it's well intentioned, where does that money come from?

Yeah, I mean, I think it'd be incredibly difficult for local governments to come up with those funds.

You know, honestly, in theory, I suppose I can see why someone would say this.

You know, municipalities, towns, cities, they do have a vested interest in trying to attract more hunters and fishers to their community because it brings in tourism dollars.

It helps support other businesses.

But the harsh reality is, is that state government has been underfunding through shared revenue, has been underfunding local municipalities and local communities.

for a long time and they're all still feeling the effects.

We may have passed a shared revenue bill last session, but unfortunately, the cost of health insurance for lease and fire and the cost of operating a library continues to rise across the state in every community.

And so communities are struggling and they really do not have very many avenues from which they can raise resources.

And so as a result, by adding this on, it will effectively

limit the opportunities that we have to.

preserve and expand conservation in wisconsin

and i

think that's really going to impact a lot of the the people who are trying to participate in our sporting heritage

i'm also concerned we don't have time to get into it right now but in the republican version they're much more concerned about maintenance which is important but they kind of leave out the whole you know continuing to acquire properties and i i think that's problematic as well but uh senator haversonakin on the democratic side today again i think well intentioned establishing the nobles nelson stewardship board to kind of oversee this

My my sense is the poison pill.

If I'm back in my old party on the Republican side, the according what I'm reading here, but keep me honest, that the governor, whomever that might be, the governor would appoint this entire board.

It would not stand for Senate confirmation and any acquisitions that would come before this board.

If there's not an up or down vote on it after 120 days, it's automatically approved.

I think that's tough to get through the Republican side.

Yeah, I understand.

As I said earlier, our bill is very much a starting point for discussions and negotiations.

We were really trying to move off this entire legislative process, which is an obvious political gridlock waiting to happen.

So we just put out there what other councils have done in the past.

There is opportunity to discuss those provisions or aspects that would be

non starters for sure.

Again, just the big picture of this is that we are trying to move forward with Knowles Nelson funding and reauthorization that honors the integrity of the program, which has been around for 35 years on resounding bipartisan success story.

But it's so important to preserve public asset.

preserve access to our public lands, maintain habitats and wildlife, access to our waterways, and of course the needed improvements to our state parks, which ranks last in the country for funding.

So there's so much need to have a functional program that we just cannot afford to compromise it through a process that will hold things up.

I give you both props for for saying, hey, we wanted this the starting point.

And I also want to give a shout out to Representative Kurtz and Senator Tess.

they've said as well that the proposal they put forward is a starting point.

I think that's healthy for both sides.

Here's my question to both of you at about 45 seconds each because I'm up against the clock.

There used to be a time when Tommy Thompson was governor and he would have both sides come over to the executive residence in the basement.

There were no cell phones.

Bob Lang from the physical bureau would come in and he'd say, all right.

Gal dang it, he wouldn't say that.

But he'd say, Gal, we're going to figure this out.

Who is it?

Who is it in this state that's going to bring people in a room and say, everybody's got to take a bite of a crap saying which in order to get to a result?

Well, I think that everyone involved in this process is interested in getting something done to preserve and expand our conservation with the exception of the extremists that we mentioned earlier.

And so I think, luckily, this session has shown some signs of bipartisanship.

and some opportunities for us to work together.

Now, as you know, better than anybody, Todd, that has been rare in the last 15 years in the state of Wisconsin.

And so, given some of those, you know, grass shoots of bipartisanship, I'm hopeful, I'm optimistic that we can get something done.

Senator, 45 seconds.

I just want to say that I hear where you are coming from, but I too am hopeful.

I joined Representative Kurtz at an Audubon event a couple months ago, and he spoke passionately and from the heart in support of Knowles Nelson's stewardship continuity.

And I definitely take him at his word that he wants to make progress on this.

And there are many others on the Republican side of the aisle who feel the same.

The legislative process is by its nature collaborative and the people of Wisconsin really are expecting legislators to work together to reach agreements and and Make those kind of compromises and negotiations and we don't want to disappoint them on this.

So we just need to show up for them

by really working hard across the aisle with one another.

State Senator Jody Habers-Sendigand, State Representative Tim McGuire, I appreciate both of your time.

I appreciate you taking this issue on.

It's so important to people across Wisconsin.

No matter who they vote for, we all get value and added value from our conservation and our ecology here in the state of Wisconsin.

So thanks for doing your work to save this great important program, the Nelson Stewardship Program.

Thank you both for being on today.

Thank you.

Thanks for

inviting us.

Come on back, hour two is next at the All Ball Show.

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