The legislature's Joint Finance Committee said today it would not go along with Governor Walker's proposal to stop land purchases in the Stewardship Program at least until 2028. Republicans have long been concerned about the debt that's been building up from Stewardship land purchases. However, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he was against a total moratorium. The current state budget limits bonding to 50-million dollars a year. The new budget measure would reduce that limit to 33-million a year through 2020.
Joe Hovel from Partners in Forestry Cooperative in Conover favored the action saying the fund helped preserve the forests for the economy and tourism...
Also, the majority finance Republicans said they would go along with Walker's request to eliminate 80 jobs in the D-N-R -- including over half the researchers in the science division.
