(Sun Prairie, WI) – Citizens should be asking at least two serious questions of Wisconsin state legislators as the Joint Finance Committee heads into a decision this week on funding for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.

How much land should the State of Wisconsin own?

And how great a debt burden should the State of Wisconsin be allowed to impose on taxpayers in order to maintain an ever-longer list of public lands?

Since creating the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund in 1989, the Wisconsin State Legislature has authorized nearly a billion dollars in borrowing to pay for related land purchases and acquired nearly 600,000 acres of property.  Today debt service alone on moneys borrowed to accommodate Stewardship purchases total over $80 million a year. Another $60 million is requested for each year in the governor’s proposed 2013-2015 biennial budget, for continued Stewardship purchases – not counting funds necessary to maintain property already owned. Yet, together, the State of Wisconsin and the U.S. Forest Service already own 3.2 million acres of this state’s land, amounting to a shocking 20 percent of total land area.

Less land on the tax rolls means that both state and local taxes will only continue to increase on Wisconsin families, farms, and businesses as the cost of maintaining public lands increases. It also means significant reduction in the amount of real property available for use in agriculture, forestry, and other types of private industry that result in real jobs.

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