Text for letter to state elected officials re: Wisconsin budget

1. Budget season is always stressful, but especially when so many of Wisconsin’s iconic sources of pride are
at risk of irreparable harm. Our budget should reflect our values. Wisconsin residents have always taken
strong pride in our natural resources, which give us recreational and hunting opportunities, but also
which protect the air and water we depend on. The same goes for the human institutions we have
spent generations building: our educational system, creating the lifeline to shared opportunity for all, no
matter what our beginnings.
Specifically, I urge you to take the following actions:
 Restore funding to Wisconsin’s UW system and K-12 education, both of which have sustained
repeated cuts in past budget cycles.
 Oppose Gov. Walker’s proposal to strip the Natural Resources Board of its authority, making it a
strictly advisory board. Concentrations of power are antithetical to our state’s democracy.
 Restore funding for the Stewardship Program, needed to protect and restore water quality and
wildlife habitat throughout the state. Our rivers and natural areas are important parts of our
state’s infrastructure, and need our ongoing support.
 Restore funding for County Conservation Staff. These experts play a key role in reducing non-
point runoff, the biggest threat to our drinking water.
Some of these actions require finding funds elsewhere in the budget to make things whole. We have
recently learned that state income is projected to be slightly higher than originally anticipated, so that
can certainly help. But there are other places to look. One is in the transportation fund. We continue to
budget for highway expansion projects, including the I-94 project in the Miller Park vicinity, that go
beyond basic safety and maintenance needs. Scaling those back to status quo, or postponing them by a
year or two, are important opportunities to reduce expenses, especially in light of decreased driving
trends. We also have an opportunity to save significant amounts of money by reducing our non-violent
prison population and putting people back to work in their communities. I hope that you will take a
leadership role in bi-partisan efforts to bring down our record-setting prison population.
Finally, I also want to relate my frustration that Treasurer Adamcyzk is wasting state time on a personal
witch-hunt that is turning Wisconsin into a national cartoon. His personal attacks against a state
employee for work she did at the behest of a previous governor are unseemly at best, and dangerously
short-sighted at worst. Leadership by terror is not consistent with our state’s brand.
I do not recall you campaigning on gutting our most central institutions like the University of Wisconsin
system, K-12 education, or our land and water resources. Please do not let that be your legacy.
Thank you,
Lynn Broaddus
Lynn E. Broaddus
537 N 67th Street
Wauwatosa WI 53213
414-771-8367