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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Members of the Legislature’s highly effective finance committee have blocked a state Division of Pure Assets plan to spend $15.5 million on a conservation easement to protect 56,000 acres of northern Wisconsin forest.
The acquisition would have been the biggest land conservation effort in state historical past, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
The DNR’s coverage board signed off on the deal in October, agreeing to spend about $10.8 million in federal forest legacy {dollars} on the challenge with about $4 million coming from the state’s stewardship fund.
However state Sen. Mary Felzkowski, an Irma Republican who sits on the finance committee, mentioned Thursday that she and different committee members whom she declined to call have objected to utilizing state cash for the challenge.
She instructed Wisconsin Public Radio that the easement would imply the 56,000 acres may by no means be developed. She added that public land is already considerable in northern Wisconsin and native governments have considerations about lack of housing and land availability.
″“You can not repeatedly take property up north and take it off the tax rolls, take it away from the personal (sector), and take it away from people,” she mentioned. “We can not afford to maintain providers up north.”
Republican legislators usually oppose taking blocks of personal land off the tax rolls.
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