4-16-15 former dnr secretary rails on governor’s budget

A former Wisconsin DNR secretary says the governor’s proposed budget is the worst for conservation that he has seen in nearly a half century that he has worked in the natural resources field.  George Meyer was appointed to the post by former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson.   Now Meyer is the director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and says he was particularily concerned about the governor’s proposal to make the Natural Resources board advisory only.  That proposal has been removed from the budget.  Meyer is also critical of the proposal to slash seven million dollars from the state parks budget, making up for that with fee increases.  “It used to be as much as 50 percent of state taxpayer dollars in the account, now its down to 25 percent and after this there would be no taxpayer dollars in our excellent state park system,”  Meyer told AM 1170 WFDL’s Between the Lines program.  “That’s a buck and quarter a person.  I think most of us would gladly pay for what we do for a cup of coffee to pay for having an excellent park system.”  Meyer says while he isn’t opposed to having a sign posted at state parks recognizing corporations’ contributions to that park, allowing naming rights is a different story.  “To change the name of a park to a corporation sort of demeans the value of that park,”  Meyer said.  “Its also dangerous.  Think of this, if you are in Texas and 20 years ago you named a park Enron State Park.”   Meyer says he is also amazed governor Walker was even considering appointing a top mining company official to the deputy DNR secretary position. “I think its really tone deaf, and remember they were considering this before Gogebic wirthdrew their application.”    The Gogebic mining company was proposing a huge iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin.