An Eastern Wisconsin Assemblyman is celebrating the approval of state spending on the Brillion Marsh.
District 3 Rep. Ron Tusler is calling the $100,000 in funding the pinnacle of a six-year battle he and other area representatives have been fighting to dredge the marsh, which will help keep the Manitowoc River healthy.
He tells SeehaferNews.com that the funding was needed after a piece of equipment known as the Swamp Devil reached the end of its life in 2017.
“The Swamp Devil went through and dredged the northern branch of the Manitowoc River, among other places, and knocked down some of the biomass,” he explained. “That’s like the cattails and stuff, so that we wouldn’t have all this water that would flood into Brillion.”
Rep. Tusler said the state made it clear that they were not going to pay for a new Swamp Devil, so instead, he and other legislators reduced their request to $70,000 to perform the dredging, which he called an “infinitesimal amount” compared to the $111 billion in the budget.
He also approached the DNR, who said if the money was there, the project would be done.
“After it passed the assembly in the Senate late at night, I thought it was a foregone conclusion that this was going to happen,” he recalled. “Governor Evers’ DNR, said it was good. The Assembly and the Senate said it was good. Why would Governor Evers stop Brillion for getting its much-needed and long-awaited for help?”
But, before Governor Tony Evers approved the budget, he vetoed that spending.
“He didn’t veto all the dredging. He just vetoed Brillion’s dredging,” Rep. Tusler noted. “There’s quite a few other projects that he didn’t have any problem with.”
As for the reason for the veto, Rep. Tusler noted that Gov. Evers specifically blamed Republicans.
“He said, ‘Well, the problem with this project is that the Republicans in general didn’t fund the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund, and I’m mad about it, so I’m not letting you have this,’” Rep. Tusler revealed. “That was pretty frustrating. I was about as upset as I’ve ever been as a legislator, and so I started trying to let everybody know.”
But, Gov. Evers changed his mind, approving up to $100,000 on the project, which Rep. Tusler tells us will likely only cost around $50,000.
“When he explained why he changed his mind, in writing, he said ‘This was always going to happen. We were always going to do it, and that’s why I vetoed it. So don’t worry about my veto message,’” the Harrison Rpublican noted.
Rep. Tusler said the political whiplash has been frustrating, not just with this project, but with many others in Northeast Wisconsin that legislators are trying to get going.
“It just seems so unfair that the state of Wisconsin spent so much money in other districts and other areas in regarding the DNR. When the DNR comes up to northeast Wisconsin, they don’t want to spend anything,” he said. “The tax money we send down to Madison, it’s just too hard to get it back up to northeast Wisconsin.”
Aside from this political back and forth, Rep. Tusler said he was generally happy with the budget, specifically the tax cuts, the cutting of income tax on senior citizens, money for childcare, and addressing transportation, including spending on fixing roads away from the major metropolitan areas of Madison and Milwaukee.
