News

Important ag provisions included in Wisconsin budget package

Wisconsin’s legislature plans to vote Wednesday, July 2nd on the biennial budget package.

Farmer and 49^th Assembly District representative Travis Tranel tells Brownfield several programs good for agriculture and rural communities will be funded. “At the end of the day, we were able to fund the dairy processor grants, 800-thousand for that, meat processor grants, we did one million there. Everybody knows how hard it is to get anything in to a local processor. We were able to put a little bit more money into farmer mental health.”

Tranel says the budget package also includes 5.1 million dollars for county conservation office staffing, another 7 million to soil and water resource management, and additional funding for water quality programs. “We see that they work. All over the state, there are producer-led watershed groups that are meeting regularly, where farmers are brainstorming and sharing ideas.”

Chad Zuleger with the Dairy Business Association tells Brownfield the budget package continues to fund dairy processor grants and other important ag initiatives. “Priorities of the Ag Coalition like the cover crop insurance premiums, producer-led watershed group funding, and the nitrogen optimization program is going to continue. Looking at our Wisconsin ag exports program, really tremendously important at this time, received continued funding.”

The ARIP, or Agricultural Road Improvement Program was new in the last budget, and applications for the dollars far exceeded the available funding.  The new budget has another 150-million dollars for use by local governments to upgrade roads. 

Tranel says he’s disappointed they could not cut taxes more, but he’s pleased with the retirement tax cuts they were able to make.